Minutes From Spring Meeting 2008

FLORIDA MAGICIAN’S ASSOCIATION MEETING

SUNDAY, JUNE 8TH, 2008

Members Present

Dan Stapleton, Harry Allen, Luciano de Pazos, Al Chiaverini, Simone Marron, Dan Dyer, Charles Pfrogner, Rick Del Vecchio, Phil LaBush, Ian Sutz, Jerry Somerdin, Jim Heuser, John Berson, Capt. Bill Grosscup

The meeting was called to order by President, Dan Stapleton, at 9:10 am. The last meeting’s minutes from November 6th, 2007, were read and approved by Luciano de Pazos, and seconded by Harry Allen.

Although there was not a quorum present, consent was given in lieu of quorum.

Treasurer’s Report

Bob Schvey was absent due to health issues, but his report was read, which reflected a balance of $2,420.67, with zero expenses and zero income. However, there have been a couple of expenses incurred since the preparation of this statement.

The expenses of the printing of the membership cards, and the new domain have not yet been figured into these totals. These additional expenses should total approximately $230.

By-Laws Review

The Association by-laws need to be reviewed. The possibility of appointing a By-Laws Committee was suggested. It was decided that the current by-laws should be emailed to the individual clubs, so that changes can be voted on at the next Association meeting. These have not been updated since 2003.

Dan Stapleton stated that no individual’s name should be in the by-laws, as the Officers change from year to year. Individuals being mentioned in the by-laws would mean having to update the by-laws annually.

Membership Cards

Luciano de Pazos had 2,000 membership cards printed at a cost of $193.70. This included the one time set-up fee. 1,000 were printed in yellow and forwarded to Ring 45 for insertion in the Magic on the Beach/FMA Spring convention registration packets. The other 1,000 were printed in light blue, and forwarded to Daytona Magic for insertion in the Daytona Festival of Magic/FMA Fall convention registration packets.

It was suggested that the Association should attempt to get some magic retailers to see if they would give a 10% discount to holders of current FMA membership cards.

Any other ideas for membership benefits would be welcomed.

Contest Rules

The rules at both the FMA spring and fall conventions need to be consistent. It had previously been suggested that contestant’s maximum time limits would need to be decreased, due to the contests running too long. An alternative was suggested that there could be a cap put on the number of contestants allowed to compete.

Magic on the Beach allowed ten minutes per contestant, in both junior and adult categories in stage and close-up. Rick Del Vecchio stated that the reason for this was because the IBM/SAM joint convention would be allowing ten minutes per contestant. It would be unfair for an IBM/SAM contestant to have to reduce the time of their act for an FMA convention.

Both IBM and SAM need to be contacted and asked to put in writing their future plans for contest time limits, so that the FMA can make a united decision for both the fall and spring conventions. Action: Rick Del Vecchio

FMA Website

Irv Cook has put up the new official FMA website. The address is http://www.flmagic.org/ Irv has updated the Florida Clubs page as much as possible, using information from the old FMA site, along with updated information that he has been receiving. Clubs should contact Irv to let him know if their information is not correct. This will be an ongoing project.

Some future inclusion on the FMA website will be Florida Clubs News and Events, FMA Membership Benefits, and perhaps a Classified Ads section, which could perhaps include a moderated form submission process. It was also suggested that we could put banners on the site.

Fall Convention Report

Harry Allen reported that reservations are coming in, talent has been booked and the hotel renovations are complete. The hotel now has a restaurant, bar, and a mini mart. The meeting rooms have gone through some renovations also.

It was suggested that more northern members should be encouraged to attend the spring convention, and that more southern members should be encouraged to attend the fall convention.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:50 am.

Minutes submitted by: Simone Marron, in the absence of Bob Schvey