| Buster's Notes |
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| NEILA Meeting Minutes May 3, 2002 Present: Keith, H, Bruce, Leslie, Greg Excused: Gary (in Evansville representing NEILA at the new leather bar opening.) Keith led the meeting. First order of business was a discussion on moving our monthly meeting date from the first Friday of the month to the first Thursday evening of the month. We would move the meeting time to 8:00pm. The reason for this is that Keith and Gary are going to be out of town many weekends representing NEILA at many Leather events out of town. It was decided that a poll would be run on the Yahoo site to see how everyone feels about the change. NEILA will have a booth at Pride Fest 2002. Pride is at Headwaters Park West on June 29 from 11am to 9pm. The booths will be open from 11am until 6pm. Keith and Gary will be at the booth the entire day but have asked for members to help. Greg and H have volunteered for the afternoon. But we would like to see more members help out. We will be selling hankies at the booth. Money for the hankies will be going to fund the set up charges for the vest patches. These are discussed next.— Hankies: D & M can get the hankies in bulk. The cost is $12 per dozen. We discussed selling hankies at $3 for one or 2 for $5. Gary and Keith are working with D & M on getting the hankies. We discussed the idea of our logo being on the hankies. It was felt by all that this would not be necessary. Just so we would have an idea of the hanky colors that were available and their meanings, Keith had a list: Hunter Green (Daddy/Son), Light Pink (Dildos), Rust(Cowboy), Olive (Military), Purple (Piercing), White and Black Check (Safe Sex), Red (Fisting), Navy Blue (Anal), Light Blue (Oral), Yellow (Piss), Grey (Bondage), Black (S/M), Orange (anything goes). These are the colors we are hoping to get. There will be a small chart made and handed out with each sale. And remember: worn on the right means you receive (bottom), and the left means you give (top). We will be purchasing ten bundles (1 dozen per bundle). The NEILA treasury money will be used for this. After a great deal of searching, the final estimates on making vest patches of the NEILA logo were finalized. The patch must first be set up with a pattern. A large logo to go across the back of the vest would cost in set up fees: $250. Then each patch would cost $45 to $75 a patch. A smaller patch, that would go on the front shoulder of the vest would cost in set up fees: $75. The patches would cost $7 to $9 a patch. We decided that the smaller patches would be best. Also, the monies raised from the hanky sales will go toward the set up cost for the set up of the patches. This brought us to the discussion as to who would have an opportunity to buy a patch. We all felt that the patches should only be offered to members of NEILA. This then led to how we will handle membership in the future. As the group is getting recognition in the Leather community, we are looking to formalize our membership further than just being a member on Yahoo. It was discussed and all felt that it would be a good idea that all new members be given an application which would be reviewed by an appointed membership committee. There would also be a casual interview, perhaps over dinner, to get to know the person and their particular interest in the group. It was decided that we want the group to be inclusive of all in the leather lifestyle: in other words Pan-sexual. And this will not strictly be an S/M group either. In looking at the patches, we suggested that only active members should be able to buy a patch. The definition of “active” was suggested as helping in 3 events. All these things will be finalized as we set up our by-laws. By-Laws are being sent to us from various groups in the surrounding states. Mistress Kindra and also the Leather Archives are helping us out. We kicked around a mission statement. We came up with a working one: “Organize the Leather Community in NE Indiana region which is open to all forms of Pan-sexual Leather.” There will be a special meeting to work over out by-laws. This will occur later this summer. Watch the yahoo website for an announcement. We are (or are going to be---I am having trouble reading my notes) officially registered with the Leather Archives in Chicago. This is a great honor and various articles such as our T-shirt, posters for Leather/Feathers, and Boy/Sir contest will be archived there. Also, we will have an opportunity to tour the archives. That would be a great reason to go to Chicago. There will be a link to the Leather Archives on the NEILA website. We decided that in order to make it much easier for those who are active in the group to communicate with each other concerning group business without posting publicly on the Yahoo site or sending mass emailings, we would create a “by invitation only” yahoo group for active members. This has already taken place. Events that we need to be thinking about: Leather and Feathers II (the magic returns.) We would like to have this event at the end of Jan. 2003. Time and date will be discussed with Jim. This will be a fund raising event. Mistress Kendra has already said she will be there. But this time the show must stick to a strict time table. No last act at closing time. Leaves no time for cruising. It was suggested that there be a memorial of some kind for those in our leather community that we have lost in the past year. Something that is coming up in October.: Rocky Horror at the Civic. The Civic has graciously offered to have a fund raising activity during the run of the show for The Aids Task Force here in Ft. Wayne. They only ask that the Task Force help provide ushers. We have offered our help for this. There are a couple midnight shows and the usual ushers will probably not want to work these. And yes, you can dress up. Just PLEASE be legal. And you see the show for FREE!!! The show nights are: Oct. 25 (Friday), Oct. 26 (Sat.—2 shows), Oct. 31 (Thurs.), and Nov. 1 and 2 (Friday and Sat. respectively). So: May—IML Chicago, Memorial Day Weekend. June—Pride Fest July—Indiana Leather Sir/Leather Boy contest in Indianapolis, July 5 & 6 July—Camp-it, July 27 & 28. August—Regional Leather Alliance event, Aug 23 to 25? Sept. 8—Aids Walk. Noon until ???? (We have agreed to have a team and to help with tear down and clean up of the park after the walk. We need your participation. See Greg (Sec/Treas.) for details. As you all can see, things are happening very fast and moving ahead in the right direction. We want all people to be active in the group. You can start by coming to a meeting. Hit the site and vote on the night that you will work for you. And we will see you there. Respectfully submitted, Buster (Greg) Sec./Treas. of NEILA |