The Transformus LLC Board of Directors met for their annual Board Retreat in Jonesville, NC on Saturday, November 8, 2008. In attendance were Vespa, G8Kpr, and WordPlay. Absent were Miss Kitten and Dave the Rave. All three BOD members arrived on Friday the 7^th.

The first order of business was to accept the resignation of Miss Kitten, who sent her resignation electronically to fellow BOD members on November 6^th. The BOD would like to thank Ms. Kitten for her years of work with this BOD, and for her commitment to volunteering and moving forward with the event in the future inassisting with the planning committee and on the ground at the event.

On Saturday, we walked the land at another possible venue site near Elkin, NC.

While no BOD decision has been made to definitively move the event from its current location, it is apparent that some within the Transformus community would like to see a change in venues and that exploring other site options strengthens our ability to negotiate with Deerfields LLC. To that end, several possible sites have been suggested, and we are exploring the pros and cons of these options.

This particular property is on 60 acres of land, including several large fields, a creek and a large lake. There is also a covered pavilion, a castle, and a farm house on the property…use of these structures is included in the price to rent the property. The owner reports he holds about a dozen events a year on his land and has worked with the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms) and pagan groups in the past. There is evidence of a fire pit, but it is obvious that nothing to the scale of a Transformus Effigy Burn has ever happened here.

The pros to this property:

• it is less expensive (just under $20/person) to rent than our current venue. This is for rental from Wed. through Tues.
• the cost is based on actual attendance figures and not on ticket sales.
• there are no additional costs for use of the pavilion, or hidden clean-up/repair costs.

The cons:

• Physical proximity to Reality Camp. There are houses nearby, and a large church less than a mile down the road. Concerns are about traffic, noise levels, and local LEO.
• Vehicle access to camping areas is limited to fairly narrow dirt tractor paths, and require traversing low lying areas near the lake. This would make it difficult for Theme Camps and infrastructure to be brought directly to the area and would require carrying or carting items several hundred yards. In the event of rain, it would be especially difficult.
• While this owner has had events with minor children present. He is opposed to any nudity where there might be children. He is however, willing to have his attorney investigate local and state statutes as applicable, should his property become “our first choice".

The rest of the day was spent reconciling financials for 2008 and years past. Discrepancies for 2006 were addressed and one thing not taken into consideration when comparing deposits to numbers sold was that any funds from PayPal that year did not include the PayPal handling fee and taxes. In other words, at each tier sold on PayPal, we did not get the full amount. Approximately $1.90 on each invitation went to these costs. Original reports were on the total amount (instead of say $50, we actually got $48.10). This does not include all invitations…the invites sold at the Work/Play weekend and any snail mail invites did not have these fees taken out, but of course taxes were paid out ofthese as well.

We also worked on finalizing the application process for the Planning Committee and a BOD Clerk/Liaison position. The BOD’s commitment to achieving both of these entities was reaffirmed by all BOD members.