Board Meeting March 13, 2022

Meeting Starts 2:00 PM EST

Alex Thompson, Elijah Benito, Jacob Rey, and Erika Rey are in attendance

Erika Rey volunteers to take minutes of the meeting

Jacob Rey volunteers to run the 1st meeting

By-Laws

By-Laws are discussed and voted on. By-laws are voted on by all three current board members from the Texas Certificate of Incorporation for Non-profits: Alex Thompson, Jacob Rey, and Erika Rey. By-laws pass and become effective. They are subject to grammatical corrections and minor amendments made.

Director, Treasurer, Secretary, and 4th board member

Alex Thompson makes a motion to make Jacob Rey the director. Erika Rey and Jacob Rey agree to the motion. The vote is unanimous. Jacob Rey is the new director.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to add Elijah Benito as the 4th and final board member. Alex Thompson seconds the motion. The vote is unanimous. Elijah Benito is the new 4th board member.

Alex Thompson makes the motion to make Erika Rey the secretary. Elijah Benito seconds it. The vote is unanimous. The new secretary is Erika Rey.

Erika Rey makes the motion to make Alex Thompson the new treasurer. Jacob Rey seconds it. The vote is unanimous. Alex Thompson is the new treasurer.

Conflict of Interest Policy

Jacob Rey brings the new conflict of interest policy up for discussion and vote. Members are given time to review the policy. The conflict-of-interest policy is passed with unanimity. All members of the board and Alexandre Banville are asked to sign it and have it back before the next Aura Fury meeting.

User Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Community Rules

Jacob Rey moves the meeting to looking at the User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Community Rules. Members are given time to review all three. The Community Rules are review 1st. The following rules are to be added to the Vintage Story list:

  1. Sleeping or not must be unanimous to work and remains the choice(s) of online player(s).
  2. Do a land claim where you established yourself to protect your valuable(s).

The rules are voted on with unanimity.

Next the privacy policy is looked at. An adjustment is made to the rough draft of the policy to add the ability to report members who break the community rules and are deemed a problem for servers in general can have their in-game names and discord username name reported to Community Connections, another community owned and run by Aura Fury. Owners of other communities and servers will be able to see the in-game name and discord name of the individual who broke the Aura Fury user agreement and/or community rules along with the reason they were banned from Aura Fury servers or any other Aura Fury service. The email and any demographic information we have will still be kept private. The privacy policy is voted on and passed unanimously.

The User agreement is looked at next. An adjustment is made to have the same information as the privacy policy on reporting bans to Community Connections where server and community owners from outside of Aura Fury can have access to their in-game name and discord username should they get banned from Aura Fury servers or any other Aura Fury service. The user agreement is voted on and passed unanimity.

The community rules take effect immediately today March 12th, 2022. The full user agreement and privacy policy is agreed on to take effect on March 12th, 2022. The user agreement and privacy policy will always be visible on the Aura Fury website and links will be posted in the announcement channel of the Aura Fury discord.

Aura Fury Institutional Goals and Mission

The following Mission and Institutional Goals were created in the planning stages of the non-profit. Jacob Rey brings them up for review and vote.

Mission: Making casual and professional gaming a fun space where people matter

 

Goals:

  • Become the space people want to spend their free time, improve their gaming skills, make connections and friends while taking part in games and Esports
  • Maintain and improve our community to where everyone can feel comfortable in casual gaming and esports regardless of whether you are from the LGBTQ+ community, your gender, race, disability, or background
  • Teach good sportsmanship and push inclusiveness in our community, in Esports, and the gaming industry in general. We want to make this space a better place for everyone
  • Help those who seek a profession in Esports or the gaming industry grow in the Aura Fury community and reach the resources they need to achieve their professional goals
  • Create events that are fun, promote the goals of Aura Fury, and bring people together
  • Grow connections with other communities, associations, companies, and educational organizations to promote a better Esports and gaming industry environment
  • Continue to run on a donation and sponsorship basis for running Aura Fury so that financial barriers are as low as possible for those who want to be a part of Aura Fury
  • Provide ways for gaming and Esports content creators to improve their content, get involved in the community, provide resources, promote their content and encourage them to promote good sportsmanship and inclusiveness in their content
  • Encourage involvement in things that surround gaming and Esports such as modding, game development, and art
  • Help women, minorities, LGBTQ+, and those with disabilities overcome barriers they confront in Esports, the gaming industry and gaming in general

The board is unanimity on the vote for approving the goals and mission

 

Staffing and administration of Aura Fury

Jacob Rey brings up the need to identify and review positions within Aura Fury. Current positions include: Director and President of Aura Fury, Chief Information Officer, Public Relations and Director of the Vintage Story Server.

Jacob Rey is Director and President of Aura Fury

Alex Thompson is Chief Information Officer

Alexandre Banville is Director of Vintage Story Server

Elijah Benito is Director of Esports and Public Relation

***Jacob Rey brings up the topic of building resources for the website to support the LGBTQ+ community, women in gaming, minorities, veterans,

Volunteers

Jacob Rey asks everyone present what volunteer positions should be posted.

Vintage Story Admin, Linux Admin, Information/Research Admin, Support Admin, Social Media Manager and Game Night Planner have all been agreed upon.

Patreon

Jacob Rey says his Patreon is going to be signed over as Aura Fury and become the income of Aura Fury. Jacob Rey brings up the topic of Patreon tiers to incentivize new income.

Base tier of 5 dollars, Silver Tier of 10 dollars, Gold tier of 25 dollars, Emerald Tier of 40 dollars, and Pillar of the Community Tier of 60 Dollars was recently instituted. It led to an additional 2 dollars per month of income so far. What other things can we do to increase awareness?

The board has agreed to post the application date of 501 C 3 status publicly to raise awareness and inform them that they cannot file for tax exemption of we are denied 501 C 3.

Aura Fury Budget

A rough draft of the 1st budget is made. Jacob Rey brings up the possibility of additional income after we apply for 501 C 3 status by applying with local corporations that offer $500-$2000 donations for non-profits like Aura Fury.

Music Licensing

Should we get a commercial license for music to avoid copyright issues on our content and projects we help our content creators with? 4 votes saying yay pass the approval of the purchase of Epidemic Sound.

Podcast Software

Jacob Rey brings up that we will need to look into methods for recording our Podcasts and interviews for Aura Fury Academy. Should we get an account with Zoom or should we look into other alternatives like Iris.fm or Riverside.fm? Pending discounts from Iris.fm the vote says yay for purchasing recording software through either Iris.fm or Zoom.

Conventions

Anime Matsuri in end of July is $850 per table and Deltahcon is $550 per table. We are still in talks about funding for either of these events.

 

Meeting Adjourned at 3:45 EST

 

May 13, 2022 1:00 PM

– Alex Thompson, Jacob Rey, Erika Rey and Elijah Benito are in attendance.
Elijah Benito has a draft of the official ‘tournament’ rules for Overwatch.
Alex and Jacob updated the situation with OVH and the server boxes.
Jacob brought up revisions of the application and Discord access of Aura Fury. Jacob proposes to eliminate the application process and instead have an automated acceptance process for the Discord. Users will be required to agree to the AF Terms and Conditions along with rules prior to gaining access to the Discord. Users will self-assign roles.
Board unanimously voted to enact the new process along with converting the Discord to a public community.
Jacob and Alex discussed plans for gaming schedules and community reminders for such games.
Elijah gave an update on current esports teams and projected status.
Discussed more possible game servers and other ways to gain funds.


Meeting adjourned at 2:06 PM.

Meeting 6/23/2022

Meeting started at 7 PM

Elijah Benito called a Board Meeting

Jacob Rey, Erika Rey, Alex Thompson, and Elijah Benito are in attendance.

Elijah Benito announced he is stepping down as a board member.

Board discusses plan of action going forward for new positions and the possibility of a 4th board member in the future.

Board approves bank account at First Service Credit Union

Board approves accepting checks as a form of donations

Adjourned at 8 PM

 

Meeting 9/25/2022

Meeting started at 7:15 PM

Justin Hill, Alex Thompson, Erika Rey, and Jacob Rey are in attendance.

New rule proposal #1: All TLs must be allowed public access, however, if a TL is found beneath or very close to a player’s base, they may request to have the TL removed.

Requirements for removal are:

  1. The player must be unaware of the TL when their base was established.
  2. All private TLs are to be grandfathered to before this ruling was passed on the Ancient Paths server.

Rules regarding such public TLs are:

  1. If a TL is found it is not the finding player’s responsibility to make passageways and only need to provide public access.
  2. Admins are not allowed to use creative powers to create passageways.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to pass the rule; Alex Thompson seconds it. Both pass the rule with a yay. Erika Rey votes nay.

New rule proposal #2: Prior to the board member vote, Justin Hill requested to reserve the right to abstain from any vote brought before the board. This does not apply to active discussion during board meetings as all members are required to participate and share opinions on active topics.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to pass the above rules. Alex Thompson seconds it. Unanimous vote passes.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to elect Justin Hill to the board as the 4th board member. Alex Thompson seconds it. Unanimous vote passes.

Justin Hill gave an overview of the future of competitive Overwatch 2 for the Aura Fury community.

A feature of Discord called “Discovery” was discussed among the board as a feature that needs to be delayed until more moderation tools were available to the community.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to delay the “Discovery” feature until more moderation tools were made available. Alex Thompson seconds it. All 4 board members vote. Unanimous vote passes.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to create another survey to ask all members of Aura Fury about future servers and opinions about the management of the Discord itself. Alex Thompson seconds it. Unanimous vote passes the permission of another survey.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to write contracts and post limited-power moderator positions. Alex Thompson seconds the motion. Unanimous vote passes the permission to write contracts and post limited-power moderator positions.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to greenlight the research of partnering with colleges for educational programs and intramural sports. Justin Hill seconded it. Unanimous vote passes the greenlighting of researching partnerships with colleges.

Alex Thompson makes the motion to form a VS Admin-run committee. Jacob Rey seconds it. Unanimous vote passes the forming of a VS Admin-run committee.

Erika Rey makes to motion to adjourn the meeting. Alex Thompson seconds it.

Meeting adjourned at 9:30 PM.

Meeting started at 6:45 on November 23, 2022. Justin Hill, Alex Thompson, Jacob Rey, and Erika Rey are in attendance.

Jacob Rey discussed the possibility of a partnership with Brazosport College. Erika Rey makes the motion to do a pilot program with Brazosport College for gaming/esports. Justin Hill seconds it. Vote passes unanimously.

Vintage Story committee updates were discussed regarding future competitions and events.

Jacob Rey discussed financial stability of Aura Fury regarding donations through Patreon and businesses and is heavily pushing for more donations through Patreon and other means.

Jacob Rey brought up the future decisions that will need to be planned out when the contract for server hosting will be renewed or cancelled. Cutting support to the Ancient Paths server is being considered.

Justin Hill makes the motion to bring back a lightly moderated Overwatch gaming night on Wednesdays. Alex Thompson seconds it. Unanimous vote passes.

Alex Thompson brought up reinstating Halo Infinite gaming night after testing and being confidant that the game is stable enough to keep on a schedule.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to approve Justin Hill’s rules for the tournament as is. Alex Thompson seconds the motion. Unanimous vote passes.

Jacob Rey makes a motion to start advertising for the January tournament. Alex Thompson seconds the motion. Unanimous vote passes.

Ideas are being exchanged for ideas for tournament prizes but has been postponed to the next meeting.

Jacob Rey makes a motion to send Aura Fury Admin Wolf a logo’d mug. Justin Hill seconds it. Unanimous vote passes.

Meeting adjourned at 8:40 PM on November 23, 2022.

 

Meeting on 1/8/2023 at 10:13 PM

 

Jacob Rey, Erika Rey, Justin Hill, and Alexander Thompson are in attendance. Alexandre Banville is in the audience.

Jacob Rey brought up the customer service issues with OVH as a server host and the financial issues currently presenting the organization.

Jacob Rey makes motion to end the contract with OVH in January. Alexander Thompson seconds it. Vote is unanimous. Motion passes.

Jacob Rey makes motion to use VMs as a temporary solution. Justin Hill seconds it. Vote is unanimous. Motion passes.

Jacob Rey makes motion to officially recognize the Vintage Story Director position and add the Assistant VS Director. Alexander Thompson seconds it. Vote is unanimous. Motion passes.

Alexander Thompson makes motion to post for Chief Director Position in time zone opposite of US time zones. Jacob Rey seconds it. Vote is unanimous. Motion passes.

Jacob Rey makes motion to post the Esports Director position, Podcast Manager position, Event Planner, Game Night Planner, Information Admin, VS Admin, and Content Creator Admin. Justin Hill seconds it. Vote is unanimous. Motion passes.

Jacob Rey makes motion to purchase a subscription to RiversideFM for future Podcasts and interviews. Alexander Thompson seconds it with the provision that we review how much use we are getting from it to justify the continued subscription. Vote is unanimous. Motion passes.

Erika Rey makes motion to ban VS admins caught cheating on servers after one warning. Justin Hill seconds it. Justin Hill and Erika Rey vote to ban. Jacob Rey and Alexander Thompson vote against. Tie vote. Jacob Rey breaks with the tie with his President position and the motion does not pass.

Erika Rey makes motion to ban VS admins caught cheating on servers after one warning. Justin Hill seconds it. Justin Hill and Erika Rey vote to ban. Jacob Rey and Alexander Thompson vote against. Tie vote. Jacob Rey breaks with the tie with his President position and the motion does not pass.

Alexander Thompson makes motion to demote anyone caught using administrative powers for personal gain from this day forth with up to two warnings. Justin Hill seconds it. Vote is unanimous. Motion passes.

Jacob Rey makes motion that any admin caught breaking any other admin rules to be demoted with up to two warnings. Alexander Thompson seconds it. Vote is unanimous. Motion passes.

 

Meeting adjourned at 11:34 PM.

 

Board meeting began at 11:00 AM EST 4/2/2023

Jacob Rey, Erika Rey, Justin Hill, and Alexander Thompson are in attendance.

The board was informed and discussed the recent laws being passed in Texas that directly affected Aura Fury’s games compatible with the game club with the local college.

The board was informed and discussed the clubs and partnership started with the local college. It’s been decided to start the club during the Fall Semester of 2023.

Jacob Rey brought up the idea of fundraising for the conventions through GoFundMe with a base goal of $300 and a stretch of $500.

Justin Hill discussed the current state of Overwatch Wednesdays and confirmed continued attendance.

Jacob Rey discussed the current state of Vintage Story.

Jacob Rey discussed the current progress with Nodecraft and Pingperfect as sponsors and are still awaiting meetings.

Jacob Rey discussed the 7 Days 2 Die and Fear the Night Servers’ lack of players and the future plan to take both servers down to save funds.

 

Meeting adjourned at 12:30 PM EST 4/2/2023.

 

Meeting started at 12:05 PM EST 7/23/2023.

Justin Hill, Alex Thompson, Jacob Rey, and Erika Rey are in attendance. 

Jacob updated the board about the HGX Convention and the possibility of partnerships and collabs with several vendors and groups that were present at the convention as well.

Jacob updated the board about the Teacher Convention and the possibility of partnerships with community colleges and the expansion of the gaming clubs partnered with Aura Fury.

Jacob presented the budget of purchasing Yeti merch to the board.

Alex Thompson makes a motion to make the purchase of the Yeti merchandise. Justin Hill seconds it. Vote passed unanimously. 

Jacob Rey makes the motion to send Th3Dilly one of the Yeti merchandise. Alex Thompson seconds it. Vote passed unanimously.

The group spent the last 30 minutes of the meeting discussing possible games to be hosted in the future but haven’t made a list yet. 

Meeting adjourned at 1:15 PM.

 

Meeting started at 8:30 PM on 10/02/2023.

Jacob Rey, Erika Rey, Justin Hill, and Alex Thompson are in attendance.

Jacob Rey updated the board with the legal situation with the Esports/Gaming club and has discussed the possibility of hosting the League of Legends official team practice.

Debated whether funding from Aura Fury in general is an issue in esports/tournaments in general.

Jacob Rey made the motion to make the decision needed to move forward with providing server space to Brazosport College. Justin Hill seconds it. Unanimous vote.

Justin Hill gave an update on the Brazosport College teams he is currently managing.

No further updates are needed.

Meeting adjourned at 9:40 PM.

 

Meeting started 11:00 PM EST 1/10/24

The meeting started at 10:00 PM. Jacob Rey, Erika Rey, Justin Hill, and Alex Thompson are in attendance.

Jacob Rey discussed the ability to start writing contracts for League of Legends players within Aura Fury.

Jacob Rey discussed the possibility of getting sponsorship from Lee Roys or running a GoFundMe.

Meeting adjourned at 12:00 AM EST

 

Meeting started at 7:05 CST on 2/26/24. Justin Hill, Alex Thompson, Jacob Rey and Erika Rey are in attendance.

Jacob opened with updates on expenses that are on the bank account and what expenses have been reduced. The current expenses against donations have us at a net positive of $80/month. Overall subscription income and one-time donations are down for the year but income is still positive due to continued expense reductions.

The next discussion was how much the convention costs are. It has been proposed to budget $1500 for both conventions.

Alex Thompson motions to budget the $1500 for the two conventions and allow the money to be spent on all expenses related to the conventions including gas and food for volunteers. Justin Hill seconds it. Motion passed unanimously.

Jacob Rey has proposed talking to LeeRoy’s Esports to form a partnership.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to allow LeeRoy’s to sponsor Aura Fury’s conventions and advertise for them in return. Alex Thompson seconds it. Motion passed unanimously.

Jacob Rey discusses the companies that offered or declined donations or discounts. Shockbyte has said no for now because they just did a large upgrade of their systems. Shockbyte said they would visit with us again in June. Redbull has offered the Redbull truck for conventions.

Meeting adjourned at 7:48 CST due to Justin Hill departure.

 

Meeting started at 4:08 CST on 3/08/24. Justin Hill, Alex Thompson, Jacob Rey and Erika Rey are in attendance.

Jacob Rey makes the motion to raise the budget for the conventions to $2,000, to go to Dream Hack, and to cover the food expenses and travel expenses for up to 3 volunteers outside of the board.

Justin Hill seconded the motion. Unanimously passed.

Justin Hill updated the board about the Overwatch 2 tryouts and said that things have gone well.

The board motions to start developing ideas for mascots for Aura Fury and to pick one to become a physical plush to market.

Jacob Rey updated the board about the Vintage Story Committee and the development of towns and lore.

Justin Hill makes a motion for the board to play Halo Infinite at 10 tonight.

Alex Thompson seconded the motion. Unanimously passed.

Meeting adjourned at 4:32 CST