MIT Science Fiction Society
84 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
MITSFS Meeting Minutes
Friday, July 11, 2003
MITSFS meeting called to order, 1700 SST, Ed Keyes, President and Skinner, presiding; Kat Allen, Onseck, recording.
Minutes read.
Motion to correct the minutes: the opening of the NJ bookstore was
7 AM, not 9 AM.
Motion passes 4-2-1+Spehn
Motion to approve the minutes as very imaginative
Fails for lack of a second, as "They were no more imaginative than usual" -JFC
BING!
Discussion of nasty potholes, and the public works departments who don't fix them.
``The life of a traffic cone is not a happy one'' -JFC
Motion to nominate JFC to explore forming a new committee on the
proper treatment of traffic cones.
Motion passes nearly-unanimously: 8-0-0+thatguy+Spehn
Move to commend the air conditioner.
Motion chickens 1-3-3+Spehn
``Are you into rotating disks these days?'' -JFC
``Indeed, rotating magnetic disks... of PLASMA!'' -ED
``Do you deal with eight syllable words?''-JFC
``Magnetohydrodynamics? Yes'' -ED
Discussion of the thermal efficiency of various types of refrigeration devices.
``If we have a poltergeist who is doing book covering pranks, *don't do any exorcisms!*''-ED
``If there were a potter-hamilton crossover...'' -JFC
``No'' -ED
``Has any processing been done on this'' -JFC
``Yes. It has been lifted from the floor to the couch'' -BTS
``Perhaps I should do some pre-processing, then'' -JFC
``Lloyd Alexander as a child? I thought he was born at 70.'' -BTS
BTS tells about the book of nanofiction left on his car.
``'The World's Shortest Stories of Life and Death.' They are all 55 words
or less, mostly exactly 55 words. There is no dedication, no note,
and (most disturbing of all), the price tag indicates that it was
purchased at Urban Outfitters in Harvard Square.''
Motion to commend Urban Outfitters for outfitting their clientele for
every possible occasion.
7-7-0+Spehn
Stuff happens with assigning fine credit for donations.
BING!
BTS reads from the keyholder notes: ``This policy will be reviewed by the Star Chamber in Summer, 2000'' Apparently, JM is rewriting them, and is not planning to reprint until he's done. ``But these are going to look like the Talmud by the time he's done!'' -BTS
More processing of books. The donation has an audio cassette of ``The Restaurant at the End of the Universe'', which includes tips on networking with Volgons. BTS is forced to read the back of some teen paperback fantasy novel, which is terrifying and mentions dragons.
BING!
ALGOL
BING!
Timewarp to committee reports: Pseudo-surgeon report Erin trained two people, Josh and Eric Armstrong, but Eric was really training Erin, as he has Real Library Experience.
Erin may be requesting Surgery supplies.
Move to have the society buy a bigger hammer
Passes 5-0-0+Spehn
Discussion on the hammer, the gavel, and whether larger gavels would cause trouble for future Skinners. BING!
Timewarp to Old Business: The Bookshelf Sale
So far, no offers have been passed to ED,
but JM may have some. To ED's knowledge, no decision has been made.
JFC has pulled more third hardcovers off the shelf to make space, as it has not been very long since he last put books on the shelf to activate Jamie.
The spotlight on MITSFS got us some members. Hooray.
We got a substantial donation towards a life membership, $1000 all in 20s. Discussion on the ATM per-day and per-transaction withdrawl limits, and how you could mess with the IRS and your bank. ``The IRS responds to this by bending you over a table and hostilly auditing you. The IRS response teams are more heavily armed than the FBI!'' -BTS
Motion to end the meeting with a hostile bananna
Miller Motion
Motion for a Matrix Vote
The vote is 3-1-1+Spehn before the skinner realizes the great evil about to occur, and by skinnerial decree the bannana motion passes, the miller motion fails, and the matrix vote motion fails.
Meeting adjourned, 1730 SST.