Halsey Hall October 2010 Board Meeting
October 3, 2010, 6 p.m. at the home of Kevin Hennessy. Approval of August board meeting minutes. 
Board members present: Hennessy, Buckland, Janzen, Johnson and Rekela.  Absent: Tholkes, Smith.  Also present: Thornley, Luloff.

• Treasurer’s report (Jerry):  There is no change from the August meeting’s report.

• Events Chair report (Howard):  The Fall Chapter Meeting will have three research presentation per the Research Committee report.  The schedule for the research presentations is 9:30 am-10:15 pm, 10:30-11:15, and 11:15-12:00.  Lunch and the business meeting will be from noon to 1:00pm with Ron Coomer to speak at 1:00.  Should the Twins be playing at 3 pm the schedule will need to be adjusted.  Lunch will be from Pizza Man on Central Avenue NE.  A date for the Spring Regional was discussed but not set.

• Newsletter (Stew): 

I propose adopting accessibility standards for the newsletter (and also discuss adopting these standards for our entire web page).  These standards are part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  I don’t think we are bound by ADA, but that doesn’t mean we should not follow accessibility guidelines.  We have done this in the past with regard to facilities, making sure that we hold events only at accessible locations, which resulted in us discontinuing a site that had been used for the winter Hot Stove League meeting.  Following the accessibility standards will benefit people who use web browsers with readers.

Proposal for addition to Newsletter Procedures:

The Halsey Hall Chapter will follow the accessibility standards below for its web-based publications:

Titles
•     Each page should have a descriptive and unique title.

Links
•     Links should be well labeled so that the link title clearly indicates the page it leads to.
•     Link titles must be clear, informative, and able to stand alone.
•     Links to a graphic should be added only to serve as an enhancement to the regular links and navigation.

Graphics
•     Each image must have a complete alternative text description (ALT tag). ALT tags must be clear and informative for each image. The text should include the image description and, if appropriate, the function.

Tables
•     Table widths must be set by percents (and not more than 100 percent).

Linking to PDF Files
•     The following information must be contained within the link: title of the document, type of file, file size, and number of pages, such as (PDF: 82KB/1 pages).
•     PDF files should be created in an accessible manner. If this is not possible, an alternative, accessible file format must be offered.

Proposal for addition to the procedure for the webmaster:

The Halsey Hall Chapter will follow the accessibility standards below for its website:

Titles
•     Each page should have a descriptive and unique title.

Links
•     Links should be well labeled so that the link title clearly indicates the page it leads to.
•     Link titles must be clear, informative, and able to stand alone.
•     Links to a graphic should be added only to serve as an enhancement to the regular links and navigation.

Graphics
•     Each image must have a complete alternative text description (ALT tag). ALT tags must be clear and informative for each image. The text should include the image description and, if appropriate, the function.

Tables
•     Table widths must be set by percents (and not more than 100 percent).

Linking to PDF Files
•     The following information must be contained within the link: title of the document, type of file, file size, and number of pages, such as (PDF: 82KB/1 pages).
•     PDF files should be created in an accessible manner. If this is not possible, an alternative, accessible file format must be offered.

• Website (John):  No report.

• Quicksteps (Bob):  No report.

• Membership (Stew):

New SABR members in our region are Allan Burdick and Ben Collin.  I’ve sent them both a greeting and invitation to be introduced in the newsletter.  I gave an application to Phil Mackey of KFAN Radio.  He does a lot with social media and other web promotion, and I’m hoping he may be able to help us our convention efforts with some of those things. 

Marshall Tanick, a former member, agreed to rejoin the chapter and write an article on baseball and the law in Minnesota for the convention publication.

I did a radio interview with Scott Hall, who lives in Grand Rapids.  Scott was the organizer for the first-ever regional gathering in Minnesota, in 1981.  I sent Scott a membership application and hope he will re-join.

Clyde Doepner, the team curator for the Twins, has also said he will join, and he is interested in doing something with Twins memorabilia at the 2012 convention in Minneapolis.

• Research Committee (Stew):

The committee met September 12.  We have approved three research presentations for the October 16 chapter meeting:

• Mike Haupert: Integrating Major League Baseball: A Counterfactual Analysis
• Todd Peterson: Can You Hear The Noise: The St. Paul Gophers 1907-1911
• Phil Lowry: Comparisons and Contrasts between the Quadrennial FIFA World Cup and the Quadrennial MLB World Baseball Classic.

Dan Levitt is finalizing the list of articles for the convention publication.

• Book Club (Art):  No report.  The book on George Steinbrenner was the book for October.

•  Old business (all) :

a)  Convention:
A core group of Howard Luloff, Kevin Hennessy, Jerry Janzen, Art Mugalian, Bob Tholkes, and the convention chair has been established and will begin meeting soon. 
The subject of obtaining photos and pictures for the Convention program was discussed.

b)

•   New business (all):

a)  Quicksteps Open Team (Fred)

The discussion centered on the Quickstep Open Nine and its current endorsement from the Halsey Hall Chapter.  Two main points emerged:
1- The Quicksteps Open Nine is currently a Chapter-endorsed event yet SABR chapter members are not invited to play.
2- What does an endorsement from the Chapter mean?  Should the Chapter formally define its endorsement procedure?  Should the Chapter be endorsing groups or activities at all?

It was generally agreed that for a SABR activity, members of that activity should be members of the SABR chapter.

A motion was made to sever the relationship between the Chapter and the Quicksteps Open Nine, and was seconded.  The motion passed 5-0.

b)  December meeting: scheduled for December 5, 6pm, at the home of Stew Thornley.

•   A motion was made to adjourn, and seconded.  The motion passed 5-0.