Leonardo/ISAST Board

CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY TO ISAST AND NOT TO BE SHARED OR DISCUSSED OUTSIDE LEONARDO/ISAST BOARD

MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF LEONARDO/ISAST

The Board of Directors of Leonardo/ISAST held a Regular Meeting on January 25, 2003 at 6 Hillcrest, Berkeley, California. Directors Roger Malina, Ed Payne, Sonya Rapoport, Beverly Reiser, Mark Resch, Joel Slayton, and Steve Wilson were present and constituted a quorum of the Board. Staff and Guests present: Pamela Grant-Ryan, Melinda Klayman, and Rejane Spitz. Directors Absent: Marty Anderson, Lynn Hershman, Mina Bissell, Penny Finnie, and Piero Scaruffi.

Roger Malina acted as Chairman and the meeting was called to order at 12:27pm.

The Board noted several changes to its membership.

Curtis Karnow has completed his term on the board, and is not able serve another term on the board. The board expressed its gratitude for his services to the organization, and expressed its desire that Curtis will remain a supporter of Leonardo, advising on legal matters.

Mark Beam has moved to Mexico, and has offered to serve as a consultant developing grant proposals. Roger Malina engaged Beam's services to complete an application with the Ford Foundation, and in order to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest the Executive Committee recommended removing Beam from the Board, and nominated him to serve on the Advisory Board. The board accepted this proposal.

A third vacancy was created when Rich Gold passed away quite unexpectedly.

Ed Payne was added to the Board through email vote since the last meeting.

Welcome. New Board member Ed Payne, new staff member Melinda Klayman, and guest Rejane Spitz introduced themselves. Roger Malina also briefed the board on new staff member Lynne Carstarphen and new interns Shirley Shor and Josh Long.

Remembering Rich Gold. Board member Rich Gold passed away two weeks before this meeting. Mark Resch, who worked closely with him for many years, spoke about his impact both personally and professionally.

Approval of minutes of 18 August 2002 meeting. Mark moved to approve the minutes. Steve seconded. Approved by acclamation.

Approval/Modifications of Agenda. Joel moved to approve the agenda. Beverly seconded. Approved by acclamation.

General news - Roger Malina

a. Annual report---Shirley Shor assisted with the preparation of the annual report, which includes reports from each committee chair.

b. Legal problems---Leonardo owns the US trademark for its name, but in France there is another company, Hemstedtowns, that owns the trademark name Leonardo in the software category. Friendly negotiations are underway that will allow Leonardo to continue using the name for on line, CD ROMS, and CDs with cultural content.

c. Libel suit---there has been no further news from the Joy of Giving Something libel suit.

Committee Reports:

a. Update Contact Lists---Melinda Klayman distributed a contact sheet for Board members and Advisory Board members and requested updates.

b. Web---Steve Wilson described progress on the Leonardo family of sites. Roger, Steve, and Nisar met recently and are planning a master page at www.leonardo.info. These efforts are being undertaken to establish clear branding and functions among the sister sites, and will clarify issues and practices such as archiving. The current estimate is that it will take a year to clean up and organize what is now a very confusing collection of sites.

LEA will contain editorial content, publications, projects, and events. It will be free access. There will also be housed within LEA an archive that is a password protected subscription site, to include a single search engine, one line synopsis.

LOL will feature corporate information that changes on a slower basis.

LDR will be published within LEA.

Monthly LEA digest will change to listserve, and will be made freely available to academic faculty and students. A special 10th anniversary issue is under consideration, with the topic of artists and scientists in times of war. LEA will tie in and support other Leonardo projects, just as LBS (feature chapters on line, develop theme issues), LMJ, etc. The websites will continue to be developed, but it was noted that they still bring in little revenue, and it is the print journal that brings in the bulk of income for Leonardo.
Joel requested that he would like to see a site map of all the Leonardo family of sites. Nisar is working on this project presently.

Web statistics were distributed (attached). Although these statistics are partial and imperfect, the trends they indicate are accurate.

c. Leonardo Book Series---Joel Slayton presented the current status of the Book Series. The same successful trends we have observed over the past several meetings continue.

Slayton presented a mock-up of an LBS website that offers a clean balance between Leonardo and MIT identities. It enables links under each book for ease of purchase. Discussion ensued about making more links on the website to connect with Amazon sales potential.

A handout of LBS sales figures was distributed. Events being planned include a lecture on February 25 at CADRE by Judy Malloy, whose book will be published later this year. Geert Lovink, whose book has already been released, will be making promotional appearances in April. Several other books are in the works and scheduled for release in 2003. Proposals keep coming in. Joel has been dealing with MIT Press, where they have seen dramatic changes recently, which have made our relationship with them strained. Material moves through sluggishly, which frustrates authors. At the same time, our volume has increased dramatically.

d. Journals Report---Pam Grant-Ryan discussed the status of Leonardo and LMJ. Last year marked the end of our collaboration with Digital Salon. We would like to find another appropriate collaborator to help ease the load for our editors and to bring Leonardo to a different audience. Some suggestions for consideration included Banff and Nature magazine. Another suggestion is to do a topical edition featuring articles on a particular theme. Funders might be interested in such a project. 2003 will feature 5 issues of Leonardo and one LMJ. Now that Digital Salon will no longer be the 5th issue, we must consider what it will contain---should it be special, topical, experimental, etc?

Ongoing projects include Global Crossings (funded by Ford), Power and Spirit of Water (formerly Virtual Africa), Burning Man, and SETI workshops.

Leonardo and MIT Press met last year. MIT's significant staff turnaround has left them with a weakened leadership and general unreliability. Rewriting our contract with them is long overdue, but is currently on hold until their situation is somewhat more solid.

Redesigning the journal has been discussed repeatedly, but Roger and Pam encouraged the board that it can be postponed for at least another year.

The Board reiterated general sentiment that Leonardo print publications and websites must complement each other.

LMJ: Nic Collins visited recently. He is under 5-year contract, which will be up in 2 years. The board must consider whether to renew with him or if not, then who to approach to helm LMJ. The next issue of LMJ is Groove, Pit, and Wave, and then David Tudor (which should be a collaboration with the Getty).

Circulation figures for the journals and MIT Press financial report were distributed. (Attached.)

Mark charged the Board members with the challenge to each attract 10 new subscribers to Leonardo during 2003.

e.Prize and Awards---Lynn Hershman took over chairing the Awards Committee this year. The Award for Excellence was given to Bill Seaman, who will deliver his award lecture at UCDavis on March 13. A Board delegation should meet him during his visit.

f. Nominations---Sonya Rapoport distributed a list with several suggestions for nominees to the Board. Now that there are several vacancies, we have the opportunity to diversify the Board according to age, gender, skills, fundraising abilities, and cultural background. Discussion ensued about some of the potential nominees. Sonya will work with Melinda on getting files on each of the serious nominees. Our goal is to bring on a new Board member before each meeting until the Board is full.

g. Compensation and Staff Issues---Marty Anderson was not present, so Roger presented changes to staff compensation. 2003 will see a 2 1/2% COLA increase. Contracts must all be renewed, and they are under review by legal counsel. We are discussing adding a "cafeteria plan" to the benefits package, meaning that if a staff member does not use their entire insurance amount, they can receive the remainder in cash.

h. Fundraising and Marketing---Roger Malina described some of our current projects and requested board involvement with future fundraising efforts.

Ford Foundation---Mark Beam has helmed this effort. The foundation committed to 3-year support, but backed out after one year. The project got renamed, a new manager came in, and it turns out we will likely receive $25,000 for the 2nd year after all. It will support a symposium within a conference at UC Davis.

Rockefeller---Mark Resch has guided this proposal. We sent in a proposal in Autumn, which was returned with a request to match more of the Foundation's objectives, namely to serve minorities and underrepresented groups. We are hoping to resubmit a revised proposal by March 1. This renewed discussion among the Board about diversifying our Board profile. To diversify can mean ethnicity, but can also imply more of an international cultural diversity. Making the Advisory Board more active could address this issue.

Langlois Foundation---Roger will meet with them on February 15 in Paris. The foundation is changing its strategy from funding projects to offering long-term development grants to really help build organizations. Perhaps we could approach them to host the French website, among other things.

Roger hopes to put out one proposal per month. Warhol and Sloan Foundations are on our short list to research and talk to Program Directors. A Board member needs to serve as the contact person for each of these grant proposals, although Melinda as a staff member will do much of the legwork. Roger asked for volunteers in pursuing grant opportunities. Ed volunteered to work on the Getty, where he has contacts.

Individual fundraising---we will send out a fundraising letter written by Joel in Spring. We can now accept online donations through Pay Pal.

Advisory Board report

a. Network Charts---Beverly Reiser distributed charts and a report describing Leonardo's structure, influence, and collaborators. (Attached.)

b. UNESCO Digiarts project. This is a multiyear collaboration. They have given OLATS $10,000 to make a digital library. They are organizing events in Bangkok, an Arab country, and elsewhere internationally. They will offer UNESCO travel grants.

c. Board approval of proposed ISEA 2004 collaboration. Each ISEA must be considered individually as they vary in quality and focus. Roger served on the recent Board and believes that it is more organized now and 2004 looks solid. Tapio Makela in Helsinki is organizing it, and Roger feels positively about the organizing team. This ISEA will cover 3 citiesspanning the Baltic Sea. He recommends collaboration.

d. College Art Association. We are planning to become an affiliated society of CAA, which will bring us exposure to their vast membership, primarily of art and art history academics, albeit primarily in the US. It will also give us the opportunity to participate at their annual conference. Melinda will attend this yearss conference. Perhaps Annette Weintraub could be useful in this affiliation, as she is already active in both Leonardo and CAA. We should also investigate similar affiliation with the equivalent scientific society.

Financial Report---Marty Anderson

a. 2000 Audit---the Board received this in the mail prior to the meeting. It was also sent to the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. Zebker made several managerial recommendations, which we will try to implement. Next year will be the next scheduled audit.

b. MIT Press Annual Financial Report---from MIT's point of view, Leonardo makes a profit. Our contract with MIT needs renewal and significant revision.

c. ISAST Annual Financial Report---this just came in last week and shows some mistakes that must be corrected. We must file a tax return soon.

d. 2003 Budget Preparation---this is still being finalized and must reflect salaries, staff contracts, external contracts, and rent increase. The budget will be distributed to Board members upon its completion, to be approved by email. It will reflect an $80,000 deficit.

e. Financial Committee---is comprised of the same members as the Executive Committee. We should consider adding or changing members.

Strategic Plan---Mark Resch is gathering data for fleshing out the strategic plan. Rockefeller is funding this project. Melinda is assisting with the footwork. Mark has started interviewing key people about their views and wishes for Leonardo. Before he started the process, Mark had certain assumptions about the status of Leonardo---that we could do something better, or that we needed something. From his interviews, he has learned that we are considered quite valuable and have a great image. Questions he asked included:

a. What are the critical issues for Leonardo?

b. What would you envision as a favorable outcome for Leonardo?

c. What's worrisome, what would be a worst-case scenario?

d. What must change within or about Leonardo?

e. What lessons from the past can we learn?

f. What priorities and decisions must we make right now?

g. What's the one thing you would do if money, effort, etc, were no object?

His interviews have been met with much enthusiasm and general willingness to help out. Leonardo is a sought-after collaborator. Generally, interviewees reiterated that building a community is the primary concern. Mark theorizes that Leonardo reviewers are the key group that we must invigorate to form a community, as they have contact with or affect everyone in the Leonardo circle. Mark will contact each Board member to involve them in the strategic planning process.

Next meeting will be in the first two weeks of April, date to be determined. Location should be in San Francisco or South Bay.

There being no further business before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 5:17pm.