[Newsletter] AGM Reminder: Sunday, Feb 2

[Lev Lafayette]

The RPG Review Cooperative Annual General Meeting will be held this
Sunday, Feb 2 at the back room of The Rose Hotel, 406 Napier St Fitzroy
at 12 noon. There is on-street parking around the pub and it is about 5
minutes walk from the 86 and 96 trams as well as various buses.

At the meeting all committee positions will become vacant. The
president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer positions are
available.  We will also decide how many ordinary members of the
committee we want and then vote for them accordingly. 

The Rose has a lovely kitchen, feel free to visit their website and
peruse their menu:

https://www.therosefitzroy.com.au/menu

Please RSVP to secretary at rpgreview.net to confirm seating or send
apologies.

Attendance via Zoom is also available:


https://unimelb.zoom.us/j/5971628483?pwd=cFBEYW5qS1AwQW5ZNjZyLzBQRHFpdz09
Password: 813985


The following is our agenda, 

> Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome
> Confirmation of the 2024 General Meeting Minutes
> The Committee Report
> Financial Statements of the Association
> The Election of Committee Members
- President
- Vice President
- Treasurer
- Secretary
- Ordinary Members
> Annual Subscription Fee
> The future of the library
> General Business

You can RSVP here or on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/events/1173775727751867



===========================
2024 Draft Committee Report
===========================

2024 Committee Report and Finances

The RPG Review Cooperative held its founding meeting in December 2015,
and was subsequently incorporated by the State of Victoria on January
7th, 2016. The following is a review of our eighth year of activities.
All activities have been in strict accordance with our objectives. The
committee members for 2024 were Lev Lafayette (President), Michael Cole
(Vice-President), Andrew Daborn (Secretary), Tim Rice (Treasurer),
Elizabeth Bowman, Karl Brown, Adrian Smith, Andrew MacPherson (ordinary
members). Note that the number of ordinary committee members was
expanded from 2023 levels.

In the past year, we have published three issues of the RPG Review
journal (Issue 56 and Issue 57-58), although technically the latter
came out in January, for a December-March issue. These have all be
added to the National Library of Australia. The RPG Review website
received 43,790 unique visitors in 2024, a 27% increase from 2023
(34,396). Top downloads for RPG Review being Issue 55 (Law and
Politics) receiving 1888 downloads, Issue 49-50 (Cyberpunk 2020
conference, December 2020) receiving 927 downloads and Issue 39 (The
Far East, June 2018) receiving 790. The article "The Riddle of Steel
Review" from 2010 received 1171 downloads.

The Cooperative's Library consists of 787 gaming publications, 172
gaming magazines, and 3 fiction books, a total of 962 items. We also
continue to provide various IT support mechanisms (github, mailman
mailing lists etc) with hosting donated from one of our members. For
game authors, we also offer discount ISBNs which we gain an advantage
from bulk purchasing.

Membership has increased to 29; an increase of almost 53% on the
previous year. The Cooperative has continued with its sales of second-
hand or new games to the public, which included two very successful
stalls and presence at Conquest Convention and the Conquest Market Day.
The Coooperative experienced a small financial loss for the year which
can be classified as a "loss leader" activity, whilst our overall
capital increased due to appreciation of Library stock and donations.

An important and relevant future-orientated decision of the last AGM
was that all AI created or assisted content used in RPG Review
publications will be fully credited, including the model of AI used, in
that publication.

This was a year of significant improvements for the Cooperative which,
with planning, organisation, and enthusiasm, we will be able to
continue in 2025. 

==============================
2024 Draft Financial Statement
==============================

2024 Profit and Loss Statement (Statement of Movement)
Income
Membership		$0140.00
Member Sales		$4761.08
Stock Sales		$0060.00

Subtotal		$4961.08

Expenses
Member Sales		$4624.10
Library		$0120.00
Stock			$0085.00
Domain			$0031.45
Banner			$0242.00

Subtotal		$5102.55

Opening Balance	$6447.92
Loss			$141.47
End-of-Year Balance	$6306.45

2024 Balance Sheet (Statement of Position)
Assets
Bank			$6306.45
RPG Review		$0400		(Issues 40 and 44, c80 copies)
Library 		$18609	(Estimated value from 962 items)
Stock			$5000		(Estimated at 500 PnP and
Cow's in stock)

Subtotal       	$30315.45

Liabilities
Nil.

Capital 		$30315.45

Notes
Bank balance includes $3915.39 earmarked RuneQuest Glorantha Con Down
Under