Note: Agenda is black text; Minutes inserted in blue text.

Alternative Venues to rent besides QAMT

• (back up plan) Ken to review this research

This is mostly as a plan B in case we become unable to rent QAMT at some point in the future, or cannot afford the rental.

Ken was unable to attend but Shellay said that Ken has almost finished filling out the rest of the spreadsheet that Autumn provided from her initial research. All of the contacts he has made have shown that a) QAMT is the cheapest place we could be renting right now and b) no one else even has on site storage available.

Advertising/Outreach

• Continuing with this – Autumn is in charge
• Info packets, calendars, business cards, Mass qtr bills, book marks

People who need PR materials should get a hold of Autumn (well ahead of the event).

• All of this is at EoC and laid out at masses
  Need volunteers to take biz card, flyers and other promotional material an pass out to coffee shops, stores, bars etc???

No volunteers came forward. Autumn will bring a bunch of promotional materials to the next HCM and to a Mass, and those that pass by a bulletin board or frequent an establishment that has space for PR materials can take some to distribute.

New Officers – trial periods – transition

• Trial period for all Officers – 3 months before official
• Secretary – Autumn
• Initiation Secretary – Andrei

Officer Duties

EGC Secretary - Melissa

• Organizes all EGC ceremonies – masses, baptisms, confirmation and ordinations.
• Oversees and answer questions concerning new Mass participants and training
• Upkeep on all Mass equipment
• Tracks all Novitiate and Ordained clergy and who their supervising bishop is.

Note: Every person performing regularly in the Gnostic Mass must have a “supervising bishop” - a bishop that oversees one's progress in performing the Mass. A novice's supervising bishop doesn't have to be local. Jim Nobles is only one option for a supervising bishop – bishops are chosen by novices according to personal preference. Jim Nobles is, however, the supervising bishop for the Valley of Seattle, and is charged with the duty of ensuring that the Gnostic Mass is performed to the minimum standards.

• Ensure our public masses are done according to Liber XV.

The presiding officer of a baptism/confirmation/ordination submit their paperwork directly to Grand Lodge to get the certificates sent to the member, but the EGC Secretary can help a member to research answers to questions/issues with those certificates.

Deputy Master - Shellay

• Take over BM duties when Onyieh is away
• Will be the next BM when Onyieh leaves (or in case of an emergency – Shellay is Onyieh's named successor)
• In addition in charge of website, updating online calendar and officer business emails for Horizon. She also makes the business cards for Horizon, although that will soon be transferred to the Secretary.
• She is Onyieh’s right hand woman.

Treasurer - Ashley

• Collect monies, write checks at all events
• Established the bank account, now maintains it for the body
• Horizon is now counted as a tax exempt nonprofit organization, so we can get interest on our money & a no-cost bank account.
• Quarterly report about our financial status
• We're getting the Quickbooks program to help manage this
• Researches money investments
• Keep local money records

Secretary – Rebecca transitioning out, Autumn transitioning in

• Scribe – distributes all notes within week of meeting

for the 4 Horizon Community Meetings and 11 officer meetings a year.

Autumn to send notes to sea-oto & to Shellay for posting on the website

• Advertising organizer – keeps track of all promotional items, printing and distributing as necessary

Up until recently this was done by Onyieh, transitioning this duty to Secretary

• Keep on file all Horizon documents.

Keeps the archives. Autumn to e-mail Onyieh & Yuri for copies of old flyers, and to e-mail Heather for clip art for creating new PR materials.

• Fills out yearly ARF
• Keep a list of all events under the auspices of Horizon
• Also is the Librarian

Autumn has taken over all of the Library duties.

Initiation Secretary – Shellay transitioning out, Andrei transitioning in

• Organizes all Initiations from Minerval through IV/PI
• Upkeep and organization of all Initiation furniture
• Ensures that all paperwork if filled and submitted correctly.
• Uses tracking sheets to ensure each application is handled correctly.
• Orders Initiation supplies – Quartermaster duties
• Answer candidate questions

Body Master - Onyieh

• Responsible for any event or happening under the auspices of Horizon.
• Oversees all Officers and their duties.
• Ensure all GL policies are being followed.
• Elicits feedback and opinions from Officers and Community for Horizon decisions, policies and procedures.
• Makes decisions on what policies and procedures Horizon will follow (this is in addition to GL policies)
• Answer new inquiries from those interested in Thelema, OTO, attending Mass etc.

2006 Events

• Gnostic Mass – schedule remains the same - 2nd Saturday EoC, 4th Sunday QAMT
• Initiations – TBD
• Socials – shooting pool, movie nights – need volunteers to host and organize events.

12/15 is Horizon Stitch & Bitch at Autumn's. No socials yet planned for 2006.

• Solstice/Equinox Rituals
• Need volunteers that will head up these rituals

- Doug E. is doing a Solstice ritual at the exact time (approx 10am) of the Solstice – but it's not official, contact him if you would like to attend & he will see if he can arrange it

- The important thing is that if someone wants to do one of these, Onyieh needs at least 1 or 2 months advance notice so we can get the word out to the body, including those that aren't online.

• Heather – Fool’s Journey for 2006??? Not a cross-quarter ritual
• Andrei – Rite of Jupiter for Summer Solstice Not a cross-quarter ritual
• Shellay and Melissa working on Fall Equinox (Fall Festival) but his time with Ritual and then social dance

They have formed a tentative ritual plan they think will work out well.

They would like to not have any door charge, or have door charge very low.

Ideas for making it raise funds:

- cash bar

- non-OTO community member Josh Books has said to officers that he would like to host a beer tasting for Horizon. Onyieh mentioned that the wine tasting overall only made $300, so it would not be sufficient to cover the costs of the event let alone fundraising.

- suggest people sponsor another attendee

- having a vending table with Horizon merchandise

• Invocation of Horus – first cast meeting is on 12/13, to be performed 3/19/06
• Down the road: Heather thinking about creating a Fool's Journey ritual, Andrei thinking about directing the Rite of Jupiter at some point.

Kaaba

Comparing and reducing notes applicable to Horizon Oasis – making us a better well oiled machine.

• Kaaba was a leadership conference hosted by Sekhet-Maat Lodge in Portland OR. In the near future, Onyieh will be getting together all of the attendees to spend a few hours going over the notes we each took, and figure out what pieces of what we learned can be used to improve Horizon.
• What it really reinforced was how well we're doing, how many of these skills are things that we've already started working on.

Local Dues

• $10/month or $100 for entire year
• Six consecutive months dues paying member – paid in past or future
• Receive dues membership card – discounts for events

Starting in 2006, dues paying members will receive a card for discounts on events, it will be a business card size card with membership info.

Autumn to create card blanks & print them for Ashley.

• Receive reduced local fee for initiations

Since we've lost the cleaning agreement with QAMT, we raised the initiation fees to help cover a part of the extra costs (not covered in the existing GL initiation fees). But people who pay 6 months consecutive monthly membership dues receive initiations at a reduced cost.

Shellay will post the updated initiation fee schedule on the website.

Quality of Horizon events

• Time to “raise the quality bar”
• Scripts memorized – this has been a recommendation of EGC for many years, and required for several things, but now Onyieh is enforcing it for all EGC/OTO ceremonies, rites, etc.
• Practices scheduled by those in charge (procedures are in place for inits)

Horizon policy is now that Mass teams must have at least two practices prior to the event, and no scripts to be used except (optionally) for Deacon to use on the Collects.

24/7 space

• Getting new people – brand new or moving – our community base is growing. This is where the increased push for PR/advertising will help. We also have Michael & Amy moving to town, and we have a Minerval being performed in December for 4 more new members.
• Need more dues paying members – letting them know what the $ is/will be used for.
• Time to start some research and find out what type of rent we are looking at.
• Doug Eakin to provide research results.

He found a wide range of locations:

- 1800 sq ft, West Seattle, $700 – has everything we need

- 1200 sq ft, U District, $1800

- 1100 sq ft, Downtown, $900

- 4000 sq ft, S. Kenyon, $1800

- 1500 sq ft, Occidental Ave S, $1400

- 3000 sq ft, 6th Ave S, $0.84/sq ft

- 5400 sq ft, 4th Ave S, $0.40/sq ft

No one will rent to us without documentation of 501(c)3/tax-exempt status

Need to sign a 3-yr lease to get help from an agent.

We have to wait to really look at spaces to rent until we are ready to pounce immediately, because the spaces rent out quickly.

A space may get tax incentives for renting to us.

• Goal Plan – check the interest, seat goals, how many members, paying what dues, set a goal date to obtain 24/7 space, start collecting increased dues and pledges for a year before we get space. (nutshell plan as we stand today)
• Community feedback & Discussion
  • Establish a committee of 3-4 people to outline the issues involved. Some people mentioned:
  • need for & cost of liability/renter's insurance
  • cost of remodeling
  • how much to raise dues, what will community support
  • establishing pledges – what a member can commit to above & beyond dues on a monthly basis – pledge members have the ability to schedule private use of the space
  • other income: fund raising/schmooze events, renting space to other groups
  • Right now we pay $300 a month.
  • We'd need a minimum 3-6 month cushion for rent/bills/insurance/other costs
  • We need a minimum of 1000 sq ft for any space we rent
  • We need to build our infrastructure first, and get new folks excited.
  • Onyieh could possibly start putting together a 1-year plan for permanent space sometime next year, if progress is good.
  • We'll keep this item on future HCM agendas for continued discussion

Regional OTO Conference

• Andrei working on a written proposal for a Western or Northwestern OTO conference (he'll have it at the January officer's meeting) for 2008, probably over the Feast of the Prophet and His Bride. Larger than a Kaaba, but smaller than NOTOCon, probably around 125-150 attendees.
• Onyieh suggested having it as a retreat, with the ability to have a drum circle at midnight. Most attendees seemed to concur, Fort Casey & Orcas Island were two suggestions for locations.
• Doug E. suggested having a shuttle to/from the airport.
• He will need numerous volunteers to head up various services/events.
• Someone suggested having all events & services within easy walking distance of each other, and most seemed to concur with that suggestion.
• Andrei mentioned that he would be soliciting help from (and share profits with) other regional bodies, and that he has been told by GL that we could include the BC bodies in the planning (but that money transfer would be difficult because they belong to a different national Grand Lodge).

Newsletter

• Autumn putting together a newsletter
• Having a newsletter at least once a year is one of the very few things left to be doing in order to become a Lodge again.
  Autumn solicited suggestions for names. So far we have:
  • On The Horizon
  • Expanding Horizons
  • Light On The Horizon
  • Horizon Mound (from egyptian mythology)
  • Edge Of The Sky
  • Kiss The Sky
  • Sky's Embrace (the place where earth & sky embrace each other is the horizon)
• Autumn will soon start putting out calls for submissions of art, poetry, very short stories, articles, etc.
• Expected publication June 2006.