Aug 6th,2025 Mindbridge Meeting Minutes
In attendance:Jess and Tony Penticoff; Michele, Jon, and Rhianna Maakstead; Jenny Carhoff; Sheril Bongenrief, Adam Bowers, Amanda Bowersox, Alex Ward, Gillian Grochala, John Johnson, IlissaSue McClelland, Sam M, Chris Danerogil, Robin, Chealsey, Steve, Zero, Candice, Jim Castleberry, Kate Heckel

  1. Treasurer’s Report (Jon): Up 58k
  2. IT Officer (Tony): N/A
  3. Storage Manager (Carhoff Alliance)
    1. Rebuilt grid wall storage area
    2. Lock broken getting new lock
    3. Reminder, nothing enters the storage locker without being marked, NO exceptions
  4. Convention Reports-All conventions are looking for additional help.
    1. ICON (ICON 49.5 – Oct 11th 2025/ICON50-2026)
      1. Registrations have been ramping up
      2. If interested in staff or have other questions contact: info@iowa-icon.com
      3. If interested in Volunteering contact:info.icon.mb@gmail.com
    2. Gamicon (March 6th to 8th 2026)
      1. Next Staff Meeting Sun Aug 10th at 6Pm at Tim’s house at 271 Wiley Blvd NW Cedar Rapids, IA and online
      2. Events are open and starting to come in
      3. Merchant organization
      4. Bag Check, Jenny has volunteered
      5. Program Book organizer
      6. Hall Costume contest organizer
      7. If interested in volunteering, staff or have other questions contact: info@gamicon.org
    3. AnimeIowa (July 31th – Aug 2nd, 2026)
      1. Feedback Form Here
      2. We had a good attendance
      3. Need to ask about getting Charity Donation matched
      4. Post Mortem will be Sat 20th Sept
      5. Bills are being taken care
      6. Any AnimeIowa related grievance should be emailed to StaffRelations@animeIowa.com
      7. Volunteering please reach out at Recruitment@animeiowa.com
      8. If interested in volunteering, staff or have other questions contact: execs@animeiowa.com
  5. Other Projects
    1. Game Library – Michele
      1. At Anime Iowa
      2. 206 games check outs
      3. 106 unique game checkouts
      4. 147 unique users
      5. Party games the most checked out
      6. Next Year Gen Con falls on the same weekend as AnimeIowa
        1. Will need people to help set up and run Game Room
    2. Video Game Library
      1. At AnimeIowa
      2. Video Game Library Assets & Finances
        1. We ended up with 3 new Switch 2s, and have 6 new TVs.
        2. We traded one Switch, a PS2, and an XBox 360 in for more Switch 2 Pro Controllers.
        3. We acquired a Guitar Hero controller and games for the PS2
        4. We got rid of one old TV that was broken after AnimeIowa.
        5. Installed Street Fighter 6 DLC on the PS5 and all four PS4s
      3. Video Game Library Planning
        1. We need more staff, both for the Library in general, but also at our cons (AnimeIowa and Gamicon especially).
        2. The feedback form for after AnimeIowa is currently live, with 1 response so far: Here
        3. If people are interested in assisting the Video Game Library, they can reach out to info@videogamelibrary.org
      4. Some technical issues popped up, but fortunately workarounds were able to be made.
        1. The Street Fighter 6 tournament went well, but the Mario Kart 64 time trial only had two participants.
        2. A new room layout was tried which was overall successful.
        3. If anyone wants to see the checkout data, it can be viewed here: Checkouts
        4. Overall, 382 hours, 15 minutes, 30 seconds of total gameplay (not including SteamDeck, arcade unit, or DDR/Guitar Hero since those don’t require checking in/out a badge to play). This compares to 291 hours, 32 minutes, 38 seconds from AnimeIowa 2024.
        5. Overall, 554 checkouts, which is an increase to the 515 checkouts from AnimeIowa 2024.
        6. Huge thank you to Andy who ran the AnimeIowa Video Gaming Department and made all of this possible.
      5. Need assistance with running Video Game Library please contact Adam
    3. TrekFest – Jenny Carhoff & Alex (June 26-28th, 2026)
      1. Information to follow soon
      2. If interested please contact Jenny at mommayaya911@gmail.com subject Trekfest
    4. Book Group
      1. August 21st – General discussion on books that we have read at 6 PM, Edgewood Rd Panera, Cedar Rapids
      2. September 18th – Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister, Location TBD
      3. November will be Wicked by Gregory Maguire: We will be talking about the book and watching on of the parts of the movie, Location TBD
    5. Anybody wanting to become Mindbridge Members
      1. Gillian Grochala -is now a member
  6. Old Business
    1. Board Member update: Sheril has been reelected, term to end at AI in 2028
    2. Pens are still needing to be ordered.
    3. Pronoun ribbons need to be ordered.
      1. Tabletop gaymers would be interested in working with us on bulk orders
    4. Board authorizes Jon to look into Badge wallets
  7. If there are any problems or questions address them to Amanda from now until Sept 3rd, 2025 meeting Email mindbridge-bod@googlegroups.com
  8. New Business
    1. Vote to approve the Mindbridge Treasurer (Jon Maakestad) to reinvest the monies to our CD’s#1009, 1010 back into a new CD from Green State Credit Union when they mature on August 13, 2025
      1. Approved by Mindbridge Membership
    2. Proposed update to grievance by-laws
      1. Any AnimeIowa related grievance should be emailed to StaffRelations@animeIowa.com
      2. See attachment for proposal
      3. Will review at Sept meeting, to vote on in October
    3. 5th Street Social Saturday 9th, 2025 4-10pm in Coralville at US Bank between 5th and 10th

Next meeting will be Wed Sep 3 ,2025 @ 7pm online and in person at the Penticoff house 6914 Amhurst Dr Cedar Rapids, IA