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Apple II convention – July 15–20, 2025

CONTACT

Committee Meeting Minutes

Beginning in March 2025, the Planning Committee and Board committed to publishing meeting minutes. Contact us if you have questions.

7/2/25

Attendees: Jay, Chris, Martin

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Followup from Town Hall 
  • Received the Woz stickers – Chris will work on KFest 2025 store page
  • Woz artwork on other items like posters, mouse pads, etc. – put up in KFest store – yes, Jordan is good with this
  • HackFest contest (Probably need to post ASAP)
    • Who will run?
    • How many prizes?
    • When does it start?
  • Discord
    • Need to send out the Discord invite to attendees
    • Need to add new channels – Chris will do
    • Send out invite – do we need people to agree to code of conduct via the discord key, and how do we set up? Chris will see about this
  • Other prizes & contests during KFest
    • Jay will give out his prize during his talk
  • All need to select things for the Classic Rewind playlist
  • Need to post schedule soon – Posted
    • One talk cancelled on Sunday afternoon, bumped up the other talks
    • Martin has been sending out tickle emails to speakers to confirm date/times
  • Consider releasing old survey results after KFest 2025
  • Already have 15 responses to our short venue survey
  • Next meeting – Jul 9, 2025
  • Approve minutes – approved

6/25/25

Attendees: Peter, Jay, Martin, Chris, Ron, Javier, Sean

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Sessions
    • D.B. interview recorded! He may or may not be available for questions.
    • Calendar
      • Peter will update website with calendar.
      • Martin will e-mail attendees with their time slots.
    • All need to select things for the Classic Rewind playlist.
    • Bumpers/Ads
    • Need to publish Discord invitation
  • Artwork
    • Peter submitted for pin quotes and is awaiting reply from the vendor (https://lapelpins.com/).
    • Javier – Is the shirt available for purchase? – https://www.8bittees.com/product/i-need-you-for-kansasfest-2025-the-virtual-apple-ii-convention/
      • Chris will order t-shirts for Woz (who gave permission for the design).
      • Chris has updated the link on our website.
      • Acknowledge Jordan Graham. (“commission”)
    • Are stickers taken care of? Chris will order tonight – done
    • Peter still needs to order plaques.
  • Town Hall Prep
    • Need to publicize town hall. Ron will setup art and generate link. Peter will send it out.
    • Peter will turn on YouTube “subscribed for at least 5 minutes to comment”. 
  • Roger Wagner (Chris) – Delayed again to next meeting.
    • Is wondering about donating his HyperStudio archives to KansasFest – is this something that KansasFest wants and could preserve long term?
    • What about an “endowment fund” to support long-term storage for the museum?
  • Next meeting – Jul 2, 2025
  • Approve minutes – approved

6/18/25

Attendees: Ron, Jay, Peter, Martin, Chris, Javier

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Peter Neubauer will reach out to Kirk, James, and Vince about their absence from recent meetings.
  • INIT.HELLO posted a nice interview promoting their event: Let’s talk about INIT HELLO w/ Cat and Paul (July 26–27, 2025)!
  • Artwork
    • Chris is waiting for a courtesy reply about the artwork.
    • Chris Torrence will post artwork to our Drive. – Done
    • Shirts – Javier Rivera will release shirt on his website.
    • Stickers
      • Chris will order. Consider https://www.standoutstickers.com/ or StickerGiant.
    • Pins
      • Peter Neubauer will get quote for pin with Woz artwork.
      • Peter Neubauer will get quote for pin with Chris’s artwork and year.
    • Plaques – Peter Neubauer will order with Woz artwork.
    • Ron and Javier Rivera will setup StreamYard artwork.
    • Feelie packages with 2025 pin and sticker will be available in our store. Offer coupon code to attendees, probably $5. Price to be determined based on pin cost.
  • Public engagements
    • Update posts leading up to event (Peter Neubauer)
      • Featured speakers
      • Sessions highlights
      • Shirts
      • Practical login details
    • Moderated town hall meeting –  scheduled Friday, June 27 at 7pm CT (Peter Neubauer)
      • Accept video, audio, and questions live. We don’t have to answer all the questions during mtg, and we can address other questions later. Set tone for a productive and positive discussion.
      • We’ll need publicity.
      • Ron and Javier will setup session and branding on KFest Streamyard.
    • Reviewed venue search “pre-survey”. Looks good for release. (Jay Graham)
  • Sessions
    • Review draft schedule from Martin Doherty. All need to review order of speakers.
    • What’s happening on Friday? “Rewind” replaying old recordings? Roundtable?
    • Peter Neubauer setup StreamYard account. When would we like to schedule practice sessions for both ourselves and presenters?
    • We’ll meet Sunday 2pm CT for a StreamYard internal test.
  • Roger Wagner (Chris) – Delayed again to next meeting.
    • Is wondering about donating his HyperStudio archives to KansasFest – is this something that KansasFest wants and could preserve long term?
    • What about an “endowment fund” to support long-term storage for the museum?
  • Next meeting – Jun 25, 2025
  • Approve minutes – Approved – yes! ?

6/11/25

Attendees: Peter, Ron, Martin, Jay, Chris

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Public engagements
    • Update posts leading up to event
    • Moderated town hall meeting – tentatively scheduled June 30
    • Venue search channel on Discord
    • Venue search town hall meeting –  probably after event, likely leading to venue poll later among top candidates
      • Ron recommends a shorter “pre-survey” Google Form with an easy way for submit venue candidates. Form should include name, past attendance at KFest to understand culture, venue name, and a paragraph level detail about a proposal. (Jay Graham will make first pass with Google Forms.)
  • Artwork
    • Update from Jordan – Yes. Jay shared and it looks great.
    • Need to get permission (Chris has sent email)
    • Shirts, posters, pins, stickers
      • Do we like Chris pin artwork? – Yes. Chris Torrence will send artwork to Peter Neubauer, and Peter Neubauer will order.
    • Juiced.GS ad (Friday, Jun 13, 2025 – Chris can put together if we have hi-res artwork)
      • Questions for Jay – will artwork already have text? – yes
      • Can we get artwork as a photoshop file with separate layers for text, in case we need to edit or move around stuff? – yes, Jay 
      • Peter Neubauer will pay Ken.
  • Sessions
    • Draft text of email to notify session acceptance
    • Have acceptance notices been sent?
      • No … tonight if possible
    • Review draft schedule?
    • Who’s planning Friday night “Rewind”?
    • Practice sessions for presenters with StreamYard. We accept questions via Discord and copy to YouTube. StreamYard then permits organizing/starring questions from YouTube.
    • Peter Neubauer will sign up KansasFest for StreamYard. 
  • Roger Wagner (Chris) – Delay until next meeting.
    • Is wondering about donating his HyperStudio archives to KansasFest – is this something that KansasFest wants and could preserve long term?
    • What about an “endowment fund” to support long-term storage for the museum?
  • Next meeting
  • Approve minutes

6/4/25

Attendees: Martin, Jay, Sean, Chris, Ron

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Venue search
    • Checklist and directions posted. Monitor Discord for discussion.
    • Consider having a town hall meeting for people who are interested in submitting venues
    • Some possibilities:
      • Univ of Pittsburgh (Jay)
      • Colorado School of Mines – Golden, Colorado (Chris)
      • Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) (Ron)
      • University of Missouri–St. Louis (Ron)
  • Sessions
    • Need to send acceptances with tentative date & time for person’s session
    • Need to create a draft schedule. It’s okay to drop and trim Peter’s personal session.
    • Do we need Friday night?
      • KFest rewind videos?
        • Greatest hits
        • Roger Wagner keynote
        • Randy Wiggington (2013)
        • Also link on our website
    • Bumper videos
      • Brian Wiser (Call-APPLE)
      • KFest gratefully acknowledges vendor for donating prize, etc…
      • Show old Apple II commercials from youtube
      • Who else?
    • Ron is willing to work with people to do prerecorded videos via Streamyard
  • Prize donation from Ken Gagne – subscription to Juiced.GS
  • Care Packages – Are we doing them? (Peter)
    • If so, we need pins and stickers ASAP.
    • Do the limited edition large enamel pin (Jay’s daughter’s artwork) with no year, put for sale in the store
    • Chris will reach out to subject of artwork to ask permission
    • Maybe have a coupon code for limited edition pin for KFest 2025 attendees
    • Do regular plank pin and send out in care packages
      • Don’t worry too much about getting it out before KFest
  • Artwork – Jay will get an update
  • Have a KFest town hall in a few weeks time, before KFest, using Streamyard, tell people what we’ve been up to, answer questions.
    • June 30?
    • Spokesperson – probably Peter
  • Roger Wagner (Chris)
    • Is wondering about donating his HyperStudio archives to KansasFest – is this something that KansasFest wants and could preserve long term?
    • What about an “endowment fund” to support long-term storage for the museum?
  • Next meeting – June 11, 2025

5/28/25

Attendees: Martin, Jay, Sean, Javier, Chris, Peter, Ron

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Sessions and Schedule  (Chris Torrence and Martin Doherty and Ron)
    • Martin Doherty will e-mail submitters.
    • Peter Neubauer will write last call for sessions to e-mail, Slack, and Discord.
    • Jeff Mazur: So I’ve got an outline for the virtual conference. Not sure if anyone else has used this title (seems very possible) but I’ll call it “How the Apple II changed my life.” It’s divided into 3 periods: Before Apple, After Apple Part I (original involvement), and After Apple Part II (retro stage). I guess 30-40 minutes with time for Q&A. How do I present – Zoom etc with screen share? Any other requirements?So I’ve got an outline for the virtual conference. Not sure if anyone else has used this this. From Jeff Mazur
    • Schedule 2025.xlsx
  • Artwork
    • Shirts – Javier Rivera and Chris Torrence will work on it this week – instead, will use Jordan’s artwork
    • Poster from Jordan? – 3 day turn-around, color, could use for shirt, pin, and artwork
      • Yes, $200
      • Add  “2025” at bottom
      • No glasses
    • Pins
    • Juiced.GS ad (Friday, Jun 13, 2025)
  • Venue checklist draft review (Jay Graham):
    • KansasFest 2026 Venue Scouting Checklist.docx
    • INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING THE CHECKLIST.docx
    • Next actions:
      • All to review and comment on the checklist by Sunday, June 1.
      • Write press release and post next Monday, June 2. (Peter Neubauer)
        • Ask people to contact us before scouting.
        • Let people know about upcoming town hall.
      • Create new Discord channel #venue-2026 for this. (Chris Torrence)
      • Schedule “town hall” meeting for people interested in scouting.
  • Apple II Forever awards
    • Agreed on recipients
  • Prizes
    • Award for:
      • HackFest entries
      • Random selection
    • Apple2Online Systemsaver II
    • Apple2Online Disk Notcher
    • Apple2Online Apple II Fan card
    • Apple2Online Apple mouse pad (x 2)
    • Tangy Pack
    • 2 Blue SCSIs
  • Next meeting: Jun 4, 2025

5/14/25

Attendees: Martin, Sean, Peter, Ron

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Bookkeeping, business registration updates, and bank signature card updates (Peter Neubauer)
  • Session and schedule (Chris Torrence and Martin Doherty and Ron)
    • Martin reviewed the draft schedule at Schedule 2025.xlsx. Martin will thank everybody and let them know that we’re working on scheduling with a date for final acceptance. We potentially have a full schedule of excellent presentations with current session submissions.
  • Venue checklist draft review (Jay Graham)
    • KansasFest 2026 Venue Scouting Checklist.docx
    • Wrap up by next Friday (5/23).
    • We will distribute (website and press release) as soon as possible. Ideally, we’ll have venue candidates ready to discuss at the July event.
    • Consider hosting a “town hall” meeting in June to discuss venue search with interested contributors.
    • The committee will lead cost and financial discussions.
  • Artwork drafts (Javier Rivera and Chris Torrence) – No update. Neither in attendance, and Peter will follow up with email.
    • Are we doing pins? Stickers? “Feelie packages”? Ask Chris if he’s willing to mail stuff. Ron is also willing and able to help.
  • Minutes approved. Peter Neubauer will post minutes and add link to minutes from Committee page.
  • Next meeting: 5/28

4/23/25

Attendees: Peter, Jay, Sean, Martin, Chris

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Peter Neubauer will send standing meeting invitation to Ron.
  • Sessions
    • 12 submissions to date, need to count duration but could use more
    • Advertised deadline for submissions is May 1. (https://www.kansasfest.org/2025/03/call-for-sessions-2025/)
    • Peter will submit a round table discussion topic about goals for and future of KansasFest. Include call for volunteers and update on venue search.
  • Reactions to leadership changes. – No concern or irritation observed.
  • Venue checklist draft review (Jay Graham)
    • Jay will need a day or two to clean it up. He will post it for final review on Friday. 
    • Anyone volunteering to help with research will need to accurately represent their status (not an official event representative) if they communicate with any venues
    • Create a “packet” that volunteers can use with talking points and also something that can be given to potential venues
      • Mention 501(c)(3)
  • Vendor Feedback (Jay Graham)
    • Jay sent 30 emails and got 4 back. Eight prizes 
  • Artwork drafts (Javier Rivera and Chris Torrence) – have done nothing yet…
    • Sean suggests a need for a theme. 
    • Brainstormed ideas that nobody especially liked: “Apple II Alive” “Apple II Thrive” “Still alive in 2025” “2025 Alive & Kicking”
  • Next meeting: May 7, 2025

4/9/25

Attendees: Jay, Kirk, Sean, Javier, Chris, Peter, Martin

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Review and approve minutes from prior meeting. (Kirk)
    • No action. Last minutes approved.
    • Peter will add minutes to website menu.
  • Leadership change press release.
    • All reviewed and approved statement. Peter will post Thursday.
  • Venue checklist finalization.
    • Jay will accept comments and incorporate edits.
    • Committee prefers submissions of venues that don’t meet criteria too so we have more knowledge.
    • Jay intends to finish form this week. We’ll try to complete venue research by July and present results at the event.
  • Virtual event planning
    • About 10 speakers so far, plus featured speakers
    • Featured speaker updates
    • Vendor reachout – Status and next steps?
      • Jay sent e-mail to many potential vendors. We have prize donations.
    • Captioning
      • First, ask Ron since he knows more about StreamYard. Then, ask for community help.
    • Hide health policy on our website since it isn’t relevant.
    • Chris and Javier will begin iterating on artwork.
  • Future of storage, garage giveaway, and museum. Defer topic to another meeting. Sean volunteers to maintain our current location for at least a year.
  • Next meeting
    • Move to meetings every other week. Next April 23.
    • Issue a standing invitation to Ron.

4/2/25

Attendees: Jay, Sean, Peter, Vince, Chris, Martin, Javier

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Review and approve minutes from prior meeting. (Kirk)
    • Martin moves to approve minutes from 3/26. All approve.
    • Will post to our website then link.
  • Review nominations for president and voting process. Vote. (Sean)
    • When will new president take effect? Immediately, and Sean will remain in an advisory role until summer event.
      • Need to do paperwork – amendment with Sec of State, signature for bank, may need to amend the 501c3 with new board members
      • Announcement
      • What to do about garage giveaway (eventually) 
    • Two nominees: Peter, Chris – Peter got 5 votes. Chris got 1 vote. Remaining people abstained.
    • Peter accepts and reaffirms commitment to the in-person event and earning back the trust of the community through transparency. Sean will remain long enough to complete the leadership transition and to act as an advisor.
    • Peter proposes electing a new vice president and treasurer.
      • Chris nominated for vice president. Accepted with no objections.
      • Jay nominated for treasurer. Accepted with no objections.
    • Martin moves that all funny hats be at individual expense. No objections.
  • What’s needed to open registration?
    • Done, except perhaps need new artwork.
    • We need somebody with a passion for publicity and media.
    • Do we need a theme? Artwork? Shirt? Pins? We’ll brainstorm ideas and post internally.
    • We’ve started reaching out to vendors. Work is in progress.
  • All need to review venue checklist.
  • Next meeting: 4/9/2025

3/26/25

Attendees: Jay, Peter, Ron, Chris, Martin, Sean

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Ron demonstrates StreamYard.
    • Seems like a good choice, just go for it.
    • Setup a new coordination channel on Discord.
  • StreamYard
    • Bumpers during event with info on KFest, donation QR code
    • Play old KFest videos during breaks “Classic KFest Rewind” – someone to review
  • Planning to open registration on April 1.
    • Charge $20 just like other years
    • “Your registration helps us cover these expenses”
      • Streamyard, business, website, ads, storage rental, rescue of collections
    • Push to get more vendors, could publish coupon codes. Pursue vendors. Ask for prizes. Jay will contact vendors if we find the vendor list: BlueSCSI, FujiNet, Courbis, Call-APPLE, Plamen, MFA2 Workshop (via Chris)
    • Do t-shirts in a couple of weeks, chance to do another post
  • Consider doing posts on some of the YouTube videos from last year
  • Kirk presents minutes from the last meeting for review and approval. Where are minutes getting published?
    • Kirk was not present. Peter will post this question to mailing list.
  • Succession for president
    • Consider revising the by-laws, making more formal
    • Who has voting privileges
    • Term limits
    • Near-term we need a president to carry us forward.
      • Everyone has a week to submit a name if they want.
      • Organize an e-mail vote.
      • First vote is for president. Other positions will follow.
      • Sean will send request for nominations to kfest-admin. Vote next Wednesday.
  • Next meeting? April 2.

3/19/25

Attendees: James, Ron McAdams, Javier, Kirk, Jay, Chris, Sean, Vince, Peter

Agenda and Minutes:

  • Kirk presents minutes from last meeting for review and approval. Confirm location and process for publishing minutes.
    • All approve.
    • Single page of minutes on our website.
    • Direct people to our mailing list or Discord.
  • Call for sessions published. Discuss response to the call.
    • Peter Neubauer will make sure Jay Graham has access to session submissions.
    • Submission deadline is May 1.
    • Time limit extended to 60 minutes.
    • Chris will work with Ron on the session schedule
  • Begin virtual event planning. Identify a lead for the virtual event. Will we change anything compared to prior virtual events?
    • Ron the virtual event lead for 2025.
    • Make sure presenters are clear on their presentation time and their question time.
    • Ron suggests StreamYard (https://streamyard.com/), not Zoom. Ron requests a time to demo StreamYard – next Wednesday.
    • Can make the YouTube link unpublished so we can give to paid attendees.
  • Discuss selection of keynote/featured speaker.
  • We still need to prepare guidance for venue research. Who wants to lead this?
    • Sean and Jay have ideas and will post to kfest-admin list. Jay will take lead on organizing input.
  • Ron’s video with 2024 new attendees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT7OQB9wfvs
  • Sean offers to remain as local custodian of garage giveaway collection.
    • Consider paring down the collection, maybe partnering with other organizations
    • Have a lot of Tony’s laserdiscs with Apple material. Steve M. has laserdisc equipment for possible archiving
  • Delayed to a future meeting
    • Discussion for planning committee and board succession given Sean’s intent to resign by July 31. Who will fill his role?
    • Are other members planning to resign?
    • Are term limits a good idea? Elections?
  • Next meeting: 3/26

3/12/25

Attendees: Kirk, Jay, Chris, Javier, Sean, James, Peter

Meeting brought to order by Sean at 7:00 pm

Agenda:

  • Sean intends to resign from the planning committee and board by July 31 or perhaps earlier.
  • Kate and others are starting an Apple II conference. https://init-hello.org/
  • The committee discussed approaches for soliciting venue recommendations from community members. The committee will provide guidance and required data.
  • Also discussed ways to increase transparency and reconciliation.
  • The Wichita venue has officially been cancelled. There are no complications.
  • Call for sessions as soon as possible.
  • Registration for virtual event opens April 1.

Meeting adjourned at 8:14 pm