Hi guys,
As requested, here are the minutes of the team meeting that took place last Thursday - all of this is from memory and from my own notes that I took down, so I hope I’ve remembered everything correctly! 
Team roles and responsibilities, goals and growth of TCL, etc.:
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[li]Kyle raised concerns about reduced productivity on the site of late, with several sections outside of the main Cartoon Section devoid of new content. Several of the other team members explained that their spare time has been gobbled up by other activities, both professional and, on the part of both Martin and MannyC, relating to further education. Kyle stated that it would be helpful if team members could keep other members of the team apprised as to how their schedules are developing from the perspective of being able to devote time to working on the site, to which end MannyF offered to set up a monthly Site Update Status thread where members can state what their goals are for working on the site each month.[/ul]Toy Section:[/li][ul]
[li]Chris drew the team’s attention to the fact that Matt has worked very hard assembling content for the Toy Section’s subsection devoted to the mini-figures - there would appear to be very little comprehensive info about the mini’s available anywhere else on the Internet, and so Chris stated that he felt Matt’s expertise in this area could make an excellent new addition to TCL. Although Neil advised the team that he is extremely busy at the present time, not least of all because he now works in the evenings, Neil offered to assist Matt in getting the mini-figures info online, using Dreamweaver to create the pages. Neil stated that he would need the text and photos to be ready prepared (including photo sizes), and that because of his lack of spare time it may take a while, but that he would be willing to help Matt if needed. More info about this can be found in this thread.[/li][li]A while ago, MannyC struck up a dialogue with Jordan from Hollywood Heroes regarding a great deal of exciting ThunderCats-related content that Hollywood Heroes would be selling. MannyC advised the team that he hasn’t had any recent contact from Jordan, but would be sending him another e-mail shortly.[/ul]Cartoon Section - Episode Guide:[/li][ul]
[li]Chris stated that he hopes to have some more episodes written up for the Episode Guide very soon.[/li][li]Chris asked MannyF if he would still be willing to assist him in doing the HTML for future Episode Guide pages, filling the role that Angie had been filling, and MannyF said that he would.[/li][li]MannyF stated that he has been waiting to grab some more screenshots from the remaining episodes of season 1 that are still in need of images, but that he had been waiting for Chris to give him the green light for this. This reminded Chris that he had not updated the Episode Guide Status thread recently, which he has now done. Apologies to MannyF for the oversight! :oops:[/ul]Cartoon Section - Encyclopedia:[/li][ul]
[li]A while ago MannyF asked Kyle if he would like some assistance writing Appearances text for the Encyclopedia pages still in need of this. Martin is in charge of this area, but has stated that he is finding it difficult to complete all the pages in the spare time that his university work allows him. As Kyle had had to exit the meeting when this was raised, Chris asked MannyF on Kyle’s behalf whether, if both Martin & Kyle were happy with this, MannyF would still be willing to do this. MannyF stated that he would be happy to do this, but would prefer not to take it on until he had completed some of the other work he needed to complete on the site, in order not to over-commit himself to the point of being unable to complete any of these jobs.[/ul]Animation Art Section:[/li][ul]
[li]Chris wondered what Mark’s plans were regarding an update to the Animation Art Section?[/ul]Cartoon Section - Misc:[/li][ul]
[li]Several visitors to the site, as well as Chris himself, have experienced difficulty getting the recently re-uploaded ThunderCats Commercial Bumpers to play properly, as detailed in this thread. MannyF advised the team that he has not yet had chance to search his old hard drive for the original versions of the files, but stated that he has been working on converting some of the files to Flash in the hope of creating what he described as a page of ThunderCats videos evocative of YouTube, that would play in a similar fashion, and converting the files into this format may also serve to rectify the problem.[/ul]Merchandise Section:[/li][ul]
[li]Chris expressed concern that, 2 years into TCL’s online life, as yet the site’s Merchandise Section remains completely empty. Whilst a great deal of content is available for this section, including a large number of photos donated to the site, at the present time none of it is online.[/li][li]The role of managing this section was discussed. Since last year, the Merchandise Section’s co-managers have been Matt & Neil - Neil advised the team that, due to his responsibilities elsewhere, he will not be able to continue working on the Merchandise Section. MannyF offered to take over Neil’s duties on the section and work with Matt towards getting some material online in the not-too-distant future. Although Matt unfortunately was not able to attend the meeting due to a problem with his computer, for his part Neil stated that he would be happy with this.[/ul]ThunderCast:[/li][ul]
[li]The issue of the podcast was discussed - whilst all of the team remain excited and committed to the project, MannyF correctly observed that getting all of the team together to record at certain times could be quite challenging, and suggested approaching the podcast in a different way, scheduling recordings for a certain time and date and then seeing who would and wouldn’t be able to attend.[/li][li]The recording of the next episode was scheduled for Saturday 19th January, but unfortunately this had to be postponed when Neil (who was to be hosting) and Chris were both unable to attend at the last minute.[/ul]Finance & fund-raising:[/li]
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[li]MannyC expressed a desire to begin to assemble funds to cope with a potential increase in TCL’s bandwidth useage come 2009 when the ThunderCats CGI movie is scheduled for release. MannyC has come up with several excellent suggestions for raising funds, including special TCL t-shirts - Chris asked whether it would be legally acceptable from Warner Bros’ perspective for us to create ThunderCats-themed t-shirts, and MannyC stated that he would enquire with Val Staples at www.he-man.org how they were able to create official He-Man.Org t-shirts.[/li][li]MannyF stated that he had given up on trying to create a Flash animation for the front page advertising TCL’s affiliate link with Amazon.Com, and will instead add the link in MannyC’s signature.[/li][li]The issue of adding a button to the front of the site allowing visitors to donate to the site via PayPal was discussed, and all the team agreed that this would be a good idea.[/li][li]MannyF also advised that he would like to set up an affiliate link with another company (Chris apologies for not being able to remember the company’s name! ;)) who sell animation-themed clothing, including several ThunderCats items. All of the team agreed this would be an excellent idea.[/li][li]MannyC advised the team of a new toy grading company, CSG, and stated that he would approach them regarding selling advertising space for their company on the front page of TCL. All of the team agreed this would be a good move, and things have subsequently moved forward at a nice pace with this - details in this thread.[/ul]Expansion of the team:[/li][ul]
[li]In light of how understandably pushed some members of the team are for time of late, and following Angie’s resignation, Chris asked whether the other members of the team felt TCL would benefit from the addition of another team member. The others agreed that this might be of benefit, and to this end MannyF offered to set up a thread discussing this in the team forum.[/ul]---------[/li]
Phew! I hope I’ve remembered everything correctly! 
If anybody has any further info, remembers something I’ve forgotten, or has any corrections to make to info I’ve gotten wrong, please feel free to LMK. Many thanks everybody for an excellent team meeting, I felt we all made a lot of headway and I’m hopeful that 2008 may be TCL’s best year yet!!
Take care…
