Current admins are @BobbyDigi, @RyanFodder, @ecast and myself. Please PM us here or on the IC discord with issues.

Enjoy!

When: June 24, 2026 3:00 PM EDT through June 28, 2026 11:30 AM EDT

Where: ICHQ, 4304 Avery Street, Detroit, MI

Theme: This year's theme is "Summer Camp"

➡️ Register Here! ⬅️

Welcome to Camp Expo! ☀️🏕️

For four days, Expo becomes the summer camp you've always wanted, filled with tournaments, games, hobby sessions, camp-style activities, late-night chaos, and the usual Expo tradition of making unforgettable memories with friends.
Bring your favorite games, a hunger for s'mores, and your best campfire energy!

About Expo:

Icrontic Expo is a very small, annual convention for the Icrontic community. Icrontic curates experiences in gaming, hobbies, self-care, and mutual support. Icrontic values being an inclusive and welcoming community.

Participate in events, play games (Boardgame, Console, LAN, TTRPG), experience local food, share drinks, or just sit on the porch and catch up with new & old friends.

Attendees can expect 5 days of eclectic, community run gaming, food, and socializing events that loosely follow the year's theme.

Expo is a hosted at "Icrontic Headquarters" (ICHQ), a beautiful, historic Victorian home in the heart of Detroit, owned by one of the founding members, Lincoln and his husband Aaron. They open their home to the Icrontian community every summer, and during special club events year-round.

Events are scheduled between Wednesday afternoon and Saturday evening, with Sunday being a chill day for community hangout around the house.

This event is open to all ages.

✅ All attendees are expected to comply with the Icrontic Code of Conduct at all times.

2026 Ticket Prices

To make sure that Expo stays accessible to all community members year after year, there are multiple admission price points:

• General Admission ($155)
• First-Time Attendee / Hardship Discount Admission ($35)
• Expo Icrontic Sponsor (ANONYMOUS or with RECOGNITION during Closing Ceremonies) ($350)

Included in the price of your ticket:

• Access to ICHQ during the event
• Unique event swag, including a t-shirt and other goodies
• Access to events
• Complementary Refreshments (coffee, tea, water, lemonade, etc.)
• Tickets for the community-contributed raffle.

Note: Attendees earn tickets for the raffle by participating in events at expo, events, playing games during the week, etc. Winning games/tournaments gives you more tickets on top of participation. The raffle drawing is Saturday evening during closing ceremonies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I stay at the house?

• Yes, there's plenty of sleeping space. Select "At ICHQ" when you register for your ticket and you will be assigned a bunk, cot, or ground pad. There is no AC. We provide linens & towels, but ask you FOLD blankets and PUT towels & sheets (ONLY) down the laundry chute before departing the event.

What if I want to add an event to the schedule?

• We'll do our best to accommodate you! Please tag @Expo in the #clubhouse or #expo-2026 channels on Discord, and include a Title, Desired Time Slot, Description, and any notes about participation (age restrictions? offsite? extra cost? prior knowledge/experience required? limited signups? etc.)

Do I need to wait until I have the money to register for a ticket?

• No, but please send a message to Linc in Discord and tell him when to expect it. Remember, you don't officially have a ticket until you send the money, but it's okay to reserve your spot now and send the money later IF you let us know.

Why are there tickets with different prices?

• Tickets are priced in tiers to allow community members to contribute to the event according to their ability. All of the tickets are exactly the same, regardless of how much you pay; it's communism. Any leftover funds go toward running the community's Web presence the rest of the year.

If I'm running a limited-capacity special event, should I also register for it?

• No. Pre-registration is just for participants.

What's included in the DraftyPass?

• Everything on tap - right now, that's looking like beer, hard cider, and NA hop water! If you have any leads for (or would be willing to do the legwork to source) additional NA-friendly kegs, that would be greatly appreciated. Please reach out to @RyanMM to coordinate.

How does the "communal fridge" work?

• There are 2 mini-fridges in the Pub for drinks: 1 is share-alike (contribute in-kind for what you take), and 1 is reserved (you may store up to 3 bottles with your name on them). The "Gatorade fridge" in the carriage house is for event prep. DO NOT USE THE KITCHEN FRIDGE WITHOUT PERMISSION.

Are there animals / can I bring my dog?

• We do NOT allow guest pets at Expo. There are two dogs in the house, Kiki (40 lbs) and Rocky (20 lbs). Both are friendly & good with kids. DO NOT allow the dogs to eat or "clean up" any human food. They ARE allowed on the furniture. Please do not move Rocky and check under blankets before sitting.

Is there quiet space?

• The attic (third floor) is designated nap / quiet space. Please, no conversations or other activities.

Where can I park?

• It's a small residential neighborhood with curbside parking. Do not block the few driveways in the neighborhood. Do not park within 15 feet of a Stop/Yield sign or fire hydrants. Do not park within 10 feet of a crosswalk or corner. THERE IS NO LEGAL PARKING ROOM DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE.

Is there a size chart for the t-shirts?

• Yes - see the attached PDFs to this post.

Ivan

On 1-3-2024, I purchased Minitool Partition Wizard which is affiliated with Digital River GBH to perform data migration. I had used their freeware version previously with good results and decided to go ahead and buy the annual subscription to this software using PayPal for $52.06. I later learned that this software version was autorenewing and since I only needed it once, I cancelled the subscription. I received confirmation of this cancellation on 1-3-2025. However, Digital River/Minitool PW charged my PayPal account for renewal on 1-2-2025 without my authorization. I requested the company refund the amount charged to my PayPal and was denied. Since then, I have received various communications from Digital River/Minitool PW from different employees all seeking to justfiy not refunding the unwanted 1-2-2025 purchase amount. My last communication with them was this morning and I expressed my opinion that refusing me a refund is tantamount to theft.

If anyone has any suggestions on resolving this matter, I am all ears. However, I have researched Digital River GBH with results suggesting they are a company in financial stress. There may be no satisfactory resolution for me, as in refund, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up. As the title to this thread says: Be wary of Digital River and Minitool Partition Wizard software.

Our primary goal is still to embody the inclusive values of the Icrontic community, and to empower everyone to establish and communicate healthy boundaries. What we missed in the last version is making any distinction between safety and comfort. We also realized that the language we used in the Code in previous versions came across as pretty dry and "corporate" sounding.

As a result, we revised the Code to include more of an authentic Icrontic voice, and to reinforce the idea that although we want everyone to be comfortable, the true purpose of the Code of Conduct is to help people feel safe in all Club settings.

Introducing version 3.0 of the Icrontic Code of Conduct.

Highlights include such gems as "goofy and sexy nerds" and "Do Do This Shit" - it really is worth reading!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z9qYna1hbyxABfxsMTFxD2BH2V50khKHQYR8bBbmYZI/edit?usp=sharing

This is a corner of our second large base, where we've tried organizing things. This corner makes iron and steel into some medium level finished goods like heavy steel frames.

Eventually, we ran out of iron, so we made a remote base that mines, and smelts down the iron into something more usuable, and then sends it back on 6 fully loaded conveyor belts. Its a lot of iron, and we probably should have build a monorail to handle this. The scale of this iron production is by far the biggest we've done before.

Here is the back side showing 1 of the 6 mines that powers the remote iron base. Each mine needs 8 smelters to process all the iron at 30 iron ingots per minute. We organized each into a floor... its huge.

Here you see us converting the ugly alien world into something more aesthetically pleasing and organized.

In general, for early release game, its pretty well thought out. There are some bugs (like the hyper tubes for transport being sort of buggy) but overall, I've been enjoying throwing time at this monster of a game.

Documents

• Icrontic's Bylaws, signed & enacted 20 March 2024.
• Icrontic's Code of Conduct
• Icrontic Club Membership

Minutes

• 25 Aug
• 28 July
• 8 July
• 19 June
• 8 June
• 5 May

Historical

• Full Board formation announcement
• Initial Board formation announcement
• Transition team & Club formation kickoff announcement

By some technical mixture of computer graphics and artificial intelligence these movie magic makers convincingly bring Ian Holm back from the dead, plaster his 1979 mug on a new science officer and it is the first time I've seen this done where it is not "Uncanny Valley" - assuming someone goes in to see this and they have never seen the original 1979 Alien they might be clueless that the performance is not actually given by an actor. It's that convincing looking, and.... I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it?

When we saw them bring Peter Cushing back from the dead to have moments with Tarkin in Rogue One, I think it was pretty clear to everyone in the audience that something about that was technical, not quite human - Alien Romulus has finally gotten the technology to a point where it's one of the most impressive things you have ever seen in cinema. It's mind blowing, but also kind of alarming how fast that tech has advanced.

There are so many ethical questions, I barely know where to begin. Not that anyone will ever want to bring me back from the dead, but let's assume it's an option, I do a thing that is popular, humanity wants to preserve that, how do I claim agency over the things that happen to my likeness after my passing? Will this rob actors of potential opportunities? In the case of this film, obviously some folks in the effects and sound labs got paid, but could you just have easily cast an actor to play a different android that mirrored the directive? Now that this can be done so convincingly, will Disney go back and start "fixing" things that we all love as they are?

Did anyone else see it and have the same moment that I did, go, wait, that's like Ian Holm and it totally doesn't look like CG right now?? How?? Holy Shit that is cool, but.... wait a minute, maybe it's a little too good?

We have improved our Icrontic Social Club Code of Conduct with a new version to make sure that our community is welcoming and safe for everyone. We want to empower people to feel comfortable establishing their own boundaries and communicating them. We want those boundaries, with specific and explicit consent, to be the foundation of our relationships and interactions. We want our community members to feel safe establishing a boundary, withdrawing consent, and reporting violations without fear of retaliation.

After reflection, we felt the first version of the Code fell short of these goals in a few ways. We believe our new version (version 2) of the Icrontic Social Club Code of Conduct reflects these community values and empowers each of you to feel comfortable and safe in this community.

We value and we support each of you.

Sarah, Linc, Brian, Rob & Emily

Icrontic Social Club Code of Conduct version 2.1

Link to Document

All Icrontic Social Club members, event attendees, event-runners, sponsors and volunteers are required to agree with the following code of conduct. Icrontic's Board of Trustees and their designees will enforce this code. Full cooperation from all persons is mandatory to help ensure a safe environment for everybody. We expect everyone to follow this code in all contexts.

Summary

Our Club is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, level of ability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), theological perspective, technology choices, or relationship status. People violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from events, Club digital platforms, the Club itself, and any Club venues without a refund at the discretion of the Board.

Consent and Conduct

Our Club seeks to empower people to feel comfortable establishing boundaries. Consent should be built into your behavior and actions at Club events. If you intend to engage with someone in a manner that could be perceived as intimate or personal, never presume consent. Always seek explicit permission beforehand. We also emphasize the importance of respecting individuals’ autonomy and avoiding any form of peer pressure when seeking consent.

Our Club does not tolerate discrimination, harassment, bullying, intimidation,non-consensual behavior in any form, or any behavior that undermines the well-being and dignity of others.

Unacceptable behavior includes:

• Harassment which includes (but is not limited to) unwelcome and offensive conduct based on (but not limited to) gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, level of ability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), theological perspective, technology choices, relationship status.
• Social or peer pressure, deliberate intimidation, bullying and/or stalking, and any other behavior which is likely to cause alarm or distress to a reasonable person.
• Photography or recording that can reasonably be interpreted as harassment.
• Targeting and/or intentional misgendering or deadnaming individuals, including in a passive-voice or sarcastic tone and/or structure. Accidental misgendering is not a violation of policy and is encouraged to be addressed in a respectful, gentle manner by all parties involved.
• Sustained disruption of talks, event flow, or individual events (including through intoxication by any substance).
• Inappropriate or unwanted physical conduct. This includes touching, hugging and kissing. Please respect people’s “personal bubble” without explicit consent. Consent can always be withdrawn.
• Unwelcome sexual or other personal attention. Be aware of and respect the personal boundaries of other attendees, which may differ from your own.
• Theft or extortion, including by deception.
• Mocking or sarcastic patterning/behavior towards rules and regulations in a group, team or event setting.
• Retaliation against any individual who reports an incident or concern, including but not limited to issues of consent.
• Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior, or any behavior that is against the law.

Incidents

If you are being subject to unacceptable behavior, notice that someone else is being subject to unacceptable behavior, please first consider informing the person or persons responsible that you would like them to stop. Often the offending behavior is unintentional and those involved will resolve the incident amicably.

If you believe that bringing up the incident with the person or persons involved may have negative consequences for you or others, or could lead to further breaches, or if you are uncomfortable with the confrontation, please report it.

If you reach an amicable outcome without reporting, we encourage you to still report for awareness. You can specify your report is for informational purposes only and requires no action.

If you are unsure whether to begin the reporting process, we strongly recommend you privately document your experience to preserve details while your memory is strongest.

Concerns

If you encounter behavior that makes you uncomfortable, we encourage you to let us know -- not to get anyone in trouble, but so we can learn how to be better to each other and support everyone's growth.

Reporting

We value and appreciate all efforts to provide a safe and friendly community for all. Violations of this code reduce the value of the community for everyone. If unacceptable behavior persists - even after the person involved has been asked to stop - or if you feel uncomfortable with confrontation, the behavior should be reported to any Board member or a Board designee.

When reporting an incident or concern, you will be consulted on what level of anonymity you need to feel safe and what outcomes you hope to see. We default to believing victim statements.

The Board member’s contact information (and/or that of their designee) will be posted in an official Club digital platform (such as Discord), and for each event. No one else is authorized to act on their behalf without explicit permission on a case-by-case basis.

Enforcement

Persons asked to stop any unacceptable behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a person engages in unacceptable behavior, the Board will take any action they deem appropriate. Possible actions may include:
Warning the person officially to discontinue the unacceptable behavior
Suspension of some or all of membership benefits (either temporarily or permanently)
Expulsion from the Club

The Board members or their designees will be happy to help participants contact local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe.

We value you, and we support you.

1. We finished defining Committees: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DQpcm-F-_drjSVZMoJ1gGsfEWdd4nAxyHa99rth915Y/edit
2. We assigned folks to Committees (but you can still volunteer! https://forms.gle/k4Rp8i1otKZbyvju8 )
3. We made minor revisions to the Code of Conduct based on community feedback: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z9qYna1hbyxABfxsMTFxD2BH2V50khKHQYR8bBbmYZI/edit
4. At no time did Rob leave his son out in the rain.

We chose a controversial selection strategy: If you volunteered for a committee — tag, you're it. 😂

Committee assignments start 1 August, and your first act should be to choose a Chair, read & understand your committee definition (and ask for clarifications if needed), figure out how you'll work, and recruit anyone else you think is required for success. Each Committee will have its own private Discord channel to facilitate communication. It would be great to read the other committee definitions as well so you understand the overlap!

The Board is here to help if you have questions or challenges!

Here are the current committees:

• Membership: @primesuspect, @CB, @FridayUnited, @DontCallMeKelso, @Massalinie, @GnomeQueen
• Moderation: @BobbyDigi, @CB, @cola, @DontCallMeKelso, @Linc, sparkles, @Sazbean
• Expo: @Linc, @CB, @BobbyDigi, @GnomeQueen, sparkles, @FridayUnited, @SailorDoom, @GHoosdum
• Events: @Annes, @Linc
• Platform: @Linc, @Strikes
• Archives: @GnomeQueen, @Linc, @primesuspect

Thanks to all our past and upcoming volunteers!

We would especially like to request WOMEN to volunteer for the MODERATION committee!

Volunteer here: https://forms.gle/k4Rp8i1otKZbyvju8

I haven’t been on the site for a long time, but here I am, back with an IT question. I am maintaining a scientific instrument (NMR spectrometer), at a university. This instrument transfers all data it collects to a shared drive provided by the university. Everyone who is logged into the university network can access the drive, read and write.

I would love to have a calendar that I can put on that drive so that everyone can access it, read and write. People would use it to book instrument time, for example block out 28 June from 8am to 11am, so they can run their experiments undisturbed.

We have previously used Google Drive. The spectrometer had its own Google account, everyone had the user name and password, and could access the calendar of that account. That doesn’t work anymore, because Google doesn’t like 30 people with different devices sharing one account. Authenticating the users has become a nightmare.

What can I use as replacement?

Many thanks, Frank

ASSEMBLE YOUR TEAM

You want to find n vehicle exporter in Japan to handle the purchase overseas. Japan has a complicated title/ownership system and all vehicles must go through a de-registration process before they can leave the country. Your exporter will handle all that along with booking the ocean freight to ship your car, various Japanese inspections, and making sure the car gets to port. There are several companies that do this and their fees vary as either a flat rate per car you buy, or a percentage of the purchase price, or some combination of the two. I used JapanCarDirect.com and have been very pleased with their service.

In my case, I paid a $500 deposit to JCD which gave me access to their web platform so I could look at cars at all the Japanese auctions, view historical sales data on the cars, etc. The deposit can be used toward the purchase price of my car should I decide to bid, or it can be kept on retainer if I want to keep using them as a vendor. It is fully refundable and therefore not included in any of the cost estimates in this document.

Once you send over a deposit, you're good to start playing the game of finding a good car to import.

You also want to find a freight forwarder to handle the import of the car one it hits the US port. This will add cost but also makes life super easy because they'll handle filing all the paperwork with the port, US Customs, the EPA, the DOT, etc. Be aware that finding a company willing to import a car for your personal use can be a challenge. Many companies only focus on commercial accounts and don't want to get burned by people trying to import illegal cars. Shop around because fees vary wildly.

THE COST

As soon as you get into the auction system, it's tempting to see the sales price of cars and think OMG SO CHEAP. The price you pay is only part of the larger picture. Here's pricing for my small kei van. Bigger cars mean higher prices for inland transportation, ocean freight, and delivery to your door. Your Japanese counterparts can help estimate freight costs based on the vehicle prior to bidding so be sure to ask what the Landed Cost estimate is for your vehicle type.

Cost Group 1 - $3,700 Paid once you win a car within a couple days via wire transfer.

• Purchase Price of the Vehicle - My van was $1,680.
• Fee to the Exporter - Figure $1k for most cars for their services. This is how they make their $$.
• Inland Transportation to the Port and Inspections - $300
• Ocean Freight & Marine Insurance - $1,000
• Wire Transfer fee from your bank - $40

Cost Group 2 - $1,700 Paid when your car delivers to port 4-6 weeks after your make your initial purchase. OMG So Many Fees!!! These are the prices I paid through a company down in TX.

• ISF Filing - $52
• Unloading- $172 goes to the port operator who got your car off the ship
• Duty - $334 (Figure 25% of the vehicle price for trucks and cargo vans, 3% for cars)
• US Customs Clearance- $145
• Single entry bond - $95
• Express Courier - $30
• Documentation - $85
• DOT - $53
• EPA - $65
• Transit - $650 to deliver the car to my driveway. This varies wildly based on your distance from the port and the size of your vehicle. In COVID times, budget $1,000 or more to deliver to a location 8 hrs away from the port.
• Wire transfer fee to the freight forwarder - $40

So my $1,600 van cost $5,500 by the time I got it plated and insured in my home state. Budget accordingly. I'll break down and explain some of these fees later

Membership in Icrontic is not required to participate in the community, attend events, or game with Icrontic folks, but membership carries with it the benefit of having a voice in the shape and future of the community. Some of the benefits of membership include:

• Eligibility for board seats and committee positions!
• Swag! (Including a very nifty official membership card!)
• Receiving official club announcements and communications!
• Potential discounts on events and activities!
• Respect and admiration of your peers!
• A special role in our Discord server!
• Probably a lot more!

Membership is granted on an annual basis, and is $5 per year. If you participate in ANY Icrontic event that has a ticket cost or fees associated, that purchase also includes membership if you'd like (e.g. all paid Expo attendees are eligible to become members). Membership can also be sponsored by another member if you are unable to pay!

In order to be eligible for membership, you must be 13 years old and you must agree to the Icrontic Bylaws and to abide by the Icrontic Code of Conduct

To sign up as a member,:

• STEP 1: Fill out this form: https://forms.gle/g4wgq4bejo21TWP8A
• STEP 2: Until we have a better mechanism in place, send $5 to @Linc via Paypal, CashApp, or Venmo per the instructions on the form. If you have bought a 2024 Expo ticket, just fill out the form and we'll handle it manually since your ticket includes eligibility.

Membership is opt-in so if you DON'T want to be a member, that's fine!

It is important to note that no one channel takes precedence over the other: We have only opened multiple channels of communication so as to meet community members' personal preference or communication needs and as a way to be as accessible as possible we have chosen these three methods of communication.

On 8 June 2024 we had the second Board of Trustees meeting for the Icrontic Social Club. This was our first time meeting as a "complete" board! I was joined by @primesuspect, @sazbean, @ghoosdum, and @massalinie. We're excited to make a few announcements from our very productive 3.5-hour session.

First, we officially added @ghoosdum & @massalinie to the Board and selected board officers. For the term ending 1 Aug 2025, our President will be @sazbean, our Treasurer will be @ghoosdum, and I'll be our Secretary.

Second, we established an official system for club membership, Code of Conduct, and official communication channels. Those were announced separately.

Third, we approved the mission & scope for our first two committees. They will be the Membership Committee and the Moderation Committee. We'll explain them in greater detail and solicit volunteers in a separate announcement.

There's still lots to do! Our next Board meeting will be the first day of Expo, 19 June.

The initial board (Sarah, Brian, and myself) sat down to consider them all on Sunday, 5 May and talked about how we hope to see things organized. After a thorough discussion of all the candidates, we realized we could move forward much quicker than planned.

We want the Board to strictly be an oversight body. They set the guardrails on governance, interpret the Charter, and provide a backstop for accountability. And… that’s about it. We don’t want the Board to get directly involved in things like organizing events, moderating Discord, or managing where we keep files & photos.

These areas and many others are (or will soon be) places for leadership in our community. We hope EVERY single person nominated volunteers for prominent roles in the committees that will soon be forming, because we need their support.

As an oversight body, everyone has to live with the results if the Board decides something. Who would everyone trust to make sober, considered but also emotionally intelligent choices when it really mattered? Empathy & curiosity were at the top of our list for priorities.

After thoroughly reviewing all the candidates, we had enthusiastically unanimous agreement on exactly two. We also decided it was best to start conservatively with a 5-person Board, leaving open the possibility of a bigger Board in the future if it’s warranted. Therefore, we chose to SKIP the planned interview process and move forward immediately with those two appointments.

We’re excited and pleased to announce that Emily McRae (@Massalinie) and Rob Updegrove (@GHoosdum) will be rounding out the first full term for the Icrontic Board of Trustees.

Please join us in congratulating our new trustees!

ahem. What I meant to say—

We've been working on a transition plan for moving the community from a private-ownership structure to a board-led structure. It's not about making big changes to the community, it's about creating a more predictable power structure & accountability that doesn't rest on one person's shoulders. We were all set to nominate our Board when I realized we had a chicken-and-egg problem. If we're trying to move to a less owner-centric model, isn't a bit weird to hand-pick the entire board without more input? On the other hand, we haven't even defined "membership" yet, and auditable elections would be an administrative nightmare on top of that.

Our solution? Form a minimum "first" Board to select the rest of the Board.

I am pleased to announce that as of last night (20 Mar 2024) around 8PM ET that Icrontic is no longer a privately-owned endeavor and, in fact, has a Board of Trustees. The inaugural members are myself (Lincoln Russell), @primesuspect (Brian Ambrozy), and @Sazbean (Sarah Worsham). We'll be choosing at least 2 additional Board members to be officially seated at the start of the annual term (per the bylaws), 1 August.

We met at La Palma in Detroit and signed the official paperwork. A bonus unimpressed @Pink is also included.

To do this bit of legal gymnastics, we added an Article 8 to the charter, establishing how we made the transition.

As there's still no legal club entity this is all symbolic, but I think it's an important one. Icrontic no longer has co-owners, it has a Board of Trustees. May it provide another 25 years of fun and shenanigans. Cheers!

Please make your nominations by the end of April!

Not sure what this means? Read the background: The path to the Icrontic Board of Trustees — especially read the charter attached to my last comment there!

We will be selecting no fewer than two additional Board members. Our process for selecting additional trustees will be for the current Board (myself, Brian, and Sarah) to select a pool of finalists from the applications received and conduct one interview per candidate at a time that's convenient for all 4 of us. We'll then make our final selections.

Joining the Board is an act of volunteerism for the community. It does not involve directly moderating members nor technically running our systems. It is the oversight body for all Icrontic business that appoints the leadership for those areas. Experience working as part of a committee is valuable but not required.

Feel free to post your questions here or in the Discord #meta channel.

There's also a lot of room for improvement about how we communicate with the rest of the leadership team and how we make important decisions. After a few months of research and reflection, I decided the best way to accomplish all those goals was to form a Board of Trustees for the community. We can start that process now and hopefully put it in place sometime near Expo.

I've made an FAQ about what this means for folks who want all the details. The key takeaways are that we're going to do even more work this year to be intentional about how we manage this community and give more folks an opportunity to participate in making it the best it can be and ensuring it lasts.

If you're not interested in how the sausage gets made at Icrontic, you can safely ignore all this. This isn't about an edict to change the community, just in how it's managed (currently in private). If we do everything here successfully, you won't notice anything but small, positive changes over time.

What's the big idea?

Forming a Board of Trustees for Icrontic.

A board of trustees is a "governing body" for an organization. Basically, they're a small group that meets periodically to discuss high-level policy and vote on it. This is different from running the forum, Discord, or events directly.

Why form a Board?

The 20-year longevity of our community has hinged in no small part on my partnership with Brian. Brian has lately stepped back from day-to-day management and I'm uncomfortable with the position that leaves me in. There's a very big difference between a partnership and one person having a "benevolent dictator for life" role. I think it's a step backward, and it places more pressure on me.

Privately inviting others to be “co-owners” feels empty, too. All you "own" is a wild amount of responsibility and the ability to accidentally break things with alarming speed. You have to love it to do it, and it's OK to not want to commit to doing it forever. Reframing it as a “community trustee” makes it an honor and a limited-time commitment, not something you feel obligated to do.

Ultimately, a Board is a more sustainable model for community governance if we want Icrontic to be around in another 20 years.

Are you trying to quit community leadership?

No. Perversely, doing this is a lot more work for me than the status quo.

I think the system as it currently stands has a visibility & communication problem. I do a lot of work for Icrontic silently behind the scenes that gets reported to few or no one, because I've always just done it and there’s rarely reason to talk about it. I'm currently head moderator, head event planner, event host, treasurer, secretary, head of procurement, and head engineer — that’s just off the top of my head.

I think about the community in terms of 5 or 10 years into the future and there’s not a clear audience for me to discuss it with. Creating more structure will put us on a path to more clearly communicating goals and formalizing roles so that it's possible for other folks to fill them if they desire. I think it's highly likely I continue in many of those roles in the immediate future, but I'd like an orderly way to hand off some of them over time so the community isn't forever reliant on my bandwidth and I don't feel obligated to volunteer for things for which my enthusiasm has waned.

Wasn’t this a team effort all along?

We couldn’t have managed this long without the outstanding help of our moderator team and our event planning team. I think the challenge is that what we’ve most successfully delegated thus far is tasks more so than leadership. I anticipate more top-level structure will have positive knock-on effects to our entire process.

What would a board do for Icrontic?

When the Board first meets, it will do so with a charter (created by the transition team). Just like the US Constitution defines some basics of how Congress works, that’s what a charter does for a Board. It’s just broad strokes for “how does this even work.”

The charter will lay out a values statement and purpose, but that’s about it. My hope is the first Board will mostly help codify what we already have: A large committee for moderators, a large committee for Expo planning, and a small committee for managing our web server. They would do this by appointing co-chairs, giving them missions, and formally asking folks to volunteer for them each year, so we’re sure everyone is invested in the mission. I don’t actually have the energy to do this right now, so this is already a huge improvement if we get that far.

I plan to re-volunteer for most things I currently do. We’re still using ICHQ for events. This is just making space for other folks to volunteer in new ways too. For me, it’s making my opt-in explicit instead of assumed. For everyone else, it’s a structured way to decline something or offer alternatives.

Eventually, the board would presumably control community assets (domains, data, software, and logo). Note the board is NOT directly responsible for moderating the community or running Expo themselves. It’s for high-level direction and continuity, not day-to-day management.

How would we initiate this?

My proposal is forming a 7-person (probably) board from a pool of nominations made by the community. Brian and I will (probably) select the initial board with the help of a transition team, and we'll likely be members of it. They’ll meet a few times a year to check in on how everything’s going and make changes as needed.

How will the transition team work?

Use the Google Form for self-nominations below. We’ll select a few folks to help us, with the goal of wrapping up by Expo. I anticipate a few meetings over 4 months (March-June), probably mostly over Discord text chat. I’ll probably do most of the document drafting unless others are inclined. I’d like to make this a “low lift” for volunteers, not a major time commitment. The role of the transition team is consultative, not final arbiter, but our goal will be consensus. I hope to have the team in place by the end of February.

What work will the transition team do?

Drafting a value & purpose statement for Icrontic is the primary goal. That will be embedded into the charter for the board, which will need to be considered for further changes, additions, deletions. Soliciting nominations for the Board would also be helpful. The transition team will, I hope, brainstorm on what qualities we're looking for in our Board composition and what individuals would be a great fit. Most of this work will be asynchronous, but we'll meet synchronously a few times as well, as folks schedules allow.

A successful transition team will produce a polished charter (with value statement) and 10+ nominations for the Board.

How do I volunteer for the Board?

The transition team will determine how to conduct nominations to the Board and frame how we solicit them. I hope to begin that process no later than May. It should include enough details for you to gauge your interest in the required amount and type of work that will be involved.

What if no one wants to do this?

If we receive less than 10 volunteers to serve on the Board, or have other clear indications this plan isn’t going well between now and Expo, we may choose to abort the plan. We can’t force folks to be interested and engaged in self-governance, and it’s not the end of the world to keep the status quo. (Nothing about this answer should be interpreted as us being less than wholly dedicated and motivated to seeing this through, we’re just accounting for all possibilities.)

So a Board owns Icrontic now?

No. Well, maybe? It’s complicated. First, a transition team will help Brian and I draft a values statement and initial charter for the board. We’ll consider a roadmap for future governance. Key questions include whether to always have a standing board, how to select boards, what powers are initially transferred to the board, and what internal rules govern those powers. Once the board is in place, they will have the powers enumerated in the charter and may grant themselves additional powers over time with the cooperation of Brian and I. If the Board pursues legal recognition as a Social Club, we could transfer legal ownership of assets to it in the future.

Next steps...

What other questions do y’all have?

Self-nomination form for transition team: https://forms.gle/E3WeMRqhsLHt9K4Y7

I’ll close nominations on 16 February with a goal of forming a team by 1 March.

Of the thousands of communities built before and since that time, most are long gone. Thanks to all the old-timers for sticking around for so bloody long; your reward is being old. And thanks to all the newer folks for finding common cause with us and keeping things fresh.

A "community" isn't a thing that forms once and exists forever. Change is inevitable and constant. Folks who arrived last week are just as important as folks who have been around all 20 years, because you have one critical thing in common: you kept coming back.

Cheers, all.