CONvergence Convention Committee/Open Meeting Agenda
(Details to be communicated during the Divisional Meetings)
Sunday, February 12th, 2017
Future meeting dates (subject to change)
Sunday 4/2/17 Member Advocate Election
Sunday 5/7/17* DATE CHANGE
Sunday 6/4/17
Saturday 6/17/17* DATE CHANGE
Friday 7/7/17 Open meeting
Saturday 7/29/17 Post Mortem and Volunteer Party
Board Announcements
Communication chain and Director backups.
Director backups
In order to assist in communication and time sensitive issues we are reminding you that every director has a backup that may be contacted if you are unable to contact your director. This is especially useful during CONvergence as time is often a factor. For this cycle the Director backups are as follows:
- Thomas director of Systems is backed up by Liz director of Administration
- Liz director of Administration is backed up by Thomas director of Systems
- Ishmael director of Hospitality is backed up by Nadim director of Facilities
- Nadim director of Facilities is backed up by Ishmael director of Hospitality
- Margaret director of Activities is backed up by Jonathan director of Communications & External Relations
- Amy director of Productions is backed up by Margaret director of Activities
- Jonathan director of Communications & External Relations is backed up by Amy Director of Productions
If you are unable to get a response from either your director or their backup then contact directors at [email protected]
Communication chain
In addition to the director back ups we are reminding you of the email response times and escalation chain. We ask that all Convention Committee members please try to abide by these response times to avoid placing undue burden on your fellow members. We acknowledge that there may be incidents during the cycle where a quick turnaround is needed. Please include the department’s director in the initial email chain and tag the beginning of subject line with TIME SENSITIVE.
If you email a department or individual in a department and do not receive a response within 72 hours, please try again.
If you do not receive a response after 48 hours on the second email, please email their director.
If you do not receive a response from their director within 24 hours, please email the director back up.
If you do not receive a response at this point from anyone within 24 hours, please email the Board of Directors.
Department space allocations.
The Convergence Events Board of Directors will be attending their summit in the following weeks. If you think that your department will need to expand or change spaces in the next few years and you would like to make suggestions, please email your director before then. We will be discussing space for future years. Any issues with spaces for this year should be brought to your director asap.
Budget and where to find it.
Go to Convergenceevents.org
Select the concom tab
Go down to Finance and select Budgets and Reports
We are currently using the 2017 Approved Budget Worksheet.
You can also find the forms for reimbursement and request for payment in that same section.
Department Announcements
Activities
Sandbox
Gaming
Youth Programing Advisory Council
The following people are the new members of the Youth Programming Advisory Council:
Electra Vincent
Alanna Worrall
Allison Tieman
Madeline Fleigle
Board Liaison: Margaret Eastman
If you would like input from the Youth Programming Advisory Council, please contact them at [email protected]. We are still working on getting set up, so please be patient in terms of response times. Thank you!
Administration
Volunteers Department
Volunteers is in the process of updating job descriptions for each department. Some departments have already received requests and most have yet to receive them, but the deadline for sending this info into volunteers@ is April 1st. We will send out the rest of the requests within the coming week. Please make sure you get these to us as we need them for sending you potential volunteers both year round and at con.
We are having a Volunteer Rally on April 23rd at GPS in Northeast Minneapolis. Come on down and enjoy some light refreshments while you learn about the vast multitude of volunteer opportunities that make CONvergence tick. If you are a department head or sub-head, we would really like to have you come and talk up your department.
There is now a form for notifying Volunteers of a need for volunteers! Please fill out this form if you need more bodies (Subhead, Cohead, Specialists, staff, etc). and make sure that there is a job description for this position on the website before you send in the form. If there is not, please put it on the form when you send it in.
Registration
Registration is looking for additional Sub-heads and Specialists. We will be posting the positions through Volunteers soon but in the meantime you can have candidates email [email protected]
Thank you
Communications & External Relations
Publications
Social media
Facilities
Resume
Introducing the Gurus for this year:
Camille McDermott(New!), Kathy Peck, Theresa Hesse and Amy (also Resume Head).
The Resume Deadline remains the April(2017) Con-com and the May Con-Com(2017) continues to be the Final Sign-off date.
Decor
Hotel Relations
Nerf herders
Hospitality
Guests of Honor
We’re pleased to announce that 2007 Guest of Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold will be joining us as a Returning Guest of Honor this year. Lois is one of the most acclaimed writers in her field of speculative fiction. She has won 4 Hugo awards for best novel, matching Robert Heinlein for the record (not counting his Retro Hugo). She has also won 2 Nebula Awards, 3 Locus awards, a Skylark Award and the Mythopoeic Award for adult literature. In 2002, she was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for best novel.
Lois’s space opera series, Vorkosigan Adventures makes her the perfect addition to our GoH roster for 2017. We’re looking forward to having Lois join us again this year.
Twin Cities Geeks is sponsoring a Fan Featured Guest: Saymoukda Vongsay is an immigrant from Thailand, a local playwright and poet. She is the Loft Literary Center 2017 Spoken Word Immersion Fellow. Her series of speculative fiction plays, “Kung Fu Zombies,” deal with the effects of war, struggling with mental illness, refugee identity and politics, all of which are subjects that are relevant to our community. She’s done panels at MarsCon in the past and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to have her as a Fan Featured Guest at CONvergence.
Twin Cities Geeks is hosting a bake sale and silent auction to fund featuring Saymoukda at CONvergence. The date and time for this event will be announced soon. If you have questions about the bake sale and silent auction, or if you want to donate items to the bake sale and silent auction, please contact Hal.
To learn more about Saymoukda, please check out the article Twin Cities Geeks recently published about her at twincitiesgeek.com/cvg
Operations
Radio Requests
Operations is requesting that all departments intending to use radios for CONvergence 2016 submit their requests (number of radios required) to [email protected] by the March ConCom and no later than March 31, 2016
Radio Training
As in previous years, Operations will begin providing radio training sessions to the members of ConCom in March. There are three types of radio training being offered to members of ConCom this year, and 2017 Radio Training will feature a New section on how to properly adjust your boom mic.
- Department specific radio training: Operations can be invited to provide training to the members of a department that is tailored to the specific needs of a department, focusing on the manner in which individuals will use radios while on duty. Department specific questions and procedures specific to particular departments will be able to be addressed in depth. Any department interested in arranging an individual training session should contact [email protected]. We strongly suggest making use of this option.
- In-Depth Radio Training: This form of will take place during the working portion of all remaining ConCom meetings. Discussion will be limited to general use radios at the convention, but radio features, functions, and procedures will be covered in detail.
- Brief Radio Training: 10 minutes or less! This form of training is intended for experienced CONvergence Radionet operators who are seeking only to fulfil the yearly training requirement. This will also be held during the working portion of each of the remaining ConCom meetings, and will begin shortly after and run concurrently with the in-depth sessions.
Everyone who intends to use a radio at the convention must attend a radio training session each year. Please make every effort to do this before the convention.
Information session on Harassment and Safe Spaces
As most of the ConCom is aware, during the 2016 convention season a new Harassment policy for the convention was introduced and the procedures around Safe Spaces were heavily revised. Operations will be holding a brief information session for any interested members of the ConCom at 4pm after the main ConCom meeting in April to discuss the general procedures related to harassment and to provide information and answer any questions surrounding the Safe Space initiative. As we did last year, we are also willing to meet with any department to discuss these topics with specific reference to the individual department and will be actively attempting to schedule meetings with representatives of all of the departments that are hosting an officially designated CONvergence Safe Space.
Looking for Donations
If you have any left over furry fabric that you would like to donate, Operations would love to have it. We will be making a hoard of Tribbles in late March. Any colors and any sizes of fabric are welcome. You can bring fabric to to donate to the March ConCom or drop it off at GPS.