CONvergence Convention Committee Meeting Notes

Saturday, March 14th, 2015

From the Hotel Department:

This is a reminder to all departments. When at the convention, if you encounter any issues with the DoubleTree, Crowne or Sheraton, like incorrect set ups or broken furniture, please report this to the CONvergence Hotel Department. Please do not go directly to the hotel.

Convergence Recruitment Session

We will begin to host a Convergence Recruitment Sessions beginning on April 19th. These will be held at the same time as the ConCom meeting, from 2pm-3pm. These meetings will be focused on providing department and volunteering information to those individuals who are interested in volunteering for the Convention. At least one director will be present and contact information will be gathered from those who are interested in further information or volunteering. Departments are welcome to send representatives to the recruitment session to help provide further information.

Please note, these meetings will not count towards voting right and are open to the public.

2016 Theme

2016
“…and how do we get there?” Travel Mechanisms (The science of travel)

Hotel Lottery Notifications (Sheraton/DoubleTree)

We will send ALL who entered the lottery an email one way or the other

We will send an email to those who did not win a room an email advising them of this. We will either include a listing of the hotels offering a CONvergence rate, or direct them to the website where that information can be found.

All notifications are scheduled to go out by the 15th. They should be received by the 16th (owing to the vagaries of various servers, etc.).

Department Announcements

Activities Division

Sandbox:

Sandbox Needs Ponies

Connie’s Quantum Sandbox is looking for donations of My Little Ponies. Any age, any condition is acceptable, as they will be used for a project. Please contact [email protected] with questions or to make arrangements.

Administration Division

Logistics:

After the convention this year all inventory will be moved to our secure storage unit or put into the pod.

  1. My team has gone through both Waterbury and the storage units and have taken inventory of what is at both locations. If you would like a copy of what you have at either location, please let me know. We have not gone through totes so item may be noted as “2 totes, black” or “1 box unmarked”. If there was a notation on the outside of the box that is what we noted.
  2. If you plan on adding any large items to your inventory, please let us know by the May ConCom meeting. We will do our best to try to accommodate everyone’s needs but space is tight. If it appears we need to increase our space at the Storage unit we will do so.
  3. Please go through your department’s inventory that is currently stored at Waterbury. If you have inventory that you are no longer using please take the time and dispose, sell, or find a new home for it.
  4. We can now accept deliveries over at the storage unit. The address: 221 American Blvd West, Bloomington, MN 55420, Unit 1015 – When at all possible, please let Logistics team know you will be having a delivery made so that we can make sure it gets put with the rest of your inventory.
  5. As several departments have expressed interested in purchasing a rolling rack to store their items, please make sure you mark your cart with your department tape color. As more departments get them this will become important, we want to make sure everyone gets their cart. Even if it is obvious please mark them.

Link to ordering a rolling rack:

http://www.globalindustrial.com/searchResult?ps=72&q=metal%20rolling%20racks

As mentioned at the meeting, Cosco has them as well. According to another ConCom member they are on sale.

Registration:

  • Total count as of February 28th is 3,820, which is up 6% from 2014.
  • As of 3/14, 2015 Registration Memberships count is 3,910.
  • Reminder rates increase May 15th.
  • Requested historical data. March counts pulled from ConCom Notes from previous years. 2013 was the transition year (moving Registration onto Neon) and 2014 was the first full year Registrations were processed through Neon.
    • Beginning of March 2012: 2,720 Memberships
    • March 9th, 2013: 3,191 Memberships
    • March 30th, 2014: 3,796 Memberships
    • March 14th, 2015: 3,910 Memberships

Volunteers:

The Volunteer department would like to get your t-shirt size.

We have sent a link to the spreadsheet to the ConCom and your help will be greatly appreciated.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VbHArwMOFuYAmX2NZKqerqRLUFC4g4P-WyJXcxO9J3g/edit#gid=1635397288

Clarification for T-shirt sizes:

  • T-shirts sizes are womens small to 3X and unisex small to 5X.
  • Same sizes as last year.

We would also ask the Department heads to please send a spreadsheet with the names and t-shirt sizes of any members of your department not on the ConCom list. We don’t wish to exclude anyone.

Data Transmissions Division

Publications:

  • Deadline for text information for the Souvenir Guide is APRIL 1. (Schedules through Programming are a separate process.) You should be contacted by a Process Manager about your information. If you need an extension, still submit a form with the “Extension Needed” box checked, so we can enter you into our system.
  • Submission forms are available at http://www.convergenceevents.org/publications and should be submitted either back to your Process Manager, or directly to pubs-sub…@convergence-con.org.
  • Sections that do not submit a form by the deadline will either be dropped from the Guide, or be written by Publications staff with no input.
  • Also, “Same as last year” is not a valid submission. If you need a reference to what was printed last year, a PDF can be found at http://www.convergence-con.org/about/archive/2014-convention/
  • Departmental Logos are done and will be uploaded to www.convergenceevents.org/publications by April 1. These logos are for INTERNAL use only. External-facing documents should use the main CONvergence logo. CON Directors are devising an exception procedure should a departmental logo need to be used externally.
  • If you have been contacted by Publications or Creative Team asking for feedback on a rough draft or sketch, please reply quickly (within a week), so we can continue the process flow.

H.o.M.E. Division

Consuite:
Consuite is offering food-handling classes to departments and individuals who handle food at con. Deadline is May first and class will be in early June.

Hotel
The Hotel department would like a schedule of lock and unlock times from the following departments:

  • Connie’s Space Lounge
  • Registration
  • Mainstage Storage
  • Video
  • Dealers
  • Volunteer Den

This schedule can be e-mailed to Hotel or given in person during the working portion of any ConCom meeting. The deadline for this information is the May ConCom meeting.

Hotel Resume:

  • Just a reminder of the tweaks to the DT Resume Process done in February…
  • The Resume Team is now receiving department needs via email as long as it is “fully submitted” as well as face-to-face at the Con-Com meetings, rather than only face-to-face at meetings.
  • What does “fully submitted/full submission” mean?Full Submission/Fully Submitted- (What needs to happen on or before the April Con-com) A complete Schedule, Notes and Diagram (as appropriate) in proper file format, (detailed below & is the same as past years) prompts the Gurus to adjust quantities in the Hotel Equipment Inventory spreadsheet.
    *******If the files are incomplete or are not in the proper format, the Hotel Equipment quantities in the spreadsheet are not changed.************
  • What hasn’t changed…
    • The deadlines.
    • Adjusting the Equipment Inventory numbers are still first-come, first-served.
  • Resume Timeline:
    • *March Con-Com: We’ll have the most updated Resume files available electronically and a paper copy (printed in February).
    • *The April Con-Com: Final Resume. This is the last day to give Resume your information. If we don’t have your information, properly submitted to us, your Department risks an empty room.
    • *May Con-Com: Department Sign-off (Errors or omissions only are corrected). Any changes after this meeting will require Divisional Director and a Hotel Head approval.

Operations:
If your department needs radios during the convention, please speak to Ops Head Doug or email opera…@convergence-con.org. We need to know how many radios your department needs. Please consider this carefully. Operations will not remind departments of the number of radios that they had allocated in 2014.

If you think you will be using a radio at CON in any capacity, you will need to have radio training. Training last year or on any previous occasion does not exempt you from this requirement. As always, everyone needs to be radio trained each and every year. Training will be held during the working portion of all remaining ConCom meetings. We are also holding open Radio Training during our volunteer training sessions, details for the radio training portions of these meetings provided below. ConCom members are welcome to fulfill the radio training requirement during these meetings if they cannot make the training sessions during ConCom. Additionally, if you would like someone from Operations to come to your department meeting to radio train the members of your department, please e-mail opera…@convergence-con.org.

Additional Radio Training will take place at the Waterbury Building during the following times

Friday May 1, 7:30-8 in 106A

Saturday May 9 12:30-1 in 106 A
Saturday May 23 1:00-1:30 in 107

Thursday June 4 7:00-7:30 in 107

Tuesday June 23 7:00-7:30 107
Saturday June 27 1:00-1:30 in 107

On Sunday the 22nd there is a Social Gathering hosted by Hotel. It will be at 2pm at Grumpy’s in downtown Minneapolis, so come hang out for good food and good company.

Nerf Herders:
The Nerf Herders are putting together the (now) annual Gaff Tape order. Please email [email protected] with your Gaff Tape needs. The deadline for order requests will be the May ConCom meeting

GPS:

A reminder to CONvergence departments that you can reserve space at Event Horizon in the Waterbury Building for your meetings and trainings to prepare for this year’s convention. Submit your request through the Event Horizon Space Request link.

Upcoming for GPS

  • April 11 – GPS Team Trivia Challenge – go to the website for info how to participate.
  • April 11 – International Tabletop Game Day with United Geeks of Gaming, who are an official site again this year
  • April 11 – GPS Movie Night at International Tabletop Game Day – more like Movie Day, as they will be showing game-themed movies interspersed with Tabletop streaming throughout the day.
  • April 17 – Volunteer Appreciation Day- GPS invites CONvergence volunteers to this event. Food, games, more.

Mark your Calendars

    • May 15-17 – Art-A-Whirl at GPS
    • May 18 – GPS Open Meeting / Election – 4 positions, 2 incumbents (Seth Chmelik, Jeff Boucher-Zamzo). social at 6, meeting at 7
    • June 13 – GPS Annual Picnic – You are all invited. Grillables, plates/utensils,

condiments, and beverages provided. Feel free to bring something to share.

  • June 27-28 – Geeks@Pride – GPS has a tent again this year

 

Remaining 2015 ConCom Meeting Dates (2pm):

  • 4/19/15: Sunday, April 19th
  • 5/16/15: Saturday, May 16th
  • 6/7/15: Sunday, June 7th
  • 6/20/15: Saturday, June 20th
  • 7/25/15: Saturday, July 25th Post Mortem