CONvergence Convention Committee Meeting Notes

Saturday, May 16th, 2015

Remaining 2015 ConCom Meeting Dates (2pm):

  • 6/7/15: Sunday, June 7th
  • 6/20/15: Saturday, June 20th
  • 7/25/15: Saturday, July 25th Post Mortem

Remaining 2015 Open Committee Meeting:

  • 7/3/15: Friday, 5pm-6pm during the Convention.

Safety at the Convention

If you have any personal/medical issues that may come up at con, please make sure the First Advisors know about them now. This allows them to respond better and take better care of the people that are putting so much effort into this convention.

Don’t take candy from strangers.

  • Raise awareness – Think!
  • Don’t accept drinks or edibles from random people walking around would you on public streets?!
  • Watch your drinks!
  • If 1/2 of 1% of the people at con are not trustworthy, that’s 30 people that might want to prank or take advantage of you
  • Tell your friends!
  • Be safe!

Reimbursements

Reminder to all the departments to get reimbursements in before con if possible. Reimbursements from con will be mailed out in the week following. Checks will not be drafted at con without prior coordination with the head of finance (Michael Stroh).

First Advisors:

Steps to take if someone reports a sexual assault:

  1. The most important thing for you to do is remain calm and comforting. You remaining calm helps others around you to be calm.
  2. Introduce yourself and ask them their name. If possible get their badge number.
  3. Call Ops and request a First Advisor and an Ops Head or Subhead to come to your location. A First Advisor or an Ops Head/Subhead will call the police/EMS if necessary.
  4. At this point the Head/Subhead/FA should take over the situation and complete the rest of the steps. Make yourself available to answer questions when police arrive—
  5. Encourage the person to come with you to a quiet and safe area. (Such as the First Advisor area or other designated room) Note: 2 people should be with them at all times. The person may not want a male staff (or female if the person is a male) near them. Try to be as accommodating with this as feasibly possible.
  6. Ask what happened. Do not ask leading questions. Only ask what happened.
  7. Write down everything the person tells you.
  8. Make sure the person knows you believe them. Be calm and comforting throughout this process. Try to keep them as calm as possible.
  9. Do not say identifying information or information regarding the assault over the radio. If necessary use a telephone to relay information to the bridge.
  10. If the person wants to leave and go shower encourage them not to. Showering can wash away important evidence. Encourage them to stay in the safe area until police/EMS arrive. If the person absolutely refuses to stay there 2 people should escort the person to their room. This is for their safety and for information to give the police. Make sure to make note of the room number.
  11. When the police/EMS arrive encourage the person to talk to them. Answer all questions the police ask you and tell them everything the person said to you. Do not interrupt any questions the police ask the person or answers the person gives.
  12. Log event!

CONvergence Recruitment Sessions

Reminder that the Volunteer Recruitment Session will be taking place in (Location TBD) from 2pm-3pm.

If you are able to send a representative that is on the ConCom, they will still get credit for attending the ConCom meeting as long as they still log in. To those not on the ConCom this session will not count towards the 2 meeting requirement for voting rights.

The session will be set up in the style of an open house. Representatives from the Board will address those who attend with some information, computers will be set up to look at volunteer opportunities that we have posted online and there will be the ability to send inquires to departments via the online form. We are hoping to have a representative from several departments available to chat with those interested in volunteering about what opportunities are available and give them an idea of what volunteering for your department means/requires.

The next and last recruitment session for the 2015 cycle will be on Sunday, June 7th, from 2-3pm.

Department Announcements

H.o.M.E. (Hospitality and Member Experience)

Hotel (Resume)
This is the May Deadline for the DoubleTree Resume documents.

This is the time of proof-reading & error corrections and no new changes are allowed.

We need to see a representative from every Department today to go over your Resume documents. If you do not speak to us today, your Resume information will be considered perfect and complete.

Operations

  • Radio Training:If you will need to use a radio during the convention, Radio Training for 2015 is required. Training will take place during the working portion of each of the remaining ConCom Meetings. If you would like for someone from Operations to provide Radio Training specifically for your department at an alternate time, please let us know. There will be scheduled Radio Training sessions during the convention for volunteers, but we ask that all members of ConCom be radio trained in advance so that there is no delay in getting radios to you when you need them
  • Department Radio Requests:Anyone who thinks that they may require radios that has not already been in contact with Operations needs to contact us as soon as possible. Radio Request Confirmations are being sent. If you have any questions or notice any errors in your confirmation, please let Operations know.
  • Schedules, Contacts, and Blackout Times:All individuals or departments that may need to be contacted by Operations directly during the course of the convention should send information related to shared or centralized phone numbers and schedules to [email protected]. If there are times that you may not be contacted, please provide details of blackout times as well.

Administration

Volunteer Den
Please have the head of your department fill out the following form in order to request food from mobile volunteer den during the Con.

http://goo.gl/forms/pQW3Va2W3W

Please fill out this form before June the 15th. If you do not fill out this form your department will not receive food from us at Con. On June the 15th another form will open. This form is for errors and corrections to your order. This second form will close right before con. A head of a department may ask us for there numbers from last year; however we will not “auto fill” your numbers from last year. If you have any questions please email the volunteer department.

Registration

Pre-Registration has closed.

The numbers are:

TOTAL: 5104 (Excluding GOH and Prior GOH)

Adult 4664
Teen 204
Child 131
Young Child 92
Other 13 [incl. registered GOH and Prior GOH]

This is DOWN 5% from last year at pre-registration close.

Merchandise
T shirts will be available for sale at the next ConCom Meeting on Sunday, June 7th

Midyear T-shirts on sale before and after the ConCom Meeting.

Prices:

  • Unisex: Small-2XL $23
  • Unisex: 3XL-6XL $25
  • Womens: Small-XL $23
    Note: Womens 2XL not currently available but will be available at a later time at the convention.

Logistics
Totes are here and will be delivered to departments during move in at the convention.

If you have not placed your order for them during the last request, I am sorry your department will need to pick them up on your own.

When you receive your totes you will get: your department colored tape, Sharpie, instructions for packing totes, and how to label them.

New equipment: if you are receiving new equipment that will need to be stored, please let us know. A few departments have already checked in with Logistics and we are making arrangements to handle your shipment and get it stored properly.

If you have items stored at Waterbury: Please, Please, Please find the time in the next four weeks to go through your inventory and take it home, recycle, throw it out. My team will not be moving extra items that are not being used during the convention. It will help everyone if we can get it taken care of early.

Data Transmissions

Publications
Just for clarification as there was some confusion…Publications does not have Salesforce. Introduction text (This is our area, come have fun!) goes to Publications.

Schedules (Room X, time Y) goes to Programming for the grid and lists, and they will send to us. Also, we do not proofread these, so better send Programming correct info.

We will be sending out proofs of what we have to departments for review by June 1 for you all to double-check your sections.

Deadlines are past, unless extension request filed (check deadline list on site). If we don’t receive by midnight tonight, we will make up or exclude from the guide. Mainstage/Masquerade – we’ve not had anything from you?

Fabric Banners – if not already received a proof, will get by end of day Sunday. Please approve ASAP as we need to go to print by Wednesday.

Signage proofs (paper and vinyl) will go out in the next week to go to print by June 1.

Social Media
Please cc social media on your web team request if you would like social media to announce the request.

Social media always processes requests based upon posts to the website as we mirror web posts and needs information posted there before we can disseminate it.

Webteam
With CONvergence fast approaching and the likely influx of requests, Web team is making changes to better support you!

  • Please sent all requests for web site related changes/additions/deletions to webteam@ and do not email individuals.
  • Upon submission of a request include:
    • If Verbatim posting is required, which should only be used in circumstances where it is absolutely required. When not stated it is assumed the posting does not need to be Verbatim. Verbatim posts will only include spelling and grammatical error correction by Web team and verbiage will be reviewed for appropriateness. Where a concern is identified a member of Web team will contact you.
    • The Information (of course, right?!). This can be provided in prose or bullet point form, the latter is preferred when a post is not verbatim.
    • A Due Date. If not provided, 4 days is the standard turn around time. A due date less than 4 days or of “Immediately” will be changed to 4 days unless communication occurs stating otherwise. In the event the due date is not possible or expected to be met, which may occur with more significant changes, you will be contacted by Web team to negotiate a new due date. Please always include a due date and avoid stating vague dates, for example stating “When you have time” or “Anytime” does not guarantee your request will be met when you actually do need it.
    • Where your request is time sensitive, you may include a “Do not post before X date” in your request which will be honored.
    • Please submit your requests 2 weeks before you need them (before your due date) whenever possible and reasonable to do so.
    • Once a request is completed, web team will reply to your email request stating such.
    • AUDIENCE QUESTION: When we submit a request not verbatim, will web team have us review their copyedited version prior to posting to ensure the root message has not changed? ANSWER: NO, if you need to review prior to posting, please place this into your request. By default, web team will copy edit, post, and notify you of completion.