CONvergence Convention Committee Agenda
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Future meeting dates (subject to change)
Saturday 1/21/17 Board Election DoubleTree Bloomington
To be confirmed
Sunday 2/12/17
Saturday 3/18/17
Sunday 4/2/17 Member Advocate Election
Saturday 5/6/17
Sunday 6/4/17
Saturday 6/17/17
Friday 7/7/17 Open meeting
Saturday 7/29/17 Post Mortem and Volunteer Party
Board Announcements
Board Election
CONvergence Events, Inc. Board of Directors election will be held January 21st 2017 at DoubleTree Bloomington 7800 Normandale Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55439
Board of Directors Divisions up for election are
Activities, term to run August 15, 2017 to August 15, 2020
Candidates: Margaret Eastman
Communications & External Relations, term to run August 15, 2017 to August 15, 2020
Candidates: Jonathan Palmer
Candidates bios will be updated and can be found
http://www.convergenceevents.org/board-of-directors/board-elections/board-elections/
Budget
The CONvergence Events, Inc budget has been approved by the Board of Directors. Directors will communicate department budget numbers to their division and can be found http://www.convergenceevents.org/departments/financial-reports-and-forms/budgets-and-reports/ along with 2016 Actual. Note: Last year’s budget shortfall was $50,500.00
We are asking every CONvergence Convention Committee member to be as frugal as possible and cut wherever possible without compromising the members experience as we started with a deficit of $95,000 with all budgets as requested. We cut were possible and now have a projected profit of $71.
CONvergence Events, Inc. has updated the budget guidelines and procedures and can be found here.
http://www.convergenceevents.org/budgeting/
To Change a Department’s Approved Budget (Increase or Decrease):
- Develop and submit a budget change request to the Divisional Director – The Head(s) of a department are responsible for establishing the need for a change in budget and submitting a written request for the change with adequate supporting explanations.
- Divisional Approval Process – The Divisional Director reviews the request and will do one of the following:
- Deny and return the request to the Department Head(s). (Reference step 4)
- Approve and send on the request to the Convergence Events CFO.
- Financial Approval Process – The CFO reviews the request and will do one of the following:
- Deny and return the request to the Divisional Director who will inform the Department Head(s) of the decision. (Reference step 4)
- Approve the request and inform the Divisional Director of the new budget. The Divisional Director will inform the Department Head(s) of the new budget.
- Denial Appeal Process – In the case of either the Divisional Director or the CFO denying a budget change request, the Department Head(s) and/or the Divisional Director will have the option to appeal the denial to the Convergence Events Board of Directors
- File an appeal – EMail the following to the Board of Directors:
- The unaltered denied budget change request.
- The denial and any justification or explanation given with it.
- Justification and explanation of the appeal.
- Any further relevant information.
- Board of Directors Decision – After careful review, which may or may not include a request for more information, the Board of Directors will do one of the following:
- Deny and return the appeal to the Divisional Director.
- Approve the appeal after which Divisional Director will inform the Department Head(s) of the new budget.
- File an appeal – EMail the following to the Board of Directors:
Department Fundraising
The Board of Directors have developed the following Department Fundraising guidelines.
Any department that decides to fundraise for a specific project will need to do the following steps for approval.
- Description of project and fundraising plan submitted to their division director for approval. Including use of any CONvergence Events, Inc. images, equipment, or supplies to be used.
- All fundraising totals and funds raised must be submitted to CONvergence Events, Inc CFO after the end of the fundraising to be applied to budget and for receipts to be tracked and must be used for approved project only.
- Any unused funds will be applied to the year end income total for CONvergence Events, Inc.
The purposes of these guidelines is to protect CONvergence Events, Inc reputation and the CONvergence Membership and community from fraudulent fundraising.
Committees and Taskforce
We are still looking for volunteers for the CONvergence Partner Search Committee and Youth Programing Taskforce. If we do not receive any request to join this committee and taskforce by the end of January the committee and taskforce will be removed.
Partner Search Committee
The Partner Search Committee will be asked to create a partner request to join form and a review process for any event, fan group, organizations, or business that may wish to become a partner with Convergence Events, Inc. The Partner Search Committee will be working with Jonathan Palmer, Director of Communications & External Relations as their board liaison, and will submit reviews and suggestions to the Board of Directors.
If you would like to be considered for the Partner Search Committee please submit your name to the Board of Directors at [email protected] with the subject Partner Search Committee.
Committee members will be approved for a three year term by the Board of Directors. Committee members may step down from and new member can be added to the committee at any time, with new members being approved by the Board of Directors.
Youth Programing Taskforce
The Youth Programing Taskforce has been created and will be asked to review current youth programing, assess needs, research possible events, fan groups, organizations, and programs that may be able to provide additional programing for our youth membership. This taskforce will create a list of suggestions and resources for CONvergence departments to use for future planning. The Taskforce will run the duration of one convention cycle and will be reevaluated for need at the end of the 2017 cycle.
If you would like to be considered for the Youth Programing Taskforce please send your name to Margaret at [email protected] with the subject Youth Programing Taskforce.
Department Announcements
Activities
Administration Volunteers
The Volunteers Department is looking to expand the existing data on volunteer positions. We’ll be contacting each department individually to get an understanding of how it’s organized and descriptions of all positions within the department. This way, we’ll have a better knowledge base from which to help support the organization and more information when volunteers come to us without specific direction. Be on the lookout for an email from us in December.
Communications & External Relations
Jonathan is looking for a Head for Dealers Room and a Head for Artist Alley. Please email him if you are interested.
Facilities
Resume
Merchandise was moved to Theresa, Photography is now with Camille and Amy is managing all Departments located at the Satellite Hotels. Some of the Departments may have noticed a slight lag-time between asking their questions of the DoubleTree and getting answers. Our contact, Brandy, is out on Maternity Leave until December and so we’re awaiting her return for our answers.
All Departments should have received their initial Guru emails by now. If you haven’t please email us at [email protected] to let us know.
Introducing the Gurus for this year:
Camille McDermott(New!), Kathy Peck, Theresa Hesse and Amy (also Resume Head).
Gurus and their Departments are as follows:
Camille: Cinema Rex, Art Show (and Auction), Connie’s Space Lounge, Connie’s Quantum Sandbox, (All Things) GPS, Theatre Nippon, Teen Room, Photography.
Kathy: COF2E2, Nerf-Herders, Operations, First Advisors, Registration, Volunteers Den & Cabana 132 (and any Table NOT in CVG Central), Parties.
Theresa: CONsuite, Gaming (22nd Floor & Consuite), GOH Reception, Logistics, Merchandise, Programming, Smoker’s Paradise, Accessibility & Inclusivity, Member Advocates, Allocations.
Amy: Artist Alley, Dealers, Dock, Harmonic CONvergence, GOH Signing Table (in CVG Central), Hotel, All Things Main Stage, Volunteer’s Table (if in CVG Central), Merchandise, BookSwap, and any Department that are in the Satellite Hotels.
The Resume timeline for 2017 (the same as previous years):
By November Con-Com: All Departments should have electronic copies of last year’s Resume documents emailed to them.
The Resume Deadline remains the April(2017) Con-com and the May Con-Com(2017) continues to be the Final Sign-off date.
Hospitality
First Advisors
Guests
Productions
Systems
Member Advocates
Future Visioning Committee
The Vision & Scaling Committee is still working with IT on the cleaner copies of the survey results and hope to have it out soon. We’re also looking for a couple new committee members — please email us at [email protected] if you’re interested or just want more information.
Partners
JOFShop
GPS
Department Request for brainstorming
First Advisor’s request ways to get members to drink water
Anti pass out game
Hydration game
Hail hydrate ribbons
Games of skill at night
Hail hydrate hashtag
Uber gift a reuse water with hail hydrate
Water keg stand
Decor water stations different at each ribbon for visit all
Mississippi water art (water bar)
Electrolyte packets that flavor water
Relabel water bottles with fun sayings
Mobile water cart
Choose to reuse campaign from the UofM
Check with state for sponsors NOTE: Information on this has been emailed to the Board and Operations if you would like additional information.
Fruit in consuite just for water