CONvergence Convention Committee Meeting Notes
Sunday, April 13th, 2014
2pm April 13, 2014 – DoubleTree by Hilton, Bloomington
Resume
Resumes are due Today!
Resume deadline is today, every department should have their resume into their Guru, and we will be putting everything together to finalize at the May ConCom.
Systems
Department Emails
We are converting to mail boxes for each department. Then all emails will come to a box that all the department heads can see and that when you respond to an email it comes from the department email address. Please see Thomas Keeley at the working portion of the meeting to get your department email box set up.
Connie’s Quantum Sandbox
We need donations!
Sandbox is looking for donations of a number of items you may have hanging around the house:
8 to 10 inch stuffed animals
Fleece fabric
Tiny furniture (dollhouse or miniature)
Two liter bottles
3.5 inch floppy disks (you always knew they’d be useful again!)
Embroidery Floss
Ribbon (especially wider, 1.5-2 inches)
Contact sandbox@ with questions or if you have anything else that might help us make a giant pretty mess.
Masquerade
Volunteers needed
We have lots of opportunities for volunteers.These will be posted on the website soon. Deborah Mullen is the new head of Masquerade. She was a sub-head for Masquerade for several years previous to being asked to be the Head of Masquerade this year.
Productions
Fashion Show
Want to give costumers another chance to show off their costumes without having to enter the masquerade. So we are organizing a parade. The Art of the Dress, Costume and Couture Fashion Show. Details will be posted on the website soon.
CVG TV/Video
Welcome to the new Head of CVGTV Todd Wardrope.
CVG-TV has new PSA submissions procedure and requirements up on the website.
Tony Karna is resigning as head of the Video department at the end of this convention cycle. The Production division is looking to have someone shadow with him for the rest of the convention and to become a co-head of video for the 2015 convention cycle. Camera experience is welcome, but not necessary. Project management experience would be greatly appreciated.
Publications
Text for Program Guide is due by May 10. Earlier is better. You should have already been contacted by a Publications Data Gatherer – if not, please let Foro know. public…@convergence-con.org
If you are doing something new for the Program Guide (not in last year), please send to Publications.
All Departments need to have their special thanks to Lexi by May 10. Special Thanks in the Souvenir Guide should be for organizations who go above and beyond. For example our printers last year accepted our publications very late and had to work overtime and throughout a weekend but waved the overtime charge to us saving us a couple thousand dollars. Special Thanks should not be used to thank ConCom members or volunteers, they are given volunteer rewards and it would be unfair to list only a few.
When submitting your thank you’s please list the correct spelling and why they are being thanked.
We will be requiring all new text documents this year. “Same as last year” is not acceptable.
Split sections – Program Guide/Survival Guide.
We are creating a “Survival Guide” for pre-convention information, on a PDF available for website. If you have information that a member would need to know BEFORE the convention (weapons policy, parking, registration hours, etc.) please note that information in a separate section when sending to your data gatherer. Due to space limitations keep it short – think Twitter. Brief intro and “See website at —“ is ok.
Custom Artwork requests are closed. If artwork is needed, previously generated art from the archives will be used. Please realize that each new piece of art takes around 20 hours (or more), so next year the art request deadline will be moved up to February 15, and art will be prioritized by need.
Web Team
We are proud to announce the newly redesigned CONvergence website, launching today!
After receiving feedback suggesting that the website for our convention was not user friendly to the general public and that it was difficult to figure out where to find information because of the organization of information, I pulled together several members of the ConCom who have a background in web development to rebuild our site from the ground up.
I announced the project many months ago and had hoped that we could get this finished much sooner, but the scope of this project was a great deal larger than initially projected. The plan was, however, to produce the most responsive, mobile, and user friendly website possible. We weren’t going to launch it until it was fully complete and ready to use.
Please keep in mind that the website was built and created for the membership at large, so it may seem quite a bit different than what you might expect as a seasoned ConCom member.
This project would not have been possible without the creative talent and countless hours of work of the volunteers who participated.
I would like to thank:
Charlie Horne and Scott St Aubin from the Web Department, Doug Yoder from Programming, Foro Pasquarette from Publications, and Hal Bichel from Social Media for their work in developing the wire frame and planning the project.
Charlie Horne, Thomas Keeley, and Hal Bichel for setting up the Word Press development site and moving the content in preparation for the new site.
Charlie for maintaining the old site and making sure the new additions made their way into both sites (not an easy task!)
Hal Bichel for designing the theme and to Christopher Jones for creating the graphics for the site.
Michael Lee for organizing the test group and getting initial feedback from some former Guests!
John Garner, Gabriel Gryfyn, and Lina DiGioia of the Social Media team for proofing the site content and checking links.
Hal Bichel for editing and rewriting all of the content for the new site in the CONvergence voice and style.
I hope you enjoy the site as much as we all do.
If you have any questions or feedback please send them to:
le…@convergenceevents.org
Registration
Memberships Update
As of March 30th we were at 3796 memberships, which is up 10% from this time last year.
As of now we are 3861.
Be sure and get your registrations in at the $75 rate before May 15th. Don’t be stuck paying $120 at the door!
Operations
Radio Training, New Weapons/Props Policy, Open Meeting
Radio training will take place after each ConCom meeting. Radio Training is required for those who will be using a radio.
Ops next open meeting will be on April 27th, 2pm @ Grumpy’s on Washington Ave, MPLS
New Weapons/Props Policy:
The new weapons and props policy has been posted on the website. We encourage you to read it and be familiar with it.
GPS
Auction donations – we’ll be accepting them at any of the concoms and GPS events. If you need to make other arrangements, contact Ann Roubik.
GPS Annual Membership Meeting – Monday, May 19, room 107 at the center. Social hour starts at 6, meeting starts at 7. This is an election meeting with 3 directors positions up. To vote you need to have volunteered 20 hours. Cutoff date for hours is May 1.
Art-A-Whirl @GPS is May 16, 17, & 18. Volunteers needed, tables still available. Contact is Ann Roubik.
Trivia Results- Phobophobia was the winner of this year.
ConCom Meetings Agenda
We will no longer be printing up agendas for the meetings but if you want to be on the Agenda for the ConCom meeting you will need to email me your request and a write up of your announcement no later than Friday, May 15h.
2014 CONvergence Calendar
May 17th ConCom Meeting- Pubs Deadline, All Art Deadline, Resume sign off
June 8th ConCom Meeting- Signage Deadline (no new art), Hotel Room Drawing
June 22nd ConCom Meeting- Last ConCom meeting before CON, Hotel Room Drawing
July 3-6 CONvergence
July 20 ConCom Post Mortem Meeting and Volunteer Party