CONvergence Convention Committee Meeting Notes
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Future meeting dates (subject to change)
To be confirmed
- Saturday 5/6/17 * Changed from Sunday May 7th, 2017
- 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
Announce the Renovation Issue and corrective plans
We have just learned from our Convention Coordinator for the DoubleTree Bloomington that there is a 95% chance that they will be remodeling the Lobby Conference room and Video Conference room during our convention dates. As you all know space at the hotel is at a premium and losing two rooms would be a hard hit.
Bearing this in mind, we are planning as if this will happen and are implementing the following contingency plan if the renovations do happen.
We are asking that all departments help us with the changes that we propose to ensure that we can provide the spaces needed for our members and that we work together so that they will hopefully not even realize that we had to make these last minute changes.
The loss of the Lobby Conference Room will directly affect the Teen Room.
As we do not believe it would be advisable to have the Teen Room outside of the DoubleTree, we will move the Teen Room to Atrium 3. This will remove a room from programming, and as a result we will be adding a room to our space at the Sheraton Bloomington. This does mean that our cost at the Sheraton will go up about $1200, but we feel that this is a necessary expenditure. The new room for programming will we are looking at is the Whalon, which is a carbon copy of the Ames room that we are currently going to be using for panels.
The loss of the Video Conference room will affect the Sensory Break Room.
The Sensory Break Room will need to move to Atrium 5. This will mean that the Programming Operations will need to be moved to the Normandale Room. This will be the understanding that Guest and Masquerade will need to have some limited use of the space.
The party packs will be moved to room 222 for distribution until the Parenting room is open for Con.
We know that this adds work to everyone’s schedule and workload, but we have confidence in you and your teams to be able to make these changes.
Note: make a push notification that there is construction during the convention on social media.
Look at the contact form on the website and add the email address for reference and perhaps a link to what the departments do and or info.
Social Media
We would like to remind department heads to please allow Social Media admins to direct questions to the departments corresponding email accounts and not to answer the question on Social Media as it is not an official information source.
Live Transcript and Streaming of CONvergence Committee meetings.
We will be making live Transcription and Streaming available for all convention committee meetings going forward. Links for both will be provided. The transcript link will be included in the meeting reminder email, and the live streaming will be sent before the meeting start.
If you are in attendance at the meeting you are welcome to follow along with the transcript but please do not use the streaming.
If you view the streaming the meeting it will count as attendance as long as you use the sign in. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions with the live streaming.
Member Advocate Election
Candidate Felix Quinn
Motion to accept Felix Quinn to the position of Member Advocate
made by Mandy, second by Elliot
Motion passes by majority.
One nay
Department Announcements
Please remember to send in your written announcement to
[email protected] by the Tuesday following the meeting in order for them to be included in the meeting notes. Several departments did not send in their written announcements and therefor have not been included in the meeting notes.
Activities
Connie’s Quantum Sandbox
Administration
Volunteers
Please make use of the Volunteer Need Notification Google Form. This is now the official channel for finding new volunteers. If we don’t know that you need help, we can’t help you. Please use the form. The TinyUrl is
http://tinyurl.com/lu3lmqk .
All departments are invited to the Volunteer Rally at GPS on April 23rd at 1 pm. Please come and represent your department and help us get potential volunteers excited to help us out! There will be food, music and lots of fun. We hope you’ll join us! Additionally, please send us an email letting us know if your department is planning to attend.
Please input your department schedules in Shiftboard. This will help us to supply you with enough people to run your department during the convention. If you need access, please email IT at [email protected] .
Volunteers has a new Volunteer Recruitment Program! Next ConCom meeting, Volunteers will be wearing pajama onesies to help prospective volunteers to identify who they can talk to at a ConCom meeting to get connected with departments they’re interested in volunteering with. We have posted in the CONvergence public group on Facebook to let people know that we are available to help them start volunteering. Please invite people you know who have expressed an interest in volunteering.
Merchandise
Shirts will be sold at the April, May, and the first June ConCom meeting. They will be sold from 1:30pm-2pm, and for at least 30 minutes during the working portion (will sell longer if
necessary)
At the first June ConCom, merch would like donations of newspapers
Registration
| 2016 | 2017 | |
| Adult (Age 18+) | 3,357 | 3,992 |
| Teen (Ages 13 to 17) | 129 | 130 |
| Child (Ages 6 to 12) | 81 | 107 |
| Young Child (Ages 5 and under) | 68 | 81 |
| Registrations through March 31 | 3,635 | 4,310 |
Communication and External Relations
Creative Services
Publications
Publications update:
Souvenir Guide text, or extension requests were due 4/1/17. Change requests, and our other forms can be found here:
http://www.convergenceevents.org/departments/publications/
Facilities
A&I
Nerf Herders
Resume
The Resume Deadline is today! Come on over and see us and confirm that we have your information. Even if you think you’ve sent us your information, please do confirm that with
us. It is appreciated.
*Definitely NOT saying anything about renovations and extensions here…nothing to see here…move along…*
Seriously, the affected Departments know who they are and that’s all being taken care of behind our magic curtain, so we’ll just move along to…
The May Con-Com(2017) continues to be the Final Sign-off date.
PLEASE NOTE:
If you’ve already sent Resume the documents we require, please disregard the following…
however, IF you still need to send us files, PLEASE send them as separate attachments in email. We’ve had a handful of Departments share them as Google Docs or in GDrive and we
need to both be able to manipulate these documents and have a static version of them to use in compiling the convention’s information.
Hospitality
Guests
Operations
Radio Requests
Thank you to all departments who submitted radio requests. We heard from all of the departments from whom we had expected to hear prior to our deadline. If your department wants to make use of radios at con for the first time and has not yet told Operations, please let us know as soon as possible via [email protected]
Radio Training
Radio Training for the 2017 season will continue during the working portion of all remaining ConCom meetings. 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 fulfill 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 in Plaze 1 at 4:15pm after the main ConCom meeting on April 2 to discuss the general procedures related to harassment and to provide information and answer any questions surrounding the Safe Space initiative. This meeting will be available for remote attendees via teleconference. Please contact [email protected] for the dial in information.
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 also be actively attempting to schedule meetings with representatives of all of the groups and departments that are hosting an officially designated CONvergence Safe Space.
Still Looking for Donations
If you have any left over furry fabric that you would like to donate, Operations would still love to have it. We will be making a hoard of Tribbles sometime in April. Any colors and any sizes of fabric are welcome. Please contact [email protected] to discuss.
Consuite
F2E2
Productions
Harmonic Convergence
Systems
Finance
Convergence Events Mailbox – If you are having anything mailed to the Convergence Events mailbox (or working with an outside company and they ask for an address), please include “CONvergence” or “Convergence Events” in the mailing address and not just your name. Ideally please use the below format:
Convergence Events
Attn:
2355 Fairview Avenue #162
Roseville, MN 55113
IT
Future Visioning Committee
Partners
GPS
JoF Shop
Jof Shop
JoF Shop is a monthly workshops series that allows participants to engage in collaboration and to share ideas and learn from each other, discussing issues related to the running of geeky conventions. The philosophy behind JOF is that, regardless of level and length of conrunning experience, everyone has something to learn and everyone has something to share.
The next meeting of Jof Shop is Sunday, May 28 from 1-4pm. The topic is Tech Tools for Coordination and Organization of Convention Committees, Departments and Teams. We will talk about google groups, use of google apps, the benefits and caveats of slack, hangouts and facebook,, voxster, video conferencing tools, teleconferencing tools, registration software, programming scheduling software, and whatever else we truly love and truly hate. A facilitated discussion to share what we have learned through our own individual experiences with different types of tools.