CONvergence Convention Committee Meeting Notes

Sunday, February 15th, 2015

Feedback on the ConCom Badge discussion

We are still pulling together all of the feedback. If you have any additional information/options, please discuss/contact your director or send an email to the Board of Directors. We set up the ability to vote on options for the ConCom Badges in March.

ConCom Contact List Update

If you have an update or a new ConCom member that needs to be added to the ConCom contact list, please email your director the information (First and Last Name, position, email address, and phone number ) or you may fill out the Google Form. The link to the form has been sent out in last month meeting notes, in the ConCom Meeting Reminder, and will be included in the meeting notes for this meeting.(See below) There is also a shortcut to the form on the Meeting Sign In Computers that you may utilize at the meeting

Update 2015 ConCom Contact List

An updated ConCom Contact list will be sent to the ConCom and save in Drive by the end of this week (2/28/2015).

Brainstorm/suggest ideas for the 2016 theme

Time was spent brainstorming ideas for the 2016 CONvergence Theme.

Space (Sheraton/DoubleTree)

Follow up on the email communication regarding the Sheraton Space.

Department Announcements:

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
  • Teen Room

This schedule can be emailed to hotel or given in person. The deadline is the May ConCom.

Hotel: Resume
Due to the number of changes in Departments, their spaces and the response during Con-Coms, the Resume Team is tweaking this year’s new process.

What Changed?

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:
    *February Con-Com: We’ll have a paper copy of each Department’s Notes and Diagrams (along with the Schedule in electronic form) available. All Departments should have received last year’s Resume documents for reference.*March Con-Com: We’ll have the most updated Resume files available electronically and February’s paper copy.

    *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 you think you will be using a radio at CON, you will need to have radio training. Even if you had radio training last year, you need to have it again this year. The first radio training will happen at the March ConCom. Training sessions have been scheduled on weekdays and weekends for volunteers not able to make ConCom trainings; dates are forthcoming. Additionally, if you would like someone from Operations to come to your department meeting to radio train your department, please e-mail opera…@convergence-con.org.

Guests

The Guests department is very excited to announce our final two Guests of Honor for CONvergence 2015. Charlotte Fullerton and Bryan Thao Worra will be joining us at this year’s convention.

Charlotte Fullerton first gained notoriety as one of the creators of Troops (1997), the Star Wars parody short that kicked off the modern cgi fan film movement, named the number one fan film ever by Time Magazine in 2010.

She started her career at Fox Kids Network in its heyday, and went on to write a wide variety of projects, including episodes of Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, Kim Possible, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Power Rangers, The Super Hero Squad Show, and especially Ben 10: (Alien Force / Ultimate Alien / Omniverse) for which she also wrote many of the video games, comic books, and novels. Her other books include adaptations of the Sonic X TV series.

Charlotte is a two-time Emmy nominee: (2010) Outstanding Writing in Animation for Fairly Oddparents, and (2012) Outstanding Original Song – Children’s and Animation for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, of which she also wrote many fan-favorite episodes.

Bryan Thao Worra is an award-winning Lao-American writer. He holds over 20 awards including an NEA Fellowship in Literature and is the author of 6 books with writing appearing in over 100 international publications

His work has been featured in Tales of the Unanticipated, Innsmouth Free Press, Journal of the Asian American Renaissance, Dark Wisdom, G-Fan, Astropoetica, Expanded Horizons, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Lakeside Circus and more.

He is the first Lao American professional member of the Horror Writer Association and is an officer of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He is the Creative Works Editor of the Journal on Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement.

His work is on display at the Smithsonian’s national traveling exhibit “I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story.” He represented the nation of Laos in 2012 as a Cultural Olympian during the London Summer Games. His 2013 book DEMONSTRA was selected as Book of the Year by the Science Fiction Poetry Association.

Please welcome Charlotte and Bryan to our roster of Guests of Honor for 2015.

Additional Note:
Charles Vess had to decline this year’s already extended invitation, due to his very full workload.

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.

Volunteer T-Shirt Spreadsheet

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.

GPS

Reminder the GPS Writing Contest Submissions will be accepted through 11:59pm May 15, 2015. For all the rules and details go to the website link. Pass it on.

GPS Arts Initiative

1. Reminder the Gallery Show for Cynnthia Anne Michaels: A Garden of Light and Color – is through Saturday Feb 28 in Room 106 of Event Horizon in the Waterbury Building.

2. The new monthly Figure Drawing Salon starts on Monday, Feb 16. If you sketch, draw, or paint, mark your calendar. Every third Mondayof the month, the GPS Arts Initiative hosts a Figure Drawing Salon. From 6:00 until 9:00 PM, artists of all skill levels will have the chance to draw a live model and hone their craft.

The salon meets in room 106A, at Event Horizon (1121 Jackson St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413). A small contribution will be requested to help cover the model’s honorarium. So bring your friends — the more artists join us, the smaller everyone’s contribution will need to be.

March 28 – GPS UGG Minnesota Miniatures Gaming Association – Quarterly Miniatures Gaming meetup in the Main Hall all day. This happens quarterly, please help spread the word.

April 11 – GPS Team Trivia Challenge – Put your teams together – This year it is at the Fantasy Flight Games Center in Roseville.
2015 Reading List:

  • YA – Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
  • Graphic Novel/Manga – Akira, Vol. 1 by Katsuhiro Otomo and Satoshi Kon
  • Historic – I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
  • Ready Player One – by Ernest Cline

April 17 – Volunteer Appreciation Party – April 12-18 is National Volunteer Week, and GPS is planning a volunteer appreciation party, inviting our partners to join in. We’ll get more details out in the March Concom.

Reminder to Departments that there is a center Convergence Events shares, with meeting space that you can reserve for your meetings – department, training, builds, etc. Here is the link to the form you use to make your space requests. http://tinyurl.com/awdnc67.

2015 ConCom Meeting Dates (2pm):

  • 3/14/15: Saturday, March 14th
  • 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