CONvergence Convention Committee Meeting Notes

Sunday, November 8, 2015

The following is the recap of the topics discussed in the Divisional meetings and revisited in the CONvergence convention committee meeting, along with the announcements that departments and partners made. A copy will be place in the departments google drive in the 2016 Concom List & Meeting Notes folder for future reference. If you would like to comment further on the following topics please email [email protected] and include the topic (seen in bold) in the subject line. Thank you.

Convergence Events Inc. Board of Directors elections.

Election to be held at the January 17th open meeting.
Directors positions overseeing the following divisions up for election

Facilities (new division) 2016 to 2019
Decor, Dock, First Advisers, Hotel, Nerf Herders, Resume
Current self nominated candidates
Nadim Khalidi, Paul Purdes

Membership Communications (Special Election turm 8/16/2016 to 8/15/2017
Advertising, Creative Services, Photography, Publications, Social Media, WebTeam
Current self nominated candidates
Ken Justiniano, Jonathan Palmer

Productions 2016 to 2019
Mainstage, Masquerade, Ceremonies, CVG-TV/Video, and Harmonic CONvergence
Current self nominated candidates
Briana Falb-Joslin, Skaht Hansen

Systems 2016 to 2019
Accessibility, Finance, IT & WebMaster, Meeting Childcare
Current self nominated candidates

Self nomination deadline is November 15th 11:59 pm CST, please email [email protected] or mail M/S #162 2355 Fairview Ave. Roseville, MN. 55113

Election Judges selection

Election judges were approved by majority hand vote by the CONvergence convention committee.

3 Election Judges:
Jeff Boucher-Zamzo
Ange Straatmeyer
Jody Wurl

Alternates Judges:
Ann Roubik
Terri Schultz

CONvergence convention committee and divisional meeting times.

The results of the survey was that we leave the times as is. Divisional meetings will start at noon with convention committee meetings following at 2:00. Please discuss the possibility of division meeting ending at 1:30 with your directors if needed.

New opportunity to bring forward department issues before the convention committee for solution brainstorming.

As we know sometimes issues may come up and the solution may not be obvious. As we have a vast pool of experiences in our convention committee we will now be providing time before the working portion of the convention committee meeting for departments to bring forward issues for brainstorming. We will be limiting the time for each issue to five minutes, with any additional ideas or discussion to be handled during the working portion. Please let your director know during your divisional meeting if you would like to bring forward an issues for brainstorming. We will conform to standard brainstorming practices.

Budget for 2016.

The budget for CONvergence 2016 has been approved.
Approved budget and working budget will be posted and updated on the Convergence Events, Inc. website at http://www.convergenceevents.org/departments/financial-reports-and-forms/budgets-and-reports/
and will be provided to departments by their director.

Hotel announcement

We now have a signed contract for 2106 with the DoubleTree Bloomington, Sheraton Bloomington (event space Ballroom only), and Crowne Plaza Bloomington.

Artist Alley will be returning for 2016

Artists Alley is a space reserved for comic artists, illustrators, inkers, and creative talent only. Graphic or material artists can set up tables and offer commissioned art created on-demand while you wait or graphic art that they have done, such as prints or comic books, for sale. Related merchandise featuring the artist’s work such as T-Shirts, stickers and buttons may be offered, depending on the artist. It’s a great way to get to talk to artists face-to-face about their work and process, not to mention get yourself some cool custom art created during the convention! Location to be announced.

Volunteer policy draft review

Please see email from Margaret Eastman to google group. Any questions or comments can be replied to via that email.

Board of Directors Response time to email communications.

In an effort to be more responsive and function more effectively in our communications, we are instituting the following process, effective immediately.

When an email comes in, it will be acknowledged and responded to within 48 hours. if it a quick answer that doesn’t require deliberation, the answer will be provided in that 48 hours.
If it one requiring more discussion or deliberation, the sender will receive a response acknowledging receipt and that it requires some deliberation and they will receive a response within a week.
All issues requiring a deliberate and discussed response will be logged for Directors to track the status thereof.
If discussion is required, we will take no more than a week to deliberate
At the conclusion of a week, barring a direct insistence by a Board Member to delay, a response will be sent.
Any issue of a serious enough nature that cannot be deliberated within a week will be added to the next Board agenda with a message communicating this being sent to the initiator.

Meeting dates and locations

Due to the hotel policy of restricting meeting space booking to no more than 90 days out, we are researching new and additional locations for meeting. Please view location information on all meeting announcements as well as special meeting notice emails sent to the google group. If you have staff not in the google group, or have invited members to attend convention committee meetings, please update them of meeting times and locations. We will try to announce changes as soon as possible.

Future meeting dates (subject to change)

Confirmed meeting dates
Sun, January 17th Location to be announced

To be confirmed
Sun, February 21st
Sat, March 19th
Sun, April 17th
Sat, May 14th
Sun, June 5th
Sat, June 18th
Sat, July 16th (Post Mortem and Volunteer Party)

Department announcements

Finance department
The Reimbursement and Payment Request Forms have been revised. If you have downloaded copies in the past please download the new versions. The forms can be found on the convergence events site at the following link:

http://www.convergenceevents.org/departments/financial-reports-and-forms/reimbursment-form/

Resume
All Departments have been contacted via email with all pertinent 2015 Resume documents attached.
If your Department hasn’t seen that come through, please either stop during the Working portion of the November meeting or send an email (res…@convergence-con.org) letting us know.
The Resume file formats continue to be: Notes: .doc, .docx; Schedule: .xls; Diagram: .jpg, .gif, .pdf.
The Resume Deadline remains the April Con-com and the May Con-Com continues to be the Final Sign-off date.

CVG-TV/Video
Howdy. The Video department needs additional staff and sub-heads We need:

people with video skills
people who can help keep track of projects, resources, and personnel
people to help with communications, outreach, and recruiting

Yes, we want to recruit additional staff to help with recruiting additional staff.
We figure that we’ll create some sort of Recursion of Recruitment or a Human-Resources Tesseract that starts to generate new personnel interdimensionally. If so, the Video department will share with other departments in our home dimension.
What could go wrong?

Programing
The Mapping Spacing Project, being spearheaded by Programming, is seeking the contact (name & text-able phone) and general scheduling information for volunteers willing and able to help take the room measurements. Days are yet to be determined and we are working with Hotel to set dates, hence the need for availability along with contact info. As there is much to measure, we expect there will be several times available to help. Please reach out to any non-ConCom members looking to get early hours who may be willing to measure rooms after normal business hours during the week or on weekends and have them contact [email protected].

Nerf Herders

1) We are going to be using two-inch white gaffer’s tape throughout the con to indicate accessibility areas (such as the part of the room taped off for wheelchairs) and orange fluorescent tape for YOU SHALL NOT PASS (no entry) needs. White was chosen because it will show up on all of the carpets and will fluoresce under black light for those who use that. These colors are not 100% confirmed, but we’re pretty satisfied with why they were chosen.

If you have any concerns, please email nerfh…@convergence-con.org.

2) Nerf Herders have commissioned small infrared people counters that can be attached to the doors, and we will be testing them several times before the Con. If you are interested in these, either using them or just about what information we might be collecting from them, please contact us nerfh…@convergence-con.org and we can tell you all about it!

Partner announcements

JOFShop

The Journeyfolk of Fandom Workshops, or JOFShop, is a series of workshops and get-togethers for conrunners of all kinds. We believe that everyone, from the newest volunteer to the 20+ year veterans, has both something to learn and something to share. Our first meeting is 5pm on Sunday November 29 at the Chatterbox Pub in Saint Paul. We ask that you invite people you know who work on other conventions as we want this to be a pan-fandom event.
The Journeyfolk of Fandom also have a Slack chat with a worldwide membership at jofs.slack.com. If you’re interested, email M Waterhouse at akad…@gmail.com.
Hope to see you on the 29th!

GPS Geek Partner Society

Reminders for ConCom departments:

If you need to communicate with GPS for CVG 2016 needs or questions, contact is GPS ConOps at con…@geekpartnership.org.
If you need to reserve space at Event Horizon in the Waterbury Building the online request form is at tinyurl.com/sitescheduling. Remember for 3 hours and under, just go ahead and schedule. For more than that, just get your directors approval, then schedule. email is sitesch…@geekpartnership.org.

GPS Programming News

The submission window for the 2016 Space Camp Scholarship is open now through December 10, which is less than a month once you factor in Thanksgiving. Know anyone between 10 to 14 years old? Help spread the word!
Project Lighthouse is holding an informational meeting for parents, teachers, librarians, rec center coordinators, and anyone interested in learning more about this flagship program are welcome. This is on Tuesday, November 10 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at Event Horizon in room 107. There will be demonstrations from some of the providers. As announced at the concom – Help us break our budget again! Share this around!

Fundraising News – I did not go into this in the announcements at Concom, so details are here:

As many of you know, GPS operates Event Horizon, the center for geeks in the Twin Cities, to provide year round infrastructure and support to our partners and the larger geek community. We also do a lot of our own community building with clubs and events, as well as public outreach to encourage creativity and interest in learning and the sciences. This takes money. Convergence Events is our biggest supporter currently with an annual grant of $25,000, but that covers just over a quarter of our budget. Here are some of the other ways we raise funds, and how you can help.

Supporting Membership Drive
Want to support what we do directly? We are currently running our very first supporting membership drive! It’s modeled on supporting memberships at TPT TV and Public Radio. You can go online to our donation portal for more details and to sign up. Donations can be one time or monthly. Supporting members who donate a minimum of $60 a year (one time annual donation or recurring $5 per month) may become a Card Carrying Geek. Questions? email membe…@geekpartnership.org.

June 4, 2016 | 5pm start | Pirate Cruise Fundraiser – Tickets are now available at: http://m.bpt.me/event/2277328. (Hmmm… A possible giftmas option?)
We invite you to don your favorite tricorn hat and fasten on that peg leg for our Pirate Cruise fundraising event, launching out of Stillwater, June 4th, 2016. This should give you plenty of lead time to work on that costume, if you don’t have one already. All attendees will receive a Booty Bag and entry tickets into the cruise Raffles, as well as entertainment provided by local bands. Additionally there will be a cash bar during the cruise and a picture “booth” on the docks before we launch.

Employer Matching Gift Programs
Some employers have a gift matching program to augment their employees’ charitable donations. These programs usually have sign-up windows during their employee benefit enrollment periods, which tend to happen September through November. If your company does such a program you can check to see if Geek Partnership Society is on the list. If not, you might be able to get us added and get more bang for your donation buck! Questions? email fundr…@geekpartnership.org

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Charity Auction is done with auctions for 2015, but still has work to do processing ongoing donations, verifying, consolidating, and photographing existing inventory, testing out a new inventory system, and planning for next year’s auctions. If you are interested in joining this year round team please email silent…@geekpartnership.org.

This month for GPS

Fri Nov 13 | 7pm | GPS Edutainment – Laws
The “Edutainment Video Discussion” is a series of events gathering people together to watch and discuss curated collections of videos on various topics. During each event we will watch videos on a topics, with discussion breaks during and after video blocks. November’s topic is Laws. We will start the first block of videos at 7pm.

Sat Nov 14 | 6:30 pm | GPS Movie Night – Movember Celebration
Double header – Join GPS Movie Night for an evening of Big Mustaches, Fast Cars, and Fun Films!

It’s Their Highway. You’re Just Driving on It. Thorny (Jay Chandrasekhar), Mac (Steve Lemme), Rabbit (Eric Stolhanske), Foster (Paul Soter) and Farva (Kevin Heffernan) are Vermont state troopers out to have a good time. Stationed in a remote area near the Canadian border, the troopers, avid pranksters with an affinity for syrup, have a knack for screwing up on the job. But when budget cuts in the town of Spurbury threaten their livelihood and pit them against arch-rival Spurbury P.D., the five friends try to straighten up and fly right. That is, until a dead body is discovered and a possible drug ring is unearthed. The troopers spring into action attempting to solve the crime, save their jobs, and outdo the local police department.
Time to Take to the Road, for a Quiet Little Drive in the Country…Or Not. Bandit (Burt Reynolds) and Cledus (Jerry Reed) are two truck-driving southerners who accept a dare from big-shots Big and Little Enos to pick up a truckload of beer from Texas and return it to them within a specified amount of time. Picking it up is simple enough, but as they are leaving Texas, Bandit unwittingly picks up Carrie (Sally Field), a hitchhiking bride-to-be who just left her groom, Junior, at the altar. Junior, however, is the son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice. And when Buford and Junior discover what has happened, they go on a “high-speed pursuit” across the Southeast to catch the bandit.

Join your tribe for an evening of film and fun in room 107 at GPS Event Horizon. Located at 1121 Jackson St NE in Minneapolis. As always, feel free to bring your own snacks (or dinner!) and a comfy chair. We will have some snacks and soda available for sale.

Still not sure what we’re watching? RSVP for the event and we will send you the titles in your confirmation email.

Mon Nov 16 | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Figure Drawing Salon
The GPS Arts Initiative holds a monthly 3-hour Figure Drawing Salon the 3rd Monday of every month in the Event Horizon classroom (106A). The session includes short, medium and long poses. There is a nominal fee ($5) to help defray the cost of models and other outlays. For questions email ar…@geekpartnership.org.

Upcoming for GPS
Sat Dec 12 | 5pm – 11pm | GPS Movie Night – December Blockbuster Edition – A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away… GPS Movie night invites you to a screening of the original theatrical releases of three of the most beloved films of our time, just days before the next installment of the series hits theaters. The evening will include Cosplay, a potluck meal, and trivia during intermissions.

Additional Volunteer/Charity Opportunities
Sat Sun Nov 10 & 22 – Gryffindorks Twin Cities HPA 1st Annual Coats & Cloaks Drive
Do you have extra unused coats in your closet? Donate them! GPS is supporting the Gryffindorks Greater Twin Cities of MN HPA Chapter, who is holding a coat drive at the Palette & Purl, 4080 W. Broadway Ave. Ste. 125, Minneapolis on November 10 & 11 from10am to 5pm. Can’t make it there? Drop your coat off at Event Horizon in the Waterbury, and we’ll get it to them for you. There will be someone in the center all week, Monday through Friday, from 7pm to 9pm.

Sun Nov 29 – Answering phones at TPT! Be on TV!
Here’s a volunteer opportunity. GPS has been asked to staff up to 20 spots for this Sunday pledge drive. This night’s feature is Downtown Abbey! Check out the meetup for details, and sign up there. http://www.meetup.com/Geek-Partnership-Society/events/226646393/