CONvergence Convention Committee Meeting Notes
Sunday, October 13th, 2013
New Bylaws
The Board of Directors has been working on our Bylaws to fix some errors found and update them to the needs of our organization.
With the help of MAPS, Thomas Keeley and Christin “LeXi” Davies drafted the bylaws and presented them to the Board of Directors on September 9th, 2013. On October 9th, 2013 with more than 2/3 Majority Vote (Both required per the then standing bylaws) the new Bylaws were adopted. We encourage you to read them and if you have questions please feel free to contact any of the directors (Contact info at the end of this email). http://www.convergenceevents.org/about/bylaws/
Note: The current Election rules are being updated this week to conform to the new bylaws and notification will be sent out shortly when they are complete.
Upcoming Election
Two positions are up for election in January: Activities (Currently held by Michael Lee, who is stepping down at the end of his term) and Communications (currently held by Christin LeXi Davies, who has stated her intent to run for another term). The deadline for self nomination is 11:59 PM, November 15. Declaration must be made to the Convergence Events Secretary via written notice; electronic notice is acceptable. Send to le…@convergenceevents.org
ConCom
We need to know who your sub-heads and year round staff members are. Please send the info to LeXi no later than October 20th so a complete contact list can be sent out to the ConCom. Once all info is received the members will be added to the Google group so they will get all email notices.
Info required- Department, role (sub-head/staff), name, email address, phone number, text ok, t-shirt size
Complimentary Membership Policy
All complimentary membership requests need to be reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors. Approved comps will be charged back to the requesting department at the base price (for that year) up until June 15th. After June 15th the comp will be charged back to the requesting department at the at-the-door price (for that year).
2014 Comp Deadlines/chargeback prices:
Requests approved on or before June 15th, 2014: $60 each
Requests approved on or after June 16th, 2014: $120 each
Please remember to budget for your comp memberships in advance.
Music
Every year the Board of Directors work very hard to balance the needs of membership to ensure that we provide the best convention possible.
At the last Board of Directors Summit, the Board looked at the departments of CONvergence and it was decided to split music at CONvergence into two different departments, Programming and Main Stage. Programming and Main Stage will be working together to create a process for applying for performance space and will post it on the website as soon as it is ready.
Social Media
The Directors have adopted a new policy for Social Media.
In order to make sure we have a unified voice it has been decided that departments may not have Public social media pages/groups/accounts. If your department has a public social media account, please either remove it or make it private. You may have private groups for the use of connecting with your department staff.
Any public announcements for CONvergence departments will be sent to the social media team to post on our CONvergence page/group/accounts.
(this includes all social media outlets, i.e. twitter, facebook, g+, tumblr, etc…)
Also all accounts will need to have one of the two Social Media Heads added as an admin or given account login credentials for all private accounts, so that in the event that you are asked to join the Enterprise to explore strange new worlds, we can take care of the account in your absence.
If you have questions please contact your director.
Banners
Does your department need a banner? Send an email to public…@convergence-con.org no later than October 19th in order to get one for this year. We have to make sure to add them to the budget and will not accept requests for banners after this date.
IT
If anyone has any IT solutions needed for this coming year please write up your requirements and send to the IT group. Please include necessary functions as well as nice to haves and pipe dreams. We will endeavor to find a solution within our standards and at a reasonable cost and will present options to you. Please understand that this process will take research and is therefore going to take some time.
Programming
- Requests for Garden Court and Outdoor spaces: please send any requests for use of this space to us by web form
http://www.convergence-con.org/panel-suggestion (preferred) or email at progr…@convergence-con.org. For Garden Court, we have already been coordinating two of the three sections. We will be handling requests for the third section (south east) as well. For both of these, we are trying to prevent the duplicate assignments that happened last year. - Programming schedule changes: we are considering starting programming at 12:30 on Thursday. We understand that many people won’t be here, but it’s a choice of that slot or not offering the panels at all (which guarantees that no one will attend (:-)). We welcome your comments.
- If you are aware of any use of programming space that happens “regularly” or “we always do it,” please TELL US. As a rule, nothing is automatically added to the schedule: everything must be requested each year. While there are some exceptions such as the Saturday evening Art Auction, don’t assume that your favorite is an exception: request it. By having people re-request panels, it gives us someone to contact. In particular, if you are representing or working with GPS on panels, please contact us.
- The Programming brainstorming will be Sunday, November 17 from 10am-1pm (note time change!) here at the DoubleTree. It will be a different format this year, with an emphasis on achieving a smaller number of fully-described panels and not just a huge list of titles. As always, we encourage you to send them to us via the web form or email at any time.
- We will be changing to using a web form for all panelist sign ups. URL to follow.
- We are looking to expand video to all large rooms. As such, we will need some A/V specialist volunteers to help during con. Please contact us (progr…@convergence-con.org) if you’re interested.
Guests
As was announced at the Closing Ceremonies of CONvergence 2013, our Guests of Honor for CONvergence 2014 are:
- C. Robert Cargill
- Scott Lynch
- Greg Weisman
- Amy Berg
We are pleased to announce that Emma Bull, author, musician and coffee addict (and the Queen of the Seelie Court Herself), and Sarah Clemens, artist and creator of Magnus and Loki, will be joining us as well. Please visit http://convergence-con.org/guests/ to learn more about our Guests of Honor.
Deadlines
We need your help! As a goal for our entire organization for the year, please be mindful and respect deadlines of all departments.
As an example, last year many departments did not make the publications deadline and as a result the printer worked overnights to make sure that our souvenir guide and pocket schedules we ready on time for the convention. This can cost the convention 1000’s of dollars in extra rush charges and could ultimately result in a bad experience for our members. Not to mention the extra long hours spent by our volunteers to get things done on time. Can you imagine not having pubs at Con? How would anyone know when the panels or special events are?
So please lets all work together to make sure that we do our part to ensure that we respond to all deadlines of all departments.
First Advisors
No clowns were tazed in the making of the last con and we are working hard to not taze a clown for the next con.
If you are part of the ConCom and have a medical condition you think we need to know about or we may need to respond to, please let us know through an email to firsta…@convergence-con.org. We will also be handing out ICE cards for the same information.
Hotel
The Sheraton Bloomington is back!!!
As some may have heard, the Sheraton Bloomington returns to CONvergence’s corner of the world. No, it will NOT be located at 7800 Normandale Blvd. That building remains the DoubleTree by Hilton.
However, as per a letter received by the CONvergence Hotel Team, the Sofitel has been sold, and as of Nov. 1, 2013 will be re-branded as the Sheraton Bloomington. The CONvergence Hotel Team was just recently advised of this change and is hoping to meet with the new General Manager of the soon-to-be Sheraton Bloomington. We will keep you updated.
Finance
Your annual budget requests are now due! Your budget should be an educated guess about how much your department is going to spend. It needs to be broken out by lines and understandable to both myself and your division director. Feel free to add extra explanation if you feel the need. If you choose not to submit a budget, your department will be expected to not spend anything. For some of you, this isn’t a problem, for the rest of you, well, you decide.
The process works like this: your directors are required to hand me completed divisional budgets on, or before October 21th. That means that they have to have them from you before then so they can review and compile. Your divisional director should have already given you a deadline. If they haven’t, you can assume that by October 20th at 11:59pm, they need your final submission. Once they submit it, I will be compiling all of them together, and making a recommendation to the board of a workable budget. At that point, the board wlll debate, trade, and come to a consensus on what our budget will be. Those final numbers will be relayed back to you.
More info can be found at: http://www.convergenceevents.org/about/financial-reports/
Please direct any questions to fin…@convergenceevent.org and I’ll do my best to answer. (Thomas Keeley-CFO)
ConCom Meetings
Remember if you want to be on the Agenda for the ConCom meeting please email me no later than Thursday November 14th. Please help me to get the notes from the meeting out sooner, send me what you want me to put in the notes when you make your request or at least by the end of the meeting.
2014 CONvergence Calendar
October 20th Budgets are DUE to your director, ConCom department staff lists due, Banner requests due (No Meeting on this date)
November 17th ConCom Meeting- Confirmation of Elections Judges, Announcement of Candidates, Budgets announced
January 19 ConCom Meeting- Election
**February 15th ConCom Meeting -Not confirmed with Hotel yet**
March 22nd ConCom Meeting-
April 13th ConCom Meeting- Resume Deadline, New Art Deadline
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 (note: on the agenda at meeting the date is incorrect)
Divisional Meetings
Activities, Administration, Communications, H.O.M.E., and Productions will have their divisional meetings before each ConCom meeting.