CONvergence Convention Committee Meeting Notes

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Future meeting dates (subject to change)

  • 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

New email address clarification and department email addresses.

We understand that there was some confusion with the addition of @cvgcon.org for emails. This email is an alias for the @convergence-con.org. It is not an additional mailbox. The reason for the addition is 1. To make it easier to tell people what email to send to. 2. To make it easier to type the address when using phones or other devices. You can still use all @convergence-con.org and @convergenceevents.org emails. You do not need to update your contact list.

We will also be sending out a list of all current emails within the Convergence Events domain. This list will include department mailboxes, (where the emails will be archived and are accessed by departments only), and alias email addresses and what department mailbox they go to.

Email escalation procedure

If you email a department or individual in a department and do not receive a response within 72 hours, please try again. If you do not receive a response after 48 hours on the second email, please email their director. If you do not receive a response from their director within 24 hours, please email the director back up. If you do not receive a response at this point from anyone within 24 hours, please email the Board of Directors.

We ask that all Convention Committee members please try to abide by these response times to avoid placing undue burden on your fellow members. We acknowledge that there may be incidents during the cycle where a quick turnaround is needed. Please include the department’s director in the initial email chain and tag the beginning of subject line with TIME SENSITIVE.

Addition of a convention calendar

We have added a Google convention calendar. You will all be sent an email that will allow you to add it to your personal calendar. For now this calendar will have meeting dates and department deadlines and open department meetings for the convention committee. We will be working on a public calendar to be placed on the Convergence Events website, and a process for departments to have dates added to the public calendar.

Concom meeting notes, Board of Director meeting notes.

We are in the process of coming up with a new way of dispersing meeting notes and a central location for easy access. May meeting notes will be sent out in PDF form, but after that the new process will be in place for the next meeting. We will also be updating the Board of Director meeting notes. We will have additional information at the June meeting. During this change all meeting notes have been removed from the Convergence Events website.

Membership Rate increase

As you know budget expenses have increased in the past years. To combat our increasing deficit the Board of Directors have decided to increase the membership prices starting with the 2018 convention cycle. Membership rate increase dates will remain the same.

For adult memberships:

  • Through January 15th, $75
  • January 16th thru June 1st, $85
  • June 2nd thru end of convention, $125

For youth memberships (age 13 to 17):

  • Through June 1st, $45
  • June 2nd thru end of convention $65.

For children memberships (age 6 to 12):

  • Through June 1st, $25
  • June 2nd thru end of convention $35.

Delay in communications with Publications

Due to a change within the department, there currently will be delays in communications with the Publication department. If you have submitted a request, the department will be contacting you as soon as possible. If you have not been contacted by ?the end of next week, please resubmit your request. T?hank you for your patients.

Volunteer party

The Board of Directors have set themselves to take a more active role in providing the elements for your volunteer thank you party. If you have input, concerns, or wish to help out in any of these sections, please contact the director overseeing that element.

  • Amy, at the door raffle prizes
  • Nadim, food
  • JP, MC for the evening
  • Thomas, raffle drawing/ presentation
  • Margaret, pool room
  • Liz and other directors, table for volunteer hour submission and perk pick up
  • The volunteer department will still be gathering gifts for volunteer perks and no need to be present to win raffle items.

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.

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 therefore have not been included in the meeting notes.

Activities

Connie’s Quantum Sandbox

Gaming
Anyone from the Convention Committee who’s interested in running a game on 22nd floor this year, please contact [email protected] before May 31– gaming will be delighted to work with you to iron out details.

Administration

Merchandise
Here are the merch announcements:

  1. Shirts will be sold at the May and first June concom.
    • All are $26.
    • Women’s s-2x
    • Unisex s-6x
  2. Merchandise would like 1-2 paper bags full of newspapers.

Registration
We are currently showing 4564 registrations for this year Last year at approximately the same time we had 4124 registrations

Volunteers

  1. Please remember to use the Volunteer Need Notification form if you need a position filled. You can find it under the ConCom menu at the Convergence Events site: http://www.convergenceevents.org/departments/volunteers/volunteer-need-notification/
  2. Shiftboard! Hannah Stein brought to you a lovely presentation how to use Shiftboard. Please see the attached files* as learning resources, and use the link Sean sent for the template (https://www.dropbox.com/s/aeisyv7oji3l54c/ShiftboardShiftUpload-STANDARD-1%20Vols%20Example.xls?dl=0?) *files will be attached to this email

Communication and External Relations

Social Media
Department heads/co-heads need to STOP ANSWERING QUESTIONS IN THE FACEBOOK FORUM. Proper procedure, if they see something, is to reach out to the Social Media team, indicate the thread, and (if we haven’t already) ask us to moderate the post– likely we’ll be kind and tell the person to e-mail [email protected] with that question so it reaches the proper people through the OFFICIAL CHANNELS because FB is not official dang nabbit).

Photography
Volunteers has asked for Photography to take the concom photos this year, so Photography wil taking photos after the meeting.

Publications
Due to a change within the department, there currently will be delays in communications with the Publication department. If you have submitted a request, the department will be contacting you as soon as possible. If you have not been contacted by ?the end of next week, please resubmit your request. T?hank you for your patients.

Webteam
Webteam has a new project manager: please welcome Jana Worrall to the ConCom. Jana is a professional project manager and scrum master with many years of experience. She will be answering and managing website update requests sent to [email protected]. Webteam is very excited to have her on the team and believe she will help us streamline our process and complete requests for you all faster.

Facilities

Logistics

  1. We will be having a work day on May 20 from 10 AM to 2 PM at the storage unit.
    Address for storage unit:
    221 American Blvd
    Bloomington 55420

    Filling out the form for this event is not required.
    However, if you could please at least email [email protected].
    This way we can plan for your arrival. When you arrive, please call my cell XXX-XXX-XXXX so we can let you in.

  2. As a reminder: we are able to accept deliveries at the Storage Unit
    Please use the following address:
    Your Name Department
    Convergence 1015
    221 American Blvd
    Bloomington MN, 55420

    You will need to fill out a delivery form found at http://www.convergenceevents.org/departments/logistics

    Please let the company know that the truck will need to have a lift gate, as there is not a loading dock.

  3. With CONvergence getting closer it is becoming clear that access to lock-up is needed more often for different departments. When I receive a request for access I will post the information out to the ConCom, so if your department needs to get in to storage you can notify me that you need access as well and we can try to get all requests done at once.
  4. Finally if you are having any thing dropped off at GPS please do the following.
    1. Please pack everything that has been dropped off, Logistics or GPS is not responsible for making sure your items are ready to go.
    2. Label your the items with your department name. We want to make sure that everything gets to the correct department when it is dropped off.
    3. Please coordinate with GPS Quartermaster (Shari Hartshorn) where the items can be stored until they are picked up for con. This is common courtesy to GPS.

Any questions please contact us at the logistics email.

Nerf Herders

Resume
Today is Final SignOff day for your DoubleTree Resume Documents! (We’ll contact those Departments with Sheraton Resume needs shortly about their Final Sign Off.)
This is the time for at least one of you from each Department to visit with one of us to double-check your Resume documents for typos and minor things that might have gotten lost in translation as we compiled all of the Departments information into the One Document(s) to Rule Them All! We’ll see you at the working portion of the meeting!

Hospitality

First Advisors

Guest of Honor

F2E2
I’d like to re-address the taste-testing for cold press (and again ask for volunteer baristas for the CVG shifts this coming summer) so if you could add that to the announcement list, that’d be awesome.

Operations
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 fulfil 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.

Auxiliary Operations Space in the Sheraton
Operations will have an Auxiliary Bridge location in the Sheraton this year. It will serve as the convention headquarters in The Sheraton, similar to the main bridge. Here’s some quick points about AuxBridge:AuxBridge is located in the Quinn Room, above and behind the Garden Court. Maps and signs will be available to direct people to the location.
AuxBridge hours are:

  • Thursday through Saturday – 10:00am – 8:00pm
  • Sunday – 10:00am – 4:00pm

It will be staffed by an Operations Guru or other member of Operations leadership, a Wandering Host, and 1 to 2 Bridge Volunteers. Nerf herders will also have a space available in AuxBridge for their use. AuxBridge will have the daily lost and found for the Sheraton. At close each evening, the Lost and Found will be brought to the Main bridge in the Double Tree.

Members can ask questions and provide feedback just like on the Main Bridge.

AuxBridge is also a Safe Space.

Peacebonding will not be done on the AuxBridge, members will need to go to the Main Bridge for all Peacebonding.

Did you know, Operations has a Text Number?

The operations text number, 651 800 1 OPS (651.800.1677), can be used by anyone wishing to make something known to the department. Anything sent to this number is received by our Dispatch Suite and is processed in a manner similar to what is done for radio communications. If someone needs help, if someone is worried about the safety or well being of another member, if there are things happening that warrant review and potential intervention by a Wandering Host, please text us. 651 800 1 OPS (651.800.1677). All members of the ConCom should put this number in their phones and tell all of their friends to do the same.

Operations Department Orientation Sessions
We will be hosting a series of CONvergence Operations Orientation sessions for new and returning volunteers. We welcome any member of the ConCom is welcome to attend these sessions to learn more about what Operations does and how we work.

These sessions provide an overview of the department, the convention policies for which Operations is responsible, discussion of specific procedures that we have in place for dealing with various types of situations and provide exposure to the overarching philosophy that guides the actions of members of our department, as well as providing an overview of any changes that have taken place for the benefit of our returning volunteers. These sessions will take place at the GPS space in the Waterbury Building and are scheduled:

  • Saturday, May 27 1:00pm – 4:30pm
  • Sunday, June 11 1:00p – 4:30pm
  • Thursday, June 27 6:00pm – 9:30pm
  • Saturday June 24, 1:00pm – 3:30pm

Productions

Opening and Closing Ceremony
Paul Cornell will be mc for opening ceremonies and Bridget Landry will be mc for closing ceremonies.

Systems

IT
Shiftboard and Wiki

Finance
Checks at Con Reminder:
If you know you will need a check at the convention please let Finance know by the final ConCom meeting.

Future Visioning Committee

Partners

JOFShop

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.

GPS

Community announcements

Eowyn

We are sad to announce the passing of a longtime member of the twin cities geek community, Jim (James) E. Danielson. He volunteered for many years at local conventions including Convergence and was instrumental in forming our current procedures for our Dock department.
This announcement likely comes as a shock to those who knew him. Jim and his wife Rhonda are very private people and when he was diagnosed with cancer over a year ago they elected to keep the news mostly to themselves. In that vein, Jim’s widow would appreciate it if persons respected her privacy, if anyone has condolences, stories, or other communications I ( Eowyn Ward) would be happy to pass them on. Please approach me at the meeting or email me, my email is available in the concom list.
There will not be a viewing or funeral, if anyone has questions they may again contact me (Eowyn). If you have mourning traditions in your own culture, faith, or feelings please feel free to do it.
Lastly, Rhonda wanted everyone to know that Jim fought till the very end. His cancer was linked to the human papilloma virus, and if you know of anyone at an age that they can get this vaccine she greatly encourages it.