Carl Stark posted a public letter to the Trustees of CONduit.
Open Letter to the Trustees
The Trustees have replied.
Open Letter Response
Please read both letters. I think the Trustees are making a concerted effort to make the changes desired by the majority of Utah fen. This does include Trustees attending club events and answering questions in person. Keep in mind that no convention, club, organization, group, etc. can please all of the people all of the time. All CONduit can hope to do is please the majority of the people the majority of the time.
Now the hard part. The convention needs people who want to see this vision through to volunteer to lead that vision. Applications for the Department Head positions are being accepted through July 1st. If you truly want to see CONduit become the convention that you want it to be, apply to take a role in that change. If you aren't selected, volunteer to help the new Department Heads by working one of their sub-departments. This is an all volunteer, not for profit organization after all.
Apply Here!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Help a Fellow Fan Save Her House...
...and get some awesome collectables too!
Greetings everyone
Please feel free to forward this to any email lists or blogs.
Ruth Burns is holding a yard sale this weekend. This is to raise money to help her save her house and to clear out a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy collectibles that she has. She informed me that there will be a lot of Star Trek, Star Wars, Dragons and Unicorns at this sale. There will also be some old China and a heavy duty sewing machine for sale as well.
This yard sale will run from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm from Friday to Monday. July 1st-4th
Ruth's house is located at 4271 West 3930 South in West Valley City. You can call 801-870-6213 if you get lost.
Thanks for all of your help,
Carl Stark
Greetings everyone
Please feel free to forward this to any email lists or blogs.
Ruth Burns is holding a yard sale this weekend. This is to raise money to help her save her house and to clear out a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy collectibles that she has. She informed me that there will be a lot of Star Trek, Star Wars, Dragons and Unicorns at this sale. There will also be some old China and a heavy duty sewing machine for sale as well.
This yard sale will run from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm from Friday to Monday. July 1st-4th
Ruth's house is located at 4271 West 3930 South in West Valley City. You can call 801-870-6213 if you get lost.
Thanks for all of your help,
Carl Stark
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Obligatory Sappy Post - Dave Powell
Cheryl Sneddon hosted a cook out yesterday. I unfortunately was late enough to miss some folks. I'm terribly sorry about that. When I got there I saw a nice mix of folks. There were old timers and newer folks, local folks and former locals passing through town, fan club folks and con only folks. This lovely rainbow included Robert Aswin, Chris Blair, Carl and Erica Stark, Brad and Tamara Hawks, Charles Galaway, Cheryl the host, and from Spokane were Randy and Char MacKay.
Amidst this lovely mix of people was a little shrine to Dave Powell; a picture of him dressed as Isaac Asimov leaned against a ceramic TARDIS and his poor, beat up propeller hat was hanging off it. It took an act of will to not burst into tears right there. Every time I think about Dave, I feel heartsick at the loss to the fannish world.
When I first moved to Salt Lake, I was a hick kid from a dying, Midwestern, blue collar town who's entire economy was dependent on agriculture and one automobile factory. Salt Lake was the big city to me. My one anchor was fandom and gaming. I found out about this thing called a "science fiction convention" from a group of Trekkies who called themselves the U.S.S. Kelly. They had invaded the Waldenbooks by my high school. I sold the idea of this thing to my gaming club and we sold it to our academic sponsors. Thus, the Associated Gamers of West had a field trip to CONduit 2.
It was at CONduit 2 that I met Dave. He was this goofy, older guy who was absolutely welcoming to all. He must have immediately noticed how lost I and my friends were. This complete stranger took the time to show us around and (after we lost the others in the game room) introduce me around to people. I felt completely at ease with odd, older fellow. When he offered me a ride home, I knew that I was safe in that big Star Trek van of his. My mother was initially freaked out, but also judged him as a good person. I trust her instincts. She'd never been wrong on the quality of people.
That started years of me riding around to fan clubs all over the valley with Dave. There was a little group of us. Heidi, Karen and I were the SMOFettes to Dave's Poppa SMOF. I skipped the cool kid parties to go and hang out with Dave at Outer Gallifrey, the U.S.S. Kelly, Rebels Associated, and more. I'd give anything for those old, crazy days of 25 nerds of all ages trick-or-treating his neighborhood together.
Dave was a strong unifying force within fandom. All of the various fan groups and categories knew they had a fan in Dave. We desperately need such a person or group of people now. Poppa SMOF, how I miss you...
Amidst this lovely mix of people was a little shrine to Dave Powell; a picture of him dressed as Isaac Asimov leaned against a ceramic TARDIS and his poor, beat up propeller hat was hanging off it. It took an act of will to not burst into tears right there. Every time I think about Dave, I feel heartsick at the loss to the fannish world.
When I first moved to Salt Lake, I was a hick kid from a dying, Midwestern, blue collar town who's entire economy was dependent on agriculture and one automobile factory. Salt Lake was the big city to me. My one anchor was fandom and gaming. I found out about this thing called a "science fiction convention" from a group of Trekkies who called themselves the U.S.S. Kelly. They had invaded the Waldenbooks by my high school. I sold the idea of this thing to my gaming club and we sold it to our academic sponsors. Thus, the Associated Gamers of West had a field trip to CONduit 2.
It was at CONduit 2 that I met Dave. He was this goofy, older guy who was absolutely welcoming to all. He must have immediately noticed how lost I and my friends were. This complete stranger took the time to show us around and (after we lost the others in the game room) introduce me around to people. I felt completely at ease with odd, older fellow. When he offered me a ride home, I knew that I was safe in that big Star Trek van of his. My mother was initially freaked out, but also judged him as a good person. I trust her instincts. She'd never been wrong on the quality of people.
That started years of me riding around to fan clubs all over the valley with Dave. There was a little group of us. Heidi, Karen and I were the SMOFettes to Dave's Poppa SMOF. I skipped the cool kid parties to go and hang out with Dave at Outer Gallifrey, the U.S.S. Kelly, Rebels Associated, and more. I'd give anything for those old, crazy days of 25 nerds of all ages trick-or-treating his neighborhood together.
Dave was a strong unifying force within fandom. All of the various fan groups and categories knew they had a fan in Dave. We desperately need such a person or group of people now. Poppa SMOF, how I miss you...
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Future of Utah Fandom
...not just a convention.
Until fairly recently, being a geek, nerd, dork, etc. was far from cool. Most older and a few younger fen can share stories of bullying, mockery and other ill treatment at the hands of the "mundane" world. These are stories of survival. This is something we share with many other sub-cultures.
We all need to take a big step back away from the ongoing debates. Many arguments are encroaching on that self-same bullying and mockery. It is not pandering or selling out to be inclusive. Think back through your lives. I'm sure everyone of us has a painful memory of not being included or of having our efforts to include ourselves laughed at. Please, don't do this to your fellow fen. Our fellow fen are our family by choice. How would we like for some of the things said to our fellow fen to be said to our brothers, sisters, spouses, parents, etc.
NOBODY'S FANDOM IS SUPERIOR TO ANOTHER FEN'S FANDOM!! PERIOD!!
Until fairly recently, being a geek, nerd, dork, etc. was far from cool. Most older and a few younger fen can share stories of bullying, mockery and other ill treatment at the hands of the "mundane" world. These are stories of survival. This is something we share with many other sub-cultures.
We all need to take a big step back away from the ongoing debates. Many arguments are encroaching on that self-same bullying and mockery. It is not pandering or selling out to be inclusive. Think back through your lives. I'm sure everyone of us has a painful memory of not being included or of having our efforts to include ourselves laughed at. Please, don't do this to your fellow fen. Our fellow fen are our family by choice. How would we like for some of the things said to our fellow fen to be said to our brothers, sisters, spouses, parents, etc.
NOBODY'S FANDOM IS SUPERIOR TO ANOTHER FEN'S FANDOM!! PERIOD!!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
CONduit June SFCon Business Meeting
Hunter Library Jun 18, 10:00am
10:20-10:23 Brad Draws!!!
10:25 - Brad asks for those knowledgeable about corporate structure, since the SFCOn needs to issue new articles of incorporation. SFCon is currently a non-profit corporation. I am breaking down the comparisons by posting a link: http://www.themoneyalert.com/Corp-Entity-Table.html SFCon will look into the 501c3 filing and re-issuing their articles of incorporation. The specific details will be moved into a smaller meeting with the Trustees and a small group. Eddy Roberts has volunteered to research the requirements for a C Corp and 501c3 in detail. 501c3: IRS application to file (5 years of financials down to every penny, fee based on gross revenue), file yearly tax report (990 form), list with state consumer protection agency any charitable donations (including pass through). Our current charity pass through is the Christa McAuliffe Foundation. Typical convention cash flow problem: 1/4 of income before the con. 3/4 of income during con. 1/2 of bills need to be paid before the con. SFCon is more likely to qualify as 501c7 than a 501c3, due to the nature of what we are. Being a 501c? will allow for tax write-off donations, but marketing departments have more money than donations departments. The only advantage is getting grants, but who would give us a grant? It would eliminate our tax burden. (spending $850 to save $200-300 in taxes) What scrutiny are we under now? (Report income and pay taxes.) Debbie says that we should wait on filing for 501c? until we are Tom's monster, since when do file it becomes written in stone.
11:58 - Martin motions for a vote to table the concern.
11:59 - Brad and Mike O. debate the specific wording of non-profit vs not-for-profit. Boils down to non-profit at the state level and not-for-profit at the federal level. Joe interjected that they state and fed changed the labels and made them interchangeable. Mail services do exist to reduce mailing cost. Do not need to be a 501c? to qualify for postal non-profit. SFCon most qualifies as an education.
11:04 - Ruth seconds Martin's proposal to table.
11:05 - Need improved web presence. Embedding changeable (blogs, calendars, etc.) content improves search engine results.
11:08 - Unanimous Trustee vote to table the filing of a 501c?. SFCon will remain a C Corp non-profit.
11:09 - Articles of incorporation are messy. Determined that was really the bylaws. Need to review the bylaws completely. Need to come up with a design and change the bylaws to match the design.
11:11 - Ruth proposes that a sub-committee be formed to develop the new bylaws, rather than in an open meeting.
11:12 - Articles of incorporation are simple. Cheryl proposes a standing governance committee, separate from the Trustees and ConCom. They would be the ones who would handle organizational procedures, policies, reviewing, etc. on an organic basis at the direction of the Trustees. Set up a committee of 3-5 members to review bylaws and chuck the old ones to build new ones. If we want to see change in CONduit, we need new bylaws. Debate over reviewing current vs just chucking them and starting over.
11:22 - What is the vision of CONduit? Brad (CONduit is suffering from the tyranny of the mob, since we operate on a random voting procedure that can be attended by anyone. Voting on issues is sometimes voted on by different people than those who participated in the original discussion. Schizophrenic to self-destructive. Extremely dangerous to the corporation due to the fact that the corporation is legally responsible for the decisions of the mob.) Eddy (CONduit is the textbook case of corporate negligence.) Brad (Create a hierarchical system of Trustees -> Department Heads -> Everyone else. The only ones with votes would be the Trustees and Department Heads. This would eliminate the the chaos. CEO-COO-CFO on the Executive Committee (Trustees). Administrative Committee would be the Chair and the Department Heads (Business, Scheduling, Gaming, Hospitality, Marketing, Operations, Computer Services, Events/Competitions). Membership in the 11 man committee would be decided on by the committee. Due to these positions not existing right now, the first year will involve a lot of appointment by the Trustees. Allow for applications as well as nominees.) Tom (Proposes that the first year be completely handled by the Trustees, bypassing applications and appointments.) Joe (Articles of incorporation and bylaws are now linked on the CONduit website.) Ruth (Trustees should just appoint the first year, so that everything can be in place by the July ConCom meeting.) Eddy (Supports the unilateral hiring decision of the Trustees. Make it clear that this is a 2012 decision and 2013 will be handled through the application/nomination process.) Tom (The con is getting weak because of the mob.) Brad (Trustees can fire any department head.) Debbie (Worried that making this decision will accidentally shut out the people who wish to be included.) Martin (Agrees with the idea.) Carl (Could forward these ideas to the UtahFandom list to see about interested parties.) Mike (Some questions about who did what.) Joe (Wants to send out an email to the general fandom lists asking for applications by July 1st.) Eddy (Doesn't like the email ideas since it will create 3 weeks of chaos. Prefers the unilateral decisions.) Mike O (This will change monthly meetings drastically.) Tom (Monthly meetings: 1st hour should be the sub-committees, 2nd hour the Admin/Exec committee.) Carl (Doesn't think the Exec Committee members should not be members of the Admin Committee.) Tamara (Should decide the Admin Committee then have nominations for the people to serve under the Admin Committee.) Ruth (Trustees need to decide the Admin Heads and avoid nominations and move to applications.) Jennifer (Need to just have the heads decided, but allow for platforms.) Martin (Who or what is the governing committee.) Eddy (Governing Committee is part of the corporate entity. The Admin Committee is CONduit specific.)
Business (Con Chair) - Hotel Liaison, procurement, Fan Club Liaison, Treasurer, etc.
Scheduling - Programming, film rooms, etc.
Hospitality - Consuit, green room, guest liaison, etc.
Marketing - Marketing to and from the con (sales force, publicity, etc.)
Operations - At con operations (gophers, security)
Computer Services - Self explanation
Events/Competition - Contests, Ice Cream Social, Filking, etc.
11:59 - Brad moves to enact the Executive Committee/Admin Committee model, details to be worked out in the bylaws. The Admin Committee should be decided before July ConCom. Initiate re-writing the bylaws to reflect this.
12:03 - Unanimous Trustee vote to implement Brad's outline with fine tuning. Applications for 2012 will be accepted through the CONduit website until July 1st. http://conduit.sfcon.org/
12:08 - Brad Hawks will be the CEO. Debbie Lords will be COO. Pam Oberg will be CFO.
12:09 - Brad (Executive Committee will not vote on the same things as the Administrative Committee. Executive Committee can veto a budget, not edit it but veto it. Executive Committee can fire any members of the Admin Committee with a 60% vote.) Brad (Administrative Committee heads will have ultimate power over their department. They can choose to have things handled internal things by vote or not. Administrative Committee would be the ones to vote on major budgetary things like hotel, guest, etc.) Brad (Separating the powers would allow for some overlap to happen between committees without conflicts of interest.) Brad (Chair is the first among equals and will work with the Executive Committee to handle oversight of the department heads.) (The Administrative Committee can call for the resignation of any member of the Executive Committee with a 60% vote. To replace or add an Executive Committee member would be a vote of the combined Executive or Administrative Committee.) (If no one is specifically assigned to do something it won't be done. Keeping it small will reduce political in-fighting.) (Shot down the idea of the Administrative Committee being financially liable, due to the complexity of implementation.) (Admin Committee could vote one of their own out with a 60% vote.) (DO NOT want to be corporate sponsored, but room level sponsorships up to a total of 1/3 of the budget.) Mike O (Trustees are liable, but others would step up to help. Volunteers should never be financially liable.) Martin (Should this work, we will eliminate the problem of it being the same 20-30 people will go away.) Eddy (Make the hiring decisions so that they can make the details decisions.)
12:43 - Break for lunch and the U.S.S. Kelly Party
10:20-10:23 Brad Draws!!!
10:25 - Brad asks for those knowledgeable about corporate structure, since the SFCOn needs to issue new articles of incorporation. SFCon is currently a non-profit corporation. I am breaking down the comparisons by posting a link: http://www.themoneyalert.com/Corp-Entity-Table.html SFCon will look into the 501c3 filing and re-issuing their articles of incorporation. The specific details will be moved into a smaller meeting with the Trustees and a small group. Eddy Roberts has volunteered to research the requirements for a C Corp and 501c3 in detail. 501c3: IRS application to file (5 years of financials down to every penny, fee based on gross revenue), file yearly tax report (990 form), list with state consumer protection agency any charitable donations (including pass through). Our current charity pass through is the Christa McAuliffe Foundation. Typical convention cash flow problem: 1/4 of income before the con. 3/4 of income during con. 1/2 of bills need to be paid before the con. SFCon is more likely to qualify as 501c7 than a 501c3, due to the nature of what we are. Being a 501c? will allow for tax write-off donations, but marketing departments have more money than donations departments. The only advantage is getting grants, but who would give us a grant? It would eliminate our tax burden. (spending $850 to save $200-300 in taxes) What scrutiny are we under now? (Report income and pay taxes.) Debbie says that we should wait on filing for 501c? until we are Tom's monster, since when do file it becomes written in stone.
11:58 - Martin motions for a vote to table the concern.
11:59 - Brad and Mike O. debate the specific wording of non-profit vs not-for-profit. Boils down to non-profit at the state level and not-for-profit at the federal level. Joe interjected that they state and fed changed the labels and made them interchangeable. Mail services do exist to reduce mailing cost. Do not need to be a 501c? to qualify for postal non-profit. SFCon most qualifies as an education.
11:04 - Ruth seconds Martin's proposal to table.
11:05 - Need improved web presence. Embedding changeable (blogs, calendars, etc.) content improves search engine results.
11:08 - Unanimous Trustee vote to table the filing of a 501c?. SFCon will remain a C Corp non-profit.
11:09 - Articles of incorporation are messy. Determined that was really the bylaws. Need to review the bylaws completely. Need to come up with a design and change the bylaws to match the design.
11:11 - Ruth proposes that a sub-committee be formed to develop the new bylaws, rather than in an open meeting.
11:12 - Articles of incorporation are simple. Cheryl proposes a standing governance committee, separate from the Trustees and ConCom. They would be the ones who would handle organizational procedures, policies, reviewing, etc. on an organic basis at the direction of the Trustees. Set up a committee of 3-5 members to review bylaws and chuck the old ones to build new ones. If we want to see change in CONduit, we need new bylaws. Debate over reviewing current vs just chucking them and starting over.
11:22 - What is the vision of CONduit? Brad (CONduit is suffering from the tyranny of the mob, since we operate on a random voting procedure that can be attended by anyone. Voting on issues is sometimes voted on by different people than those who participated in the original discussion. Schizophrenic to self-destructive. Extremely dangerous to the corporation due to the fact that the corporation is legally responsible for the decisions of the mob.) Eddy (CONduit is the textbook case of corporate negligence.) Brad (Create a hierarchical system of Trustees -> Department Heads -> Everyone else. The only ones with votes would be the Trustees and Department Heads. This would eliminate the the chaos. CEO-COO-CFO on the Executive Committee (Trustees). Administrative Committee would be the Chair and the Department Heads (Business, Scheduling, Gaming, Hospitality, Marketing, Operations, Computer Services, Events/Competitions). Membership in the 11 man committee would be decided on by the committee. Due to these positions not existing right now, the first year will involve a lot of appointment by the Trustees. Allow for applications as well as nominees.) Tom (Proposes that the first year be completely handled by the Trustees, bypassing applications and appointments.) Joe (Articles of incorporation and bylaws are now linked on the CONduit website.) Ruth (Trustees should just appoint the first year, so that everything can be in place by the July ConCom meeting.) Eddy (Supports the unilateral hiring decision of the Trustees. Make it clear that this is a 2012 decision and 2013 will be handled through the application/nomination process.) Tom (The con is getting weak because of the mob.) Brad (Trustees can fire any department head.) Debbie (Worried that making this decision will accidentally shut out the people who wish to be included.) Martin (Agrees with the idea.) Carl (Could forward these ideas to the UtahFandom list to see about interested parties.) Mike (Some questions about who did what.) Joe (Wants to send out an email to the general fandom lists asking for applications by July 1st.) Eddy (Doesn't like the email ideas since it will create 3 weeks of chaos. Prefers the unilateral decisions.) Mike O (This will change monthly meetings drastically.) Tom (Monthly meetings: 1st hour should be the sub-committees, 2nd hour the Admin/Exec committee.) Carl (Doesn't think the Exec Committee members should not be members of the Admin Committee.) Tamara (Should decide the Admin Committee then have nominations for the people to serve under the Admin Committee.) Ruth (Trustees need to decide the Admin Heads and avoid nominations and move to applications.) Jennifer (Need to just have the heads decided, but allow for platforms.) Martin (Who or what is the governing committee.) Eddy (Governing Committee is part of the corporate entity. The Admin Committee is CONduit specific.)
Business (Con Chair) - Hotel Liaison, procurement, Fan Club Liaison, Treasurer, etc.
Scheduling - Programming, film rooms, etc.
Hospitality - Consuit, green room, guest liaison, etc.
Marketing - Marketing to and from the con (sales force, publicity, etc.)
Operations - At con operations (gophers, security)
Computer Services - Self explanation
Events/Competition - Contests, Ice Cream Social, Filking, etc.
11:59 - Brad moves to enact the Executive Committee/Admin Committee model, details to be worked out in the bylaws. The Admin Committee should be decided before July ConCom. Initiate re-writing the bylaws to reflect this.
12:03 - Unanimous Trustee vote to implement Brad's outline with fine tuning. Applications for 2012 will be accepted through the CONduit website until July 1st. http://conduit.sfcon.org/
12:08 - Brad Hawks will be the CEO. Debbie Lords will be COO. Pam Oberg will be CFO.
12:09 - Brad (Executive Committee will not vote on the same things as the Administrative Committee. Executive Committee can veto a budget, not edit it but veto it. Executive Committee can fire any members of the Admin Committee with a 60% vote.) Brad (Administrative Committee heads will have ultimate power over their department. They can choose to have things handled internal things by vote or not. Administrative Committee would be the ones to vote on major budgetary things like hotel, guest, etc.) Brad (Separating the powers would allow for some overlap to happen between committees without conflicts of interest.) Brad (Chair is the first among equals and will work with the Executive Committee to handle oversight of the department heads.) (The Administrative Committee can call for the resignation of any member of the Executive Committee with a 60% vote. To replace or add an Executive Committee member would be a vote of the combined Executive or Administrative Committee.) (If no one is specifically assigned to do something it won't be done. Keeping it small will reduce political in-fighting.) (Shot down the idea of the Administrative Committee being financially liable, due to the complexity of implementation.) (Admin Committee could vote one of their own out with a 60% vote.) (DO NOT want to be corporate sponsored, but room level sponsorships up to a total of 1/3 of the budget.) Mike O (Trustees are liable, but others would step up to help. Volunteers should never be financially liable.) Martin (Should this work, we will eliminate the problem of it being the same 20-30 people will go away.) Eddy (Make the hiring decisions so that they can make the details decisions.)
12:43 - Break for lunch and the U.S.S. Kelly Party
Monday, June 13, 2011
Utah Geek Events Calendar
So, chatting with Carl today brought on a shiny, not so new idea. We need a monthly event calendar that compiles all the conventions, club events and other geek goings on. Part of our problem isn't only loss of communications between the cons and clubs. Large sectors of the clubs don't really talk to each other. The calendar can be posted in an easily found place and emailed to every geek list we can find. People could also subscribe to it solo. This would not only increase inter-club communication... it just may net some recruits for folks.
To make this work; I need every speculative fiction (literature, media, gaming, etc.) fan club and open to the public event to email me their schedules. Right now I have the event listing Debbie posted in my previous blog, the Camarilla, Utah Filk Organization, the 7th Fleet and the Browncoats' CSTS showing. There has got to be more than that. The Alpine Garrison, Rogue Base, Jurassic Park team, RPGA, furries, Fifth Column, Krayt Clan and more all have to have SOMETHING going on in the next couple months.
Please send me your schedules for June, July and if you have it August.
To make this work; I need every speculative fiction (literature, media, gaming, etc.) fan club and open to the public event to email me their schedules. Right now I have the event listing Debbie posted in my previous blog, the Camarilla, Utah Filk Organization, the 7th Fleet and the Browncoats' CSTS showing. There has got to be more than that. The Alpine Garrison, Rogue Base, Jurassic Park team, RPGA, furries, Fifth Column, Krayt Clan and more all have to have SOMETHING going on in the next couple months.
Please send me your schedules for June, July and if you have it August.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
CONduit June ConCom Meeting
I had promised several folks that I'd blog the details of the meeting. It rambles badly, since I typed as things were said.
==========
Day Riverside Library 06/11/2011 10:00am
Open 10:14: Chair announces upcoming meetings.
18 June 2011 Hunter Library (10:00am) SFCon Business Meeting
25 June 2011 Cheryl Powell (4201 S. Normandie (535 E.) Fandom Party!
09 July 2011 WVC Library (10:00am) July CONcom meeting
Laundry list of upcoming conventions. (I will build a link to a con list.)
Meeting Idea 10:24: Brad Hawks proposed having a side room for kids, to allow more people to attend.
Finance 10:25: Can't discuss numbers of attendance since the registrar had "real life" issues. Estimate of more than 600 attendees. Totals are unknown since not all receipts are in, but CONduit looks to be in the black and a little ahead of last year. 59 pre-reg (15 GM/Staff, 44 Full Weekend) for CONduit 22 which is comparable to last year's pre-reg. Debate over a use of PayPal pre-reg. Committee resistance based on the complexity of building the complex grid of payments based on all the membership types. Decided on a webhosting meeting to resolve the problems, to allow for web based membership payment.
Leftover CONduit 21 Business 10:35: Hotel contracts will be re-written and hotel will be giving a discount to CONduit in the future for prior difficulties. CONduit has contract with Radisson for 2012 and 2013. The convention can get out of the 2012 contract up to the end of this month. The hotel can get out of the 2013 contract up to the end of June 2013. CONduit had the CVB run a general request for bids and all hotels were at least $1000 higher than the Radisson. Members of the audience offered to make use of their own contacts to look for other options. 72 gamers turned in game store discount coupons. Zombie Podcast has hit 2500 downloads.
Message from the Chair 10:47: A lot of this were very clear to me from this last CONduit. One is that I am very burned out. I would like to step down for awhile. The second things is that I saw really clearly that we need to make fundamental changes in the way we do things. We need a better training program for people. Our fundamental structure has things that I just don't agree with. What we are doing isn't neccissarily wrong, but our focus has gotten completely off kilter. Please respect your fellow CONcom, yourself, the fans and the guests. Please understand that everything we do we do for a reason. Please before you go knocking down walls, check to see which ones are load bearing. Right now we are "riding the dragon" of enthusiasm and we need to ride it, not tether it.
Mike's Message 10:52: Con this year had fewer of the usual gripes. More things got props and there were no real big complaints.
Praise 10:53: Charlie for dealing with room mix up, issued panelist schedules on time, knowing what panelists showed up. Toad for great job under stress. Mike Tanner for getting a lot of media stuff. Tom for getting the publicity and podcast. Alita for the program book and CONsuite. Adam for a lot of work at registration. Janelle for registration. Joe of gaming praised everyone for working together. Joe for getting a big tv for gaming and driving gaming publicity. Julia for getting really good radios for really cheap and tv for the media room. Debbie for maintaining good humor. Richard for wrangling the hotel. Kathy for the freebie table. Chris for helping gaming and setting up the open board games. Toni for stepping up to fill in. Kami for art show, anime and chocoholics. Pam for printing program book for cheaper than ever. Joe Monson for art show. Kudos to Jaimee for giving us our newest con member. Erin (Me) and Carl for getting post-CONduit discussion rolling. Lori for publicity. Martin for the swap meet. Julie for the media room. Brad for great behind the scenes stuff. Tamora for hard work. Kirsten for hard work and contests. Andrew for the tv in the media room. Mike for the hard work he did. Ruth Roper for working despite coming out of surgery. Wes for the miniature case. George for micro-shorts. Helge and other judges for hall costumes. Cheryl for the ice cream social and getting the jesters. A lot of random commentary about baseball hats and gold coins followed.
Needs Improvement 11:16: Badges need to be better printed. Need to get the media started earlier. More sponsorship needed. (Does CONduit want to grow or stay small? The asking of the question turned into a debate on what is gripes vs brainstorming.) Need a better pre-con walk through. Hotel media person told CONduit's media person to effectively drop dead. Gaming needs to build on sponsors and diversity. Needs to diversify the guest list. The poets weren't findable. Art show needs more volunteers and organization, which results in the art show opens 4-5 hours late. There was extreme lack of communication with the hotel. Need a better way to organize volunteers. If you want to fix things, you need to be at all the meetings. Programming has become very narrow; lack of tv and movie related programming needed. People hurt the con by back talking in public; need to be very careful. Not getting the progress report out. The con itself needs to be more visually stunning. Need to add a media waiver to website.
CONduit 21 ends 11:39
CONDuit 22 brainstorming 11:40: Allow people to opt out of progress report online and post it online. Big billboard on I-15. Revitalize and re-build CONduit from top to bottom with nothing off the table. Artists alley, author alley, podcast alley, club alley, etc. Get galleries and frameries interested in our art show. Advertising in organic food stores. Get Dead Gentlemen Productions for gamers and independent film making. Paper downtown with CONduit ads; menu specials, posters, etc. Need more dealers and dealer space. Ask media people to come it never hurts. Absolutely need a strong media track. Get the libraries involved in CONduit. Need a bigger hotel with gather space. Need room parties. Need to re-think the concept of the media and anime rooms. Need to come up with guidelines for sponsorship of guests. Discount for people who show up in a costume. $1000 prize for best costume. Iron GM contest. Pass out coupons to people in awesome costumes for the next year's con. Give clubs time in programming to do with whatever they want. Cool nerd car car show at the con. Model show at the con. Coupons for the fan clubs if they present their club IDs. Star Trek simulator provided by the clubs. Con BINGO for visiting sites at the con. Quest giver games. Green Lantern comic artist lives in Clearfield. Add fan fiction category to writing contests. Video contests. Baen books wants to do an event with CONduit. Pre-paid, pre-ordered box lunches through the hotel, so that con goers can wander about con space with their food. Need more hall costume activities. Re-work the Masquerade to draw back in the more casual costumers. Fashion parade in addition to the Masquerade for people to show off their costumes, not necessarily compete. Use Skype for virtual guests. Get the clubs more involved in the programming. Interactive programming, more like BOFFs and games instead of an expert panel. Anything visual the con does will bring another tv station. Have the con ready on time on Friday. Stage alien invasions, zombie walks, 501st marches, car shows, etc. as advertising. Get PC Laptops to sponsor video game tournies. Need to improve web presence. Have a CONduit bookstore in the Dealer's Room to centralize where con-goers can get the books of all the authors at the con. Switch to an Exhibitor's Hall and eliminate the Dealer's Room as we know it. Sponsors for rooms and consignment shop for the sponsors. Activities are more important than guests. Have a communal pot for hall costume prize money. Amateur fiction reading gong show. Website with the ability for anyone to register activities and what you want to do with text alerts; also allows live blogging. Ebay and Overstock involvement in the swapmeet. Build a "fan" track where the clubs and activities can be gathered. Sign up for a chance to meet with the published authors and editors for a chance to speak with them about the signee's work. Need the literary panels to be directed at the readers as well as writers. Don't neglect literary in the search for more media involvement. Bring back "what's new in literature, film, gaming, tv, etc." Add shared world (Firefly, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) book panels. Improve and use the announce list. Publish the winners of the contests in the program book of the following year. Invest in a new art show structure that is lighter and easier to set up. Need to eliminate the "us vs them" language and get to a "we." Change the name from CONduit to something else. Add a mass autograph signing to eliminate all the little signings. Use the iPhone app Conventioner. Hotel restaurant have a sample hour in the CONsuite to advertise the restaurant. Move away from Memorial Day weekend. More people need to be at the ConCom meetings. Have ConCom meeting, then department meetings, then re-gather the ConCom all on the same day. Add a fan guest of honor. Filk is out growing the Masquerade. Need a social dance.
Lunch 12:55: Chinese Buffet
==========
Day Riverside Library 06/11/2011 10:00am
Open 10:14: Chair announces upcoming meetings.
18 June 2011 Hunter Library (10:00am) SFCon Business Meeting
25 June 2011 Cheryl Powell (4201 S. Normandie (535 E.) Fandom Party!
09 July 2011 WVC Library (10:00am) July CONcom meeting
Laundry list of upcoming conventions. (I will build a link to a con list.)
Meeting Idea 10:24: Brad Hawks proposed having a side room for kids, to allow more people to attend.
Finance 10:25: Can't discuss numbers of attendance since the registrar had "real life" issues. Estimate of more than 600 attendees. Totals are unknown since not all receipts are in, but CONduit looks to be in the black and a little ahead of last year. 59 pre-reg (15 GM/Staff, 44 Full Weekend) for CONduit 22 which is comparable to last year's pre-reg. Debate over a use of PayPal pre-reg. Committee resistance based on the complexity of building the complex grid of payments based on all the membership types. Decided on a webhosting meeting to resolve the problems, to allow for web based membership payment.
Leftover CONduit 21 Business 10:35: Hotel contracts will be re-written and hotel will be giving a discount to CONduit in the future for prior difficulties. CONduit has contract with Radisson for 2012 and 2013. The convention can get out of the 2012 contract up to the end of this month. The hotel can get out of the 2013 contract up to the end of June 2013. CONduit had the CVB run a general request for bids and all hotels were at least $1000 higher than the Radisson. Members of the audience offered to make use of their own contacts to look for other options. 72 gamers turned in game store discount coupons. Zombie Podcast has hit 2500 downloads.
Message from the Chair 10:47: A lot of this were very clear to me from this last CONduit. One is that I am very burned out. I would like to step down for awhile. The second things is that I saw really clearly that we need to make fundamental changes in the way we do things. We need a better training program for people. Our fundamental structure has things that I just don't agree with. What we are doing isn't neccissarily wrong, but our focus has gotten completely off kilter. Please respect your fellow CONcom, yourself, the fans and the guests. Please understand that everything we do we do for a reason. Please before you go knocking down walls, check to see which ones are load bearing. Right now we are "riding the dragon" of enthusiasm and we need to ride it, not tether it.
Mike's Message 10:52: Con this year had fewer of the usual gripes. More things got props and there were no real big complaints.
Praise 10:53: Charlie for dealing with room mix up, issued panelist schedules on time, knowing what panelists showed up. Toad for great job under stress. Mike Tanner for getting a lot of media stuff. Tom for getting the publicity and podcast. Alita for the program book and CONsuite. Adam for a lot of work at registration. Janelle for registration. Joe of gaming praised everyone for working together. Joe for getting a big tv for gaming and driving gaming publicity. Julia for getting really good radios for really cheap and tv for the media room. Debbie for maintaining good humor. Richard for wrangling the hotel. Kathy for the freebie table. Chris for helping gaming and setting up the open board games. Toni for stepping up to fill in. Kami for art show, anime and chocoholics. Pam for printing program book for cheaper than ever. Joe Monson for art show. Kudos to Jaimee for giving us our newest con member. Erin (Me) and Carl for getting post-CONduit discussion rolling. Lori for publicity. Martin for the swap meet. Julie for the media room. Brad for great behind the scenes stuff. Tamora for hard work. Kirsten for hard work and contests. Andrew for the tv in the media room. Mike for the hard work he did. Ruth Roper for working despite coming out of surgery. Wes for the miniature case. George for micro-shorts. Helge and other judges for hall costumes. Cheryl for the ice cream social and getting the jesters. A lot of random commentary about baseball hats and gold coins followed.
Needs Improvement 11:16: Badges need to be better printed. Need to get the media started earlier. More sponsorship needed. (Does CONduit want to grow or stay small? The asking of the question turned into a debate on what is gripes vs brainstorming.) Need a better pre-con walk through. Hotel media person told CONduit's media person to effectively drop dead. Gaming needs to build on sponsors and diversity. Needs to diversify the guest list. The poets weren't findable. Art show needs more volunteers and organization, which results in the art show opens 4-5 hours late. There was extreme lack of communication with the hotel. Need a better way to organize volunteers. If you want to fix things, you need to be at all the meetings. Programming has become very narrow; lack of tv and movie related programming needed. People hurt the con by back talking in public; need to be very careful. Not getting the progress report out. The con itself needs to be more visually stunning. Need to add a media waiver to website.
CONduit 21 ends 11:39
CONDuit 22 brainstorming 11:40: Allow people to opt out of progress report online and post it online. Big billboard on I-15. Revitalize and re-build CONduit from top to bottom with nothing off the table. Artists alley, author alley, podcast alley, club alley, etc. Get galleries and frameries interested in our art show. Advertising in organic food stores. Get Dead Gentlemen Productions for gamers and independent film making. Paper downtown with CONduit ads; menu specials, posters, etc. Need more dealers and dealer space. Ask media people to come it never hurts. Absolutely need a strong media track. Get the libraries involved in CONduit. Need a bigger hotel with gather space. Need room parties. Need to re-think the concept of the media and anime rooms. Need to come up with guidelines for sponsorship of guests. Discount for people who show up in a costume. $1000 prize for best costume. Iron GM contest. Pass out coupons to people in awesome costumes for the next year's con. Give clubs time in programming to do with whatever they want. Cool nerd car car show at the con. Model show at the con. Coupons for the fan clubs if they present their club IDs. Star Trek simulator provided by the clubs. Con BINGO for visiting sites at the con. Quest giver games. Green Lantern comic artist lives in Clearfield. Add fan fiction category to writing contests. Video contests. Baen books wants to do an event with CONduit. Pre-paid, pre-ordered box lunches through the hotel, so that con goers can wander about con space with their food. Need more hall costume activities. Re-work the Masquerade to draw back in the more casual costumers. Fashion parade in addition to the Masquerade for people to show off their costumes, not necessarily compete. Use Skype for virtual guests. Get the clubs more involved in the programming. Interactive programming, more like BOFFs and games instead of an expert panel. Anything visual the con does will bring another tv station. Have the con ready on time on Friday. Stage alien invasions, zombie walks, 501st marches, car shows, etc. as advertising. Get PC Laptops to sponsor video game tournies. Need to improve web presence. Have a CONduit bookstore in the Dealer's Room to centralize where con-goers can get the books of all the authors at the con. Switch to an Exhibitor's Hall and eliminate the Dealer's Room as we know it. Sponsors for rooms and consignment shop for the sponsors. Activities are more important than guests. Have a communal pot for hall costume prize money. Amateur fiction reading gong show. Website with the ability for anyone to register activities and what you want to do with text alerts; also allows live blogging. Ebay and Overstock involvement in the swapmeet. Build a "fan" track where the clubs and activities can be gathered. Sign up for a chance to meet with the published authors and editors for a chance to speak with them about the signee's work. Need the literary panels to be directed at the readers as well as writers. Don't neglect literary in the search for more media involvement. Bring back "what's new in literature, film, gaming, tv, etc." Add shared world (Firefly, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) book panels. Improve and use the announce list. Publish the winners of the contests in the program book of the following year. Invest in a new art show structure that is lighter and easier to set up. Need to eliminate the "us vs them" language and get to a "we." Change the name from CONduit to something else. Add a mass autograph signing to eliminate all the little signings. Use the iPhone app Conventioner. Hotel restaurant have a sample hour in the CONsuite to advertise the restaurant. Move away from Memorial Day weekend. More people need to be at the ConCom meetings. Have ConCom meeting, then department meetings, then re-gather the ConCom all on the same day. Add a fan guest of honor. Filk is out growing the Masquerade. Need a social dance.
Lunch 12:55: Chinese Buffet
Monday, June 6, 2011
Quality Over Quantity
People in general, and fans especially, are not confrontational. When they are displeased with something there are back room grumbling and silent walk-aways. You rarely see people stand up and freely speak their mind in a productive forum. For every 7th Fleet that stands up and is a squeaky wheel, there are a half-dozen Camarillas or Mandalorian Mercs who just simply walk away.
When I and others argue about the loss of fans at CONduit, we get countered by "but we had more people than last year." I counter that, it's not just about quantities. How many of those numbers are people that we'll never see again? As anyone in the hotel industry will tell you, one loyal guest is worth more than two transient ones. The convention has to not only draw them in, the convention has to keep them.
When I brought the Camarilla back to CONduit, it was noticed and commented on. As it stands, there is talk of walking away again. Other than selling buttons and knit Cthulhus at the hall table as a fund raiser, there is very little that is of interest to the club's members. People like them who are willing to come year after year are the people that the convention needs to be reaching out to.
I freely admit to being a shit stirrer. In this case, somebody has to do it. Our last one, Rex, has given up. No, I don't expect to get everything that I want. I am politic enough to understand the concept of compromise. As a general sf con, CONduit can't provide everything to any group of people without alienating the rest. LTUE is our academic pro oriented convention. Let's return CONduit to it's core fun, fan oriented roots.
Thank you everyone for participating in this blog's discussion of our future. I truly hope that something positive comes of all of this.
When I and others argue about the loss of fans at CONduit, we get countered by "but we had more people than last year." I counter that, it's not just about quantities. How many of those numbers are people that we'll never see again? As anyone in the hotel industry will tell you, one loyal guest is worth more than two transient ones. The convention has to not only draw them in, the convention has to keep them.
When I brought the Camarilla back to CONduit, it was noticed and commented on. As it stands, there is talk of walking away again. Other than selling buttons and knit Cthulhus at the hall table as a fund raiser, there is very little that is of interest to the club's members. People like them who are willing to come year after year are the people that the convention needs to be reaching out to.
I freely admit to being a shit stirrer. In this case, somebody has to do it. Our last one, Rex, has given up. No, I don't expect to get everything that I want. I am politic enough to understand the concept of compromise. As a general sf con, CONduit can't provide everything to any group of people without alienating the rest. LTUE is our academic pro oriented convention. Let's return CONduit to it's core fun, fan oriented roots.
Thank you everyone for participating in this blog's discussion of our future. I truly hope that something positive comes of all of this.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Filk Videos
Videos of the songs performed by the Utah Filk Organization at CONduit 21. We are the convention's traditional half-time show for the Masquerade. They are in the order they were performed.
Cthuhulud
Heart of a Star
I Hate Vampires Who Sparkle
Wings
Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock
Cthuhulud
Heart of a Star
I Hate Vampires Who Sparkle
Wings
Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)