Michael Houghton Sun Dec 11 12:19:28 PST 2016 Subject: Minutes of December meeting ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Howdy! TSFS Meeting - Chessiecon debrief at Jo's house Jo Hogan, Sam Hogan, Meg Hogan, Fred Blonder, Michael Houghton, Steve Aines, Marc Drexler, Rowan Laidlaw 1300 Report from Charles Butler who could not attend: I also unable to attend. My report -generally everything went well planning on single table next year unless budget changes. Bambi planning on hallelujah chorus for next year.. I am graduating from school this May so my plans may be changing. please note that Auriel (name unsure)is running healing circle after hallelujah).Othet classes went well.Prison planet had more than 30 people . Do not put prison ministry on Sunday we only had one attendee same slot at sacred spaces- there were no drop ins . Successful class on cultural assimilation -need better ground rules as one person monopolized the discussion - hard to get person to realize that the discussion was moderated. Want another class on the Fay from point of view of those who work with them on a daily basis -not disinterested literary discussion -the point of the esoteric/mystic track is for those who do believe to learn more not be regulated to motif without motive. When discussion was lovely classes were overflowing. I apologize for missing one class altogether on tarot - woefully unprepared this year.i am trying not to burn out and this year I was definitely crispy by the end of the con. Good wishes to all. Report from Dr. G who could not attend: Here's what I supplied to Chessiecon for Program AV support: Program AV Gear: Two 3000 lumen projectors One 1100 lumen projector 70" Tripod projection screen (square, 100" diagonal) 50" Tripod projection screen (square, 70" diagonal) 40" Tripod projection screen (square, 56" diagonal) 50" diagonal tabletop screen (40" x 30") Large top projector table Small top projector table Connecting cables, extension cords as needed for above. Two camera recording setup for Saturday night concert Notes: The big screen was probably unnecessary. The only thing it got used for was the Kinect video game in the atrium. The 40" tripod would have been just as good or better for that, it didn't get used otherwise. The 50" tabletop screen didn't get used Only one of the 3000 lumen projectors was in use at any time, but I would continue to bring the second one as a backup. Programming did a good job of keeping all programming items that needed a projector in the same room. That worked well. We ran into a problem that the 3000 lumen projectors only had VGA input, but many of the laptops that we needed to use did not have a VGA port. I solved the problem by going to a nearby Best Buy and buying a HDMI to VGA converter, which worked with all the computers we tried, both PC and Mac. I have since purchased a second converter so each of the 3000 lumen projectors will have one. This should therefore not be a problem in the future. The 1100 lumen projector was used by video gaming, which generally worked well. The only problem was that they wanted to keep using it until late Sunday afternoon. So I can get out at a reasonable hour, we should let them know that they need to release the projector at 3pm on Sunday. They brought their own screen, but if they didn't they could use the 40" tripod or the 50" tabletop screen. The two camera recording setup worked well for the Saturday night concert. We now have concert recordings of Tom Smith, Heather Dale and S J Tucker. We should plan a time to show these recordings at a future Chessiecon. I can supply the video equipment, but someone else would have to supply a sound system. We can figure out which screen to use depending on where we show the concert. I would suggest showing the Tom Smith concert next year, and then continue showing them one a 3 year delay from the original concert. Also: Two other things I remembered for program AV: We need to be sure the hotel un-gangs the light controls in GS1 and GS2 so we can dim the lights in one room only. We need to strongly encourage the presenters not to rely on a web-based presentation source such as Google Drive. The interwebz at the hotel are just too flaky to try to get large image files reliably. They should have the presentation either on their own laptop or on a USB drive, either as a Power Point or a series of numerically ordered JPG images. If they insist on using the interwebz, they need to bring their own hot spot. If they plan to use some other format such as Open Office or Libre Office on PC or Keynote on Mac, they need to have the proper player with them or they need to check with us ahead of time to make sure we can play it. Jo's notes from feedback session: guest folders!! quiet room pronoun ribbons 15 minute passing periods participants good at clearing room for next group well-prepared participants freebie table atrium events stonehenge 24 hour consuite - small islands in dealers grid titles and program book titles not matching (i.e. we took off "learn a game" or "concert" etc. think of new ways to do this) slow wifi hotel restaurant, slow service, not kosher todos survey dealers re: hours discuss vegetarian options for concessions w/hotel hotel: ungang greenspring lights marketing: reach out to local game groups add to guest survey: ranks for attending vs. participating note re dr. g wanting projectors back by 3 public transit directions on website map of ice machines? band to contact: projectwendigo at gmail.com (also dealer) The meeting: Guest folders a big hit. Quiet room a big hit. Worth the investment. Confusion with hotel over gender neutral bath signage. 15 minute passing period noticed also. Issues... Program titles in book need to match up with names in the grid. Maybe put separate listings in program book of just titles per group. Wifi better but still sucky, and problems in Art Show room. Complaints about tight back space in dealer's room. Not sure what was actually wrong. Still need a dealer's room coordinator for next year. Need registration, dealer's room, and marketing person. Need someone to work fan tables: Balticon, Capclave, Philcon, a couple of book fairs. Have a guest liaison person. Meg will do website. Hotel ungang Greenspring lights. Survey dealers regarding hours to keep open. Get input from guests on which panels they want to attend versus participate in. Dr. G wants to be able to get his projectors back by 1500 on Sunday. Links to public transit on website. Put quiet room on map (not in program book) that is posted and maybe available at registration. And the ice machines. Clock on registration table since none at registration now. Hotel wants to put concessions in "small corner of lobby" instead of cloak room. We need to work with them on the "where". Concern about lack of vegetarian or kosher options. Kosher may be tough; vegetarian options should be doable. Hotel was good about honoring actual things in contract. Mass signing under attended. Betsy and Sooj did it in the room drawing lots of people. Harumph! Only an hour between big concerts near dinner time did not give much time for dinner plans. Probably not a persistent issue. Wandering musicians? An idea. Designated busking spot in Atrium? Management issues there. It becomes another "space" to schedule. Maybe not something we have room for. Music room apparently bled sound into other programming areas. Atrium sound was wonky at times if you weren't in "audience" seating. Need to consult with music folks. Video gaming went pretty well. A lot of people who just parked in the room. Pokemon BinGO 13 signups who mostly showed up. Reasonably successful. Biggest attractor was Crypto of the Necrodancer. Weaknesses: Disco Robot Rollerball; technical issues. Lobby Knect sports game poorly attended in lobby. Things ran on OK even when Meg got sick Saturday night. Good help to be had on Sunday. Volunteers: most departments kept their own volunteers to themselves instead of coordinating through the volunteer coordinator (and we have lots of mugs left). Department heads should talk to Poryshkin about their volunteers. It's hard to support a department's needs if they don't talk to him. Treasurer: $19617.98 in bank. Artist payouts sent. Guest reimbursements partially done. Sales tax to be done. Truck rental. Looks like a slight loss on the year on increased expenses and a bit of a revenue dip. Nothing dire. 402 members this year versus 590 last year. Sliding scale on room nights still in contract. Hotel screwup worked out just fine in the end. Access to dealer's room does not require membership. Do we need to rethink this? It is said to have always been the rule going back to Darkover. But this seems to be received lore, not a written thing. And maybe it should stay that way. Put our layouts on computer so we can print out fresh copies each year for clarity. There were some misunderstandings with the hotel over layouts. Inkscape suggested as a tool. Steve will try to do something - ideally in PNG for future editing. Panel explosion on Saturday: 22 reports. Started angry and extreme, but mellowed into misunderstanding. The offending panelist apparently handled it all poorly. Talked to panelist and we have agreed she won't be on panels next year. Maybe in future. Need a statement soon on issue and how handled. She was not banned and is welcome to return to convention and will be asked not to approach people to apologize. Public statement necessary; no names to be named. Should be on front page of web site. We are looking into better ways to better prepare moderators to deal with this events. Video gaming addendum: room looked a beat up this year. May need a freshening up by the hotel. Bring room condition to hotel's attention. A lot of chairs are missing a foot and don't sit flat. Space estimates for art show were not usably accurate. Timonium room had an odd smell. Erwin Strauss (Filthy Pierre) sent a note of appreciation including how well the show-tunes singalong went and the carol sing that went until 2 am. Need receipts from Thomas for Con Suite expenses. Keith Lynch made it possible to keep the Con Suite open 24 hours. Yay! No motivation to look at another hotel for next year, but we should be looking around at other things. Lord Baltimore looks promising, but you have to pay for parking. Maybe the CapClave hotel. Most hotels are too large or too small. End of debrief... Officer nominations: Jo willing to continue as President Michael willing to continue as Vice President Sam wiling to continue as Treasurer Dr. G nominated to continue as trustee pending his acceptance. We need a Secretary - who is the one responsible for maintaining the membership lists. Rowan Laidlaw for Secretary. ...and January meeting to be Saturday, 14 January, 1PM, at Jo's house. Thoughts about by-law changes to be raised at January meeting. Adjourned 1518 Respectfully submitted, Michael Houghton ------------------------------------------------------------------------