The Thanksgiving Science Fiction Society held a general business meeting on 1 October 2020. The meeting was held online via Discord, with no in-person interaction aside from between folks who live together, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All conversations took place via text chat in Discord. This is a quick-n-dirty Discord transcript of the TSFS General Business Meeting held on 1 October 2020, made in February 2021 by Dave Montuori. All formatting has been lost. Meeting was scheduled to begin at 1 PM EDT. Herveus | Con Ops [Oct 04] We meet Sunday 1 November at 1300. November 1, 2020 [12:41 PM] Herveus | Con Ops Business meeting in a short while right here. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Howdy Alex 🔪 Jack-of-All-Trades Happy Dia de los Muertos everyone! Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration That's tomorrow (Nov 2) right? [12:51 PM] (Ah. I see the Mexicans in specific celebrate it as a two-day holiday starting on the 1st.) Alex 🔪 Jack-of-All-Trades I'm Dominican but hey we never pass up the opportunity for a holiday Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration The Puerto Rican diaspora in NYC, when I was growing up near there, specifically used the 2nd. The 1st was Todos Santos (also a celebration!) and the 2nd was Dia de los Muertos. Marilyn Mix Hi, all Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Hi Marilyn Alex 🔪 Jack-of-All-Trades Todos Santos makes sense bc Catholicism Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration And just in case we get anyone from N'awlins/Quebec/France, Bonne Toussaint Saria | Videogaming, Website here DrGandalf Dia de los Muertos, your opportunity to watch the wonderful movie "Coco" Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming adsum Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration (Which always reminds me of suggesting to Tony that anyone in his Latin class who wanted to be a wiseass should respond "Absum" instead) Alex 🔪 Jack-of-All-Trades adesse Poryshkin | Con Chair Yop! Alex 🔪 Jack-of-All-Trades we makin latin jokes out heeere Herveus | Con Ops So, I think we have a quorum. Let's get this show on the road. Poryshkin | Con Chair Crap, just a minute, need to duck out to switch over laundry Herveus | Con Ops So, first item on agenda: next meeting. [1:05 PM] It will be the post-con debrief meeting. After action reports and all that. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Ah. The Dead Banshee meeting, as it were. Poryshkin | Con Chair spleen Herveus | Con Ops past that... [1:06 PM] December 5 or 6? Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration (Depends on context. Katsucon has both a Dead Dog party and a Dead Dog meeting, the latter of which is the one with the after action resports.) Poryshkin | Con Chair I like 5 December, get stuff while its fresh in the mind. Alex 🔪 Jack-of-All-Trades I may be working all of the con weekend e_e i will also be out of town Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Weekend of December 5-6 should work for me. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Likewise Poryshkin | Con Chair Oh! That meeting should also be officer nominations. Herveus | Con Ops Yeah, them, too. Alex 🔪 Jack-of-All-Trades But Dec 5-6 will work, between calls for my work Herveus | Con Ops So I propose 5 December, 1pm, here. Any objections? Poryshkin | Con Chair second Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration That's Saturday, right? Poryshkin | Con Chair yes Herveus | Con Ops Yes. saturday. DrGandalf OK for me, but I can only stay until 1:55. Same as today.(edited) Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration No objection from me. Herveus | Con Ops Would starting earlier help? [1:09 PM] Like, noon? Saria | Videogaming, Website that sounds fine to me Alex 🔪 Jack-of-All-Trades i'm down Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Noon might give me trouble - I'm often doing family errands until around 12:30. Poryshkin | Con Chair Noon. Yeah, I could do noon [1:11 PM] Split the difference, then? 12:30? Herveus | Con Ops Revised proposal: Saturday, 5 December, 12:30. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming But I guess a half hour missing me is better than an hour missing Dr. Gandalf... DrGandalf Noon:30 OK for me Herveus | Con Ops Based on history, I expect the December meeting to run on the long side. So maybe three hours. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Noon-thirty is okay for me. DrGandalf I need to be away from 2:00 to 2:30, but I can come back after that(edited) Marilyn Mix 12:30 is fine, but I'll have to tell the chef to move lunch earlier. Herveus | Con Ops OK. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Given the expected long run time for the Dec. meeting, it looks like Dr G would miss half an hour either way. [1:14 PM] So no real difference between 12:30 start and 13:00 start? Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors I',m here DrGandalf Either is OK, and if it is a Discord meeting I can fairly easily review the missed portion. Poryshkin | Con Chair 1230 is better, more likely to make sure that we cang et teh stuff in befor Dr G has to bug out. [1:17 PM] OK, nobody is talking, I'll call the question for 12:30 Herveus | Con Ops Yep, there is that plus. So let's go with 12:30 then. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration second Poryshkin | Con Chair aye DrGandalf :thumbsup: Herveus | Con Ops Now for the meaty bits. Con Chair, you're up. Poryshkin | Con Chair OK, first of all, Treasurer's report. $8949.88 in the various accounts, we're bleeding money still. Rent on the storage space has gone up as of today, memberships for 2020 have been trickling in. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Emphasis on "trickling" Poryshkin | Con Chair Unfortunately, as a result of having to re-vamp not only the con, but also the registration system, I as treasurer see the memberships before registration does. Eh. [1:22 PM] I would like to finalize con event schedule by the end of the week, have mostly a handle on what we're doing, thanks to Marilyn's hard work. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming I think I may be getting trapped in spam filters; I've gotten no response from either Pyris or any of our RPG DMs. Poryshkin | Con Chair I'm not sure of where we stand on Merchants, since today is the deadline. Yakira, how many do we have? Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors no one new has come in Saria | Videogaming, Website agreed, I've been really worried about getting my schedule done, and I've always looked to what the current panel layout is to finalize my schedule. That way I can avoid scheduling big events and games during the guest of honor panels Poryshkin | Con Chair I've lost track, how many did we have before? Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors two i believe [1:23 PM] Chris never followed up Poryshkin | Con Chair OK, then, that's not a big problem. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration eSpec Books and Larry Smith Books? Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors yeah Poryshkin | Con Chair As far as programming goes, I was unfortunately not able to get Dr Smethurst, the astrophysicist on board-early interest ended up in no follow-on. I'll give it one more try, see if the back-and-forth stuff got lost in her spam folders or some such. DrGandalf Is Tom Holtz on board? Marilyn Mix yes Poryshkin | Con Chair Out big-ticket items: Virtual costume contest instead of TTS, Turkey Awards, GoH stuff-are pretty much set, except for exact time slots. [1:27 PM] Oh, actually, Dr G, I did have one question for you from yesterday or the day before. The emails that went back and forth about judges. I had the impression that you & Susan d G werer handling that. Is that not the case? [1:29 PM] Thomas A is also part of the costume group, yes? DrGandalf That is correct, it is not the case. My part is to do the video editing only. Thomas Atkinson should be handling the acquisition of the entries, the recording of the MC tracks, and the judging. Marilyn Mix Thomas A is in charge. Susan was going to help, but they never got connected. Poryshkin | Con Chair Ah, hm, OK, not a smoothly as I thought then. DrGandalf They send it all to me, I turn all the bits into a masq video Marilyn Mix @Poryshkin | Con Chair Did you see the email I forwarded to you yesterday with Thomas' status? Poryshkin | Con Chair We've had three Turkey Award submissions, still pushing for more. I've been trying to push that on social media-finally got Otto a FB account, and he's "officially" the auditor, or whatever its called of Chessiecon's FB group. Marilyn Mix That is typically called the moderator. Herveus | Con Ops The person with the ban hammer. Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors or the boot boot Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Or the airlock controls Poryshkin | Con Chair Trying to pick it out of the spam. It's gotten so bad, I'm getting Russian spam these days. In cyrillic, even. Marilyn Mix I will summarize later in the meeting Poryshkin | Con Chair Ah, yes, found it. The one about soliciting costume judges, yes? Marilyn Mix yes Poryshkin | Con Chair Yeah, I didn't have any different ideas about it, but had thought that yes, Dr G, Susan d G, and Thomas A were working on the judging-but as Dr G indicated, no, he's working on the AV presentation after the virtual event is presented. [1:39 PM] Once the overall schedule is up & done, I want to schedule Zoom, and if necessary, Discord training sessions-multiple, because it is knowable in advance that not everyone is going to be able to make it to a single session. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming I can assist in running training sessions... [1:40 PM] (For both) DrGandalf This will be my 6th vCon doing Zoom hosting Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors yeah, we have many great volunteers from bsfs to help out Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming I haven't done Cons, but I've done monthly gatherings of a group I'm a member of. Marilyn Mix Several of the guests may need extra Zoom help. Herveus | Con Ops I got experience at Capclave and will be getting more training for Philcon this week.(edited) Poryshkin | Con Chair Which brings me to the next issue: volunteers, especially the behind-the-scenes tech support. Yakira, did you see my forward yesterday or the day before, of Roger's offer to help with that? And have other people stepped up in that regard? Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors my bigger question is, panel moderators, I really don't have any volunteers for that, and discord moderators Poryshkin | Con Chair @Marilyn Mix Precisely why I want to schedule a couple of different training sessions for either platform. [1:43 PM] Gar, OK, I'll put out another call in Otto's name on the Chessiecon FB group. DrGandalf Maybe you can get a list of recent trainees as Discord mods from Capclave Poryshkin | Con Chair @DrGandalf Yes, since I"m heavily involved in WSFA-Roger from there (and Balticon: the man is another SMOF) is the Roger I referenced above. DrGandalf You mean Rodger Burns?(edited) Poryshkin | Con Chair OK, to summarize Con Chair's status: need to call for panel moderators/tech support, neeed to sort out costume judging, need to get some more Turkey awards submissions, need to finalize program schedule, need to set up Discord & Zoom servers/meetings. [1:46 PM] Yes, Roger Burns DrGandalf We probably want to do some tech checking with Tom Smith, last con I saw him at his audio was not the greatest Poryshkin | Con Chair Thanks, DrG, I'll go ahead and mention that when I next send him emaiol, again today or tomorrow. Herveus | Con Ops Are we at a point of turning the meeting over to Marilyn? Poryshkin | Con Chair AFAIC, yes Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Should we do Reg first or after? [1:57 PM] I've no opinion either way Marilyn Mix Lets do Reg first. Herveus | Con Ops ok DrGandalf I'm off for 30 min or so, I'll catch up after. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration OK. Registration report: when I checked about 12:30 pm today, we had 62 registrations for 2020. This includes the 3 new 2021 registrations we've had in the past 3 weeks which I also added to the 2020 list, and one new 2020-only registration since the October meeting. [1:59 PM] Not everybody here is registered for 2020 (or even 2021) yet. Which includes me. [2:00 PM] Still, 62 is... kind of a small number. [2:00 PM] That's the report. Now I have two questions. Herveus | Con Ops I'm registered now... Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration 1. How do we plan to handle "on the fly" registrations while the con is running? 2a. Are we restricting access to programming and such to registrants only? (I'm guessing that was the plan, but figured I needed to ask) 2b. If so, how are we sending access information to registrants? Poryshkin | Con Chair 1. Planning on having notices of such from the Chessiecon PayPal account sent to treasurer's e-mail. [2:07 PM] 2 Yes; what I'll need registration to do is send out invites to the discord server and the Zoom meeting ID out to the participants. Such IDs will be generated when those servers/meetings are set up, and I'll pass them on to you. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Are you, as treasurer, planning to basically "man the reg table" and get me the new emails as they come in, so I can send them the invites? Poryshkin | Con Chair I don't see another way to easily handle this, actually. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Change the email address on the Paypal account to a group... [2:11 PM] Then the members of the group can take shifts "manning" the reg table. Poryshkin | Con Chair Gods, no, that's going to have to be done in a bunch of different places. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming OK. Didn't realize it would be that complicated - I've avoided Paypal for years. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration As, generally, have I. Poryshkin | Con Chair I wish it were possible to avoid PayPal, and their IMNSHO opinion, abusive policies, but... Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Can you put a mail filter on the mail account that forwards emails from Paypal to a group account? Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration I wish it were possible to avoid PayPal, and their IMNSHO opinion, abusive policies, but... @Poryshkin | Con Chair But we'd have to make changes to the reg system in order to do that. Poryshkin | Con Chair Yeah, just one of the many places we'd have to change, and I don't want to open that can of worms again. Herveus | Con Ops Certainly not right now. Marilyn Mix The organization was many single point failures. Something we can discuss in December. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Anyway, we don't need a final answer on my ops questions instantly, but I'd like to have everything finalized by the 22nd (Sunday before the con), if we have the Discord/Zoom/whatever info by then. Poryshkin | Con Chair We will Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration One other potential item of note -- there's a chance that the reg server may have been cracked. I got an email from Danielle Ackley-McPhail regarding someone who sent HER an email offering to sell her the attendee list.(edited) [2:22 PM] Though their supposed "count" for 2020 is way off. That number might be the total number of different names/emails in the DB regardless of year. Poryshkin | Con Chair OH, yes, got that same notice. It wasn't our system, and we need to do nothing. What got cracked was apparently LB's hotel registration. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Oh FUN. (edited) Alex 🔪 Jack-of-All-Trades Yeek. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration OK, that's all I have. Marilyn Mix Anything else you want to talk about before Programming? [2:27 PM] I will take silence as assent, in this case. Herveus | Con Ops Go. Marilyn Mix I have been in contact with Charlie Jane. [2:27 PM] She wants to do a reading with Q&A for her GoH presentation. [2:28 PM] She also expressed interest in being on some of the panels. Poryshkin | Con Chair Remember: she's not allowed on the Turkey Awards judging panel. Marilyn Mix Turkeys Awards: [2:30 PM] Jo contacted the judges. (Charlie Jane is not among them) Poryshkin | Con Chair Ah! Excellent! Marilyn Mix Do you want me to send you the list? Poryshkin | Con Chair Probably best to just send that along with the general programming stuff. [2:31 PM] All in one blob Marilyn Mix @Poryshkin | Con Chair Not sure what you mean "general programming stuff", but I'll work that out with you off-line. [2:32 PM] Masquerade: [2:33 PM] I didn't keep up on this very well. A few weeks ago a got an email from Susan saying that Thomas wasn't responding. I thought I'd give it a few days and ping Thomas. [2:34 PM] Well. I didn't remember to ping him until yesterday. He said he contacted Susan and she didn't respond. [2:35 PM] So it is too late for Susan to help out with the ideas she had. I take that as meaning she won't be involved in the virtual Masquerade. [2:35 PM] Thomas said things are going slowly with the masquerade. [2:36 PM] He didn't know if there was anything on the web site. (There is not) so I urged him to send something to Meg. DrGandalf I have returned. Doesn't look like anything I missed involves me directly. Marilyn Mix Just started with masquerade. DrGandalf So I see Marilyn Mix I did invite Thomas to this meeting. [2:38 PM] And I asked him to schedule the Masquerade video for Friday evening. Is that OK? Poryshkin | Con Chair That is the best option, yes DrGandalf Fine by me. It took me an evening to assemble the Shore Leave Halloween masq, so as long as I have all the components of the masq early that week I can get it done. Sooner is better, of course, to allow for any technical problems with the entries. Marilyn Mix @DrGandalf That is good to know. Saria | Videogaming, Website ack, I keep forgetting about the website. been having technical difficulties making updates myself Marilyn Mix Then we need to have time to get the video to the judges. DrGandalf Depends on whether you want to have awards as part of the presentation, or have them announced later [2:43 PM] So far all the virtual masqs I've done had the awards announced later Marilyn Mix OK. That makes sense to annoucement the awards in "real time" after the video is played. [2:43 PM] I need to coordinate with Thomas on judges. He asked me if any guests wanted to do it. [2:43 PM] I don't know if he had people in mind. Poryshkin | Con Chair Oh, hm, should we combine Masq Awards with Turkey awards? Marilyn Mix I'd rather have the events separate Poryshkin | Con Chair Trukey awards woulnd't even begin to fill a whole time slot, so doing both actually makes sense. DrGandalf Awards slot. Turkey followed by masq, or vice verce Poryshkin | Con Chair @Marilyn Mix Is this a personnel management thing? Or, something else? Marilyn Mix I was envisioning a major event for Friday evening. Focus on the costumers. [2:47 PM] Then a major event for Saturday evening. Focus on the fun. Poryshkin | Con Chair Hm, POK, I can see that Marilyn Mix It might be considered disrespectful to the costumers to group the two things. Poryshkin | Con Chair I have no experience with costume stuff, really, so I'll go with your judgement on that. Marilyn Mix The logistics might be simpler too, to keep them separate because the people involved are a different set. [2:49 PM] My daughter is a costumer and I've been Den Mother and stage ninja over the years. DrGandalf Best bet is to assemble the judges group, ask if they want to see the video early and judge, or watch with everyone else then present the awards later, like at the end of the hour. I doubt the masq video will run more than 10 or 15 min. Run the masq at 9:00, fill with something (Tom Smith playing a few songs?), present awards at 9:45 on a zoom? Marilyn Mix Good option Herveus | Con Ops Music while they judge is a classic. Poryshkin | Con Chair As said, I'm out of my depth here, so that does seem like a good plan. DrGandalf We can give the judges a zoom channel that is not in use at the moment to have a meeting Marilyn Mix You answered my question. I was pondering how the judges could confer. [2:56 PM] So the room host would play the masquerade video, then bring in the musician, then later link in the Head Judge or the MC. Poryshkin | Con Chair Honestly, Discord channel is better, can be set-up as Invite only, although a Zoom breakout room might also work. Herveus | Con Ops Or a webinar in practice mode. Marilyn Mix We can offer those options to the judges. Depends on comfort level with the technology. Poryshkin | Con Chair also a good point DrGandalf I was just going to say, present the options to the judges, see what they like. If we give them a Zoom room or a breakout room, they can watch the video again Marilyn Mix Good options. I'll run them by Thomas to see if he had some input. [2:59 PM] I'll be sending schedules to the participants and I can ask for masquerade judges also. DrGandalf If it a separate Zoom room with me as host, I can show them bit and pieces of the video if they want to review Marilyn Mix Any other comments about the masquerade? DrGandalf Now we need entries Marilyn Mix Yeah, that. [3:02 PM] If we can get the info on the web site and Facebook, that may help. Poryshkin | Con Chair I'll be sure to do FB. Marilyn Mix @Saria | Videogaming, Website Did Thomas send you any masquerade info? [3:04 PM] Let me move on. Saria | Videogaming, Website I don't recall getting an email about the masquerade Marilyn Mix He would have sent it yesterday. I initially made a typo in your address. I sent him a correction. So I hope he'll send something. [3:05 PM] I sent the programming survey to the list of past participants. [3:07 PM] I can't tell if the results in the our programming website are new or left over. [3:07 PM] So there is some uncertainty in how many people responded. [3:08 PM] I have survey results for 32 people, just counting the items that I set for 2020. [3:08 PM] 8 people interested in readings [3:08 PM] 4 people interested in kaffeeklatches. I will ask again, because there was a problem with that field in the survey/database. [3:09 PM] 10 panels had enough interest to attempt to schedule. (At least 4 people with an interest factor of 3 or higher) [3:10 PM] 12 presentations (single presenter) including Turkey Awards, Hallelujah Chorus [3:11 PM] Total of 34 possible programming items, not counting Music and Gaming. [3:12 PM] I am in the process of updating the database. DrGandalf How is the Hallelujah Chorus going to work? Poryshkin | Con Chair I thought we nixed the Chorus-is there someone willing to actually try it? Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration I thought we were going to replay a previous Chorus, if nothing else. DrGandalf I might have a video around here somewhere. Does anyone else have one? Marilyn Mix I corresponded with Filthy Pierre. He has a recording he can play. People sing by themselves. Filthy will conduct in his Zoom window and share a screen with the recording. [3:13 PM] He has done this for another con. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Trevor probably has the one he made from the last time the pool was there. (It's on YouTube as well.) DrGandalf Yay for Filthy Marilyn Mix He has links for sheet music that we can put on the website and Discord. [3:15 PM] If you all can locate past Chorus recordings, please send me the links. I can pass them along to Filthy and let him decide. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Email or DM? DrGandalf No links, I might have them in my video archives Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-OAYHTxKTE - Trevor's by the pool YouTube Trevor Schadt Hallelujah Chorus by the Pool [3:16 PM] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVsrgHvfA-g - 2018 YouTube Fred Blonder Hallelujah Chorus – Chessiecon – 2018 Marilyn Mix Thanks DrGandalf Turns out I've got lots of them easily available too, on the Clam Chowder DVDs [3:18 PM] I'd have to convert them into .mp4 files from the DVDs Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming (There are at least three more on Youtube, from various Darkovers - 2000, 2008, and the last [2013].) Marilyn Mix OK. so no problem getting a video of the Hallelujah Chorus. [3:20 PM] My next step after updating the database is figuring out the schedule. [3:20 PM] I need to ask Jo for advice. [3:21 PM] I don't know if the web tools are set up to handle the 1.5 hour slots. Poryshkin | Con Chair Schedule is something you & I do together. What do you need wrt Database advice? Marilyn Mix I need advice about the scheduling process. Poryshkin | Con Chair OK, do you have time tomorrow afternnon to go over it? I'm available then, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons, as well. Marilyn Mix checking calendar [3:24 PM] Let's do Tuesday afternoon. I have to do Balticon web stuff on Monday. Poryshkin | Con Chair Sounds good to me Marilyn Mix I want to get the database set with things marked "ready to schedule" and the participant names. Herveus | Con Ops Sounds like Programming is about done for now? Marilyn Mix Programming report is about done ;-) [3:27 PM] As expected, this year will be even more relaxed than usual. Herveus | Con Ops Can we move to Volunteers? [3:27 PM] (then gaming and video gaming) Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors I'll assume no objections as consent Herveus | Con Ops go Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors I've already talked about the tech volunteers we have from bsfs, and capclave crossovers, etc. Who is responsible for scheduling tech training? We have one discord moderator volunteer, Steve Aines, willing to keep an eye on the over 18 channel. Poryshkin | Con Chair Essentially, I am, since I'm setting up the servers and meetings. Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors What I don't have is panel moderator volunteers, and discord moderator volunteers. I assume that several of us will be stepping in to moderate on discord by default. Herveus | Con Ops Based on my Capclave experience, the panel moderator and the meeting host are separate personae. The host is minding the tech while the moderator is "up front" actively doing the moderator thing. Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors Should we put together a schedule of sorts so that there's always someone on call at all hours on discord? Herveus | Con Ops So identifying a moderator is more of a programming thing. DrGandalf Have we had many people sign up as Zoom hosts? Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors Yes Herveus, that is why I separated out tech from panel moderators.. Herveus | Con Ops *nod* Marilyn Mix I will determine panel moderators. I have guests who have volunteered. Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors oh wonderful [3:36 PM] I can cross that of my list of worries Herveus | Con Ops Yay! Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors then, all things being equal, we have at least 8 volunteers for tech stuff, most of them have done this before so will need minimal training. Herveus | Con Ops Being not sure just what Con Ops will really entail this year, I've not formally volunteered, but I am willing to do the Zoom host thing as I am able. [3:38 PM] Or be on tap. Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors wuderbar Herveus | Con Ops And I willingly hosted a "first thing" panel. Poryshkin | Con Chair Con Ops is mostly going to be the behind-the-scenes moderator. Also, possibly interface with any potential complaints about people's on-line behavior, if we get any such issues. Herveus | Con Ops Yeah. Sounds plausible. Marilyn Mix @Herveus | Con Ops You get to be the roving troubleshooter Herveus | Con Ops Hee hee... [3:42 PM] ...with my gnome hat on. Poryshkin | Con Chair Just keep an eye out for return fire. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration (edited) Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors I read troubleshooter as troubadour and got all happy for a minute thinking of the singing Herveus | Con Ops My Unitarian Jihad name is The Spikey Mace of Quiet Reason [3:44 PM] ...so have we covered Volunteers well enough? Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors I got nuthin else Herveus | Con Ops OK. Gaming... Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming I Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration You Herveus | Con Ops anything to report? Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming I'm going to start calling it "Tabletop Gaming" instead of "Board Gaming"... Herveus | Con Ops OK Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Legit Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Looks like we're just going to have open gaming. Folks will meet up in the discord, then go to one of the online playing sites for games. Poryshkin | Con Chair No particular games that you want ot feature? Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming I'll wrangle the discord channel, probably finding a person or two to trade off with. Poryshkin | Con Chair For Capclave gaming, I tried to feature a bunch of s/f-themed games. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Not really; mostly because I'm not getting many responses to my inquiries. I suspect my server may have gotten blacklisted again. Poryshkin | Con Chair Blech Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Well, I might try featuring a few train games, then... [3:47 PM] (To go with the con name...) Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Hee hee hee Poryshkin | Con Chair Maybe, but we're actually named after the by region & the sea dragon said to inhabit the bay, much more than the C & O railroad system. [3:48 PM] grrr, *bay region [3:48 PM] Hm, are there sea dragon-themed tabletop games? Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Yes, but the con logo is a direct takeoff, so railfans would Get It Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Tsuro of the Sea Marilyn Mix @Poryshkin | Con Chair I did like the game selection you had. I was just too busy working the con and attending panels. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Well, this year we're more limited by what the online sites offer... Poryshkin | Con Chair True. I never did get Chimera Station to work out. mneme Russian railroads. Saria | Videogaming, Website Iron Dragon could sorta-kinda be a mix of the two maybe? I know they're not literal dragons but mneme TTR if you use the asmadi site. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Russian railroads. @mneme Poryshkin | Con Chair Почему именно РЖД? mneme Dave: that's a different game--russian railroads is a Euro. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration I've played it. there's a Fall of Communism card in the deck.(edited) Poryshkin | Con Chair @Saria | Videogaming, Website Some of the good are in fact, dragons. And there may be a "sea dragons attack" disaster card in there, or I may be misremembering that. mneme Is there an online site to play crayon rails? Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Not that I know of. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration I can ask Craig Trader, if there is one he'd know. Poryshkin | Con Chair There in fact, at least used to be one for Iron Dragon, dunno if it still exists mneme Dave: Nope: That's the old "russian rails" crayone rail game. Totally different. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Ah, when you said "Euro" I thought that's what you meant. Saria | Videogaming, Website anyway, I'm doing very similar in video gaming; didn't receive any feedback on what kind of games people will want, so I'm doing a schedule of open blocks where I just ask the discord what people want to play and stream the gameplay on twitch. I'm also running demos of some personal favorite games of mine, mostly as a way to give myself a break to play something I want. I know Alex said they were willing to run an Among Us game which is what I suspect will be the most popular vote, but I don't know how that's gonna work if they're gonna be busy, because Among Us is very much Not My Kind of Game. [3:55 PM] I'm also planning to have a Minecraft server running through the weekend, but traffic on that will be relatively limited because Minecraft's internal server service has really small player maximums Poryshkin | Con Chair Among Us is a find-the-traitor type computer game, yes? Saria | Videogaming, Website yeah [3:55 PM] and as I understand it, a pretty accessible one for minimal money Herveus | Con Ops sounds like both flavors of gaming are under control. [3:58 PM] Did I miss anyone? Saria | Videogaming, Website under control ish Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming As under control as they can be Herveus | Con Ops So further communication should be via the staff mailing list and directed emails and the like as we run down to the con. [4:00 PM] I think. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming We didn't say anything about Mythic that I recall. Herveus | Con Ops Plus we have here. [4:01 PM] Ah, right. Mythic. That's Bambi's remit, no? Marilyn Mix I'm handling that Herveus | Con Ops OK. Marilyn Mix Bambi was overwhelmed Herveus | Con Ops This is not my stunned face (no snark intended). Marilyn Mix I have about 4 items that fall into that category. Bambi will present two of them. Poryshkin | Con Chair Good to know. I remember you saying Bambi was needing help, but I never did get any sort of response form her about what help she needed. Marilyn Mix I have been pleased with the willingness of people to suggest items that they are willing to present, if they don't see what they want in the survey. [4:05 PM] I do have a question about Discord. Herveus | Con Ops Go. DrGandalf Careful what you say, Discord may be listening Marilyn Mix Will there be specific channels for post-panel discussions? I would like to have two. Poryshkin | Con Chair That's easily enough do-able Saria | Videogaming, Website why two? Marilyn Mix One for discussions after a panel/presentation. One for discussions after readings/kaffeeklatches Poryshkin | Con Chair Because we might have post-panel discussions bleeding over to other such, even if we don't have to programming items simultaneously. Marilyn Mix Do you think I need more? Saria | Videogaming, Website ah, I suppose that makes sense Herveus | Con Ops One per "track" to allow simultaneous follow-ons to be kept separate. Poryshkin | Con Chair I think two will fit the bill. Honestly, we can do more on the fly, if we need them. DrGandalf One per Zoom room works if you are doing the 55 minute panel in a 90 slot schedule . I assume panels and readings are different zooms? Saria | Videogaming, Website my only worry on having a lot of channels is stuff getting lost - I used to be on a Pokemon Go server that would create a new channel for every single raid in the area and that got old and unhelpful fast Marilyn Mix I would like to be able to let the program participants know which channels are available. Herveus | Con Ops I'm drawing heavily on what Capclave did, which seemed to be sensible. Marilyn Mix If you are basing it on Capclave, then I'm happy. DrGandalf Worked well for Capclave Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors yah @Saria | Videogaming, Website channel bloat is a thing, but having a 'hallway' to chat after a panel is a good thing Herveus | Con Ops That's the sum total of my experience with this from the "running it" side. Marilyn Mix @Herveus | Con Ops Are you setting up the Discord server, or is @Poryshkin | Con Chair ? Herveus | Con Ops I'm just flapping my gums. [4:10 PM] Seriously, I have zero experience with Discord server ops. Poryshkin | Con Chair I am Herveus | Con Ops I'm open to learning more, but... Marilyn Mix Another question; Are we going to have a donation link on the web site or Discord. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Both? Marilyn Mix First, are we going to have a donation link anywhere? DrGandalf Seems like a good idea. If they want to throw money at us, we should take it Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors amen Poryshkin | Con Chair true enough DrGandalf I don't know the mechanics of it though Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming For Discord, we'd just put a pinned message in the main channel. Poryshkin | Con Chair I put up a link to the payments address. Simple DrGandalf :thumbsup: Saria | Videogaming, Website I can have a link running on the side during stream DrGandalf I would have comments about how it still takes money to run a virtual con and keep the organization running, and how much they are saving by not traveling, hotelling, eating out, etc Poryshkin | Con Chair Guys, this meeting has been running almost 3+1/2 hours. I really need to get other stuff done. If you have something that needs my attention, please do send it to me, DM or e-mail, whatever. But I need to bow out. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Likewise, actually. Marilyn Mix That's all the questions I have that requires group input. Herveus | Con Ops Yep. Absent more business, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming I so move. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Second DrGandalf Its been real folks. Well, its been virtual, anyway Herveus | Con Ops All in favor harumph for the governor. Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Harumph Jim/Blaise | Tabletop Gaming Harumph! Marilyn Mix harumph DrGandalf Harumph Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Remember to prereg for the con if you haven't already done so! Herveus | Con Ops And see all y'all at the con. [4:23 PM] Thanks. [4:24 PM] November 13, 2020 [6:34 PM] Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors Any reason not to accept a dealer application at this time? Saria | Videogaming, Website none that I can think of, since we're online and also we're kind of putting things together at the last minute anyway Yakira - Volunteers and Vendors That's what I figured. Marilyn Mix I agree Dave/Evan(damont) | Registration Registration says, please get their relevant info and pass it on so we can put it in the reg database... [8:21 PM] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-