[SA] phi's notes from the concom meeting

[Nicholas Shectman]

Welcome to September!  (Hello, September!)  The amount of pre-work that
often gets done before now didn't really happen and now we are putting
the convention together in four months.  There have been some div head
changes, and a whole lot of work to do.

Communication.  Joel personally deals best with email to
conchair at arisia.org, next best is phone.  When emailing, please use the
position addresses so that the assistants can tell what is going on.
Remember that email sometimes vanishes, so call if you don't hear back
in a timely fashion.

Joel's cell phone number is 617 308 8977.

If you want a department alias, we can do that.  Contact cws at arisia.org
to set up more aliases.

== Hotel ==

We have a special challenge with the Masquerade because the elevators
can't handle the traffic.  To ameliorate this, locate as much stuff as
possible as low as possible.  Parties on 2, including in function space;
Orange gets Cambridge.  Dealers Row will be on 3; there are stairs to
there from 2, and escalators from 1 to 2.

Easels?  There are 65 easels.  Static sheet?  Fine with that and with
post-it.

We will be badging at entrances to the hotel, so as not to have to badge
for individual items.

Art Show gets the whole 16th floor.

The hotel does have a smoking floor (12).  Does anyone want to run a
smoking lounge?

phi rants.  The gist of it is:  get your room setup requests in early. 
The sooner you ask for something the less likely I am to drop it on the 
floor.  If you want to be near the Staff Den email to innkeeper at arisia.org.

We have a weird room in the basement which will probably be used for
newsletter.

Spinnaker construction has begun.  Dead Dog will be in there after art
show has packed up.

We may be getting MIT shuttle buses at cost.  These are GPS enabled and
there is a tracking web page.

We have parking chits for tonight's meeting.  Also we have some old
Boston Common Parking Garage chits if anyone parks there ever.

== Staffing / Volunteers ==

We don't currently have ASL; Jack has dealt with this in the past and
will confer with Joel after the meeting.

Get job descriptions posted on the web site!  Email to
conchair at arisia.org to do this if you don't want to do it yourself.  If
you need to know what responsibilities your job entails, just ask your
div head.  If anything is going south on your area *please* tell your
div head or con chair.  When information gets hidden, bad things happen.
  Also keep ops at arisia.org in the loop about as much as possible --
their job is to connect information to people who need it.
We have a whole lot of holes in the org chart, many of which represent
filled positions -- please fill in the holes so we know what still needs
doing!

Working on the convention is fun!  Especially when you get to work with
your friends.  Make sure folks get to have fun!

== Timeline ==

phi rants some more.  The gist of it is check out the timeline document 
at http://tinyurl.com/l4ble

== Treasury ==

There are expense forms on the corporate web site.  If you fill out an
expense form and either hand it to Alex or mail it to the PO box, and if
the expense is actually authorized and in the budget.  There are also
tax exempt forms; these are on file at MA Staples (under Ben Levy's
phone number) and Kinkos and Micro Center.  Some places will accept the
online tax form, if you forget to bring a paper one.  Email
treasury at arisia.org to reach Siggy.  He has copies of the budget if you
don't.  Please be prompt!  We are going to try to get the books closed
very early this year.

There are 227 paid memberships and 237 comps right now.  Still 15 or 17
more paid memberships, so paid have now exceeded comps.  Yay!

== Div head reports:  what needs to be done in the next few months? ==

GoH:  We have guests.  We might get a filk guest.  We don't have a fan
guest, and we might not; time to take down the Fan Guest TBA bit on the
web site.  Anyone with suggestions please send them to conchair at arisia.org.

Events:  Jill will be Masquerade director!  She is busily recruiting
people.  We have a tech directory and someone to do drum circle and
someone to do dance and some other things.  We will need a few more
liaisons, but we won't have as much badge checking to do as last year.
Mailing lists are up and running.  There may be a hole in the mail, or
it may be someone who can't spell.  Solution:  ask Cris to add
misspellings to the mailing list aliases.  Space allocation will be
proceeding shortly.  Events gets LARPs and Programming gets all other
gaming; fix the org chart to reflect this.  Jill is developing the
Masquerade rules; if you have input please email jill at pothole.com in the
next week.  We should have an emcee in a week.  Byron will run the green
room; Tina will run the repair table; Sharon Sbarsky is the assistant
Masquerade Director.  Joel wants there to be an art show reception.

Programming:  Brainstorming is now open as of this week for feedback on
what has worked in the past and what hasn't, and new ideas for things to
do in program OR events in the future.  Be aware that the list includes
lots of program participants so behave as if it were an external
communication forum that it is.  Invitations are about to go out; Zambia
is up and running.  We could use some help digesting things from
brainstorming and putting into the precis that's the next step in the
program construction process.  We could use a few more staff.

Fixed Functions:  Hi Steve!  I have a bunch of people on my staff but I
don't know who those people are!  My goal is to meet as many of those
people as I can.  Still trying to find a quartermaster.  We have Tamar
Amidon as assistant div head in charge of food, yay!  Dr Karen is doing
art show; Pam Koretsky is now in charge of all things dealers.  JB Segal
is doing fan tables.  Rachel Olson for Con Suite, Lily Moore for coat
check.  Karen says Liz Orenstein will do Student Art Contest.  Crystal
Huff will be doing Staff Den.  Steve Balzac will be running Massage Den.
  We need coat check more than ever.  Art Show can't rely on Coat Check
for a bag check any more; they will have to run their own or inspect
bags on the way out.  Mike Trachtenberg will be running Green Room again
this year.  Internet Room is a victim of lost space.  We might still
have some net kiosks in the lobby, though.  MCFA has some wireless
kiosks?  Crystal says let her know what's been done in the past for
Staff Den, who has worked on it in the past.  Generally speaking much
historical reference material is on the prior years web sites.  There
will be lots of kosher/veggie/vegan/hypo-allergenic food; check the
ingredients lists to be sure.

Operations:  We Want Your Information!  Contact information, what you're
going to be doing at con, where you are, how to find you.
Transportation is under control.  Looking for a logistic volunteer!  If
you know any ASL translator who're willing to volunteer, let Jim know at
ops at arisia.org.

Marketing:  No free sneak preview of Pirates III.  We may still get
goodies.  No news on sponsorships.  Desperately seeking an assistant
with contacts in the entertainment field.  India Pavilion will be giving
us a 25% discount, might be useful for the Guest of Honor dinner.  Also
any extra food they have around.  Rickland might restart Vidigo for one
weekend?  We need a press liaison, maybe a journalism student.
Marketing is about to send out pings to all the magazines which have 3
month lead times, so that has to be done in September.  Parties at
Albacon or Philcon?  Lisa, Joel, maybe Bridget are going to Philcon.
Bridget can bring supplies.  Lisa, Bridget, Tem, and phi are going to
Albacon.  Critical mass for Albacon looked like it wasn't really going
to get to a party.  Danger Planet and New England Comics would like to
sell memberships as Pandemonium has done in the past.

GoH:  Where do the guests want to be located?

Pubs:  Mass mailer is about ready to go, will be mailed at the end of
the month to get cheap slow-turnaround printing rates.  If you're really
desperate you might be able to get something in.  Progress report should
go out in early December.  We have flyers.  Can we get flyers into
gaming and book stores?  These might be color flyers.  Who's doing ads
for the souvenir book?  Sign Shop is Jo McLernon and will most likely be
under Operations this year; Lisa can print big signs if she has a week's
notice.  NCOA is on Skip's radar.  Ad solicitation will be going out
soon, just for the souvenir book and restaurant guide, ArisiaTV ads not
done through pubs.  Skip is doing the grid; Paul Birnbaum is doing the
pocket program, but Skip will be collecting data for him so if you need
to interface to Pocket Program talk to Skip.

Future meetings:

Sunday October 22 2pm at MIT
Wednesday Nov 15 7pm at the hotel pending availability
Monday December 18 7pm at the hotel pending availability

Misc:  If you're a division, please consider having division meetings.
They're very helpful for intra-division communication.

Don't forget:  upcoming meetings.