[ST] [SA] CORRECTED Notes from the Debrief...

[Jill Eastlake]

Sorry about this.

I had other things to do today, and although John sent me his notes last
night, I didn't massage them until 3pm, when I spent an hour fixing them up.

PLEASE dump John's post and only send corrections to these notes.  I'm
sorry.  24 hours from the END of the meeting - not the beginning.

And, when in doubt, use the telephone.

By the way, I'm about 200 emails behind, and I'm leaving the house again in
a few minutes.  Please be kind.

Jill


Arisia Debrief, 27 Jan 2008

Convened at 14:00

Jill ­ Welcome to the debrief.  Rules [as published in E-mail] will
be upheld.

September Isdell (Tem) ­ Thanks to everyone; 2nd highest attendance Arisia
ever, behind Arisia'06 at the Boston Park Plaza. A great year, thus ends two
years of reign for me.

Jill ­ Still looking for a secretary to attend all con comm meetings
and publish notes within 24 hours.

Amy Sue will be timekeeper.  Pat Vandenberg is taking action items as the
occur;  
Stephanie Fine is taking subjects on the board that don't get fully
discussed;  
Conor Walsh is timeline person.
John Francini took these notes.

GoH Liaison - Krista Ernewein ­ the Guests of Honor really enjoyed their
time at the show; staff bent over backwards to help make the GoHs experience
a great one. Example ­ Conor asked to make a wall, with little notice, and
he did. Guests are now where they need to be; GoH binder of doom to be
passed on.  She will be monitoring arisia.goh at gmail.com for questions.

Souvenir Book Ad Sales ­ Helen Francini ­ we managed to get some ad sales
--  rest of report will come under Publications -- Ad Sales Mage.

Restaurant guide ad sales ­ Helen Francini - none sold; Crystal should have
eliminated that line in the organization chart.

Ops ­ Rick Kovalcik (RKOV) ­ Everything's in the published report; comments?
    Buzz Harris -> Liked location, people were competent.

Ops Desk ­ Susan Mozzicato (SMozz) ­ ditto. [Everything's in the published
report.] I didn't run ops desk; someone should have run ops desk; comments?
[none]

Access ‹ Buzz Harris ­ good for blind people, low vision, elderly, others
not so great; no signed interpretation this year. What do you call a
tripod in a 3rd floor hallway? A lobster pot for blind people! Same
with large robots in the hallway.  Other issues will wait for next year.
    Rachel Silber ­> dodgy getting around on crutches.
    -> dittoed by another
    Jan Dumas ­> question ­ is there a person to contact if something is
in the way?
    Buzz -> no one this year; next year it should be in writing to
people like dealers

Info desk ­ Buzz Harris ­ went pretty well; next year ­ if you're a [major
Arisia function] that people will come to ­ art show, dealer, masquerade ­
tell us what the registration procedures are for these events so we
have good information to give people!

Logistics ­ Steve Huff ­ we moved things. Several departments didn¹t
tag stuff in storage ­ if we followed the no tag no move rule, lots of
stuff wouldn¹t have gotten to the hotel ­ PLEASE TAG YOUR STUFF.
    Dale Farmer -> wants his coffee pots back. [action item taken by Skip
Morris]
    RKOV -> commented on how buying cheap labels is a foolish economy.
Deferred to later.

Massage Den ­ not here; comments? ­
    Jerome Conner-> comment ­ thank you!  SMozz ­ delivery of linens should
be more obvious and scheduled.  Signup sheets were misleading in
their layout.

Ribbons ­ RKOV ­ confusion of numbers in ribbons ­ don't do large
cuts and pastes ­ ribbon orders should be mailed to staff/division heads
before con to verify orders .  Mary Dumas -- short of ribbons for Climb
Mount Arisia. Skip ­ some ribbons had A07 instead of A08; Ben Levy ­ only
divhead, conchair, hotel usually had black ribbons; but there were
more this time. Krista ­ orders were messed up.

Security ­ Geoff Turi ­ (not here) report on line ­ comments:
    Walter Kahn -> one of best years for security in terms of being
invisible;
    Dr.Karen Purcell ­> no complaints of security in masquerade wait line;
    Dr. Pam Koretsky ­> dealers were happy with security presence.

Parties ­ Joel Herda ­ Tem didn't call in his marker, so he put together a
group of people who did parties; 5 different events were held which
were largely successful; 45-50 people in the suite for the football
games; more generically, the suite was a good place to put on
parties; family hours were good too.
    Bridget Boyle -> okay to host meet & greet or two?
    Joel-> yes.

Sign shop ­ RKOV ­ Report sent out; one person should be doing it pre
and at-con; expenses need to come under control; too many 24x36 signs
where 11x17 would be fine; anything larger should require divhead
approval.
    Crystal Huff ­> sign shop too close to newsletter;
    Jerome ­> [comment on repairing printers];
    Pat Vandenberg­> sign inventory wasn't carefully gone through to know
whether  or not [a given sign] was existent already or not;
    Ed Trachtenberg ­> can vendors order signs ad-hoc for cash?
    RKOV ­> up to sign shop person;
    Samantha Dings ­> acknowledgements for sign shop orders would be nice

Volunteers ‹ Mary Dumas ­ lots of good people this year volunteered;
many senior people voluntarily went from head honcho to 'gopher'.
    Tem ­> Lots of people volunteered to earn the shirt;
    Walter ­> Crash space at overflow hotel rather than con hotel ­ good
idea for getting away from it all.
    Buzz -> Info desk wanted people 6-9 sat/sun but couldn't;
    Mary -> advanced notice would be nice of needs.
    RKOV -> elevators ­ for later.
    Pat ­> didn't get lots of volunteers.
    Ellen Kranzer -> [Re-think] shifts so they don't match prime dinner
hours.

Treasury - Don Eastlake III ­ Money came in; not as much went out;
gross income 90k including artists and next-year money; we could do a
better job of getting tip money to areas/div heads rather than go to
the top of the tree. Better to  get someone who won't be 13 time
zones away at the start of the con.
    Crystal -> spent more on tips than supplied - ­ fill out an expense
form for reimbursement.
    Hobbit ­ expense report form is confusing.
    D3->agreed.

Assistant Con Chair ­ Lisa "Jasra" Holsberg ­ oversaw reg, tshirts, pubs,
member services, walked around con; reg was wonderful except for freezing
our butts off.
    Crystal -> agreed Jasra was a good Assistant Con Chair.

Registration ­ Jasra ­ Lots of people got registered. Too cold.
Action items ­ communication problems need to be dealt with.
    Jan Dumas -> People MUST have a photo id; some didn't have it.

Badge Art work ­ it rocked!  She'd do it again if asked!  Mouse was
thrilled!

T-shirts ­ (no report)
    Mary -> ordering more shirts; only 1 dozen Large left.

Web ­ Jasra ­ we had a site; dept and div heads didn't send info in
until late; gotta try to get people to get info in earlier.
    Jude Shabry-> site was confusing; too many links to 2007 site.
    Tom Coveney -> scheduling info was not available early enough; as soon
as things are looked in they should go up on site.
    Buzz -> Prior years ­ did a preliminary schedule on the web.
    Krista -> Get active links for GoH up early.

Pubs ­ Crystal ­ 1st time being a divhead ­ did a four page report on
staff list; thinks she remembered everything.  Questions?
    Buzz-> pocket program: add space on reg form for Braille pocket
program or large print to get those numbers early

Ad sales mage ­ Helen ­ considering the late start; we did very well;
generated nice revenue; has lots of ideas for improving revenue and
process for next year; can't stress enough thanks to Crystal, Paul,
Tem, Ben Levy for their help.
    Crystal -> pubs was $2000 under budget because of this.

Flyer ad design - Ben - job should be done by marketing next year;
done as a hack by Ben this year.

NCOA checking - Phi (who sent a message online) says yes it's still
necessary and it should be done; various address lists should be integrated.

Souvenir book - Paul Selkirk -
    General Room Feedback: looks great this year.
    Buzz -> Has icons for handicapped stuff for mktg.
    Corp logo (the Lens) should be in the souvenir Book and the program
guide.
    Ben -> put Code of conduct towards the front of the book.
    Buzz-> one person shouldn't be doing editing of both souv book and
pocket program, unless it's Paul.
    Paul-> Perhaps he shouldn't be either.
    Walter -> books weren't available when staff checked in on Thursday.

Pocket Program - Paul -> usability feedback and small tweaks received;
    Krista -> It was easy to use.
    Walter -> Front desk didn't get any and probably should;
    Tem -> Hotel should be discouraged from making signs because they're
pulling the time from the resume (room turn time) rather than
published start time.
    Ben -> In resume hotel should be told what we want them to post and
what we don¹t.

Hotel maps - Ben - Party Czar disappeared; Need to improve dealer reg
process; fridge requests need to be kept better; working on gift
baskets for hotel people; next year overflow hotel won't be Le
Meridian ­ they're going upscale near $300/night. See <http://
conrunner.net/wiki/index.php?title=Hotel_Liaison> for more hotel
liason thoughts from Phi.

Data Coordination - Paul - pulled data out of Zambia and dumping it
into the book (through a filter) was good.

Restaurant Guide - Crystal - Extra restaurant guides are at the door; report
sent to staff list. We have lots of extra copies.
    Stephanie -> saved us lots of $.
    Pat -> Thank you for having a guide!  Hotel food is too expensive.
    Buzz -> We have leftovers, does any upcoming Con want them?
    Mary -> says yes, for United FanCon in November
    RKOV -> suggests holding on to a few for archival/example purposes.
    

Newsletter - Crystal- Rebecca did a report, which will go to the
list; my comments are in my general pubs report.
    Dr.K -> Masq issue?
    RKOV -> They're here.

Special Needs Publications -> Braille, large print ­ already discussed

Freebie stands, etc. - Erwin S. Strauss - [not here] no voodoo message board
this year.
    Tem -> party boards ­ make sure that there's a Sunday/Monday slot
for parties.
    Walter -> party czar should get info to newsletter on parties.

Palm schedule ­ Ben ­ schedule was on web site but not publicized
well enough;
    Walter -> need a reader to allow the schedule to be beamed to one's
palm
    Skip -> Has one; wasn't asked for it

Pubs office - Crystal - Sheeri Kritzer Cabral did a great job as pubs
sysadmin; set up things, kept them running, generally very helpful.
    RKOV -> Arisia has no usable routers/hubs in storage; corporate IT
standards need to be dealt with.
    [Rathole detected ­ referred to computer committee.]


Assistant Con Chair - Jill Eastlake ­ lots of new people running
things in Entertainment this year ­ things were shaky in the fall,
winter, and now ­ but the con-goers didn't see any of this. No
general comments.

Fast track - Persis Thorndike ­ 100 or so kids in FT; kids and parents loved
the space; 5 page report filed; she expects to do this once more next
year with Lisa Hertel; then she [Lisa] can do it after that; Communication
with Masquerade director needs to be better next year.
    Walter -> most people loved it, including parents ­ didn't know what
the different colored ribbons meant.
    Noel Rosenberg -> logistics ­ 27 totes for Fast Track ­ grows every year
­  time for a cull? Put a cap on # totes that go to con?
    Jan -> way to bring kids like Janice who are 13-14 into volunteering;
    Persis -> security was fantastic

Filk ­ Ellen Kranzer ­ filed report; comments? -> none

Gaming ­ James Pinkerton - Everything went well, no catastrophes; most
things in my report.
    Comments>>
    Rachel -> space needs for LARPs need to be thought through better;
Gabriel spent his weekend in gaming room-kids weren't disruptive from
his point of view;
    Lisa -> Way too crowded-
    Jerome -> Room seemed constantly filled; kudos!

Anime ­ Mike Toole ­ [Jill reported] Limited amount of anime throughout
weekend, not as much as I would like, but there it is.
    Buzz -> Anime schedule should be in the PP.
    Ed -> info from Boston anime con post (passed up to Jill).

Video - Lance Oszko­ not here ­ his stuff was in Zambia; feedback? [none]

Arisia TV-> z! And Jill covering - had trouble hooking system up to
hotel; transmissions were grainy; schedule wasn't in Zambia; schedule
wasn't published.
    Dr Pam -> great to see costumes.
    Jan -> more info about Arisia TV should be publicized more often ­
in the first 2 pages of the program.
    Crystal -> ATV should send info to pubs to [get it] into the
newsletter;
    Ellen -> name "Arisia TV" doesn¹t explain what it does.

Zambia - Tracy Gangwer [left early; covered by Jill] - If you want to make
Zambia more usable for future conventions, send mail to zambia at arisia.org.
    Bridget->Tracy would like to have a meeting to get Zambia cleaned
up before it is put to use for A09 in June.

Events ­ Samantha ­ We had some great events ­ even the Sunday night
ones ­ 477 for Buffy; Sunday night ball was full; communications were
less than optimal, but fires were put out.
    Jerome -> more seats for Buffy!
    Crystal -> great job sending info to pubs to get into newsletter.
    Tem -> two four-hour sections of Realms LARPs ­ and that took
several of the teenage boys out of gaming; Sith Charity Ball raised $800;
Tribble Bash raised $700; 60 blood donors.
    Hobbit-> Sam was at nearly every room turnover wrangling hotel
people to ensure turnovers were done.
    Ben -> Hotel liaison should be doing the wrangling job, according to
Phi.

Blood drive -> MGH blood people want to do a 2-bus blood drive next year.
    Buzz -> keep giving feedback to Red Cross on the fact that they
won't let men who have had sex with men since 1977 give blood.
    Jude -> MGH seems to run a tighter drive than the Red Cross.
    Skip -> doesn't give blood to MGH, because they don't count towards
Red Cross frequent donors' records.

Club Dance - Noel- Johnny Zed and tech did fantastic job; Johnny is
still flying after last weekend's dance ­ most energy he's felt in
years.
    Conor -> Johnny had a tech problem where his laptop rebooted but
about 30 people started singing and dancing while this happened.
    Tem -> special kudos ­ Johnny Zed came to Worldcon [LAcon IV] to DJ
for the Arisia party. Looking for volunteers for Montreal Worldcon
[2009].

Drum circle - Walter - Only ran 1 night ­ why?
    Bridget -> drum circle 101 person didn't get [formally] asked to do
it this year ­ assumed he was doing it regardless.
    Crystal ­> could we do it Monday as well, as it's low tech?

LARPs - James - space problems because of slow feedback and changes
of needs; good turnout. Masq LARP people weren't too happy with
space, but made it work nevertheless.

Masquerade ­ Dr. Karen ­ most comments on my report. TF is
overworked. Withdrawing from any activities for 2009 Arisia for health
reasons. Wants removal from all staff lists. Has stuff to add to big purple
bin of holding.
    Jerome -> Gave out a lot of hall costume awards.
    Samantha -> Glad to be able to give Masq ballroom D all day Saturday.
    Walter -> thanks for bringing the belly dancers back.
    Bridget -> Someone needs to design awards cert for Masq for 09

Goblin Ball - Samantha ­ was very busy; one attendee wanted the
airwall moved "Right Now" to relieve overcrowding.
    Ben -> Need more dance floor, more water, more time

Summit Mt Arisia ­ Several hundred people did it; need way more
ribbons next year; people begging to volunteer;
    Susan -> lots of good feedback on the signs on the way up.
    Skip -> worked well with art show.
    Jerome -> thanks for doing it both days.
    Noel -> List a location that actually exists on maps or somewhere
obvious rather than "Patriots Hall".
    Walter -> outside of room X;
    Crystal -> Do stickers instead of ribbons ­ they can be printed at con

Tech ­ feedback?  [Report published by Spence via E-mail.]
    Sam -> They need to get on Zambia early and often;
    Buzz -> Tech U idea should be mated with something else Arisia is
doing rather than independent.
    Noel -> Followup ­ Huge piece of tech bringing in new blood is
people coming to the ballroom and offering to help, and giving them
something to do rather than just turning them away.
    Hobbit -> Elitism is dropping off.

Labyrinth ­ Jude ­ ran it four times; turned into a nice quiet
space; maybe should make the staff come by to walk it.
    Crystal -> another low tech event for late Sunday/Monday that could
be added with ease.

Programming ­ Michael Whitehouse ­ report filed on the 25th.  [Rachel Silber
reporting] ­ tough year in programming; problems kept from attendees.
Programming has 2 audiences ­ con attendees & program participants (PP).
Biggest problem with PPs was communication; Bridget is aware of most
of this; Rachel spent much time firefighting but managed to pull it out.
    Tem -> You cannot be Con Chair and Assistant Programming Divhead at
the same time. Or other divhead positions.
    Buzz -> hard to be Programming Divhead if you've never done it
before. Should be an assistant divhead first.
    Bridget -> cards given out at Arisia for Brainstorming list. 50
people joined in the past 5 days.
    Rachel -> be aware that the brainstorming (BR) list is really the
outside world, and deal accordingly.


Assistant Conchair Ben Levy ­ Art Show and Dealers; Hotel; Food ­ all
did a good job; no major crises.  General applause.

Art show ­ Dave D'Antonio (DDA) not here. Comments?
    Walter -> Thanks for the staff only hours!
    RKOV -> Merv should be complemented on putting the art show together;
    Mike -> extend art show to Monday?
    Jasra -> 2nd set of staff hours?
    Jill -> painting by Arisia '09 GOH won Best in Show; Jill's amused.

Student Art Contest ­ Skip ­ had to deal with 75 teenagers; SAS and
art show are really two different jobs and should be run separately.
Theme was very useful this year.  One jury member was a graduate from
SAS of A '00.
    Buzz -> Thanks Skip; should leave SAS to con rather than corporate.
    Tem -> rules need cleanup; rules about how many can be judged, etc.
should be judged.
    Noel -> Were SAS pieces up for sale?

Dealers ­ Dr Pam -> Dealers were very very happy; Jasra, Amy, Phi,
Mike all were very helpful; Larry Smith was very happy aside from
room issues; his sales were indicative of how popular the guest of
honor's writing was.
    Buzz -> limit the number of beds in rooms for accessibility reasons?
If they want people with disabilities to buy things, they need to
make room for them.
    Pat -> Range of dealers was very satisfactory; could dealers get a
second room for their stuff so they didn't have more room for their
stuff?
    [someone] Problems with dealer load-in/load-out.

Food - Tamar Amidon - $2k under budget. Program Green room ­ went well;
everyone wants longer hours ­ what do we really want to do there? Con
suite ­ opened late because of a traffic accident; lots of people
stayed on Sunday. Even so, it went well ­ no body does food the way
we do; enough room, etc.
    Steve -> Green room signage confused people who thought they could
eat there even they weren't PPs.
    
Consuite comments:
    Crystal -> conchair shouldn't be doing consuite cleanup.
    Jan -> proposes to whomever put signs up with ingredients.
    Bridget -> Consuite kept running out of water.
    RKOV -> Get staff den hours in newsletter.
    
Staff Den ­ kids in staff den was a problem ­ should have a kids room.
    Buzz -> thanks first to the staff; 2pcs feedback: Breakfast on
Friday would be nice; and there were not a lot of non-soup veggie
options.
    Tem -> Staff Den ­ take all of the equipment out of the rooms when
you clean out.
    Ed -> Thursday night comment.
    Noel -> No breakfast on Friday was a big problem.
    Dr. Pam -> Sign in lobby indicated Friday morning opening.
    RKOV -> Label new things so that they go into storage.
    
Wrapup ­ good space, good food, healthy food.

Lunch trucks ­ Ben ­ Only one truck of the several responded; MIT police
harassed the one truck;
    RKOV -> why did it work the year before?
    Ben -> Lunch truck spaces should be so marked.

Hotel - Tem [for Phi] - if resume info could come into hotel sooner it would
be useful, not simply moving last year's resume info into this year.
    Walter -> Innkeeper desk worked well; important to have an innkeeper
at-con to help with issues. Will send hotel report tonight.
    Buzz -> Note for next year ­ Party Czar is a good thing ­ should
have one for A09.
    Pat -> Phi had enough staff to cover so he could (appear to) relax.
    Mary -> Thanks for [volunteer] crash space.

Member Services- Lisa Hertel - Most of my stuff is on line ­ questions?
    Bridget -> babysitting should be open perhaps to 18 month olds
instead of 2 yr olds.
    Lisa -> Babysitting needs a larger space as we had to turn people away.

Babysitting - Ocean - Posted a long report. Jill has been in touch.

Coat Check - Rachel S for Jacob Lefton (her son) ­ Hampshire kids helped out
­ had a team of 25 people to keep it open.
    Jude -> Thanks to the school for covering their costs. Space was too
small.
    Buzz -> Info desk got good feedback about coat check.
    Tem -> 2 youngest volunteers ever ­ 7 yrs old ­ in coat check.
    Jill -> My kid was younger when he first volunteered.

Fan tables - Lisa -  didn't get used as much as would have been liked.

Freebies ­ watchman movie posters were hot.
    Buzz -> rack broke under weight of freebies; got fixed though.

Smoking lounge- run by a non-smoker, who got out of hospital for heart
surgery just in time to run the lounge.

Transportation ­ Tem ­ Costs for buses picked up by hotel. Confusion
over which department this fell under.
    Noel -> better signage would have been helpful ­ more info to Info
Desk would be better.
    Walter -> let overflow hotel know where the bus stop at the overflow
hotel is.
    Buzz -> Should be a blown-up picture of where the shuttle bus stops
are at the hotels.

Parking ­ Tom ­ Mostly ok save the West Lot; locations on the web
site beforehand might get info across better. MIT Parking & Transport
office didn't inform the police, and the police and MITP&T don't
communicate well.
    RKOV -> more info to dealers on where to park their vehicles and
trailers would be useful.
    Walter -> more info on when lots were open.
    Crystal -> wanted to give the MIT police a gift basket, etc.
    Tem -> no ­ could be construed as a bribe.
    Mike -> parking person should see if there will be construction
projects underway during convention.
    Jan -> Would park in the overflow lot if it were available earlier
than Friday.



Tem ­ Wrap up ­ thanks to everyone  -- we pulled off a fantastic
unbelievable convention; fen didn't see the inner stresses. I am not
running away! I'm working for Jill next year. Everyone has been awesome!

Jill ­ Conchair for Arisia 2010 nominations are now open. RKOV has
his name in.
    RKOV -> Possible closing date ­ 15 march.

Announcements ­ There was a discussion about email etiquette.  Please make
your emails and responses as short as possible if you wish people to
understand them. 

Skip announced that he had tickets to the Somerville Theater's 33rd Annual
Science-Fiction  Film Festival. Contact Skip directly for information.


Meeting adjourned at 16:36.



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