General meeting.
Presiding: Meg Uhde
Ryan Stasel, Secretary
1. Meeting Format
No speaking without being recognized. Name, Department, Position.
2. Retreat overview
What did people think of the place? Like the location, the iron chef was cool.
3. Registration Update
We have a total of 597 preregistrations. 16 of those are VIPs. 462 online registrations. 90 of those badges have been from outreach. Do not have full mailin information from previous years.
4. Working as staff without registering
Please get your form in. We need that to get you online, and get you on the chart and the position filled. If you are working on something, please please let us know. We don’t want to duplicate efforts, and “waste” our time.
5. Extending staff membership to those 16 and over
Announcement.
6. Posting the meeting minutes
We will be posting the minutes in the staff area of the forums. This hopefully will be happening within a few days of the meeting.
7. Department Updates
Anything that can be quantified. ANYTHING.
Operations:
Yojimbo training has started. Team building effort, and a “you can do this, you can’t do that”. Jess will be posting information about when the trainings will be. Possibly 2-4 per month. Convenience is the key.
Registration numbers have been said. Previous year stats: On this date in 2005, we had 253 registrations, and in 2006, we had 218.
Volunteers: Vallie hears from most volunteers immediately after registration. 26 volunteers. 4 new staff, and possibly 4 more staff that are currently only volunteers due to age (that is now not an issue). Least amount of time put in is 6 hours. Most time is 18 hours.
Question: What did we do at Asia Fest? Mainly talked up the con, walked around wearing shirts, handed out flyers.
AV: Duncan Barth. He will be making sure things work, and are where they belong.
Ops registration cutoff for staff: 6 weeks out.
Programming:
Has about 10% of the panelist forms that she was hoping for. Need more panels. Always a need for staff, prize forms, etc.
AMVs: Received about 20 entries, including one from France. 2 entries from Bourags (small town on the black sea). Is there an interest in the metallurgy panel again? Yes. Panel for AMV creation? Yes. Firearms in Anime? Yes. Eye design in anime? No.
Cosplay: All forms are completed by Andrea. She will get those to Brenda. Panel for plushy parade. More panel forms coming.
Also, would like to have a masquerade ball like Sakuracon, only better. Possible panel on ballroom dancing in Japan. Cosplay chess. Manga library. Renting Sumo suits. We have someone that can help answer questions.
Need for someone using Paradox.
CCTV is being worked on.
Creation Station: Almost all forms turned in. Will have rules ready for Director approval. Is slash allowed in the programming guide? Should be.
No real questions.
Publicity:
Next big project is going to be producing the programming and pocket guide. Advertisements are a big point. Need people that can do layout of the information. New newsletter issue. Definitely a second issue, and possibly a 3rd issue. Need to be designing banner ads for ad swaps with online sites. Need to be looking at colors, and some layout stuff for the 2008 website.
street team updates. Flyer drops are working well. More forceful work this year. There are about 50 drop sites so far. The list of these sites will work well for creation of a contact list for ads, and charity auction donations. There are 22 active street team members. Areas needed are Bend, Seattle, Eugene, and Brookings. Question about an email address she is in contact with. Powells books goes through flyers like crazy. If you drop flyers, stop by again and see if they need more, or if they have interest in ad space, etc. Have about 3000 flyers still. Which means we’ve gone through 7000 flyers.
General pub question: When is the 2008 mascot contest? Started on the 17th, and will end of July 14th. Con book cover contest just started as well. Pocket guide cover as well. All have same dates. Mascot is for 2008, Guide contests are for 2007. Additional prize for mascot is the artist alley table in 2008.
Pocky club update: News letter will be published soon. Was pushed back due to lack of news. Forum meet up panel. Will have a table in Exhibits hall. Pocky club will be working to help with the registration lines, and Tom will be helping disperse Yojimbo guidelines to Pocky club staff. Maid staff is capped 15.
Relations:
No reports on guests or sponsorship.
Exhibits hall: AA is at about 50%. People need to get in their forms soon. Exhibits hall, just passed 50% as well. 18 artists, 40 booths sold. Do not offer any tables or anything without going through Eric.
Charity Auction/Sponsorships: Looking for ways to beef up charity auction. Would like to keep the lots to 50. 70 last year was too many. Any donations would be appreciated. Working with Darkhouse to get Manga.
Hotel contact info: Talk to your director, and they will contact Sean to set up a time and date.
Mike wants to get a survey meeting of the hotel.
8. Open Q&A
Update: David McCarley stood down as Vice Chair. Rian Mueller has been elected to the position for the remainder of his term.
When is the staff needed at the event? Show up as early Friday as you can. Do we have news on medical staff for Kumoricon? We have one or two registered nurses on staff.
Are the nurses going to be stationed somewhere? Yes, most yojimbo should be able to contact the nurses.
Are Yojimbo going to have haoris? Yes, Yojimbo will have haoris.
Volunteers have buttons!
There is a form for Signage. We have gotten a few. We need more.
Tickets for cosplay, slants, and a few others.
Is there a signage person? There is not currently someone in the position.
9. Date and Location of next meeting
Date and location will be June 16th. Normal time. Meeting at the hotel.
