(a) I'd be into buying previous year's posters and con books as souvenirs and as promo material to show family/friends what I've been investing all this time and energy in for the past 7+ years. Is that something Publicity is/should be open to?
(b) Would you be open to creating staff positions, the sole task of which is copy editing the con book (and perhaps the schedule)? Not having to be involved beforehand, not having say (editing), but looking at the finished prototype that is about to go to print, and objectively (as folks not having already invested hours in it) catching typos, layout issues, etc.? (If so, I am open to be part of a team helping with this.)
(c) Are there areas of your department that definitely need more help, or less help?
(d) When there is a need for any kind of "damage control", is that Publicity, Relations, or Facilities Liason, or does that vary with in whose eyes our image needs repair?
(e) Are there any material items that need to be acquired and dedicated to the department, rather than relying on staff/management's personal versions of those pieces of equipment? If so, would you (or Relations) be able to secure corporate donations of them, or would we have to fundraise for them or allocate to them from con budget?
(f) Do we use recycled paper and soy-based inks? If not, can we start doing so?
A) We actually were selling some posters in merchandise this year, though to my understanding they didn't sell very well. I'd be happy to keep doing that, though it does take up table space from other merchandise that sells better. I don't believe we have many program books lying around, besides 2008 and 2009. At least, I didn't find any others during locker clean out.
B) We do have a number of different positions that involve editing/copy editing. I don't know that I would create a whole new staff position to just be copy editor, because I don't think there would be enough work for a staff position there. That being said though, I'd be happy to have a few people on hand who are able to help look at those things right before print, such as other staff members from other departments. This last year, I think we had six or seven people catching errors, and we caught most of them, but there are always last minute fixes and changes. That is one thing that anyone who wanted to help with copy editing would have to understand, we need a very fast turn around on the copy editing, because so many things aren't even available until right before the deadline. But I'd be happy to have you on board for that.
In general though, I am also looking to make sure that all of my staff have a good grasp of communication, grammar, and editing, and making sure we all balance each other out. For instance, I'm much better at content editing, making sure the point comes across clearly and professionally, than I am at figuring out all the nuances of grammar, so I am looking for an assistant who is excellent with grammar.
C) One area of help I'd love to get is a dedicated merchandise person. The person who did it this year is great, but she had to quickly take over for someone one else, and the year before I had to quickly take over right before con. Merchandise seems to be a position that people are interested in, but that always then gets put off to the last minute, forcing us to have rush orders. This year my goal is to start much earlier and have pre-orders of merchandise available before con (as long as the board agrees). This would allow us to do higher ticket items, like messenger bags, as year specific items. Our current rules don't allow selling year specific things the next year, so we always have to be careful and make sure that we don't order too much. I'd also love to get someone really dedicated to producing a newsletter, which I know Wade is interested in.
Mostly the areas that I need help in are just getting people who understand that publicity staff is year round, and that means there are always things to do. Unfortunately I've seen it in many conventions that from about two months after con to two months before con are very dead periods, as the energy and excitement fades away. Luckily at publicity staff means having some free time at convention, as there is a lot less work at con.
D) Damage control does depend on where the damage is - if something is happening in Programing, then Jaki can speak on the subject a lot better than I can. But in general, it does fall under Publicity and Con Chair, and its Publicity's job to write up or edit responses, making sure they are readable and addressing all issues, and making sure damage is being dealt with, either directly or in helping the appropriate director do it.
E) I will look into using recycled paper and soy-based inks. I know costs are dropping as more and more printers are able to do this, but I also know there are various considerations, such as soy-ink doesn't work well on all papers (I'm pretty sure it doesn't work on glossy/magazine paper, so I don't think it would work for our program) or from all printers. So it'll come down to cost and availability. But I'll definitely look into it, I know we are trying to make ourselves more green, such as implementing a better recycling program at convention.
