Altonimbus Entertainment General Meeting
August 3, 2008
Minutes taken by Ryan Stasel, transcribed post-meeting on Oct 10, 2008, from video footage taken by Tom Munkres,
Presiding: Michael Andrews
Board attending:
Michael Andrews
Dawn Hewitt
Jaki Hunt
Jeff Tyrrill
Jess Shelton
General:
We need to start thinking about next year. Just to start getting those gears going. We’ve done a lot of outreach, etc. Think about it.
We’d like to do a roving meeting, where a meeting happens at local University/College campuses.
Four directors not present. Eric Teitzel and David McCarley are both camping. John Krall is also not present. Nor is Ryan Stasel.
Publicity:
Con Book is complete. Proof is from the printer, and minor changes need to be made.
Will be ready for bag stuffing on Aug 16th, 2008. Pocket guide is nearly done, will be sent to printer shortly.
Con book is bigger and nicer this year.
Special Thanks to Cassie who worked heavily on the con book.
Finalizing the merchandise.
Creating Press kit (electronic). These will largely be sent to the local press (list from last year, about 15 places). Radio, Newpaper, and TV.
Mascot contest gallery is up on the website. You can go look at all the entires. We have a winner, and that will be announced in closing ceremonies.
Cover gallery will be up soon.
We now have a countdown timer on the site.
Bit of forum organization.
Working on a registration system to get us away from Acteva. No ETA, but it’s being worked on.
At lot of staff time is spent on Registration, so this system will help with that.
Vice Chair:
Not con chair anymore!
Silkscreen party got “rained out”. Rescheduled for the 5th, at Dawn’s house. This is to make merch for the con, you can also make stuff for yourself. Will start around 2pm, and it’ll run until late.
Dawn was sick for a few days, so she’s a bit behind on answering registration emails. She’ll get back up to speed and answer everything by the day after tomorrow.
August 15th is the last day for Prereg.
Mike is going to take 2 days off and do nothing but reg. Get caught up.
Next mail out unknown. As soon as possible.
Pins are 50 cents. They’ll be available at Con.
If you have a bunch of info for your job with the con, and you don’t plan on doing wanting to do the job next year, you really should start working to transcribe that data out of your head, and into some form that can be transfered (e.g. a con archive).
Staff badges have not been printed yet. Please wait a couple days before emailing Dawn about your badge. You will be able to pick them up at the con from your Director.
Make sure to include your name if you email Dawn about registration. Ideally, also include how you registered (mailing, online, etc).
Kudos to Rachele for answering some registration emails (the ones she can), working the forums, etc.
Ops:
All the departments have surpassed their minimum staffing requirements. People should be able to sleep.
We have our RN back, Kat. She’ll be at con.
Should have patterns for Haoris and Sashes available for sewing soon. This will probably happen at the Silkscreening party.
Volunteers: we officially have 25 volunteers. 10 of which are responsive via email. 5 are responsive via forums. volunteer@kumoricon.org actually goes to Jaz now.
Volunteer jobs will vary greatly.
Yojimbo: we have 19 people on the roster. Few people signing up today, and a few others signing up by the 16th. Schedules will be posted up on the forums. If you have a preference, let us know. If you don’t, you’re going to get stuck where we need you.
Registration needs to know what computer systems are up to, and how we’re doing checkin. Ideally search will be via 10 key. Computers have vga ports. We’ll be grabbing LCDs. Hopefully, 8 reg stations, and 4 prereg stations. After an hour or so, we’ll move to 4n4.
At door badges will be paper. They’ve all been printed, we just need to cut them down.
Hotel is okay with 4000 people, but we don’t think it’s doable. We’re going to play it by ear, and cap when we see space starting to get tight. We’re now the “biggest fish” in the area. Orycon is 2500.
Prog:
-Schedule is complete. We’re pretty full, but for the most part, our openings are in small spaces, and small times.
AMVs: We’ve gotten 70 submissions, from 5 states, about about 9 countries. AMV contest is longer now, but since we have so many entries, we’ll have to make more of the show actual AMVs. About 50 of them will be in the show. There will be late night, adult AMVs.
6 submissions have come in late, all of those will go into 2009.
Contest will be 3 hours total. Ballots will be in the chairs.
Schedule will be on the website by mid-august.
Cosplay: 14 entries. Anyone else who wants to enter, please email Andrea.
Karaoke is still open.
Art show, we have 2 entries. We still have more room.
We still need to cut cat fur, if you’d like to volunteer. Depends on when we can get a room, as to when it is (Sat, or Sun).
We’re doing some screenings from Viz of live action movies. DeathNote movie. Live action Hinata movie, and some Gackt filmography. And a few other titles.
Creation Station: if you have any entries for fanfic, please turn them in as soon as possible. Jaki has gotten some of the submissions, and will forward them on.
This year, we’re doing a Chibi room for the 12 and unders. If people would like to help with that, for stuff like Origami, or Katakana, please let Jaki know.
General:
Would like to see a dedicated IT coordinator for the con that would be able to prep the meeting space before a meeting, so that we don’t spend time working on all this crap and delay the meeting. If you’re interested, please let us know. Where it falls is still a question.
Any word on AA? John was supposed to be here today. He’ll be getting back to Mike soon about what the status is.
There is still a yojimbo training after the meeting.
Steve Unfred has an amendment to propose. As it currently stands, after the staff elections, there is a board meeting that elects the Facilities Liaison, Secretary, Treasurer and Vice President. Would like to amend the bylaws to allow the staff to vote on those four positions. Actual text will be posted on the forums. It will be voted upon at the next meeting.
Bylaws have not gotten the attention we would have liked, but we’re still hoping to get something addressed in the near future.
People have complained about having trouble finding information. Reminder, please, ask. Ask Dawn. Ask Mike. Ask your Director.
Suggestion: General QA section where people can ask questions in the forums, via email, and a FAQ on the website (which is already there).
Suggestion: Require Directors and Department heads to make regular updates on the forums or elsewhere saying where the department is, and how things are going. Next meeting, proposal to vote on the recommendation of the staff to require the Board do this.
Acteva does send confirmation emails, but only occasionally. No clue why it doesn’t all the time.
We need to figure out a good way to do the email system. This doesn’t seem to be a systems problem, but a implementation issue. We’d like to make sure emails are going to at least 2 separate individuals.
We need to revive the staff list. It’s not really being used, but it’s currently up to date. All staff can post to the list. We’ll post on the forums how to post to said list.
Others hopefully will post to the forum thread for the amendment to suggest changes, discuss the amendment, etc.
Charity Auction Update: If anyone has shoeboxes, or something of a similar height, we’re going to have some items on display. We’ll also need some volunteers. We’ll want to talk to the hotel about a display case. There is no due date for donations, you can donate through the entirety of the con. There isn’t a guideline for donations, so much as no Hentai. Use your best judgement.
Meeting Adjourned.
Breakouts.
