On Tuesday, June 24, 2003, at 10:19 PM, Cliff and Eileen wrote:

> If the amount to be passed forward to future conventions is a budgeted
> amount that a committee tries to meet, there is the possibility that
> at some
> point a convention might have to hold back or even cut spending on
> extras to
> make sure the targeted donations are made.

I would like to differentiate between pledging (promising, announcing,
publicizing, whatever) target donations and budgeting target donations.

If the committee would choose to pledge target donations (and I think
any CC committee would be fools to do so based on historical data) then
yes, the convention might have to cut back on other expenses to meet
that pledge.

If the committee would choose to budget targeted donations (which is
what I’m suggesting) then those target donations would be (in my
opinion at least) the first things that should be cut if something goes
haywire.

Bruce mentioned the issue of “appearing to make a profit.” Last I
looked, a non-profit isn’t denied the right to make a profit in its
operations, it’s just restricted on how that profit can be distributed.
It makes sense to me to plan a small profit (cushion, margin for error,
call it what you wish) into the budget and have plans to distribute it
appropriately. It doesn’t make sense to me to budget to break-even and
have no margin for error.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen
http://www.bovil.com/
“It’s not pink; it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.” –Manfred Pfirsich
Marie Rommel

CC22 thinks that passing funds forward is a lovely idea and appreciates
greatly the contribution that CC19 made to us. If we can, we plan to do
something similar, but we would also like to make at least a token
reimbursement to our volunteers, program participants, and staff. (Is that
OK? Anything in the rules that I missed that would prohibit that?)

I suspect that Salt Lake could use the funds since I’m not sure how much
they ended up with from the voting fees, so we do feel an obligation to try
and pass them something.

Trudy

>From: Betsy Delaney <betsy@hawkeswood.com>
>Reply-To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
>To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [runacc] pass-forward funds…
>Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 18:25:20 -0400
>
>Hi, folks!
>
>I want to clarify something concerning CCXV’s passthrough funds, sent to
>CCs 16, 17 and 18:
>
>The decision to clean out the bank account at the conclusion of payment
>of everyone was made by the committee, with my primary influence. Our
>sponsor, the GCFCG, provided us with a 501(c)(3) umbrella, but no
>operating funds whatsoever. While a few of the GCFCG members argued that
>we should keep the funds, it was my belief that the funds should be put
>back into Costume-Cons, and since I was hearing that the next few were
>lower in number than ours was, they could probably use the extra cash. I
>was also President of the chapter at the time, and it was finally an
>executive decision made to disperse the funds.
>
>We didn’t have a mandate to do so. I think we received a donation from
>at least one prior CC, which is where I got the idea to do it. I’d have
>to look up the details to know which one gave it to us, but I think it
>was one of the CA CCs. The main thing was, we wanted to zero out our
>bank account.
>
>History Lesson: The GCFCG had a big problem at the time the ICG was
>incorporated (just prior to 1992), because of its original status as the
>founding ICG chapter as well as sponsor of CC3. The con made so much
>extra money, the IRS had a problem believing the chapter was non-profit.
>It took years (and an expensive accountant bill) to straighten out the
>finances as a result.
>
>We didn’t want to cause any questions to happen with the IRS. The con
>pulled in just over 20k over the entire course of its existence, but not
>all in the same year, and we very carefully documented where every penny
>went.
>
>I had hoped to start a tradition, but I don’t know how long it lasted. I
>know that at least CC16 passed on some funds, and I understand that CC19
>did as well. Without the financial records/budgets from the other CCs, I
>don’t know for sure what happened with the rest.
>
>If we do address the subject in the Run a CC document, it should be as
>historic data (what other con coms have done) and not as a requirement.
>We certainly didn’t budget for the funds. I was hoping there would be
>more, but an expensive hotel bill and extra video editing requirements
>put paid to the largest quantity of profits. We were lucky we had the
>extra to pass forward, in the end.
>
>Note: I’m finishing with putting the Summer issue of The ICG Newsletter
>sometime this weekend/early next week. I just finished labeling all the
>envelopes – now have to collate and fold all the copies (some 550 or
>so). When I’m done, I plan to spend time looking at the outline on the
>site with an eye to making the changes we discussed at the meeting at
>CC21. I would really appreciate feedback about this subject in
>particular, so we can get to writing the content. I can write a lot of
>it, but I’m not expecting to write everything!
>
>Hint.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Talk to you soon,
>
>Betsy
>
>–
>Betsy R. Delaney
>Web Mistress at large
>
>************************************************************************
> http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
> http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
> http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
>************************************************************************

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On Wednesday, June 25, 2003, at 04:56 PM, Trudy Leonard wrote:

> CC22 thinks that passing funds forward is a lovely idea and appreciates
> greatly the contribution that CC19 made to us. If we can, we plan to
> do
> something similar, but we would also like to make at least a token
> reimbursement to our volunteers, program participants, and staff. (Is
> that
> OK? Anything in the rules that I missed that would prohibit that?)

Karen has said (unless I interpreted her email wrong) there is nothing
in the Constitution that speaks to distribution of any profit from the
convention.

Personally, if I were you, I would work something into the con budget
to forecast and account for those reimbursements if you wanted to make
sure they happen. Better to have it in the budget and cut it if
necessary than to depend on chance.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen
http://www.irlm.org/ – mailto:webmaster@irlm.org
“Anybody who takes this seriously deserves to”
— Donna Barr

At 05:03 PM 6/25/2003 -0700, you wrote:

>Karen has said …there is nothing in the Constitution that speaks to
>distribution of any profit from the convention.

This is absolutely correct.

Historically, excess funds have been used for:

Bailout funds for previous CC’s that fell into the red;
Pass-forward funds to future CC’s;
Printing of Memory Books for the attendees of the con that made the profit;
Printing and distribution of photo enlargements for Fashion Show designers
/ constructors / models and Masquerade winners of the con that made the profit;
Extra amenities (food & drink services put out during the day for the con
membership at large) at the con itself;
Reimbursements to con staff, volunteers, lecturers, etc.

I’m sure there are other equally worthy uses, which is why I don’t want to
mandate how any con’s excess funds (if any) should be used.

Trudy, there’s nothing in the rules to tell you what to do with your
profits. Pass-forward funds to other CC’s would be fine, and I’m sure CC-23
could use the $$$.
I’m also sure reimbursements to worthy staff, volunteers, etc. also would
be greatly appreciated. (At CC-6, we made our committee buy memberships so
we would have startup $$$, and then refunded then as soon as we were
assured the con would be in the black.)

Andy, I’m just not sure how to budget a CC for the current economy. If
anything, budget for “worst case” attendance numbers and then do the Happy
Dance when you exceed them. At CC-6, we budgeted for 400, had 500 going in,
and 100 registrations at the door (this is NOT typical for at-the-door
registrations, so don’t use these numbers for your estimates!!!). I think
CC-8 budgeted for 600 (based on CC-6), and had to shut down registration at
900+ because the hotel would not hold any more bodies. On the other hand,
other CC’s have budgeted for reasonable numbers (300), and done their
darndest to get the word out, and ended up with less than stellar
attendance. So the important message here is NOT to overextend. And if you
have to cut budget items, DO NOT CUT advertising.

I would hope that CC-26 would draw at least as well as CC-6, but I just
don’t know. All I can tell y’all is that as far as I know, the
best-attended CC’s ever were in California, but that was during the “boom”
years of Corporate jobs (80’s and early 90’s) and I don’t know if those
numbers are valid any more.

I’d like to see the attendance ?’s filled in on the CC website, but that
info needs to be supplied by the concoms in question.

–Karen

CC19 received donations from CC15, CC16, & CC17 (the CC15 donation was
received after CC16 had occurred.) We passed on donations to CC20, CC21 &
CC22, as well as to a local convention.

We are heading out tomorrow to do the family thing in B.C., so I will be
away from my computer for the next two weeks.

Eileen

—–Original Message—–
From: Betsy Delaney

I had hoped to start a tradition, but I don’t know how long it lasted. I
know that at least CC16 passed on some funds, and I understand that CC19
did as well. Without the financial records/budgets from the other CCs, I
don’t know for sure what happened with the rest.

Hi!

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

>
> Historically, excess funds have been used for:
>
> Bailout funds for previous CC’s that fell into the red;
> Pass-forward funds to future CC’s;
> Printing of Memory Books for the attendees of the con that made the profit;
> Printing and distribution of photo enlargements for Fashion Show designers
> / constructors / models and Masquerade winners of the con that made the profit;
> Extra amenities (food & drink services put out during the day for the con
> membership at large) at the con itself;
> Reimbursements to con staff, volunteers, lecturers, etc.

And this is just the sort of information I think we should include in
the final document, for reference.

> I’m also sure reimbursements to worthy staff, volunteers, etc. also would
> be greatly appreciated. (At CC-6, we made our committee buy memberships so
> we would have startup $$$, and then refunded then as soon as we were
> assured the con would be in the black.)

We did this only after we were sure all of our bills were covered. We
were able to refund all staff who wished to receive refunds. Several
chose to make donations of their money, and that was part of what we
passed on to the next three CCs. It took over a year to straighten out
everything and pay for everything. The hotel bill in particular was in
dispute for well over four months after the conclusion of the con, and
video needed extra time as well (almost a year, by my hazy reconing).

The biggest thing to remember – you can’t close the books until you are
dead sure there are no more bills to be paid, and that can take a
considerable amount of time post-con.

Even with our budget, which was set up with three breaks (200 members,
300 members and 400 members), and with careful tracking of
income/expenditure, what our budget doesn’t show is that we modified the
numbers during the process – sometimes more than once a week as we got
close to the event – the numbers shown in the version that’s online
really doesn’t reflect the changes we made over the course of time.

It was really clear, as we crossed a deadline (raise in fees, calendar
timeline) that some of the numbers were going to shift from changeable
to fixed. We broke our numbers down into finer detail than some might
have wanted, but we knew exactly what we could afford to pay for as a
result.

We treated our budget much more like a guideline than a fixed
requirement. We simply had to be flexible. If we needed more for tech or
the con suite at the last minute, that money was going to have to come
from somewhere else.

We did have a larger than usual number of walk-ins at the last minute.
We also had some found income by offering event-only donations to family
members and Disclave members who wanted to see a masquerade but who
weren’t interested in attending the panels.

> I’d like to see the attendance ?’s filled in on the CC website, but that
> info needs to be supplied by the concoms in question.

Actually, so would I. I think I’ve asked for the data before from some
of the different chairs, but some were much easier to talk to than
others. And there are some for which I don’t think we’ll ever have
complete information.

It would be a GOOD THING(tm) to get at least the current and most recent
CCs to give us those numbers when they’re done.

And frankly, personally, I’d love to see the Whole Costumers’ Catalog
budgeted for in one of the upcoming CCs. It’s a benefit that disappeared
with CC18, but it’s a valuable resource that (if Karen actually has the
time to resurrect) all the members of the con would certainly
appreciate. Memory books are nice to have, but having that resource
guide available has been a lifesaver on several occasions.

Cheers,

Betsy

—
Betsy R. Delaney
Web Mistress at large

************************************************************************
http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
************************************************************************

In a message dated 6/25/2003 7:08:36 PM Central Daylight Time,
attrembl@bovil.com writes:

> Personally, if I were you, I would work something into the con budget
> to forecast and account for those reimbursements if you wanted to make
> sure they happen. Better to have it in the budget and cut it if
> necessary than to depend on chance.

Andy,
Putting something like that into a budget can be a real hard thing to
do. CC21 did make money, which was a huge weight of relief for me. You might
remember another con in this part of the universe in the mid 90’s. It’s first
year it did alright. So much so that it gave the ConCom, me included, visions
of grandeur. The second year was just the opposite, due to bad weather. The
ConCom had to pay con bills out of our pockets.
At best, I’d advise a 50/75/100% system. I am still trying to figure
out which end of that the next CC should be on. In my opinion, and
experience, it is nicer to have a big chunk of money early on.
Henry Osier

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

At 11:09 AM 6/26/2003 -0400, you wrote:

>And this is just the sort of information I think we should include in
>the final document, for reference.

Absolutely.

>The biggest thing to remember – you can’t close the books until you are
>dead sure there are no more bills to be paid, and that can take a
>considerable amount of time post-con.

Many CC’s have left their books open for at least a year after the con.

>And frankly, personally, I’d love to see the Whole Costumers’ Catalog
>budgeted for in one of the upcoming CCs. It’s a benefit that disappeared
>with CC18, but it’s a valuable resource that (if Karen actually has the
>time to resurrect) all the members of the con would certainly
>appreciate. Memory books are nice to have, but having that resource
>guide available has been a lifesaver on several occasions.

I am willing to do a WCC again in conjunction with a CC.

However, that being said, the decision to do a WCC or not needs to be made
at least two years out from the convention, and preferably the moment a
convention wins its CC bid.

First, I need “advance warning” so I have time to get the manuscript
together. Doing a WCC is a very time and labor intensive undertaking, which
is why there hasn’t been one in so long.

Second, and most importantly, the price of the book needs to be amortized
into the membership fees FROM THE START, or the convention simply can’t
afford the cost of the book on top of its other expenses. [CC’s receive
discount pricing on the book (at least 50% off retail).] I’m sure members
would be happy to pay an additional $10 in membership fees if they are
receiving a $20 reference book as part of their overall convention package.

Third, I will not do a new WCC for two consecutive CC’s, as it is too
exhausting.

–Karen

Utah bid three years in a row, and won on the third try, in Australia. I don’t think we got any money from that vote. But since we did help push up the voting count in our first two bids, Atlanta has already seen that we could use some money and sent us $50. Which is very nice, since right now they are on the low end of their income balance. Thanks.

We were very concerned early on in our bid/hotel selection with CC attendance. Early information would have had us expecting too high a turn-out. (we can still hope…) But after getting more detailed information (attendee count and location), we suspect that our local area can figure on about 250. Unless we get lots of West Coast attendance (we do hope) We do have lots of hotel and masquerade space. But it was a challenge to find a hotel with lots of space, and still have less than 200 rooms per night expected.

In our license bylaws, we specifically state what information we will report to the license holders. So that info will be availabe to future bids. I expect this group to help draft such guidelines for future CCs. For us (who did not know a lot about CC, it was very important information.) Also, our bylaws state that our extra profits go to the next three CCs. This does not mean that we can’t also offer some refund to staff, but that I did see the importance of seed money for CC.
Charles

—–Original Message—–
From: Trudy Leonard <georgialei@hotmail.com>

I suspect that Salt Lake could use the funds since I’m not sure how much
they ended up with from the voting fees, so we do feel an obligation to try
and pass them something.

Trudy

.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>From: “Charles Galway” <cgalway@xmission.com>
>Subject: Re: [runacc] pass-forward funds…
>
>Utah bid three years in a row, and won on the third try, in Australia. I
>don’t think we got any money from that vote. But since we did help push up
>the voting count in our first two bids, Atlanta has already seen that we
>could use some money and sent us $50. Which is very nice, since right now
>they are on the low end of their income balance. Thanks.

Charles –

Since none of us could attend the Australian Con, we just sent you what our
usual contingent would have spent in voting fees, had we been able to vote.
We hope to have more for you later.

Contact me off list and let me know if you want to advertise in one of the
PR’s or the Program book.
The next PR will have at least a list of upcoming CC’s. I realized too late
that I had left them out of the most recent one.

Trudy

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On Thursday, June 26, 2003, at 08:19 AM, henryosier@cs.com wrote:

> In a message dated 6/25/2003 7:08:36 PM Central Daylight Time,
> attrembl@bovil.com writes:
>> Personally, if I were you, I would work something into the con budget
>> to forecast and account for those reimbursements if you wanted to make
>> sure they happen. Better to have it in the budget and cut it if
>> necessary than to depend on chance.
> Andy,
> Putting something like that into a budget can be a real hard
> thing to
> do. CC21 did make money, which was a huge weight of relief for me. You
> might
> remember another con in this part of the universe in the mid 90’s.
> It’s first
> year it did alright. So much so that it gave the ConCom, me included,
> visions
> of grandeur.

Oh, yeah, I remember that con. 40 below. I also remember a committee
member or two (not present here or involved in CC) who screwed around
with things. That didn’t hurt the con’s bottom line, but may have
prevented the con from happening again regardless.

And yeah, it can be difficult to budget reimbursements in, particularly
if it’s not done very early. Betsy is right, early budgets are really
just guesses; they don’t solidify entirely until right before or
sometimes after the con. Karen’s right, large-ticket items like the
Whole Costumers’ Catalog need to be included in those early budgets.
Early budgets may be guesses, but they’ve got to include everything
because they’re the only tool for setting membership rates at a level
that will pay for the con.

Karen is also dead-on about advertising and marketing.

Last year the LA WesterCon was only about 1000 people. Insane? Yes.
Ridiculous? Yes. It should have been twice that size. But they did an
atrocious job marketing the convention. They didn’t have a marketing
person until 6 months before the con. They’re lucky they broke 600.

For the last three years Kevin and I have worked on a 400-600 person
BDSM conference that drew membership from all over the country. It sold
out (hit membership cap and went over) every year in spite of craziness
and stupidity within the committee (worse than in the convention you
didn’t name). We’ve recruited the same marketing person for our CC bid.

Right now we’re covering our marketing out of personal funds (what with
not being incorporated or having a revenue stream) but that’s what I
figure we’ve got to do. We need momentum, both locally and
internationally. We really want to get folks to Utah (or at least get
folks to buy supporting memberships) so they can vote for us. Votes may
be a hit on our bottom line (particularly if the voting fee doesn’t
cover all the expenses associated with a supporting membership), but
they’re a sign of commitment on the part of members.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio

On Thursday, June 26, 2003, at 10:10 AM, Charles Galway wrote:

> But after getting more detailed information (attendee count and
> location), we suspect that our local area can figure on about 250.
> Unless we get lots of West Coast attendance (we do hope)

We hope too 🙂

For that to happen, though, you need to market out here. In the 18
months leading up to your con, we’re going to need to see you and your
folks out on the coast, and in Arizona. Colorado, St. Louis and Iowa
(and maybe as far east as Chicago) may be fertile turf for you too (tho
Chicago to Salt Lake is about a 2 day drive).

We’re starting to work on a master list of costume organizations in our
marketing sphere. When it’s better fleshed out (right now I’ve got a
few college theater and art departments and local orgs) I’ll make sure
you get access to it.

Just a suggestion: Look up your local drag court. If you don’t mind
hanging out with drag queens who drink a lot, your local coronations
and events should be a great place to market. There’s an imperial court
both in Salt Lake and in Ogden.

Ogden’s Coronation ball is in November, and this year’s theme is “An
Evening of Movies, Movie Stars and Awards From Harlow to Streisand”
http://www.impcourt.org/icis/chapters/ogden.html
Don’t know much about this; your court is fairly new, this is the
fourth coronation in Ogden.

Salt Lake City’s Coronation ball is Memorial Day Weekend, and next
year’s theme is “Namaste: An Evening in the Majestic Ruins of the
Maharaja”
http://www.impcourt.org/icis/chapters/saltlake.html
Salt Lake Coronation is huge and draws folks from all over the country.
It’s got the reputation of being a great and rowdy party. We’ve got
friends here who attend every year. If you’re interested in following
up these opportunities, we’ll talk.

> In our license bylaws, we specifically state what information we
> will report to the license holders. So that info will be available to
> future bids. I expect this group to help draft such guidelines for
> future CCs.

I would like to see a standard reporting format suggested in the guide
even if it’s not required by the constitution. I think that would
benefit the archives and upcoming conventions and bids.

> For us (who did not know a lot about CC, it was very important
> information.) Also, our bylaws state that our extra profits go to the
> next three CCs. This does not mean that we can’t also offer some
> refund to staff, but that I did see the importance of seed money for
> CC.

Oh, that’s easy. Membership refunds are expenses and are subtracted
from the gross.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio

…when I really get reminded what a good marketing person is, and why
we picked the one we’ve got.

We’re cleaning up and getting ready for dinner (Lance has dinner with
us every Wednesday) and he says “you know, the only place I don’t have
fliers is in my saddlebags on the bike. By the way, do you have any
quarter-page fliers?”

I haven’t the foggiest how I spaced quarter-page fliers. Probably
because everybody does full-page fliers at cons. It’s not like we don’t
do quarter-pages for all sorts of other events.

The other thing is the Quilt Museum (2 blocks from work) is part of a
quilter’s “shop hop” this weekend so they’ve got representatives out
drumming up business and greeting folks. I’m going to print proofs of
our marketing packet and take them over to them.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
“It’s not pink, it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.”
–Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel

read the FAQ… Ridicule: http://www.idiots-r-us.org/
read the FAQ… IBMWR: http://www.ibmwr.org/faq-files/
read the FAQ… AirList: http://www.airheads.org/faq.html
read the FAQ… Hoaxes & Urban Legends: http://urbanlegends.about.com/

So along with this weekend’s plans to do a party at Westercon, I’ve
been working on some of our marketing docs…

Lance and I were talking at dinner last week, he said we needed a
quarter-page flier. I’ve crunched two fliers down to quarter-page size
and also created two new quarter-page fliers to fill out the layout.
The current flier pack can be downloaded from the group file section at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cc26sv-staff/files/
It’s a pretty big download at 4.5mb, but it’s also 12 pages of text and
artwork. The 4-ups are page 12.

We’re planning to run out the current batch of ribbons at Westercon and
afterwards order a new batch that’s more graphically consistent (namely
in fonts used) with the paper fliers. They’re also going to read
“Pre-con Costume Award” rather than “Pre-con Hall Costume Award” so
they’re more versatile. If you’ve been patiently awaiting a ribbon
refresh, this is why we haven’t sent them yet (namely, we had to
survive June).

Kevin has done a new set of “ask me about CC26?” badge hangers. These
are again more consistent with the paper fliers, and (as tested at
BayCon) much more visible and likely to attract attention. We’ll be
distributing these when we run into folks. It’s a good idea to carry a
pack of quarter-page fliers with you when wearing this badge… lots of
folks do ask about it.

Another thing we’re planning for the 4-up fliers is to stake out the
door for the contestant meeting and hand fliers to folks as contestants
arrive. We’re also looking for folks to help us canvas the masquerade
line Saturday evening and hand out award ribbons (assuming we still
have some) and 4-up fliers to folks who are interested.

I’ve been adding to the marketing database
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cc26sv-staff/database
It now includes local SCA chapters with contact information on the web
and local Imperial Court chapters. The SCA chapters don’t have USnail
addresses; they don’t seem to post any of this on their websites. If
you have groups who you think ought to be on the list, please add them.

I’m going to get back to work on the calendar. Please add calendar
entries for events you believe are of interest to the bid. Set a 2-week
and 1-day reminder if you do.

You’ve probably recently received a “profile request” from Yahoo that I
sent. This is part of what I’m doing to keep track of whether folks do
or don’t know how to sign in to the web services of the group. Please
do a profile (even if it’s not too detailed… don’t want to give away
too much to the marketers).

Speaking of marketers (and not the good kind) when you sign in to do
your profile, also check your account information (it’s the “account
info” link in the group title bar). It’s nice to have real names
associated, but it’s also useful to go in and click on the “edit your
marketing preferences.” By default Yahoo assumes you want to give away
all your information, so go in and switch that off.

Finally, I’d appreciate it if you would update your entry in either the
bid committee database or the conference committee database.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio

This is to inform everyone that, at this time, I have no plans to bid on
another Costume Con. This is not due to CC21 being an utterly terrible experience,
or anything like that. I have made this decision because I do not know what
my life will be like in six or seven years. It would be unfair to the costumers
in the Chicago &Milwaukee areas if I were to bid on another that far out, and
then to have my life have me move out of the area.

Henry W. Osier,
Co-Chair, CC21
<A HREF=”http://www.jennifarse.com/cc2003″>Costume-Con 21 Welcomes You!</A>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

So the whole WorldCon (Toronto) customs & immigration debate going on
over on ICG-D had me thinking, and had Kevin digging things up on the
web.

Turns out there is a whole booklet from the Canadian government
concerned with bringing international conferences to Canada. It covers:
Immigration
Customs
Taxes (besides import duties)
Work permits

Read it at http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/E/pub/cp/rc4032/README.html

Canada is very serious about attracting international conferences and
making it easy for organizers/delegates/members/participants to get the
information they need to cross the border. I’m wondering if the US
government has anything documents like this. If nothing else, it’s a
valuable resource to identify the kinds of things we should research to
help our foreign members enter the US for CC’s here.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen
http://www.irlm.org/ – mailto:webmaster@irlm.org
“Anybody who takes this seriously deserves to”
— Donna Barr

That’s an excellent idea!

Elaine

> So the whole WorldCon (Toronto) customs & immigration debate going on
> over on ICG-D had me thinking, and had Kevin digging things up on the
> web.
>
> Turns out there is a whole booklet from the Canadian government
> concerned with bringing international conferences to Canada. It covers:
> Immigration
> Customs
> Taxes (besides import duties)
> Work permits
>
> Read it at http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/E/pub/cp/rc4032/README.html
>
> Canada is very serious about attracting international conferences and
> making it easy for organizers/delegates/members/participants to get the
> information they need to cross the border. I’m wondering if the US
> government has anything documents like this. If nothing else, it’s a
> valuable resource to identify the kinds of things we should research to
> help our foreign members enter the US for CC’s here.

Andy –
Where the hell are the award certificates from CC21? Don’t pull an
“Animal” on us!

Marty

On Wednesday, August 6, 2003, at 03:07 PM, martingear wrote:

> Andy –
> Where the hell are the award certificates from CC21? Don’t pull an
> “Animal” on us!

I’ll give you the same answer publicly that I gave the short list of
folks who asked privately:

I’ve got the paper stock, I’ve got the stamps and envelopes, I’ve got
the
data, I’ve got the design, I’ve got the signatures, now all I need is
time.

It’s currently in the “my fault” zone, and has been since mid-June
(when I received the last thing I needed from others).

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio

On Tuesday, September 23, 2003, at 05:57 AM, rookwoods wrote:

> — In ICG-D@yahoogroups.com, Lisa A Ashton <lisa58@j…> wrote:
>> What I do, as soon as I return home from the con (if not sooner) is to
>> write on the back of the ribbons in ink, what it won, the date and
>> what
>> con (which is sometimes not printed on the front ribbon).
>
> I’ve tried to do that with my ribbons as well, but again: I didn’t
> always “hear” what I won, so I”m not sure if I wrote correctly on the
> ribbon – I keep figuring that I’ll get the actually working on the
> certificate.
>
> But what do you do for wins at a con that did not hand out ribbons?
> recent example: this year’s CC. Lovely etched glasses if you won Best
> in Something, but no ribbons for anyone. (I’m not trying to pick on
> this year’s CC, it’s just the most recent. I understand that other CCs
> and other cons haven’t handed out ribbons as well).

‘k, so now that mine are mailed I’m going to talk…

First of all, there is a group (somewhat inactive, probably in need of
a kick in the pants) working on a “Costume-Con Runner’s Handbook” which
will include checklists for masquerade runners. Much of the masquerade
section, I’m sure, is going to be based on the Kennedy Compendium and
JW-A/Devereaux. This handbook will be available (I believe) on the
costume-con website once it’s in a draft that is presentable.

as to the meat:

Ribbons are nice. They’re also a tricky item to budget and order. It’s
really bad to under-order ribbons and have some winners go without.
It’s really difficult to estimate the number of ribbons actually needed
even when there’s a high level of preregistration. Unless you’re really
lucky the only safe bet is to over-order, and considering how tight
most CC budgets are, that’s not a good choice. I love ribbons (which is
why we’re giving them out to promote CC26?) but in certain budget or
planning situations they may not be feasible.

Home-crafted prizes can be cool, just look at the CC16 medallions (even
with the cure issues), but may not be any more cost-effective than
ordering ribbons in, and are going to be just as difficult to estimate.
Time is also an issue there.

As to how to tag the “special” prizes, a sticker on the underside of
the foot of the glass or on the back of the plaque is often a good
solution for an item like that.

Calligraphed certificates are insane. Printed certificates can be very
nice.

So on to “What I learned from CC21:”

We’ve both got laptops; copies of everything for the masquerade will be
on both of them.

I’m buying a portable printer this weekend. Canon i70, if you care.
Good print speed, sturdier and smaller than the average desktop inkjet
printer. The main reason is to be able to print party posters at cons,
but it’s also useful to have for printing certificates, obviously.

I’m buying a portable scanner too. Probably the Ambir Travelscan Pro
(maybe Ambir Visigo A4 or A6). Very important for scanning judge’s
signatures for certificates (so the judges don’t get tendonitis signing
tons of certificates). I will get judges’ signatures early in the
weekend, too.

I will have a database or spreadsheet set up to transcribe entry sheets
right away instead of working from paper packets that have to be
heavily manipulated.

All entrant forms will be printed from the database and reviewed with
the contestants instead of using handwritten forms for the tech crew.

Certificates will be designed before the convention and the merge
process will be tested.

Certificate paper will be chosen before the convention. Generic 20lb
bond just doesn’t make for nice certificates. High-brightness 47lb
stock is fabulous.

I think that covers everything.

For the moment, at least.

Kevin and I are running the Masquerade for ConJecture 2003 (a little
convention in San Diego, 10/3-5) and I’m starting on the certificates
for that now. Got a request in to the con to identify the fonts they’re
using in pubs and for a copy of the logo in hi-res format. Could
probably use the same spreadsheet and merge, but may want to work up
something different. Rules are done. Best guess is about 10 entrants at
most.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
“It’s not pink, it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.”
–Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel

2nd most important safety device on my bike: the one beneath my right
hand
Most important safety device on my bike: the one inside my helmet

At 04:58 PM 9/23/2003 -0700, you wrote:

>Calligraphed certificates are insane. Printed certificates can be very
>nice.

Printed certificates definitely seem like the way to go.

The ribbons are really cool to wear on your belt with your street clothes
like scalps on the day after the competition at the convention, but they
become a storage problem once they go home.

And some folks don’t like the ribbons because they look like the same ones
handed out to the 4-H livestock at the county fair.

Other “special” prizes are greatly appreciated, but should be in addition
to the certificate.

Sounds like you have the certificate situation well under control for
future masquerades that you and Kevin run. 🙂

–Karen

On Wednesday, September 24, 2003, at 01:39 PM, Alix Jordan wrote:

> Gentlebeings:
>
> Properly, from the dollmakers perspective, CostumeCon does not
> have a
> doll competition. In a doll competition the entire doll counts; how
> you
> made it; what you made it from; how you present it. Judging at a doll
> show
> is like presenting a costume at a masquerade…everything counts. And
> you
> can’t buy the doll, just as you can’t buy a costume. You need to
> start from
> scratch, and you aren’t allowed to adapt a commercial pattern unless
> the
> competiton rules allow it and that is only done for rank beginners and
> to be
> honest, I’ve only seen it listed once. And at a competition clothing
> is
> secondary, unless the competion rules declare that all dolls must be
> wearing
> clothing. (Big scandal one year when one of the American competitions
> disqualified an accurate reproduction of a Native American
> woman…because
> it did not have underwear!) There have been some very big prize
> winners in
> doll competitions that have been nudes. (Check out “Anatomy of a
> Doll” by
> Susan Oroyon.)
> On the other hand, the competions at CostumeCon emphasis the
> costume
> over the doll. While you can make a doll from scratch and enter it, a
> person who goes out, buys a Barbie doll and makes a costume to fit the
> doll;
> adapting doll patterns; has an equal chance of winning.

I don’t know if this is reflected in the rules, but doll contest awards
are often segregated by “scratch-made doll” and “costumed commercial
doll” awards.

They aren’t necessarily judged, though, by doll specialists.

Both are things for future committees and the RunACC group to consider

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
“It’s not pink, it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.”
–Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel

2nd most important safety device on my bike: the one beneath my right
hand
Most important safety device on my bike: the one inside my helmet

Andrew Trembley wrote:

>
> I don’t know if this is reflected in the rules, but doll contest awards
> are often segregated by “scratch-made doll” and “costumed commercial
> doll” awards.
>

If it’s a scratch-made doll, then it’s judged there. Does it get fewer
points because it doesn’t have clothes? Possibly, but not necessarily,
depending on the quality of the construction. Are clothes required? I
wouldn’t think so.

Karen

At 06:05 PM 9/24/2003, you wrote:

>I don’t know if this is reflected in the rules, but doll contest awards
>are often segregated by “scratch-made doll” and “costumed commercial
>doll” awards.
>
>They aren’t necessarily judged, though, by doll specialists.
>
>Both are things for future committees and the RunACC group to consider

While Alix’s comments are undoubtedly accurate, I don’t think we should
promote changing the basic form of our doll competitions. All competitions
at Costume-Cons, regardless of their form or other emphasis, should be
solidly biased to the costume. That is the purpose of the convention and I
don’t think we should bow to the Doll Associations any more than school
theater competitions should bow to our emphases when being judged.

Pierre

>–
>andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
>San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
>(Kevin’s)
> “It’s not pink, it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.”
> –Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel
>
>2nd most important safety device on my bike: the one beneath my right
>hand
>Most important safety device on my bike: the one inside my helmet

“Those Who Fail To Learn History
Are Doomed To Repeat It;
Those Who Fail To Learn History Correctly–
Why They Are Simply Doomed.”

Achemdro’hm
“The Illusion of Historical Fact”
— C.Y. 4971

Andromeda

Pierre, I agree completely.

Costume-Con should be more about what the doll is wearing than about the
doll (or stuffed animal) itself.

Betsy, can you scan through the ConStitution and make sure any references
to “doll competition” read “doll _costume_ competition” so we can further
clarify this?

Thanks,

–Karen

At 03:50 PM 9/25/2003 -0500, you wrote:

>At 06:05 PM 9/24/2003, you wrote:
>
>
> >I don’t know if this is reflected in the rules, but doll contest awards
> >are often segregated by “scratch-made doll” and “costumed commercial
> >doll” awards.
> >
> >They aren’t necessarily judged, though, by doll specialists.
> >
> >Both are things for future committees and the RunACC group to consider
>
>
>While Alix’s comments are undoubtedly accurate, I don’t think we should
>promote changing the basic form of our doll competitions. All competitions
>at Costume-Cons, regardless of their form or other emphasis, should be
>solidly biased to the costume. That is the purpose of the convention and I
>don’t think we should bow to the Doll Associations any more than school
>theater competitions should bow to our emphases when being judged.
>
>Pierre
>
>
> >–
> >andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
> >San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
> >(Kevin’s)
> > “It’s not pink, it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.”
> > –Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel
> >
> >2nd most important safety device on my bike: the one beneath my right
> >hand
> >Most important safety device on my bike: the one inside my helmet
>
>”Those Who Fail To Learn History
>Are Doomed To Repeat It;
>Those Who Fail To Learn History Correctly–
>Why They Are Simply Doomed.”
>
>Achemdro’hm
>”The Illusion of Historical Fact”
>– C.Y. 4971
>
>Andromeda
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>runacc-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Will do!

And it seems to me that the rules posting should probably be the next
big project after I get the photos done.

I am really serious when I say that I could use the help in processing
the information for posting. With three months to go before delivery,
and a TON of stuff going on here, I’m finding that my time is becoming
more and more limited for working on the site and the big projects. The
fall is generally my worst time, schedule-wise: Three birthdays, two
major holidays, and last minute wrap up of work stuff before December
are all contributing to the situation. And I am presently scheduled to
deliver January 2 – subject to continued good progress in the pregnancy,
of course!

I’d be more than happy to see other people on this list volunteer to
take over particular projects – Management of the Run a CC doc comes
instantly to mind. Just because it’s on the web site I manage doesn’t
mean that I feel it’s absolutely necessary for me to personally manage
the entire process!

I’ve posted what we have so far, and have received virtually no feedback
whatsoever to any of the stuff I’ve posted. I know WorldCon interfered
with schedules and free time, but I’m not sure where we’re going if I
don’t hear back from people who’ve promised to do work.

Hint…

Betsy

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

>
> Pierre, I agree completely.
>
> Costume-Con should be more about what the doll is wearing than about
> the
> doll (or stuffed animal) itself.
>
> Betsy, can you scan through the ConStitution and make sure any
> references
> to “doll competition” read “doll _costume_ competition” so we can
> further
> clarify this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> –Karen
>
> At 03:50 PM 9/25/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >At 06:05 PM 9/24/2003, you wrote:
> >
> >
> > >I don’t know if this is reflected in the rules, but doll contest
> awards
> > >are often segregated by “scratch-made doll” and “costumed
> commercial
> > >doll” awards.
> > >
> > >They aren’t necessarily judged, though, by doll specialists.
> > >
> > >Both are things for future committees and the RunACC group to
> consider
> >
> >
> >While Alix’s comments are undoubtedly accurate, I don’t think we
> should
> >promote changing the basic form of our doll competitions. All
> competitions
> >at Costume-Cons, regardless of their form or other emphasis, should
> be
> >solidly biased to the costume. That is the purpose of the convention
> and I
> >don’t think we should bow to the Doll Associations any more than
> school
> >theater competitions should bow to our emphases when being judged.
> >
> >Pierre
> >
> >
> > >–
> > >andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
> > >San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
> > >(Kevin’s)
> > > “It’s not pink, it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.”
> > > –Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel
> > >
> > >2nd most important safety device on my bike: the one beneath my
> right
> > >hand
> > >Most important safety device on my bike: the one inside my helmet
> >
> >”Those Who Fail To Learn History
> >Are Doomed To Repeat It;
> >Those Who Fail To Learn History Correctly–
> >Why They Are Simply Doomed.”
> >
> >Achemdro’hm
> >”The Illusion of Historical Fact”
> >– C.Y. 4971
> >
> >Andromeda
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> >
> >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> >runacc-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> >
> >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
> Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
> ADVERTISEMENT
> [click here]
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> runacc-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

—
Betsy R. Delaney
Costume-Con Archivist
Costume-ConNections (http://www.Costume-Con.org/)

Hi, Karen!

Ok, here’s the deal:

[snip]

1.4 Conference Activities

Each Costume-Con conference is required to have the following program
items: (a) at
least one (1) staged costume competition of some sort; (b) at least ten
(10)
instructional/educational presentations of some sort (which can take the
form of
lectures, panel discussions, seminars, hands-on workshops, etc.); (c)
Site Selection
voting for a future Costume-Con conference (see Article 2); and (d) at
least two hours
and a meeting area provided for the Annual Meeting of the International
Costumers’
Guild (as dictated by their By-laws).

Traditional conference activities include: (a) a Social (party) on the
first night of the
conference; (b) a Science-Fiction/Fantasy costume competition; (c) a
Historical
costume competition; (d) a Fashion Design contest (held before the
conference); and
(e) a Fashion Show featuring some of the winning designs from the
Fashion Design
contest.

[snip]

This is the *only* mention that there are competitions at Costume-Con at
all. The Doll Competition/Contest is not addressed. We could:

a. leave this section as is, and leave it up to the committees to
determine what their competitions should be
b. provide a list of “Other/Additional/Alternative Conference
Activities” (competitions held in the past as a suggestion of additional
activities)
c. add the Doll Costume Competition to the second paragraph as (f),
since it has become a tradition. (I don’t think we’ve missed it more
than a year or two since Animal started them (at CC5?))

I’m easy either way, but as soon as we make the decision to amend the
ConStitution, I want to post the change to the list so that we don’t
have any more discussion on that particular topic. Alix is WAAAAYYY too
rabid on the subject.

I’ll be gone all weekend – just trying to tie up some loose ends before
I leave – so I can take care of whatever changes are necessary on
Monday.

Thanks!!!

Betsy

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

>
> Betsy, can you scan through the ConStitution and make sure any references
> to “doll competition” read “doll _costume_ competition” so we can further
> clarify this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> –Karen

—
Betsy R. Delaney
Web Mistress at large

************************************************************************
http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
************************************************************************

Any of your suggestions work from my point of view but I kind of like the
inclusiveness of suggestion b:

> b. provide a list of “Other/Additional/Alternative Conference
> Activities” (competitions held in the past as a suggestion of additional
> activities)

It could serve as a guide of what is possible within the CC framework while
demonstrating its flexibility.

Nora

My first thought is (a). My second thought is (b).

The Doll Costume Competition has never been mandatory at CC, so if it’s not
mentioned in the ConStitution, it shouldn’t be. I thought, if anything, it
might be mentioned as an example of other sorts of possible competitions.

The Single Pattern Competition has taken place at a lot of CC’s, but it
isn’t mandatory, either.

I really want to leave individual committees room to maneuver once they
have covered the Big Four (Social, F&S/F, Historical, Fashion Show) events
at the con. Some committees may not have the time/space/energy/personnel to
deal with a doll costume competition, or they may want to try some other
sort of competition that has not been tried before (such as Iron Costumer).

I just wanted the language about the Doll Costume Competition cleaned up if
it was mentioned by name anywhere in the ConStitution. I guess that isn’t
necessary if it isn’t mentioned, although current and future CC committees
should strongly consider referring to it as the “Doll COSTUME Competition.”

I agree that Alix is out of hand on the ICG list. I tried shutting her up
with the message about “CC is about the costumes, not the dolls,” but she
seems to have tuned that right out. Gak.

–Karen

At 07:11 AM 9/27/2003 -0400, you wrote:

>Hi, Karen!
>
>Ok, here’s the deal:
>
>[snip]
>
>1.4 Conference Activities
>
>Each Costume-Con conference is required to have the following program
>items: (a) at
>least one (1) staged costume competition of some sort; (b) at least ten
>(10)
>instructional/educational presentations of some sort (which can take the
>form of
>lectures, panel discussions, seminars, hands-on workshops, etc.); (c)
>Site Selection
>voting for a future Costume-Con conference (see Article 2); and (d) at
>least two hours
>and a meeting area provided for the Annual Meeting of the International
>Costumers’
>Guild (as dictated by their By-laws).
>
>Traditional conference activities include: (a) a Social (party) on the
>first night of the
>conference; (b) a Science-Fiction/Fantasy costume competition; (c) a
>Historical
>costume competition; (d) a Fashion Design contest (held before the
>conference); and
>(e) a Fashion Show featuring some of the winning designs from the
>Fashion Design
>contest.
>
>[snip]
>
>This is the *only* mention that there are competitions at Costume-Con at
>all. The Doll Competition/Contest is not addressed. We could:
>
> a. leave this section as is, and leave it up to the committees to
>determine what their competitions should be
> b. provide a list of “Other/Additional/Alternative Conference
>Activities” (competitions held in the past as a suggestion of additional
>activities)
> c. add the Doll Costume Competition to the second paragraph as (f),
>since it has become a tradition. (I don’t think we’ve missed it more
>than a year or two since Animal started them (at CC5?))
>
>I’m easy either way, but as soon as we make the decision to amend the
>ConStitution, I want to post the change to the list so that we don’t
>have any more discussion on that particular topic. Alix is WAAAAYYY too
>rabid on the subject.
>
>I’ll be gone all weekend – just trying to tie up some loose ends before
>I leave – so I can take care of whatever changes are necessary on
>Monday.
>
>Thanks!!!
>
>Betsy
>
>Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
> >
> > Betsy, can you scan through the ConStitution and make sure any references
> > to “doll competition” read “doll _costume_ competition” so we can further
> > clarify this?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > –Karen
>
>–
>Betsy R. Delaney
>Web Mistress at large
>
>************************************************************************
> http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
> http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
> http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
>************************************************************************
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>runacc-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

I’m starting to lean toward (b) myself. Anybody else care to give an opinion?

As long as it’s a list of possible activities and none of them are
mandatory, I’m OK with it.

–Karen

At 07:40 AM 9/27/2003 -0500, you wrote:

>Any of your suggestions work from my point of view but I kind of like the
>inclusiveness of suggestion b:
> > b. provide a list of “Other/Additional/Alternative Conference
> > Activities” (competitions held in the past as a suggestion of additional
> > activities)
>It could serve as a guide of what is possible within the CC framework while
>demonstrating its flexibility.
>
>Nora
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>runacc-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

I vote for (b) for what it is worth, with the wording, “Doll Costume
Competition”.

Marty

>
>

‘k, I went back to Betsy’s outline document from back in may:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runacc/message/100

Thoughts & Opinions?

—–
Costume-Con is an artistic endeavour.

Costume-Con is a business endeavour.

Both are true. To be a successful artistic endeavour for its members,
Costume-Con must be a smooth-running business operation behind the scenes.

That’s why this handbook exists. Our goal is to provide conference
committees with advice, resources, checklists and timelines to better
organize, bid and run a Costume-Con.

The handbook is organized in three major sections.

Section 1 is an introduction to Costume-Con; a review of the official
operating documents and obligations that a conference committee must meet.

Section 2 looks at the organization of the conference, both from the
perspective of the events that happen and the jobs and people required
to make those events happen.

Section 3 is a very rough timeline. It breaks out conference planning
into the following phases:
I. Preparing to bid
II. Bidding
III. Frome vote to conference…
IV. Conference Operations (at-con)
V. Closing (post-con)
…and lists which responsibilities fall due during those times.

So this has nothing to do with TorCon reviews.

Something interesting came out of the business meeting.

The business meeting voted to change their voting cycle from 3 years to
2 years. This will not take effect unless the ammendment is ratified at
Noreascon 4.

andy

This is Karen’s call, but I don’t see a need to add to the required activities and thereby constrain a concom, which might not have a viable doll costume competition one year. In comparison, the WSFS constitution requires only that the concom host the business meeting and award the Hugos. All other activities are at the concom’s discretion.

Leave it the way it is, for now, if my advice.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: Betsy Delaney
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Re: [ICG-D] Doll competition

Hi, Karen!

Ok, here’s the deal:

[snip]

1.4 Conference Activities

Each Costume-Con conference is required to have the following program
items: (a) at
least one (1) staged costume competition of some sort; (b) at least ten
(10)
instructional/educational presentations of some sort (which can take the
form of
lectures, panel discussions, seminars, hands-on workshops, etc.); (c)
Site Selection
voting for a future Costume-Con conference (see Article 2); and (d) at
least two hours
and a meeting area provided for the Annual Meeting of the International
Costumers’
Guild (as dictated by their By-laws).

Traditional conference activities include: (a) a Social (party) on the
first night of the
conference; (b) a Science-Fiction/Fantasy costume competition; (c) a
Historical
costume competition; (d) a Fashion Design contest (held before the
conference); and
(e) a Fashion Show featuring some of the winning designs from the
Fashion Design
contest.

[snip]

This is the *only* mention that there are competitions at Costume-Con at
all. The Doll Competition/Contest is not addressed. We could:

a. leave this section as is, and leave it up to the committees to
determine what their competitions should be
b. provide a list of “Other/Additional/Alternative Conference
Activities” (competitions held in the past as a suggestion of additional
activities)
c. add the Doll Costume Competition to the second paragraph as (f),
since it has become a tradition. (I don’t think we’ve missed it more
than a year or two since Animal started them (at CC5?))

I’m easy either way, but as soon as we make the decision to amend the
ConStitution, I want to post the change to the list so that we don’t
have any more discussion on that particular topic. Alix is WAAAAYYY too
rabid on the subject.

I’ll be gone all weekend – just trying to tie up some loose ends before
I leave – so I can take care of whatever changes are necessary on
Monday.

Thanks!!!

Betsy

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
>
> Betsy, can you scan through the ConStitution and make sure any references
> to “doll competition” read “doll _costume_ competition” so we can further
> clarify this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> –Karen

—
Betsy R. Delaney
Web Mistress at large

************************************************************************
http://www.WebInvent.com/ * http://www.hawkeswood.com/
http://www.Costume-Con.org/ * http://www.sickpups.org/
http://www.SchoolWithoutWalls.org/
************************************************************************

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Andy —

Nice intro.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: Andrew T Trembley
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 2:05 PM
Subject: [runacc] A stab at the introduction…

‘k, I went back to Betsy’s outline document from back in may:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runacc/message/100

Thoughts & Opinions?

—–
Costume-Con is an artistic endeavour.

Costume-Con is a business endeavour.

Both are true. To be a successful artistic endeavour for its members,
Costume-Con must be a smooth-running business operation behind the scenes.

That’s why this handbook exists. Our goal is to provide conference
committees with advice, resources, checklists and timelines to better
organize, bid and run a Costume-Con.

The handbook is organized in three major sections.

Section 1 is an introduction to Costume-Con; a review of the official
operating documents and obligations that a conference committee must meet.

Section 2 looks at the organization of the conference, both from the
perspective of the events that happen and the jobs and people required
to make those events happen.

Section 3 is a very rough timeline. It breaks out conference planning
into the following phases:
I. Preparing to bid
II. Bidding
III. Frome vote to conference…
IV. Conference Operations (at-con)
V. Closing (post-con)
…and lists which responsibilities fall due during those times.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I agree.

Tina

—– Original Message —–
From: Byron Connell
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] A stab at the introduction…

Andy —

Nice intro.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: Andrew T Trembley
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 2:05 PM
Subject: [runacc] A stab at the introduction…

‘k, I went back to Betsy’s outline document from back in may:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runacc/message/100

Thoughts & Opinions?

—–
Costume-Con is an artistic endeavour.

Costume-Con is a business endeavour.

Both are true. To be a successful artistic endeavour for its members,
Costume-Con must be a smooth-running business operation behind the scenes.

That’s why this handbook exists. Our goal is to provide conference
committees with advice, resources, checklists and timelines to better
organize, bid and run a Costume-Con.

The handbook is organized in three major sections.

Section 1 is an introduction to Costume-Con; a review of the official
operating documents and obligations that a conference committee must meet.

Section 2 looks at the organization of the conference, both from the
perspective of the events that happen and the jobs and people required
to make those events happen.

Section 3 is a very rough timeline. It breaks out conference planning
into the following phases:
I. Preparing to bid
II. Bidding
III. Frome vote to conference…
IV. Conference Operations (at-con)
V. Closing (post-con)
…and lists which responsibilities fall due during those times.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT

View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
runacc-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

At 11:26 AM 9/27/2003, you wrote:

>I vote for (b) for what it is worth, with the wording, “Doll Costume
>Competition”.
>
>Marty

I also would vote for (b). A listing of possible activities, none of which
are required, seems to me to be a good guideline for future committees.
We’ve been experimenting with different activities, displays and
competitions throughout the history of C-C. Such a list can spark the
creativity of a committee while re-inforcing the Costume-centric nature of
C-C’s

Pierre

“Those Who Fail To Learn History
Are Doomed To Repeat It;
Those Who Fail To Learn History Correctly–
Why They Are Simply Doomed.”

Achemdro’hm
“The Illusion of Historical Fact”
— C.Y. 4971

Andromeda

In a message dated 09/27/2003 12:37:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
MartinGear@comcast.net writes:

> I vote for (b) for what it is worth, with the wording, “Doll Costume
> Competition”.
>
> Marty

Guidelines/checkoff-lists are good references.
What the ICG constitution doesn’t mandate, we could amend to show
CostumeCon activities that may also be included. (did you know the WSFS constitution
also only mandates site selection and Hugo awards at Worldcons – everything
else is just gravy)
As for the doll contest, I vote for (b), with the wording “doll costumer
competition”, because WE are costumers.

Joni Dashoff

In a message dated 09/27/2003 4:34:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
attrembl@bovil.com writes:

> The business meeting voted to change their voting cycle from 3 years to
> 2 years. This will not take effect unless the amendment is ratified at
> Noreascon 4.
>

Proposed amendments to the WSFS constitution have been know to fail at
the second, ratification vote.
Serious opposers will ensure they are present at that meeting, because
they will know not to be scheduled elsewhere.
I would have had to give up my only program item at Torcon (costuming
with your child) to attend Saturday’s WSFS meeting; I won’t allow this to happen
to me next year.
Joni Dashoff

At 12:14 AM 9/29/2003 -0400, you wrote:

>In a message dated 09/27/2003 4:34:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>attrembl@bovil.com writes:
>
> > The business meeting voted to change their voting cycle from 3 years to
> > 2 years. This will not take effect unless the amendment is ratified at
> > Noreascon 4.
> >

Andy, was a reason given why Worldcon wants to change to a shorter cycle?

At the time they went to 3 years, it was because Worldcon had gotten so
huge that it took more time, logistics, etc. to get a committee together
and prepare all the necessary stuff.

I am also wondering how this affects CC. Bruce and Nora just submitted a
bid for CC-25 where they could not 100% lock in a venue or date because
they could not get a commitment this far out from either of their potential
hotels. So maybe we should reconsider a 2-year cycle as well.

Discussion, anyone?

–Karen

Sounds like almost everybody likes (b): a listing of possible activities,
none of which
are required.

I like having an example there so “newbie” committees have something to
look at.

Perhaps we’d also better emphasize that each CC has only done 2 or 3
additional items from the list (lest some overly ambitious committee try to
do them ALL).

Maybe there could be some kind of “tally” next to each item as to how many
CC’s have had that event? (Doll Costume Contest and Single Pattern Contest
would probably have pretty high rankings.)

How good are the records? Do we actually *know* what additional contests
were run at which CC so this kind of information can be compiled?

–Karen

Karen –

I know that when we obtained our hotel contract the rep was very
enthusiastic, very excited. Since then we’ve changed reps three times and I
am about to go and explain once again who we are and what we’re doing. I
don’t know if shortening the time would eliminate some of that or not. I do
know that some of the other SF and Anime conventions in town who haven’t
locked in their hotels to a long-term contract are having to shop around on
a yearly basis for space.

Hotels may also be holding out in hopes of an improvement in the economy,
since they are having to offer fire sale rates right now, which is actually
not a bad thing for the groups who are booking for this year. Tourism is
way down and a lot of the chains are really feeling the pinch. They may not
even be confident that they will be open three years from now.

I don’t know if you would want to change the lead time just yet. You might
want to amend the rules to specificaly allow for “date and hotel to be
announced later”.

Trudy

>From: Ricky & Karen Dick <castleb@pulsenet.com>
>Reply-To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
>To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [runacc] worldcon fallout…
>Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 09:29:07 -0400
>
>At 12:14 AM 9/29/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> >In a message dated 09/27/2003 4:34:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> >attrembl@bovil.com writes:
> >
> > > The business meeting voted to change their voting cycle from 3 years
>to
> > > 2 years. This will not take effect unless the amendment is ratified
>at
> > > Noreascon 4.
> > >
>
>Andy, was a reason given why Worldcon wants to change to a shorter cycle?
>
>At the time they went to 3 years, it was because Worldcon had gotten so
>huge that it took more time, logistics, etc. to get a committee together
>and prepare all the necessary stuff.
>
>I am also wondering how this affects CC. Bruce and Nora just submitted a
>bid for CC-25 where they could not 100% lock in a venue or date because
>they could not get a commitment this far out from either of their potential
>hotels. So maybe we should reconsider a 2-year cycle as well.
>
>Discussion, anyone?
>
>–Karen
>

_________________________________________________________________
Instant message with integrated webcam using MSN Messenger 6.0. Try it now
FREE! http://msnmessenger-download.com

According to Elspeth Kovar who was at the business meeting, the feeling
was that by having a three year lead the committees were burning out, so
to save the committees stress they want to change it to a two year
lead. IMHO this is a play by some of the SMOFs to insure that WorldCons
go only to second or third tier cities. I don’t know of any of the even
second tier cities that could accept a two year lead. BucCONeer had to
change off of Labor Day weekend because we couldn’t put up a $10K
deposit 42 months out. I hope that Joni is correct and that this gets
killed next year, but as usual there is a group within smofdom that
wants the WorldCon to be run for their convenience and screw the attendees.

Marty

>
>

I’m thinking I’m in favor of “B” myself – I just wanted to give all the
possible options, considering the existing language.

Not so sure about the tally – I think that may be a pain to manage over
time (one more thing to remember to update annually…).

OTOH, I can (or should be able to) glean from the PRs and other
paperwork in my possession what competitions took place at each CC. I
think I may have most of them posted already under each CC summary page,
but I can go back and doublecheck the contents of each PR/Program Book
to be sure. (I think I have all of them, now, with a very few possible
exceptions.)

Dolls started earlier by at least four years (I think) than the SP. And
the single item (Codpiece, Bra, etc) started after that, and then sort
of petered out afterwards.

I’ll see what I can do to compile the list for doublechecking here this
week.

Thanks!

Betsy

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

>
> Sounds like almost everybody likes (b): a listing of possible
> activities,
> none of which
> are required.
>
> I like having an example there so “newbie” committees have something
> to
> look at.
>
> Perhaps we’d also better emphasize that each CC has only done 2 or 3
> additional items from the list (lest some overly ambitious committee
> try to
> do them ALL).
>
> Maybe there could be some kind of “tally” next to each item as to how
> many
> CC’s have had that event? (Doll Costume Contest and Single Pattern
> Contest
> would probably have pretty high rankings.)
>
> How good are the records? Do we actually *know* what additional
> contests
> were run at which CC so this kind of information can be compiled?
>
> –Karen

—
Betsy R. Delaney
Costume-Con Archivist
Costume-ConNections (http://www.Costume-Con.org/)

Thanks, Andy!

Here’s my original version:

http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/intro.shtml

I think adding Andy’s language to clarify the structure of the doc is a
Very Good Idea, TM.

Here’s my suggestion: Throw out everything I wrote (since Andy says it
better than I do).

Then add after his outline (at the bottom):

This publication draws heavily on several sources, including a reading
committee (listed
in Acknowledgements), the WorldCon Runner’s Guide, the Kennedy
Masquerade
Compendium, and documentation available from previous Costume-Cons,
including
Costume-Cons Fifteen and 16.

We expect that we will leave something out. It is nearly impossible to
cover all bases, but with the help of future con committees, we hope to
fill the holes as this publication evolves.

If you have any questions concerning the contents of this publication,
please contact the
editorial team.

Thanks, and have a successful Costume-Con!

Betsy Delaney
Managing Editor

Andrew T Trembley wrote:

>
> ‘k, I went back to Betsy’s outline document from back in may:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runacc/message/100
>
> Thoughts & Opinions?
>
> —–
> Costume-Con is an artistic endeavour.
>
> Costume-Con is a business endeavour.
>
> Both are true. To be a successful artistic endeavour for its members,
> Costume-Con must be a smooth-running business operation behind the
> scenes.
>
> That’s why this handbook exists. Our goal is to provide conference
> committees with advice, resources, checklists and timelines to better
> organize, bid and run a Costume-Con.
>
> The handbook is organized in three major sections.
>
> Section 1 is an introduction to Costume-Con; a review of the official
> operating documents and obligations that a conference committee must
> meet.
>
> Section 2 looks at the organization of the conference, both from the
> perspective of the events that happen and the jobs and people required
>
> to make those events happen.
>
> Section 3 is a very rough timeline. It breaks out conference planning
> into the following phases:
> I. Preparing to bid
> II. Bidding
> III. Frome vote to conference…
> IV. Conference Operations (at-con)
> V. Closing (post-con)
> …and lists which responsibilities fall due during those times.

—
Betsy R. Delaney
Costume-Con Archivist
Costume-ConNections (http://www.Costume-Con.org/)

On Monday, September 29, 2003, at 06:29 AM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

> At 12:14 AM 9/29/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>> In a message dated 09/27/2003 4:34:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>> attrembl@bovil.com writes:
>>
>>> The business meeting voted to change their voting cycle from 3 years
>>> to
>>> 2 years. This will not take effect unless the amendment is ratified
>>> at
>>> Noreascon 4.
>>>
>
> Andy, was a reason given why Worldcon wants to change to a shorter
> cycle?

Neither the WSFS Business Meeting minutes nor any position papers have
been posted anywhere that I know of, so I’m going off of what I heard
from folks who were there…

Marty has the “official position” of the folks promoting the amendment
correct: the length of the bid/plan/produce process is putting a lot of
strain on the people bidding and winning site selection. A shorter site
selection cycle would result in a shorter time commitment, less stress,
and more cohesive committees.

I’m not sure I entirely agree with this argument, but I see (looking at
our CC schedule, and the way recent CCs have run) an issue with
maintaining momentum on a committee for 6-8 years. There’s definitely
an excitement cycle that surrounds a bid; high at kick-off, fading
until submission deadlines are near, high at site selection, fading
until convention deadlines come due, and possibly partial-burn-out by
the time the con happens.

I’m also not sure that I agree with the “evil smof” argument against
the amendment. While I’m certain there are backers of this change who
think it will result in smaller, easier-to-run WorldCons in smaller
cities, I think they’re going to be sorely disappointed (at least in
that it will result in WorldCon naturally scaling back or becoming
easier to run because of that).

There are people I know and trust who support the amendment, but do not
support changing the complexion of WorldCon.

I definitely agree that the impact on facilities negotiation is a big
deal, and must be more closely examined.

The 3-year vote cycle was also interestingly related to the 3-zone
cycle; since WorldCon is now in no-zone bidding that opens up a lot of
new possibilities. There is an argument against the amendment that more
time is needed to let no-zone bidding shake out before other changes to
the voting cycle is changed.

> I am also wondering how this affects CC. Bruce and Nora just submitted
> a
> bid for CC-25 where they could not 100% lock in a venue or date because
> they could not get a commitment this far out from either of their
> potential
> hotels. So maybe we should reconsider a 2-year cycle as well.

Well, this doesn’t directly affect CC in any way.

From a facilities standpoint (one of the arguments), WorldCon does
share our need for a very large amount of function space relative to
the number of hotel guests/convention members, but it’s also an
entirely different animal because it’s an order of magnitude larger.
We’re not negotiating multiple hotels and municipal convention centers.

I believe CC could operate on a 2-year cycle; WesterCon does
successfully and it’s a much larger convention. I’m not going to
suggest, though, that we change our cycle. Right now we’ve got to work
on building better momentum with the attendees, and I think active bid
committees for different bids and conventions around the country can
help do that in their regions. With a longer bid/vote cycle, we’re more
likely to have more groups spread further across the continent actively
promoting their bid/conference and Costume-Con in general. I do think
that committees need to work, though, to maintain their own momentum;
it’s no good if momentum builds with the attendees but the committees
end up crashing.

Since our Constitution is based at least in part on the WSFS
constitution, it behooves us to watch what’s happening in WSFS, at
least with regards to how it regulates WorldCon. If people are asking
questions or proposing changes there, it’s something we can learn from.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/
San Jose, CA – ’72 R75/5 ’86 R100 (mine) – ’92 K75sa ’03 R1150R
(Kevin’s)
“It’s not pink, it’s peach-colored. Pink is tacky.”
–Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel

read the FAQ… Ridicule: http://www.idiots-r-us.org/
read the FAQ… IBMWR: http://www.ibmwr.org/faq-files/
read the FAQ… AirList: http://www.airheads.org/faq.html
read the FAQ… Hoaxes & Urban Legends: http://urbanlegends.about.com/

On Monday, September 29, 2003, at 08:27 AM, Betsy Delaney wrote:

> Thanks, Andy!
>
> Here’s my original version:
>
> http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/intro.shtml
>
> I think adding Andy’s language to clarify the structure of the doc is a
> Very Good Idea, TM.
>
> Here’s my suggestion: Throw out everything I wrote (since Andy says it
> better than I do).
>
> Then add after his outline (at the bottom):
>
> This publication draws heavily on several sources, including a reading
> committee (listed
> in Acknowledgements), the WorldCon Runner’s Guide, the Kennedy
> Masquerade
> Compendium, and documentation available from previous Costume-Cons,
> including
> Costume-Cons Fifteen and 16.
>
> We expect that we will leave something out. It is nearly impossible to
> cover all bases, but with the help of future con committees, we hope to
> fill the holes as this publication evolves.
>
> If you have any questions concerning the contents of this publication,
> please contact the
> editorial team.
>
> Thanks, and have a successful Costume-Con!

I lost track of your original docs on costume.org. I think this wraps
up the introduction quite nicely.

—
Andy Trembley, Bull-in-Drag
The Bovine Illuminati (It’s the Cows, Inc.)
http://www.bovil.com/
Moo!

I attended the business meeting this year. A number of people, in
discussing the history of the lead time, stated that the move from two
years to three years was done because people believed it would help
worldcon secure facilities that would otherwise be rented.

The problem is that there isn’t any evidence, after 15+ years, that this
is true. The big conventions make their decisions more than three years
out, often much more. As Marty pointed out, Bucconeer lost its original
date 42 months before labor day 1998. That’s 3 1/2 years. To have saved
that date worldcon would have to move to a 4 year cycle. Worldcon can’t
compete against organizations that can put up the hard cash 4-8 years out.

I don’t think that the change will have much of an effect on the cities
that bid for worldcons. I think it may have a continuing effect on the
date of worldcon, as it did for Bucconeer. In the big cities worldcons do
not take the entire convention center. In Baltimore we had half. In
Boston N4 is renting 2/3 of the Hynes. Worldcon will get those off
weekends where there isn’t a major convention taking the whole space.
This has its positive and negative implications. A lot of fans with
children (or who are teachers) want worldcon to be earlier in August. A
lot of fans prefer worldcon to be over a holiday weekend (Labor Day).

I think the change will have a positive effect on committees. It doesn’t
take three years to put on a worldcon. It takes a year of work (in the
last year), preceded by a year of planning and recruitment. Most
committees I’ve been involved with have done precious little useful work
in the first year after the bid was won other than bicker and fracture.

-Marc

<edmond@radix.net>
After ecstasy, the laundry. — Zen koan

Sec 1 should be easy, and relatively short…

A. A brief history
Costume-Con was born out of the vision of Adrienne Martinez (Adrienne
Martine-Barnes), and first realized in 1983 by Karen Dick, Kelly Turner
and a crew of amateur and professional science fiction and historical
costumers in southern California. It began as (and still is) a
costume-centered weekend of competitions, classes, panel discussions
and social events. At Costume-Con 3 (1985) in Columbia, Maryland, the
International Costumers’ Guild was founded, bringing together costume
organizations from around the world; Costume-Con and the ICG have
enjoyed a symbiotic relationship ever since.

In the last two decades, Costume-Con has grown and adapted to the needs
and interests of its members. Committees have introduced new seminars,
social activities and competitions. Some have failed, some have
succeeded and a few have developed into new “traditional” activities.

For a detailed history of Costume-Con, please see the timeline at
http://www.costume-con.org/CClink/index.shtml.

B. The process in a nutshell…
If you’re reading this, you’re probably interested in putting together
a Costume-Con. Costume-Con is not operated year-to-year by the same
organization and staff. It is overseen by Karen Dick and Kelly Turner,
the holders of the “Costume-Con” trademark, but each year planning and
operations are the responsibility of a conference committee.

Putting together a Costume-Con is a multi-year process, so there are
always at least 3 seated conference committees active, and often
several “bid committees” exploring the possibility of running a
Costume-Con or actively campaigning to be selected to run a Costume-Con.

A conference committee starts, as mentioned above, with bidding. During
the bid phase, the conference committee develops its business
structure, obtains hotel/facilities agreements, and campaigns to get
people to attend or support the costume-con where their bid is voted
upon. This is at minimum a 6-month process (the deadline to be placed
on the ballot is 6 months before the vote) but is often done over a
period of 1-2 years.

After a conference committee has won their bid, they’re described as a
“seated conference committee” and have approximately 3 years to
complete the planning for their conference. During this time, the
marketing and promotion of the conference continues.

All of this culminates in the actual conference: panel discussions,
seminars, social events and competitions. It’s not over, though, when
the conference is done. It often takes a few weeks (sometimes a few
months) to wind up final business after the conference.

All in all, that’s 4-6 years from start to finish. A long time, yes,
but enough time to spread the workload out if you and your committee
pace things carefully.

C. The ConStitution
<When was the constitution originally drafted? Insert capsule history
here.>

Minimum performance standards and responsibilities are laid out in the
ConStitution. Note that carefully: Minimum performance standards and
responsibilities. The ConStitution isn’t a recipe for how to run a
Costume-Con.

As a conference committee member, you should be intimately familiar
with the contents of the ConStitution, and what it requires of you.
Conversely, when somebody tells you something is required, you should
review the ConStitution for yourself and determine whether that is
still true or not.

The ConStitution is a living document and is amended on a regular
basis. For the convenience and sanity of conference committees,
revisions will generally be made in the 60 days immediately following
the annual conference and not made in the 6 months leading up to the
next conference. Still, it is best to review the Constitution on a
regular basis.

If you have any questions about expectations or responsibilities of
your committee, ask them.

For more information, including contact information, see the
ConStitution at
http://www.costume-con.org/procedure/ccconstitution.shtml

D. The ICG Masquerade Guidelines
Several years ago, Costume-Con agreed to operate its costume
competitions in accordance with the ICG Masquerade Guidelines.

As the name says, these are guidelines. Their purpose is to help
competition directors write their rules and operate their competitions
in a manner that is fair and impartial. While they’re framed for
competition masquerades, there are aspects of the guidelines which may
be applicable to other competitions. Committee chairpersons and
competition directors should review the guidelines on a regular basis.

If you are uncertain about how to interpret any part of the guidelines,
the best course of action is to talk with past competition directors
and ask them how they interpreted the guidelines in the past, and how
their interpretations worked for them.

For more information, see the ICG Masquerade Guidelines at
http://www.costume.org/documents/guidelines.html

I do not agree. The ConStitution is the framework under which CCs are run. As such, I believe that it should not include nonmandatory suggestions. A list of possible activities would be appropriate for a CC Runners’ Guide.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: Pierre & Sandy Pettinger
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2003 9:40 AM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Re: Doll competition

At 11:26 AM 9/27/2003, you wrote:
>I vote for (b) for what it is worth, with the wording, “Doll Costume
>Competition”.
>
>Marty

I also would vote for (b). A listing of possible activities, none of which
are required, seems to me to be a good guideline for future committees.
We’ve been experimenting with different activities, displays and
competitions throughout the history of C-C. Such a list can spark the
creativity of a committee while re-inforcing the Costume-centric nature of
C-C’s

Pierre

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