As I said last time, Nora and I are making the effort to get some background
on the anime cosplay culture. We went out and rented 4 videos.
Ironically, what appeals to us/is avaiable at our local Blockbuster is
limited, bt the ones we got are pretty good, from all accounts. I guess
we’ll need to see some titles where the cosplayers are recreating character
designs.

And the report about Marty on that website segues nicely into my book
review. While I was flitting about on that site, I discovered this Kevin
Lillard has produced a fan pub about said Cosplayers and sells it on his
site. It’s an 80 sheet 8.5 x 11.5″ book printed via inkjet of interviews by
Catherine Schaff-Stump (I’ve heard of her somewhere, but just not sure
where) featuring quite a few costumers, with page after page of nice quality
photos. You can tell there was a set form to the interviews, because some
of the same questions and answers keep coming through. But, from what I’ve
read, I think there are a number of the more serious costumers among them
who might be open to another venue to show off their talents. The timing of
our initiative to reach these people may be just about right.

Some observations: As I think someone has already observed, these guys are
mimicing the progress of the general community of from around the late ’70s
and ’80s. There’s an explosion of interest and attendance to these cons to
such an extent in some cases that there are those complaining the events are
gettng TOO big. Already, there are a number of stage shows (masquerades,
cosplay skits, etc.) that are havng to limit the number of entries. Sound
familiar.?

Several people remarked that they wish the judging was more fair. Two or
three people called for a divisions system. One of the intereview featured
the couple who showed up at CC 18(?) and were apparently impressed by the
experience. Looking through the book again, I think one of them was the
Tikki Marty mentioned.

Other interview comments: There are a LOT people wanting to learn how to
make armor — many of them would like to vac-form. Price is a big factor.
Nonetheless, I see a possible opening for those of us with plastic armor and
accessories experience to share knowledge and spread the word about our
education focus.

Another observaton: Several of them do not sew, or only do so on a
rudimentary level.

Age: I don’t know if the book is representative, but most were in their
early 20s, with a sprinkling of older people. The few older people in it
may be known to some of us here, expecially Andy, since I would say the bulk
of the costumers interviewed are from either the Midwest and East.

Two people “would like to see costuming respected more at conventions. ‘A
lot of people think it’s a joke, and they do t just to have fun.’ christina
discussed what she ahs seen at conventions. “If you put the costumes all
together, there are some really great costumes, and they’re designed
beautifully, and they’re sewn so amazingly. People just overlook it, and I
thin there should be more respect for the costume world'”. She goes on to
say she’d like to see the term “cosplay” go away. Not sure if she’s not in
the minority there. Of couse, she’s not too keen onthe competitions,
either. Sounds more like the furry costumer attitude.

The more “serious” costumers are beginning to take notice of the ego-boo
from gettng a workmanship award, so I think Marty’s stint was just the
thing.

Overall, I think that the toughest part will be convincing these folk (who
have the wherewithall to travel and afford a CC) to step outside their
familiar venues and discover there are a whole lot more people who would
love to see them and appreciate their works on a whole different level.

I recommend any committee heads who don’t have an anime con connection but
plan to try to draw from this community to pick this book up and read it.
Plus, like I said — lots of good costume photos.
http://www.fansview.com/book.htm

Bruce

> As I said last time, Nora and I are making the effort to get some

background

> on the anime cosplay culture. We went out and rented 4 videos.
> Ironically, what appeals to us/is avaiable at our local Blockbuster is
> limited, bt the ones we got are pretty good, from all accounts. I guess
> we’ll need to see some titles where the cosplayers are recreating

character

> designs.
>

If you look around on cosplayers personal websites, many of them will
include pictures of the source and of their finished costumes. Some include
more information than that.

> Other interview comments: There are a LOT people wanting to learn how to
> make armor — many of them would like to vac-form. Price is a big factor.
> Nonetheless, I see a possible opening for those of us with plastic armor

and

> accessories experience to share knowledge and spread the word about our
> education focus.

Consistently, the most often “how-to” questions I’ve heard have been for
armor and wings. Here’s a cosplayer who’s done some great armor. I
particularly like the medieval style plate armor seen in Project 1
http://amethyst-angel.com/armormaking.html

Michael

Catherine (and husband Bryon Stump) are Iowa costumers who do (or used to,
anyway) a lot of comic-based costumes. They are/were regulars at Demicon,
but we’ve missed contacting them the last couple of years. Both are teachers.

P & S

>While I was flitting about on that site, I discovered this Kevin
>Lillard has produced a fan pub about said Cosplayers and sells it on his
>site. It’s an 80 sheet 8.5 x 11.5″ book printed via inkjet of interviews by
>Catherine Schaff-Stump (I’ve heard of her somewhere, but just not sure
>where) featuring quite a few costumers, with page after page of nice quality
>photos.

“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

—– Original Message —–
From: “Bruno” <bruno@soulmasque.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 10:26 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] A Fan’s View, the Book

> > As I said last time, Nora and I are making the effort to get some
> background
> > on the anime cosplay culture. We went out and rented 4 videos.
> > Ironically, what appeals to us/is avaiable at our local Blockbuster is
> > limited, bt the ones we got are pretty good, from all accounts. I guess
> > we’ll need to see some titles where the cosplayers are recreating
> character
> > designs.
> >
>
> If you look around on cosplayers personal websites, many of them will
> include pictures of the source and of their finished costumes. Some
include
> more information than that.

Mmm. I rather do something that hasn’t been done recently. Trying to find
something that way sounds like more work than I want to go to. Besides, if
it’s been done well, I don’t feel like repeating it.
>
>
> > Other interview comments: There are a LOT people wanting to learn how
to
> > make armor — many of them would like to vac-form. Price is a big
factor.
> > Nonetheless, I see a possible opening for those of us with plastic armor
> and
> > accessories experience to share knowledge and spread the word about our
> > education focus.
>
> Consistently, the most often “how-to” questions I’ve heard have been for
> armor and wings. Here’s a cosplayer who’s done some great armor. I
> particularly like the medieval style plate armor seen in Project 1
> http://amethyst-angel.com/armormaking.html

Yeah! I saw that one night during my research of various things Cosplay.
That’s very useful, and I’m going to maybe use that perhaps as a basis for
something I”ll do for a con. Maybe something for something original, too.

Bruce

>

On Jul 23, 2004, at 4:59 PM, runacc@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> CC26? at San Diego Coronation

Please disregard, haven’t the time, inclination, or budget…

—
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

If you’re looking for a distribution point for flyers, you might try Lisa…

Just the messenger…

Cheers,

Betsy

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: [ICG-D] Anime at Costume-Con
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 15:56:21 -0400
From: Lisa A Ashton <lisa58@juno.com>
Reply-To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com
To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com

Good job Dany! And great job with your costume!

I will be taking flyers for CC ( a futureCC) to the Known World Costume
Symposium. If there are flyers for CC23 available, feel free to send
them to me and I will make certain that they are distributed among people
that care about costuming, esp. historical. Are you there, Utah? I’ll
be driving to this event, so I have mucho space in the car.

Yours in costuming, Lisa a.

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the Internet in years – Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month – visit www.juno.com to sign up today!

Yahoo! Groups Links

—
—
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/
************************************************************************

A question has come up about our program of awarding the Best in Class:
Novice winner a free membership to Costume-Con. The question is: what if
they have already purchased a membership to CC23?

Should we refund the purchased membership? This would seem to be the best
solution from the point of view of the costumer, plus it fulfills the
original purpose of the award–create a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in
the next generation to come to CC.

However, refunds are always painful as they take away from our limited
resources. In other contests, like winning a car, it doesn’t matter if you
just bought a new one, you only choice is to sell or give away the car. So
that is an option for us.

I wouldn’t worry about this, but if we continue with this program (as Andy
and Kevin say they will) then we don’t want to set a wrong precedent here.

Thoughts?

Dave Doering
Co-Chair
CC23: Utah
www.cc23.org

We have a question on comping program participants. What has been the
past practice for programming and concom rates for memberships to CC?

I think we need some good rules of thumb so as not to be unfair or
unreasonable either in support of good people on our programming.

Dave Doering
Co-Chair
CC23: Utah
www.cc23.org

Given the small size of the con and the tightness of the budget, I don’t
remember any CostumeCons comping the program participants. It is
possible that if you were able to get a big name costume designer or
make up artist to come in just to do a couple of panels you would
probably comp them, but for the most part I don’t think that program
participants are or should be comped. All of the Costume Cons that I
have been involved with running have charged everyone including the
committee a membership fee although some of them have charged the
committee the lowest membership rate. In the event that the con makes a
profit, then it is up to the con com as to whether the committee gets
their memberships refunded or whether all the profit gets passed on to
future cons. If you are putting on the con as a part of a 501(c)3
organization there are certain restrictions as to what you can do with
any profits and how you can compensate officers who are also members of
the organization, so the safest thing is to charge everyone (with the
exception of the afore mentioned professionals) a membership and see if
there is any money to disburse at the end.

Marty

davedoering wrote:

>We have a question on comping program participants. What has been the
>past practice for programming and concom rates for memberships to CC?
>
>I think we need some good rules of thumb so as not to be unfair or
>unreasonable either in support of good people on our programming.
>
>Dave Doering
>Co-Chair
>CC23: Utah
>www.cc23.org
>
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

First Choice: Give them a refund. You shouldn’t have too many of them.
Second Choice: Suggest that they give their membership to a friend.
(Much less desirable)

My $0.05 (this is Washington & an election year!)

^M^

David Doering wrote:

>A question has come up about our program of awarding the Best in Class:
>Novice winner a free membership to Costume-Con. The question is: what if
>they have already purchased a membership to CC23?
>
>Should we refund the purchased membership? This would seem to be the best
>solution from the point of view of the costumer, plus it fulfills the
>original purpose of the award–create a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in
>the next generation to come to CC.
>
>However, refunds are always painful as they take away from our limited
>resources. In other contests, like winning a car, it doesn’t matter if you
>just bought a new one, you only choice is to sell or give away the car. So
>that is an option for us.
>
>I wouldn’t worry about this, but if we continue with this program (as Andy
>and Kevin say they will) then we don’t want to set a wrong precedent here.
>
>Thoughts?
>
>Dave Doering
>Co-Chair
>CC23: Utah
>www.cc23.org
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

I thought , wrongly perhaps, that any memberships as prizes were for future
cons.
Someone just wins BIC and is all excited, so give them a membership to the
next years con and hook em early.

So whether the next con is donating it, or you are buying the prize
yourself, I think making it sound like

“Hey you’re new, you just did great, you should come next year for free”

is a good idea

Ricky

At 02:29 PM 8/10/2004 -0600, you wrote:

>A question has come up about our program of awarding the Best in Class:
>Novice winner a free membership to Costume-Con. The question is: what if
>they have already purchased a membership to CC23?
>
>Should we refund the purchased membership? This would seem to be the best
>solution from the point of view of the costumer, plus it fulfills the
>original purpose of the award–create a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in
>the next generation to come to CC.
>
>However, refunds are always painful as they take away from our limited
>resources. In other contests, like winning a car, it doesn’t matter if you
>just bought a new one, you only choice is to sell or give away the car. So
>that is an option for us.
>
>I wouldn’t worry about this, but if we continue with this program (as Andy
>and Kevin say they will) then we don’t want to set a wrong precedent here.
>
>Thoughts?
>
>Dave Doering
>Co-Chair
>CC23: Utah
>www.cc23.org
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

On Aug 10, 2004, at 2:35 PM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

> I thought , wrongly perhaps, that any memberships as prizes were for
> future
> cons.
> Someone just wins BIC and is all excited, so give them a membership to
> the
> next years con and hook em early.

That’s what it has been. If tradition follows, Des Moines will be
offering CC24 memberships to the “Best Novice” winners at CC23.

> So whether the next con is donating it, or you are buying the prize
> yourself, I think making it sound like
>
> “Hey you’re new, you just did great, you should come next year for
> free”

I wonder how many “Best Novice” entrants won that at their first CC.
I’d guess quite a few. Repeat members who compete often don’t spend too
much time in the Novice division, and CC attracts locals who have
competed a lot in regional competitions.

If the CC22’s “Best Novice” winners already had CC23 memberships, my
first (preferred) suggestion is that they may transfer or sell their
extra membership to a friend. Doesn’t subtract anything from your
balances.

You could also “offer” a refund, and give them a check if they take you
up on it, or keep the money if they choose to donate their refund back.
Some folks will do this.

—
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

I agree completely.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: martingear<mailto:MartinGear@comcast.net>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Program Participant Rates

Given the small size of the con and the tightness of the budget, I don’t
remember any CostumeCons comping the program participants. It is
possible that if you were able to get a big name costume designer or
make up artist to come in just to do a couple of panels you would
probably comp them, but for the most part I don’t think that program
participants are or should be comped. All of the Costume Cons that I
have been involved with running have charged everyone including the
committee a membership fee although some of them have charged the
committee the lowest membership rate. In the event that the con makes a
profit, then it is up to the con com as to whether the committee gets
their memberships refunded or whether all the profit gets passed on to
future cons. If you are putting on the con as a part of a 501(c)3
organization there are certain restrictions as to what you can do with
any profits and how you can compensate officers who are also members of
the organization, so the safest thing is to charge everyone (with the
exception of the afore mentioned professionals) a membership and see if
there is any money to disburse at the end.

Marty

davedoering wrote:

>We have a question on comping program participants. What has been the
>past practice for programming and concom rates for memberships to CC?
>
>I think we need some good rules of thumb so as not to be unfair or
>unreasonable either in support of good people on our programming.
>
>Dave Doering
>Co-Chair
>CC23: Utah
>www.cc23.org

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

I don’t understand. The next con uptime frequently has offered a free membership to the best novice in one of the masquerades at this year’s con. That means that CC 24 might offer a free membership to that con to the best novice in the CC 23 F&SF masquerade, not that CC 23 would give that person a refund. Or did CC 23 offer a free membership to the best novice at CC 22 and found that the person already had a CC 23 membership?

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: David Doering<mailto:dave@techvoice.com>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 4:29 PM
Subject: [runacc] Novice Award Memberships

A question has come up about our program of awarding the Best in Class:
Novice winner a free membership to Costume-Con. The question is: what if
they have already purchased a membership to CC23?

Should we refund the purchased membership? This would seem to be the best
solution from the point of view of the costumer, plus it fulfills the
original purpose of the award–create a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in
the next generation to come to CC.

However, refunds are always painful as they take away from our limited
resources. In other contests, like winning a car, it doesn’t matter if you
just bought a new one, you only choice is to sell or give away the car. So
that is an option for us.

I wouldn’t worry about this, but if we continue with this program (as Andy
and Kevin say they will) then we don’t want to set a wrong precedent here.

Thoughts?

Dave Doering
Co-Chair
CC23: Utah
www.cc23.org<http://www.cc23.org/>

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

>Byron wrote: “Or did CC 23 offer a free membership to the best novice at
>CC 22 and found that the person already had a CC 23 membership?”

In effect, yes. The person is actually from another con. Currently, CC23 is
doing an outreach program to various cons other than CCs with an offer for
judged shows with a BIS: Novice to get a membership for that novice.

However, it turns out that apparently one novice has already purchased a
CC23 membership.

Dave D.

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

In a message dated 8/10/2004 6:14:23 PM Central Daylight Time,
attrembl@bovil.com writes:

> If tradition follows, Des Moines will be
> offering CC24 memberships to the “Best Novice” winners at CC23.

Oh, hell then! I’m competing cuz I is a novice!
Oh wait! I’m staff for CC24! Damn!
Henry

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

Everyone, including all staff and committee members had to pay for their
memberships to CC22. The sole exceptions were the two ladies from
Simplicity. Since the company offered them to us and paid all their
expenses, plus purchased an ad in the program book, we were quite willing to
comp them in. They were the closest thing to Big Name Guests we were going
to get since I did not win the lottery and could not offer Ngila an
honorarium to come as guest costumer.

Once we finish paying for everything (still have to finish printing
certificates and mailing them out), we will examine what’s left. We would
like to pass along monies to CC23, but are also hoping to refund program
participants back to the staff rate ($50). In other words, if you paid $65
for your membership, and you were a program participant, you would receive a
refund of $15. This is the plan, but, depending on funds, may not be the
reality. We are not a 501c3, although we are a non-profit corporation, so
I’m not sure yet what the rules are on disbursement of money. Carrie is in
charge of that.

Trudy

>From: martingear <MartinGear@comcast.net>
>Reply-To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
>To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [runacc] Program Participant Rates
>Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 16:50:34 -0400
>
>Given the small size of the con and the tightness of the budget, I don’t
>remember any CostumeCons comping the program participants. It is
>possible that if you were able to get a big name costume designer or
>make up artist to come in just to do a couple of panels you would
>probably comp them, but for the most part I don’t think that program
>participants are or should be comped. All of the Costume Cons that I
>have been involved with running have charged everyone including the
>committee a membership fee although some of them have charged the
>committee the lowest membership rate. In the event that the con makes a
>profit, then it is up to the con com as to whether the committee gets
>their memberships refunded or whether all the profit gets passed on to
>future cons. If you are putting on the con as a part of a 501(c)3
>organization there are certain restrictions as to what you can do with
>any profits and how you can compensate officers who are also members of
>the organization, so the safest thing is to charge everyone (with the
>exception of the afore mentioned professionals) a membership and see if
>there is any money to disburse at the end.
>
>Marty
>
>davedoering wrote:
>
> >We have a question on comping program participants. What has been the
> >past practice for programming and concom rates for memberships to CC?
> >
> >I think we need some good rules of thumb so as not to be unfair or
> >unreasonable either in support of good people on our programming.
> >
> >Dave Doering
> >Co-Chair
> >CC23: Utah
> >www.cc23.org
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

Perhaps I’m wrong on this but; my take on the Novice Membership
awards is that they are used to increase awareness and maybe even
attendance to CostumeCon. As such they would be given to folks that
might not otherwise attend a CostumeCon. In other words present such
a prize at other conventions and venues such as WorldCon and regional
conventions near where the CC would be held. In Des Moines’ case
examples would be Archon, Convergence, etc. Might even consider
State Fair winners, design majors, and such too.

Awarding memberships to Novice winners at a CC is sort of like
preaching to the choir. It is a nice thing to do, but those folks
already know what it is about. Also winners from other venues would
be less likely to already have CC memberships.

Just a thought,
Sallie
Co-Chair CC-24

In runacc@yahoogroups.com, Andrew T Trembley <attrembl@b…> wrote:

> On Aug 10, 2004, at 2:35 PM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
> > I thought , wrongly perhaps, that any memberships as prizes were

for

> > future
> > cons.
> > Someone just wins BIC and is all excited, so give them a

membership to

> > the
> > next years con and hook em early.
>
> That’s what it has been. If tradition follows, Des Moines will be
> offering CC24 memberships to the “Best Novice” winners at CC23.
>
> > So whether the next con is donating it, or you are buying the

prize

> > yourself, I think making it sound like
> >
> > “Hey you’re new, you just did great, you should come next year

for

> > free”
>
> I wonder how many “Best Novice” entrants won that at their first

CC.

> I’d guess quite a few. Repeat members who compete often don’t spend

too

> much time in the Novice division, and CC attracts locals who have
> competed a lot in regional competitions.
>
> If the CC22’s “Best Novice” winners already had CC23 memberships,

my

> first (preferred) suggestion is that they may transfer or sell

their

> extra membership to a friend. Doesn’t subtract anything from your
> balances.
>
> You could also “offer” a refund, and give them a check if they take

you

> up on it, or keep the money if they choose to donate their refund

back.

> Some folks will do this.
>
> —
> 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

In a message dated 8/11/2004 12:48:42 PM Central Daylight Time,
gsabba@worldnet.att.net writes:

> Might even consider
> State Fair winners, design majors, and such too.

Sallie,
That is a fantastic idea!
I used the membership prize to a promising novice idea as a
promotional tool. Being able to get up in front of a friendly audience and make a quick
plug about your is worth the cost of a membership.
Henry

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

>Henry wrote: “Being able to … make a quick
>plug about your is worth the cost of a membership.”

That was my thinking. For example, at Norwescon, we had most of the
1000-plus membership sit and listen to a short ad for Costume-Con. Maybe
not everyone would come, but now they know there _is_ such a thing as CC
and that it thinks going to it is important enough to offer a membership as
a prize!

I don’t imagine more than a handful of the membership would have noticed a
flyer alone at the flyer table.

Dave Doering

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

When we did this for CCXV, I ran into only one situation that wasn’t
according to the “plan” – and it happens that the recipient is
babysitting my kids these days. I asked her today what I decided back
then. The situation was: She was part of a two-person presentation, and
they both won Best in Class. We agreed early only to award one
membership. As it happened, Amber already had a membership, so the
decision was to give the second membership to her friend.

Not exactly the situation you described, but that’s how we handled the
problem. The alternative (ickier) would have been to give both of them
half-price memberships. A bookkeeping nightmare, if it happens more than
once. You have to set your policy early to be sure that everyone is
clear on the concept.

Cheers,

Betsy

David Doering wrote:

>>Henry wrote: “Being able to … make a quick
>>plug about your is worth the cost of a membership.”
>
>
> That was my thinking. For example, at Norwescon, we had most of the
> 1000-plus membership sit and listen to a short ad for Costume-Con. Maybe
> not everyone would come, but now they know there _is_ such a thing as CC
> and that it thinks going to it is important enough to offer a membership as
> a prize!
>
> I don’t imagine more than a handful of the membership would have noticed a
> flyer alone at the flyer table.
>
> Dave Doering
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

—
—
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/
************************************************************************

At 03:50 PM 8/10/2004, you wrote:

We agree with Marty on this.

Pierre and Sandy

>Given the small size of the con and the tightness of the budget, I don’t
>remember any CostumeCons comping the program participants. It is
>possible that if you were able to get a big name costume designer or
>make up artist to come in just to do a couple of panels you would
>probably comp them, but for the most part I don’t think that program
>participants are or should be comped. All of the Costume Cons that I
>have been involved with running have charged everyone including the
>committee a membership fee although some of them have charged the
>committee the lowest membership rate. In the event that the con makes a
>profit, then it is up to the con com as to whether the committee gets
>their memberships refunded or whether all the profit gets passed on to
>future cons. If you are putting on the con as a part of a 501(c)3
>organization there are certain restrictions as to what you can do with
>any profits and how you can compensate officers who are also members of
>the organization, so the safest thing is to charge everyone (with the
>exception of the afore mentioned professionals) a membership and see if
>there is any money to disburse at the end.
>
>Marty
>
>davedoering wrote:
>
> >We have a question on comping program participants. What has been the
> >past practice for programming and concom rates for memberships to CC?
> >
> >I think we need some good rules of thumb so as not to be unfair or
> >unreasonable either in support of good people on our programming.
> >
> >Dave Doering
> >Co-Chair
> >CC23: Utah
> >www.cc23.org

“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

We agree also.

–Karen

At 04:33 PM 8/11/2004 -0500, you wrote:

>We agree with Marty on this.
>
>Pierre and Sandy
>
> >Given the small size of the con and the tightness of the budget, I don’t
> >remember any CostumeCons comping the program participants. It is
> >possible that if you were able to get a big name costume designer or
> >make up artist to come in just to do a couple of panels you would
> >probably comp them, but for the most part I don’t think that program
> >participants are or should be comped. All of the Costume Cons that I
> >have been involved with running have charged everyone including the
> >committee a membership fee although some of them have charged the
> >committee the lowest membership rate. In the event that the con makes a
> >profit, then it is up to the con com as to whether the committee gets
> >their memberships refunded or whether all the profit gets passed on to
> >future cons. If you are putting on the con as a part of a 501(c)3
> >organization there are certain restrictions as to what you can do with
> >any profits and how you can compensate officers who are also members of
> >the organization, so the safest thing is to charge everyone (with the
> >exception of the afore mentioned professionals) a membership and see if
> >there is any money to disburse at the end.
> >
> >Marty

Thought this would be of interest…

Cheers,

Betsy

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: [ICG-D] Fliers & stuph
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 10:07:43 -0400
From: Elaine Mami <ecmami@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com
To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com

Hi, All,

Once again, about the N4 Costume Display.

I still need information on the costumes you are bringing to sdhow. (You
know who you are!) I want to prepare the signage before the con.

Also, I INSIST that all upcoming CCs and CC bids get fliers to me to put at
the display. I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE all chapters to get me your general
info.
fliers, because it is very likely that someone from your area will drop in
to see the display. This is a WORLDcon folks, so let’s tell the world
about
us!! (Can you say “outreach” boys and girls? I knew you could!)

Elaine
Who just may get her costume done in time!

Nil significat nili osculat!

_________________________________________________________________
Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search!
http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/

Yahoo! Groups Links

—
—
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/
************************************************************************

Dear Fellow RunACCs:

September 12th is the cutoff for the $75.00 membership rate for
Costume-Con 23: Utah!

Please let everyone know–the website is open 24HRS/7 Days a week for
online signups.

Yours,

Dave Doering
Co-Chair
CC23: Utah
www.cc23.org
REMEMBER: September 12th is the cutoff for the current membership
rate!!

On various occassions I have been presented names for people to work
with on Costume-Con 23. However, I also know that I have seen these
people do the same job over and over.

Is there a guideline on this? Should this be left to the individual?

Sometimes the person involved should say no, but doesn’t. Then feels
put-upon in private. How do we help avoid this?

Dave Doering
CC23: Utah
www.cc23.org
REMEMBER: September 12th is the cutoff for the current membership
rate!!

Well, I would say that it depends upon how well you like the job that
the person does. I did hotel liaison for ten years (after all, I
negotiate contracts with the Federal Government for a living) until I
burned out after BucCONeer, but if we get the bid for CC-27 I’ll be
doing that again. Byron invented many of the things that have become
standard for a well run Green Room, and if he offers you couldn’t get a
better person IMHO, but now that he has discovered being on stage who
knows if he’ll volunteer. There is something to be said for experience.
Most of us learn from our mistakes and if we’ve been doing a job long
enough there just aren’t that many new mistakes for us to make. If the
person is experienced and volunteers, and if you like what you’ve seen
them do, then by all means accept. We are most of us grown ups and we
should know better than to volunteer if we really don’t want to do a
particular job. I would think that your big problem would be if someone
volunteered to do something and your personal opinion is that they
really stink at it, then how do you turn them down without hurting their
feelings.

YMMV –

^M^

davedoering wrote:

>On various occassions I have been presented names for people to work
>with on Costume-Con 23. However, I also know that I have seen these
>people do the same job over and over.
>
>Is there a guideline on this? Should this be left to the individual?
>
>Sometimes the person involved should say no, but doesn’t. Then feels
>put-upon in private. How do we help avoid this?
>
>Dave Doering
>CC23: Utah
>www.cc23.org
>REMEMBER: September 12th is the cutoff for the current membership
>rate!!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

At 10:32 PM 9/9/2004 +0000, you wrote:

>I also know that I have seen these people do the same job over and over.

Not a problem if they’re doing a good job, and like doing that job.

Big problem if they hate doing that job, or do it poorly.

Semi problem if somebody else also wants the job, and would also do it well.

Big problem if too few committee people are taking on too many jobs.

Chairing a concom is such fun, isn’t it?

>Is there a guideline on this?

No. Some CC concoms like to stick with familiar people in familiar
positions. Others feel more adventurous, and like to mix things up.

>Should this be left to the individual?

The individual doing the job, or …?

If nobody is going to do the job, you may have to settle for a
less-than-perfect choice if somebody volunteers, or if you have to
press-gang somebody into doing it.

People may volunteer for jobs, but it is your prerogative as con chair to
give them the go-ahead (or not). However, it is also your job as con chair
to delegate as much authority as possible (or you will be wearing too many
hats and doing too many jobs yourself and running yourself ragged).

Things may not get done the way you would have them done in an ideal world.
But they will get done. They may even get done better than you expected if
you delegate the authority and give the person freedom to do it their way.

>Sometimes the person involved should say no, but doesn’t. Then feels
>put-upon in private. How do we help avoid this?

It is very hard for some people to say no, even when they should. They
don’t want to displease the person who is asking.

Tell them that it’s OK to say “no.” And that you will not think less of
them as a person, or withdraw your friendship if they say “no.” (And mean
it.) And if they obviously seem to be struggling in the job, ask if there’s
anything you can do to help.

–Karen

Dave,

This may seem simplistic, but you might try something like offerring an
either-or to them. “I would love to have you work on my committee. Would
you like to do ‘X’, or would you prefer to do another job? These are the
openings I have.”

Elaine

>From: “davedoering” <dave@techvoice.com>
>Reply-To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
>To: runacc@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [runacc] Overuse of Staff
>Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 22:32:55 -0000
>
>On various occassions I have been presented names for people to work
>with on Costume-Con 23. However, I also know that I have seen these
>people do the same job over and over.
>
>Is there a guideline on this? Should this be left to the individual?
>
>Sometimes the person involved should say no, but doesn’t. Then feels
>put-upon in private. How do we help avoid this?
>
>Dave Doering
>CC23: Utah
>www.cc23.org
>REMEMBER: September 12th is the cutoff for the current membership
>rate!!
>
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to
get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement

Dave —

There is a great North American floating masquerade crew; the names you have been getting are part of it. It is very likely that the people for whom you have received recommendations are the VERY best at these jobs. You ought to take them if you want a successful con. If they don’t want the job, they’ll say “no”; please, don’t worry about that!

You were advised to ask me to run the green rooms. Instead, you asked me for names of possible green room managers. I gave you several names and told you that I would run the green rooms if none of them were available. I have heard via the grapevine that they turned you down. Is that correct? If so, I have not heard from you. If you want someone else, I’ll try to come up with some additional names if you can send me the list of attending members.

Within the confines of the runacc group ONLY, we want to see CC 23 succeed; frankly, however, several of us are very worried about the committee’s lack of progress in filling out the convention staff.

Please forgive my tone; I’m worried.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: davedoering<mailto:dave@techvoice.com>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 6:32 PM
Subject: [runacc] Overuse of Staff

On various occassions I have been presented names for people to work
with on Costume-Con 23. However, I also know that I have seen these
people do the same job over and over.

Is there a guideline on this? Should this be left to the individual?

Sometimes the person involved should say no, but doesn’t. Then feels
put-upon in private. How do we help avoid this?

Dave Doering
CC23: Utah
www.cc23.org<http://www.cc23.org/>
REMEMBER: September 12th is the cutoff for the current membership
rate!!

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

Byron wrote: ” Please forgive my tone”

I am never concerned when important issues are brought up, as I
think these are. And certainly not from someone of your background
and abilities, Byron. I do realize we all want Costume-Con to
succeed, this year, next year, and so on. I’ll accept any amount of
criticism now to improve our con over getting it on May 3rd, 2005.

To answer the most serious of your questions first:

“I have heard via the grapevine that [potential Green Room Managers]
turned you down. Is that correct?”

No, this is not correct. I do not know who might have said this, but
I have had no one turn me down. I have asked several about their
interest, but they have not said “No” to me directly. (I had assumed
that because of WorldCon there would be some lag between my asking
and their ability to respond.)

If you have heard differently, I am curious to know from whom and
when. This does concern me, as it suggests someone may not be
willing to talk to me or our staff about working with Costume-Con
23. If there is something that hurts a committee, it is bad
communication.

You also said “You were advised to ask me to run the green rooms.
Instead, you asked me for names of possible green room managers.”

I apologize if I have left you confused. It was certainly NOT
because I didn’t or don’t appreciate your abilities. Far from it.

As you’ll recall, you and I spoke in Atlanta about your serving as
the Green Room Manager for CC23. I said that I already understood
you were one of, if not the, premier Green Room person, and we would
like to have you, but that I didn’t want to force you to do
a “repeat performance” right after Atlanta. That, if I could, I
would like to have some other names to possibly serve for that
position. You were kind enough to say “I will serve in any way you
need me to” which I appreciated.

It was not, then, that I didn’t appreciate your ability from early
on, it was my continuing desire to offer you other choices if you
wanted to. If I was wrong in that, I apologize.

I have always and would always welcome your services as Green Room
Director or in any other capacity for our convention.

Also, I might add, my reason for posting the question
about “overuse” of staff was not an uncomfortable effort to ask you
to serve without asking you. Instead, I knew we had other positions
to fill in the immediate future (ie: post-WorldCon), I wanted to
make such decisions fast and effectively. It helps to know from
people with lots of past experience in fannish endeavors what
works/doesn’t work so we wouldn’t take any more time in making that
happen.

You said: “…several of us are very worried about the committee’s
lack of progress in filling out the convention staff.”

If you wanted to instill in me and our con-com an even stronger
sense of urgency, you have done so.

Which particular positions you are thinking of?

You said: “You ought to take [staff suggestions] if you want a
successful con.”

I _am_ happy to say that Charles and I have always taken staff
suggestions with the utmost seriousness. We have never rejected
anyone because we are too parochial “we-want-to-do-it-ourselves” or
because we were unwilling to ask.

As I said, I welcome suggestions, error correction, or even abuse if
it helps us make CC23 more successful for anyone. Don’t wait until
May to speak up.

Yours,

Dave Doering
CC23: Utah

…sent out to Lisa Ashton for the Known World Costume Symposium

—
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

The Imperial Court of Iowa is having its Coronation this weekend in Des
Moines.

http://www.impcourt.org/icis/chapters/desmoines.html
http://www.imperialcourtofia.org/Coronation%20XI.htm

It would be a good idea to attend and get an idea what this event is
like. Next year you really should walk as an in-town organization to
promote the con.

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

Pardon the cross-posting but…

ANNOUNCING…
The brand-spanking new CC25 website!
New look, more info!
Check it out at:

www.cc25.net

Thank you.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled program.

Nora Mai

Nora wrote: “ANNOUNCING…The brand-spanking new CC25 website!”

Yes, it is _real_ cool!

Good work.

Dave Doering
CC23: Utah

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

The CC22 link is dead. You may want to connect to the Costume-Con
page for that con.

Maybe Trudy archived the site somewhere.

Karen

Same for CC18.

Karen

— In runacc@yahoogroups.com, “axejudge” <axejudge@a…> wrote:
> The CC22 link is dead. You may want to connect to the Costume-Con
> page for that con.
>
> Maybe Trudy archived the site somewhere.
>
> Karen

Nora,
I sent the site to a whole bunch of the folks up here to spread the
word!
Henry
your site selection guy until you come up with something else for me
to
do for your con

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

Greetings all,

Here’s a topic for discussion. Is there a tradition of staff
memberships at Costume-Con? If so what is the usual rate and are
there any restrictions/conditions attached?

Sallie Abba
CC-24

On Oct 6, 2004, at 9:32 AM, srabba wrote:

> Here’s a topic for discussion. Is there a tradition of staff
> memberships at Costume-Con? If so what is the usual rate and are
> there any restrictions/conditions attached?

Staff membership availability is usually determined by what your con
budget allows…

I prefer to at least stick to the “everybody pays” rule, and if the con
has enough surplus at the end it may refund staff and volunteers what
they paid.

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

Hi, Sallie!

CCXV offered a fixed rate of $45 for its staff members, with the
understanding that if we made a profit, we would offer refunds. As it
happened, we provided refunds to approximately three-quarters of the
staff, with the remainder offering their money up as a donation to the
next CC.

Exact figures are in the online Budget on the Costume-ConNections site.

Don’t know what the succeeding CCs did…

Betsy

srabba wrote:

>
> Greetings all,
>
> Here’s a topic for discussion. Is there a tradition of staff
> memberships at Costume-Con? If so what is the usual rate and are
> there any restrictions/conditions attached?
>
> Sallie Abba
> CC-24

—
—
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/
************************************************************************

Our procedure at CC23 is what Andy says–“Everybody pays”–which we felt
was fair. Otherwise it is just too difficult to try and evaluate levels of
contribution to make any “complimentary” staff memberships work.

To arrive at our starting rate, we looked at our budget, number of members
expected, and then worked backwards to set levels for At-the-door,
three-months-out, six-months-out, etc.

Dave Doering
CC23: Utah
www.cc23.org

I seem to remember that CC-3 and CC-9 did basically what Betsy said
about CC-15. As far as I recall, the staff membership was set at the
supporting membership rate which was set at a level to cover all
publications cost including mailing of the Whole Costumers’ Catalog, the
FFF, all PR’s and the program book. I don’t believe that CC-3 was able
to refund the staff memberships in full, but I do believe that each
staff member was given a partial reimbursement.

Marty

srabba wrote:

>Greetings all,
>
>Here’s a topic for discussion. Is there a tradition of staff
>memberships at Costume-Con? If so what is the usual rate and are
>there any restrictions/conditions attached?
>
>Sallie Abba
>CC-24
>
>
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

In my experience, there is no tradition of a special staff rate; staff members pay the full rate. Most CCs need all the income they can get.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: srabba<mailto:gsabba@worldnet.att.net>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 12:32 PM
Subject: [runacc] Staff memberships

Greetings all,

Here’s a topic for discussion. Is there a tradition of staff
memberships at Costume-Con? If so what is the usual rate and are
there any restrictions/conditions attached?

Sallie Abba
CC-24

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

I have no recollection at all about what Tina and I paid at CC 9. She and I were in charge of logistics. I also ran the masquerade green rooms and she provided the repair table.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: martingear<mailto:MartinGear@comcast.net>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 5:57 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Staff memberships

I seem to remember that CC-3 and CC-9 did basically what Betsy said
about CC-15. As far as I recall, the staff membership was set at the
supporting membership rate which was set at a level to cover all
publications cost including mailing of the Whole Costumers’ Catalog, the
FFF, all PR’s and the program book. I don’t believe that CC-3 was able
to refund the staff memberships in full, but I do believe that each
staff member was given a partial reimbursement.

Marty

srabba wrote:

>Greetings all,
>
>Here’s a topic for discussion. Is there a tradition of staff
>memberships at Costume-Con? If so what is the usual rate and are
>there any restrictions/conditions attached?
>
>Sallie Abba
>CC-24

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

I can’t recall what I paid for CC9 (I was Exhibits Coordinator, but I
also had a dealer table, which made a difference), but I do know the $45
figure was our starting point for memberships, and we simply froze it at
that rate for our staff, regardless of when they paid. Supporting
memberships for CCXV were at $25.

I don’t think I got a refund for CC9, but I could be wrong.

Setting the rate at the start of the budget process is the best thing to
do, since it gives you the best idea for how much you’ll have to spend
at the end. I found that the best way to manage the money was to be
flexible. And in one case in particular, the Whole Costumers’ Catalog,
we were still generating income from the sales of that publication well
over a year after the conclusion of the conference. I passed all income
from the sale of the books (if I recall), once all our bills were paid
and refunds were processed, either back to Karen or on to the next CC. I
don’t recall correctly which (we ran out well over 5 years ago!).

YMMV

Betsy

martingear wrote:

> I seem to remember that CC-3 and CC-9 did basically what Betsy said
> about CC-15. As far as I recall, the staff membership was set at the
> supporting membership rate which was set at a level to cover all
> publications cost including mailing of the Whole Costumers’ Catalog, the
> FFF, all PR’s and the program book. I don’t believe that CC-3 was able
> to refund the staff memberships in full, but I do believe that each
> staff member was given a partial reimbursement.
>
> Marty

—
—
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/
************************************************************************

We’re still researching this one. The general policy at CC16 was as Andy
described. We will probably have a flat rate that staffers can join in the
next couple of years — up to some future point in time. After that, they
will be responsible for more if they wait too long.

Bruce

In a message dated 7/13/2004 6:59:04 PM Central Daylight Time,
bruno@soulmasque.com writes:

> I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s never
> been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than to
> just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would be
> nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things at CC;
> masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels. I
> think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would be the
> best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.

This method works well with hotels that ask “So what happens at your
function?”
Henry

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

On Jul 12, 2004, at 7:55 PM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> Andy’s comments about possible age discrimination are a bit
> disconcerting,
> though…. What about the people who run the cons? They can’t be
> pups.

Maybe I’m just spacy, but I don’t remember saying anything about age
discrimination in western anime fandom. In western anime fandom,
“otaku” is a desirable classification.

Japanese culture looks down on any sort of “fannish” behavior in
adults, so adult fans and particularly adult con-runners who aren’t in
the publishing or entertainment industry (and thus have suitable
business interests) have to be pretty quiet about it. It’s not
something you even mention to your mundane coworkers or neighbors.

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

Oh, argh, you’re right. Orguss came out at about the same period and had
something of the same art direction as Mospeda (looked like they would fit
in the same universe).

–Karen

At 05:04 PM 7/12/2004 -0700, you wrote:

>On Jul 10, 2004, at 11:31 PM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
> > From the 80’s
> > Robotech (combining the three shows Macross, Southern Cross, and
> > Orguss–I
> > never saw the Orguss phase)
>
>Super Dimesion Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross
>and Genesis Climber Mospaeda, actually. Badly edited and rewritten to
>create Robotech.
>
>Got the restored edition of SDF Macross a year or two ago, and it was
>really cool. Makes a lot more sense. Just got Mospaeda on disc, haven’t
>started watching it yet.
>
>–
>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
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Some interesting food for thought…

Cheers,

Betsy

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: [ICG-D] handy hints
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 17:57:34 -0000
From: Susan Eisenhour <cfsje@ux1.cts.eiu.edu>
Reply-To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com
To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com

I was trying to figure the best way to save some of the helpful
things people have passed on in this list, and had a great idea.
Some CC committee ought to have one of the members troll through the
past messages and pull out useful, tricky, interesting, etc. things
mentioned here and compile a hand out as part of a registration
packet…or maybe as a fund-raiser before the con? Or maybe both?
Sort of a Hints from Heloise for the costumer.
I’d find it really useful, esp if it was indexed. So the next time I
need to paint plastic and vaguely remember a mention, I could go
look up “paint, plastic” and find the reference to Fusion.
Of course, these ought to be credited with the first person who
mentioned them. Maybe the date, too.
This is what happens when (retired) library techs do costumes.
Susan Eisenhour

Yahoo! Groups Links

—
—
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/
************************************************************************

I am in the process of compiling an updated mailing list of potential
designers to target with a mass mailing for the CC-23 Future Fashion Design
Contest. I’m thinking of doing a mass mailing in early August, which will
give designers 60 days before deadline to send us designs.

The base list of about 100 names came from Fran Evans in California, and is
several years old (but still newer than my last list, which dates back to
CC-9). I’ve been able to update / confirm about half the addresses on it so
far, and have added the designer lists from CC-21 and CC-22. I’m now up to
148 names, 93 of them updated / confirmed.

If anyone has designer address data from other CC’s, please contact me, as
I am also in the process of trying to contact designers from all CC’s re
getting rights to use their design artwork on Costume-Con.org next to the
finished designs from the Fashion Show. Many of the designers from the
early Costume-Cons have moved / married / etc. and are proving difficult to
locate.

We should think about having an online place to “park” this designer list
from year to year so we don’t keep having to reinvent the wheel for each
Costume-Con. Could be in a non-public area of Costume-Con.org, could be on
the server associated with this group, ???

–Karen

On Jul 14, 2004, at 12:18 PM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

> We should think about having an online place to “park” this designer
> list
> from year to year so we don’t keep having to reinvent the wheel for
> each
> Costume-Con. Could be in a non-public area of Costume-Con.org, could
> be on
> the server associated with this group, ???

There is a ‘database’ area in our yahoogroup; perhaps seting up a FFF
contact list there is a good solution.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runacc/database

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

Sounds like a valuable resource, but it would have to be accessible to a small group only, I think – FFF editors or whatever. There are some people who don’t like their info given out (for good reasons), such as Alison Kondo. It would be a shame to have some good FFF designers pull out because they were concerned about this. Runacc is a pretty limited group and might be acceptable to them.

Tina

—– Original Message —–
From: Ricky & Karen Dick<mailto:castleb@pulsenet.com>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 3:18 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] FFF Mailing List

<snip>
We should think about having an online place to “park” this designer list
from year to year so we don’t keep having to reinvent the wheel for each
Costume-Con. Could be in a non-public area of Costume-Con.org, could be on
the server associated with this group, ???

–Karen

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

I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see the
list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.

Michael

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew T Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] FFF Mailing List

> On Jul 14, 2004, at 12:18 PM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
> > We should think about having an online place to “park” this designer
> > list
> > from year to year so we don’t keep having to reinvent the wheel for
> > each
> > Costume-Con. Could be in a non-public area of Costume-Con.org, could
> > be on
> > the server associated with this group, ???
>
> There is a ‘database’ area in our yahoogroup; perhaps seting up a FFF
> contact list there is a good solution.
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runacc/database

I don’t remember if it was here or on the D-list, but there was a discussion about changing the title of the SF/F Masquerade to appear more appealing to Cosplayers.

I have seen the following titles used at Anime conventions: Cosplay Contest, Cosplay Costume Contest, Costume Contest, Cosplay Skit Contest, Masquerade, and probably others.

I do not think that the title SF/F Masquerade would preclude them from entering. However, what about using Historical Masquerade and Grand Masquerade, as anything not historical?

Michael

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

That’s a good idea. It would go along with the newbie handouts that we’ve used from time to time.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: Betsy Delaney<mailto:bdelaney@hawkeswood.com>
To: Run a Costume-Con Mailing List<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 2:15 PM
Subject: [runacc] [Fwd: [ICG-D] handy hints]

Some interesting food for thought…

Cheers,

Betsy

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: [ICG-D] handy hints
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 17:57:34 -0000
From: Susan Eisenhour <cfsje@ux1.cts.eiu.edu<mailto:cfsje@ux1.cts.eiu.edu>>
Reply-To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com<mailto:ICG-D@yahoogroups.com>
To: ICG-D@yahoogroups.com<mailto:ICG-D@yahoogroups.com>

I was trying to figure the best way to save some of the helpful
things people have passed on in this list, and had a great idea.
Some CC committee ought to have one of the members troll through the
past messages and pull out useful, tricky, interesting, etc. things
mentioned here and compile a hand out as part of a registration
packet…or maybe as a fund-raiser before the con? Or maybe both?
Sort of a Hints from Heloise for the costumer.
I’d find it really useful, esp if it was indexed. So the next time I
need to paint plastic and vaguely remember a mention, I could go
look up “paint, plastic” and find the reference to Fusion.
Of course, these ought to be credited with the first person who
mentioned them. Maybe the date, too.
This is what happens when (retired) library techs do costumes.
Susan Eisenhour

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

On Jul 14, 2004, at 4:54 PM, Bruno wrote:

> I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see
> the
> list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
> manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.

Yahoogroups DBs export rather nicely, and the output can be sucked into
whatever software you choose for printing labels and form letters.

andy

—
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 Jul 14, 2004, at 5:04 PM, Bruno wrote:

> I do not think that the title SF/F Masquerade would preclude them from
> entering. However, what about using Historical Masquerade and Grand
> Masquerade, as anything not historical?

On the ICG-D list, and I made a few points there…

We go with a genre-based breakdown, and I think that makes sense. There
are vastly different judging standards in historical competition and in
F&SF competition (even with regards to F&SF recreations).

Anime, manga and video games aren’t genres, they’re media. Recreations
based on the vast majority of anime and manga could fit into either the
F&SF or the Historical masquerade. Even most anime and manga with
modern settings have fantastic elements of some sort.

The only real glaring exception is sports dramas, and I have to say I
haven’t seen much evidence of people competing costumes from those.
People do cosplay those characters in the hall, but in cosplay circles
they’re even arguing about the validity of competing something that is
basically off-the-rack modern clothes.

—
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

So based on a bunch of comments, I’ve added a “cosplay” flyer to the
stack
http://www.cc26.info/Posters/CC26.Fliers.pdf
Page 2 (yeah, the big 3.6mb flyer pack)

Note it’s not much different from the “anime” flyer but my sources say
this may be more attractive to the anime con crowd.

—
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

We’ve got a new bid committee member who will be at CCI handing out our
hall costume ribbons and talking up CC in general to folks at the con.
I’m going to make sure that Dany has a stack of the “mark your
calendar” fliers along with targeted fliers for the audience.

andy

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

Foamy the Squirrel
http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/rulesforthemasses.html

It’s coarse, it’s rude, and eminently appropriate for most convention
situations.

—
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

Andy —

Once again, you’re talking way over the heads of lots of us. What the h__k is a sports drama?!

Byron (the Ignorant)

—– Original Message —–
From: Andrew T Trembley<mailto:attrembl@bovil.com>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 8:50 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Masquerade names

On Jul 14, 2004, at 5:04 PM, Bruno wrote:
> I do not think that the title SF/F Masquerade would preclude them from
> entering. However, what about using Historical Masquerade and Grand
> Masquerade, as anything not historical?

On the ICG-D list, and I made a few points there…

We go with a genre-based breakdown, and I think that makes sense. There
are vastly different judging standards in historical competition and in
F&SF competition (even with regards to F&SF recreations).

Anime, manga and video games aren’t genres, they’re media. Recreations
based on the vast majority of anime and manga could fit into either the
F&SF or the Historical masquerade. Even most anime and manga with
modern settings have fantastic elements of some sort.

The only real glaring exception is sports dramas, and I have to say I
haven’t seen much evidence of people competing costumes from those.
People do cosplay those characters in the hall, but in cosplay circles
they’re even arguing about the validity of competing something that is
basically off-the-rack modern clothes.

—
andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen – http://www.bovil.com/<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

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

Byron, there are anime shows and manga comics about…oh…things like
baseball.

Hence “sports drama.”

I don’t get it, but there has to be a market, or it wouldn’t be made.

–Karen

At 10:52 PM 7/14/2004 -0400, you wrote:

>Andy —
>
>Once again, you’re talking way over the heads of lots of us. What the
>h__k is a sports drama?!
>
>Byron (the Ignorant)

Byron Connell wrote:

> Andy —
>
> Once again, you’re talking way over the heads of lots of us. What the h__k is a sports drama?!

Would you believe a series about the members of a sports team?

“Slam-Dunk,” a very popular basketball manga, is a good example. Soccer,
baseball or nearly any other team sport can be a setting for manga and
anime. Doesn’t have to be a team sport, though. Tennis anyone?

Most often they’re about high school teams, or intermural leagues. The
formula is usually:
1. bunch of losers band together to form a successful team
2. outsider unwillingly joins team and becomes hero
3. losing team’s coach is dying yada yada yada
(these can, of course, also be adapted for individual sports, see tennis
ref above)

It’s about the only manga/anime genre that I know of that is almost
always played totally straight without any sort of fantastic elements.

So anyway, the point is that it’s a genre where normal off-the-rack
clothing (particularly normal sports uniforms) is the costume-du-jour.
It is a genre that doesn’t fit easily within either the F&SF or
Historical masquerade.

There are other manga and anime series that feature straight modern
settings, but most are in genres (relationship comedies, sex/romance
farces) that can feature fantastic elements.

For example, “Kimagure Orange Road,” a modern relationship comedy, is
played relatively straight, except the main character and his sisters
have psychokinetic powers they have to keep secret (this doesn’t feature
in every episode). “Maison Ikokku,” another relationship comedy about a
“ronin” (high school grad who hasn’t yet passed his college entrance
exams) is played totally straight, with no psychic or magical powers
anywhere.

Cosplayers often discuss the merits of competing such costumes; they
are, after all, in most cases readily available modern clothing. It’s
akin to the discussion of historical costumes that you may have worn
yourself in period.

andy

In a message dated 7/14/2004 10:10:51 PM Central Daylight Time,
bpconnell@verizon.net writes:

> hat the h__k is a sports drama?!

“Professional Wrestling”?
Henry

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

Took a few days to get permission to forward this

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Karisu-sama <chris@imagecraft.com>
> Date: July 8, 2004 3:51:19 AM PDT
> To: Andrew Trembley <attrembl@bovil.com>, kevin@twistedimage.com
> Cc: Richard Man <richard@imagecraft.com>
> Subject: Costume Con, Anime Expo, and so forth….
>
> Heyo, guys! Pieces of news and sundry… Forgive me if I’m writing
> very incoherently – I am very tired and totally brain-fried….
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 1) I am becoming more and more enthusiastic about working with y’all
> for the hopeful Costume Con 2008. To this end I have been dropping
> info about it all over the place in the Anime cosplay community, in
> order to draw as many of the people as I know in cosplay to Costume
> Con (and I know a LOT of people in that community.) As a ‘crossover
> costumer” myself, I really would like to see a harmony of the various
> costuming communities, not entirely separate worlds that never meet…
>
> In addition, as a Cosplay.Com staffer, I get to hang out with with the
> “big names”, and I have been heavily promoting Costume Con to the best
> of my ability among the top-level cosplayers that I know, such as Yaya
> Han, Justin, Rosiel, Tristin Citrine, Lily and Haruka, Hoshikage, and
> so forth. These are Master-class people. Several of them wish to
> branch out into original design costuming (or already do so). Their
> work is incredible. Yaya (who is a very nice person) has been asked
> “not to participate” in several Masquerades because she is “unfair
> competition”. I told her she really ought to take her work to Costume
> Con. She didn’t even know it was in Atlanta this past year – her home
> town!
>
> I personally feel that people like this ought to be brought to Costume
> Con and get in with the ICG. Justin, for example, told me that he’s
> hardly even heard about the ICG, and has no idea how to join. I think
> we ought to really try to embrace this incredibly talented and
> seriously-costuming young generation. New blood, new blood! 😀
>
> One issue that will have to be addressed with them is registration
> fees – these Anime-con-raised kids are used to paying $50 tops –
> anything more is exorbitant to them, and will take a lot of
> explanation justifying why there is a higher cost (and it would help
> if they know about the early fees before they go up!) I have explained
> that Worldcons, for example, really DO give you the”bang” for the
> incredible buck, but they are young, and not so used to cons “by fans
> for fans”….
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 2) Some of this determination of mine is further prompted by the utter
> debacle known as the Anime Expo 2004 Masquerade Workmanship “Judging”,
> at which my children ATTEMPTED to debut their first-ever self-made
> costume set. (I say ATTEMPTED, because we ended up withdrawing due to
> the extreme offensiveness of the way we were treated.) Gods, do we
> NEED better judged and better run cons at Anime Masquerades. I for one
> would like to promote a LOT more big-name cosplayer pressure on Con
> staff for ICG-style Masqs. For this, or course, we need to get more
> cosplayers in the ICG…
>
> If you have any time to read about the AX’04 Masq., the whole sordid
> mess is detailed in this Cosplay.Com thread:
> http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702
>
> If you don’t have much time, at least perhaps try page 1, and here are
> a couple of the pages where I am in the discussion, if you care to
> scroll to my posts:
> http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702&page=3&pp=15
> http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702&page=5&pp=15
>
> In any case, the entire situation was absolutely disgusting,
> especially after how incredibly well things were done last year,
>
> My KIDS, 13 and 9, who busted their butts over their workmanship (and
> the youngest spent time in the emergency room for sewing through her
> finger with the machine) have been absolutely insulted and demeaned.
> (Plucky them, they are improving on their entry and taking it to
> Worldcon instead.) I am incensed.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 3) I’ve been costuming for 31 years. How the heck can I get some
> experience judging? It would give me more clout among these people
> almost half my age, many of whom already have quite a bit of judging
> experience. I’d be happy to do an apprenticeship or something…. I
> just have never done judging before.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Anyway, thanks for putting up with my rambling. Gotta go crash now.
> See you soon somewhere, hopefully. (Worldcon?) *hugs*
>
>
> — Karisu-sama (Chris)
> ———————————-
> Moero!!
>
>

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

I read the whole AnimeX Workmanship Judging brouhaha, and I was totally
appalled. This February I convinced the masquerade directors of
Katsucon to let me be the workmanship judge. I spent the first part of
the day wandering the con in rather mundane clothing (o.k. I was wearing
one of my bat belt buckles and a bat embroidered shirt) and got no
negative vibes at all. I spent the rest of the day except for a 1 hour
dinner break doing workmanship judging. (Approximately 70 costumes.) I
was still judging right through the cosplay. Everybody who wanted
workmanship judging got it, up close and personal, and I even sent a
couple of entrants out to bring me reference materials for their
costumes and then made the comparisons. While the other judges were
hassling, I got to present the workmanship awards, explaining to the
audience why I made the awards I did and invited them to take a closer
look if they had the opportunity.

I must have done something right, because I got three letters thanking
me for my judging. (2 from competitors and one from an audience member
who had not competed) I also got a complementary paragraph from Kevin
Lillard in the April Animerica, and I’m told, some complementary press
in a couple of the anime web groups. I hope to be asked back next year,
and if I am I’ll bring some more organization to the workmanship judging.

Almost any of us on this list and probably the ICGD list can judge
workmanship. You don’t have to be familiar with the character to see if
seams are straight and the hems finished, and if the contestant brings
documentation you can judge accuracy in recreation. (BTW there was one
young lady there who can give Dany a run for her money on
documentation.) I was promoting Balticon, but if I am asked back next
year I’ll push the CC’s because Kastsucon drew people from all over the
country. If we really want to make inroads in this community I’d like
to suggest that each year’s CC might consider giving a free membership
to “best novice” (or whatever the con calls the equivalent.) at several
of the larger Anime Cons. This not only gives us the chance to promote
Costume Con, but also sends a loud and clear message that we want them.

Andy, please tell Karisu-sama for me that I would love to have had the
opportunity to judge her daughters’ costumes and give them the respect
that they deserved.

Marty

Andrew T Trembley wrote:

>Took a few days to get permission to forward this
>
>Begin forwarded message:
>
>
>>From: Karisu-sama <chris@imagecraft.com>
>>Date: July 8, 2004 3:51:19 AM PDT
>>To: Andrew Trembley <attrembl@bovil.com>, kevin@twistedimage.com
>>Cc: Richard Man <richard@imagecraft.com>
>>Subject: Costume Con, Anime Expo, and so forth….
>>
>>Heyo, guys! Pieces of news and sundry… Forgive me if I’m writing
>>very incoherently – I am very tired and totally brain-fried….
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>1) I am becoming more and more enthusiastic about working with y’all
>>for the hopeful Costume Con 2008. To this end I have been dropping
>>info about it all over the place in the Anime cosplay community, in
>>order to draw as many of the people as I know in cosplay to Costume
>>Con (and I know a LOT of people in that community.) As a ‘crossover
>>costumer” myself, I really would like to see a harmony of the various
>>costuming communities, not entirely separate worlds that never meet…
>>
>>In addition, as a Cosplay.Com staffer, I get to hang out with with the
>>”big names”, and I have been heavily promoting Costume Con to the best
>>of my ability among the top-level cosplayers that I know, such as Yaya
>>Han, Justin, Rosiel, Tristin Citrine, Lily and Haruka, Hoshikage, and
>>so forth. These are Master-class people. Several of them wish to
>>branch out into original design costuming (or already do so). Their
>>work is incredible. Yaya (who is a very nice person) has been asked
>>”not to participate” in several Masquerades because she is “unfair
>>competition”. I told her she really ought to take her work to Costume
>>Con. She didn’t even know it was in Atlanta this past year – her home
>>town!
>>
>>I personally feel that people like this ought to be brought to Costume
>>Con and get in with the ICG. Justin, for example, told me that he’s
>>hardly even heard about the ICG, and has no idea how to join. I think
>>we ought to really try to embrace this incredibly talented and
>>seriously-costuming young generation. New blood, new blood! 😀
>>
>>One issue that will have to be addressed with them is registration
>>fees – these Anime-con-raised kids are used to paying $50 tops –
>>anything more is exorbitant to them, and will take a lot of
>>explanation justifying why there is a higher cost (and it would help
>>if they know about the early fees before they go up!) I have explained
>>that Worldcons, for example, really DO give you the”bang” for the
>>incredible buck, but they are young, and not so used to cons “by fans
>>for fans”….
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>2) Some of this determination of mine is further prompted by the utter
>>debacle known as the Anime Expo 2004 Masquerade Workmanship “Judging”,
>>at which my children ATTEMPTED to debut their first-ever self-made
>>costume set. (I say ATTEMPTED, because we ended up withdrawing due to
>>the extreme offensiveness of the way we were treated.) Gods, do we
>>NEED better judged and better run cons at Anime Masquerades. I for one
>>would like to promote a LOT more big-name cosplayer pressure on Con
>>staff for ICG-style Masqs. For this, or course, we need to get more
>>cosplayers in the ICG…
>>
>>If you have any time to read about the AX’04 Masq., the whole sordid
>>mess is detailed in this Cosplay.Com thread:
>>http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702
>>
>>If you don’t have much time, at least perhaps try page 1, and here are
>>a couple of the pages where I am in the discussion, if you care to
>>scroll to my posts:
>>http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702&page=3&pp=15
>>http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=38702&page=5&pp=15
>>
>>In any case, the entire situation was absolutely disgusting,
>>especially after how incredibly well things were done last year,
>>
>>My KIDS, 13 and 9, who busted their butts over their workmanship (and
>>the youngest spent time in the emergency room for sewing through her
>>finger with the machine) have been absolutely insulted and demeaned.
>>(Plucky them, they are improving on their entry and taking it to
>>Worldcon instead.) I am incensed.
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>3) I’ve been costuming for 31 years. How the heck can I get some
>>experience judging? It would give me more clout among these people
>>almost half my age, many of whom already have quite a bit of judging
>>experience. I’d be happy to do an apprenticeship or something…. I
>>just have never done judging before.
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>Anyway, thanks for putting up with my rambling. Gotta go crash now.
>>See you soon somewhere, hopefully. (Worldcon?) *hugs*
>>
>>
>>– Karisu-sama (Chris)
>>———————————-
>> Moero!!
>>
>>
>>
>>

On Jul 15, 2004, at 2:50 PM, martingear wrote:

> Andy, please tell Karisu-sama for me that I would love to have had the
> opportunity to judge her daughters’ costumes and give them the respect
> that they deserved.

Well, since we just confirmed with Richard Hill that we’re judging at
N4 we’ll be able to do so ourselves. They’re going, and the kids are
competing.

Note: haven’t seen the costumes, don’t know jack about 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)
…remaining .sig trimmed for better message/.sig ratio

The current file is in MS Word. It’s not in db form, but it’s more than we
had before.

I don’t know Excel. Last db I worked with was dBase III+. (Don’t laugh.)

–Karen

At 05:25 PM 7/14/2004 -0700, you wrote:

>On Jul 14, 2004, at 4:54 PM, Bruno wrote:
> > I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see
> > the
> > list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
> > manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.
>
>Yahoogroups DBs export rather nicely, and the output can be sucked into
>whatever software you choose for printing labels and form letters.
>
>andy
>
>–
>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
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Excel or Access are fairly cooperative and do have merge capability which is
very nice for labels & form letters.
All you need is someone to do some quick data entry for starters and then
the thing will just grow on it’s own. 148 records wouldn’t take that long;
I’m not exactly offering but database management is what I get paid for so
it would be relatively painless. And would benefit CC25’s FFF eventually as
well.

Nora

—– Original Message —–
From: “Ricky & Karen Dick” <castleb@pulsenet.com>
> The current file is in MS Word. It’s not in db form, but it’s more than we
> had before.
> I don’t know Excel. Last db I worked with was dBase III+. (Don’t laugh.)
> –Karen

We bring a photo album with us.

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: <henryosier@cs.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:57 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers

> In a message dated 7/13/2004 6:59:04 PM Central Daylight Time,
> bruno@soulmasque.com writes:
> > I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s
never
> > been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than
to
> > just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> > masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would
be
> > nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things at
CC;
> > masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels.
I
> > think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would be
the
> > best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.
> This method works well with hotels that ask “So what happens at your
> function?”
> Henry
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

I think, with Marty’s comments and my havng made some contacts with both
Nandesukan and Anime X (I’m not sure if I’ve heard from Anime Iowa yet —
have to check my mail), offering to do workmanship judging is a great idea
for us to follow up. Also, handing out a free membership as a prize.

VERY promising contact with the Cosplay.com folks!

Bruce

Way to go, Mike. As I think I mentioned, those are the two we want to hit.
Good suggestion: a promo video. I’d bet Carl (and I) could put together
some sort of 5-10 minute piece that includes a anime character or two.

Andy: Do you think there’d be any interest in doing something like this?
the logistics would have to be worked out with the respective concoms.

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: “Bruno” <bruno@soulmasque.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:20 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers

> I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s
never
> been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than to
> just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would be
> nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things at
CC;
> masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels. I
> think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would be
the
> best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.
>
> The big Anime conventions in the Midwest that people from here travel to
are
> ACEN (Anime Central) and Anime Iowa. ACEN was in May and I think Anime
Iowa
> is in August.
>
> I also emailed Kevin Lillard who run A Fan’s View and probably has the
most
> extensive photo collection of cosplayers, and he has added CC23 to his
list
> of “Other Conventions of Interest”.
>
>
> —– Original Message —–
> > Lots of good info, there, Mike. On the surface, this doesn’t sound very
> > incouraging, but on the other hadn, it sounds like you made a few
inroads.
> > We’ve stated all along that we would only expect about 10% to show
> interest,
> > but that’s still a potential sizable number of people.
> >
> > From wht you’ve said, I think we could tailor panels to the interest of
> the
> > attendees. I’d bet a panel on traditional Japanese costume construction
> > might draw some people. I think one thing I’d probably wear there is
> one
> > or two of my hantens I wear regularly when the weather’s appropriate.
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Nora,

Don’t just include anime costumes in the video to show at anime cons. When
I showed the videos at the cosplay workshop, the first one I showed was from
Nan Desu Kan 2 years ago, it generated a lot of commentary, rarely
flattering. However, the next video I showed was my Masquerade montage,
with CC, WC, & Balticon clips. They were mostly silent through it, except
for the oooh’s and aaaah’s.

Cosplayers see anime costumes all the time, but they rarely, if ever, get to
see really amazing, original stuff.

Michael

—– Original Message —–
From: “Bruce & Nora Mai” <casamai@sbcglobal.net>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 8:36 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers

> Way to go, Mike. As I think I mentioned, those are the two we want to
hit.
> Good suggestion: a promo video. I’d bet Carl (and I) could put together
> some sort of 5-10 minute piece that includes a anime character or two.
>
> Andy: Do you think there’d be any interest in doing something like this?
> the logistics would have to be worked out with the respective concoms.
>
> Bruce
>
>
> —– Original Message —–
> From: “Bruno” <bruno@soulmasque.com>
> To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers
>
>
> > I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s
> never
> > been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than
to
> > just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> > masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would
be
> > nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things at
> CC;
> > masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels.
I
> > think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would be
> the
> > best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.
> >
> > The big Anime conventions in the Midwest that people from here travel to
> are
> > ACEN (Anime Central) and Anime Iowa. ACEN was in May and I think Anime
> Iowa
> > is in August.
> >
> > I also emailed Kevin Lillard who run A Fan’s View and probably has the
> most
> > extensive photo collection of cosplayers, and he has added CC23 to his
> list
> > of “Other Conventions of Interest”.
> >
> >
> > —– Original Message —–
> > > Lots of good info, there, Mike. On the surface, this doesn’t sound
very
> > > incouraging, but on the other hadn, it sounds like you made a few
> inroads.
> > > We’ve stated all along that we would only expect about 10% to show
> > interest,
> > > but that’s still a potential sizable number of people.
> > >
> > > From wht you’ve said, I think we could tailor panels to the interest
of
> > the
> > > attendees. I’d bet a panel on traditional Japanese costume
construction
> > > might draw some people. I think one thing I’d probably wear there
is
> > one
> > > or two of my hantens I wear regularly when the weather’s appropriate.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

Karen –
Depending on how it is laid out in Word, it can be trivial to suck it
into Excel. Excel is really a spread sheet and is much less
sophisticated than dBase III

^M^

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

>The current file is in MS Word. It’s not in db form, but it’s more than we
>had before.
>
>I don’t know Excel. Last db I worked with was dBase III+. (Don’t laugh.)
>
>–Karen
>
>At 05:25 PM 7/14/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>
>
>>On Jul 14, 2004, at 4:54 PM, Bruno wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see
>>>the
>>>list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
>>>manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.
>>>
>>>
>>Yahoogroups DBs export rather nicely, and the output can be sucked into
>>whatever software you choose for printing labels and form letters.
>>
>>andy
>>
>>–
>>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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>>Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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

Marty, the next time we’re down (no rush), can you walk me through Excel
and PowerPoint?

I’m not current on some software, but I *know* I can pick it up quickly if
somebody just shows me vs. stumbling through it myself. That technique
worked great when a friend taught me PhotoShop.

Lisa Ashton said you were a good teacher on PowerPoint!

I used to be 6 months ahead of the curve on hardware and software, but now,
due to finances, I am *years* behind…painful…

–Karen

At 10:37 PM 7/15/2004 -0400, you wrote:

>Karen –
>Depending on how it is laid out in Word, it can be trivial to suck it
>into Excel. Excel is really a spread sheet and is much less
>sophisticated than dBase III
>
>^M^
>
>Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
>
> >The current file is in MS Word. It’s not in db form, but it’s more than we
> >had before.
> >
> >I don’t know Excel. Last db I worked with was dBase III+. (Don’t laugh.)
> >
> >–Karen
> >
> >At 05:25 PM 7/14/2004 -0700, you wrote:
> >
> >
> >>On Jul 14, 2004, at 4:54 PM, Bruno wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>I haven’t used the DB feature in Yahoo!Groups much, but I’d rather see
> >>>the
> >>>list in Excel or some other popular DB program which could easily be
> >>>manipulated and used to generate mailing labels and form letters.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>Yahoogroups DBs export rather nicely, and the output can be sucked into
> >>whatever software you choose for printing labels and form letters.
> >>
> >>andy
> >>
> >>–
> >>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
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> >>Yahoo! Groups Links
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

If anybody here is doing the livejournal thing, please consider adding
the following to your “interests” list

icg
costume-con

I’m thinking of setting up a costume-con livejournal community, it might
be another way to promote online.

andy

Andrew Trembley wrote:

> I’m thinking of setting up a costume-con livejournal community, it might
> be another way to promote online.

Went ahead and did it…
http://www.livejournal.com/community/costume_con/

andy

Hey!

If Marty can’t do it, Dan and I can. I use Excel all the time (including
processing the labels for the newsletter – well over 800 names), and Dan
uses Powerpoint all the time in giving his briefings for work and the Guard.

I could probably show you all you need to know about how Excel works
(including mail merges to Word) in less than an hour….

Cheers,

Betsy

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

> Marty, the next time we’re down (no rush), can you walk me through Excel
> and PowerPoint?
>
> I’m not current on some software, but I *know* I can pick it up quickly if
> somebody just shows me vs. stumbling through it myself. That technique
> worked great when a friend taught me PhotoShop.
>
> Lisa Ashton said you were a good teacher on PowerPoint!
>
> I used to be 6 months ahead of the curve on hardware and software, but now,
> due to finances, I am *years* behind…painful…
>
> –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/
************************************************************************

That was Bruce. And I think he meant that it’d be nice to include a cosplay
costume or two amongst the rest.

Nora

—– Original Message —–
From: “Bruno” <bruno@soulmasque.com>
> Nora,
>
> Don’t just include anime costumes in the video to show at anime cons.
When
> I showed the videos at the cosplay workshop, the first one I showed was
from
> Nan Desu Kan 2 years ago, it generated a lot of commentary, rarely
> flattering. However, the next video I showed was my Masquerade montage,
> with CC, WC, & Balticon clips. They were mostly silent through it, except
> for the oooh’s and aaaah’s.
>
> Cosplayers see anime costumes all the time, but they rarely, if ever, get
to
> see really amazing, original stuff.
>
>
> Michael
>
>
> —– Original Message —–
> From: “Bruce & Nora Mai” <casamai@sbcglobal.net>
> To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 8:36 PM
> Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers
>
>
> > Way to go, Mike. As I think I mentioned, those are the two we want to
> hit.
> > Good suggestion: a promo video. I’d bet Carl (and I) could put together
> > some sort of 5-10 minute piece that includes a anime character or two.
> >
> > Andy: Do you think there’d be any interest in doing something like
this?
> > the logistics would have to be worked out with the respective concoms.
> >
> > Bruce
> >
> >
> > —– Original Message —–
> > From: “Bruno” <bruno@soulmasque.com>
> > To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:20 PM
> > Subject: Re: [runacc] Looking into the minds of Cosplayers
> >
> >
> > > I think that the best way to promote CC to Cosplayers or anyone who’s
> > never
> > > been is to show them the types of things that go on at CC, rather than
> to
> > > just tell them. I’ve seen more interest generated by people seeing
> > > masquerade videos from CC than from just talking about them. It would
> be
> > > nice to have a CC promo video, showing clips of all different things
at
> > CC;
> > > masquerades, contests, socials, people in the halls, different panels.
> I
> > > think that showing it in conjunction with a panel discussing CC would
be
> > the
> > > best means to attract and interest people who have never been to CC.
> > >
> > > The big Anime conventions in the Midwest that people from here travel
to
> > are
> > > ACEN (Anime Central) and Anime Iowa. ACEN was in May and I think
Anime
> > Iowa
> > > is in August.
> > >
> > > I also emailed Kevin Lillard who run A Fan’s View and probably has the
> > most
> > > extensive photo collection of cosplayers, and he has added CC23 to his
> > list
> > > of “Other Conventions of Interest”.
> > >
> > >
> > > —– Original Message —–
> > > > Lots of good info, there, Mike. On the surface, this doesn’t sound
> very
> > > > incouraging, but on the other hadn, it sounds like you made a few
> > inroads.
> > > > We’ve stated all along that we would only expect about 10% to show
> > > interest,
> > > > but that’s still a potential sizable number of people.
> > > >
> > > > From wht you’ve said, I think we could tailor panels to the interest
> of
> > > the
> > > > attendees. I’d bet a panel on traditional Japanese costume
> construction
> > > > might draw some people. I think one thing I’d probably wear there
> is
> > > one
> > > > or two of my hantens I wear regularly when the weather’s
appropriate.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Excuse my ignorance but what is a “live hournal”? I don’t do ‘chat rooms’,
‘blogs’ or ‘forums’ – is it like that?

Nora

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
> If anybody here is doing the livejournal thing, please consider adding
> the following to your “interests” list
>
> icg
> costume-con
>
> I’m thinking of setting up a costume-con livejournal community, it might
> be another way to promote online.
>

On Jul 16, 2004, at 3:23 PM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> Excuse my ignorance but what is a “live hournal”? I don’t do ‘chat
> rooms’,
> ‘blogs’ or ‘forums’ – is it like that?

Livejournal http://www.livejournal.com/ is one of the original blog
services (you didn’t need to run your own blog software to use it).

Basic functionality is free. If you want to customize your journal,
it’s $25/year for advanced services. I paid the money and did a bit of
work to make http://bovil.livejournal.com/ look like
http://www.bovil.com/

A nice (basic) function is the “friends” aggregator. If you have
journals you like to watch, list them as “friends” and your “friends”
page will display their posts.

Another nice (basic) function is the “interests” matcher. Enter a
series of comma-separated keywords (“icg, costume-con, costuming,
slcg”) and you can find people and communities (more about that in a
moment) that share keywords with you. I found a few local friends who I
didn’t know were on LJ by using the GBACG keyword.

Along with personal journals, LJ offers community journals. These are
kind of like web forums, but kind of not. There are two options when
dealing with communities: “watching” (essentially making the community
a “friend” of yours so community posts appear on your “friends” page)
and being a “member” (which puts your posts on the community “friends”
page and may grant you the right to post directly into the community).

I’ve been watching a few conventions use LJ to promote themselves and
disseminate information. BayCon, Yaoi-Con and Further Confusion (to
name just a few) have LiveJournal communities. There are a ton of
cosplay communities. Dany Slone (our Malfoy recreationista) created a
con_masquerade community that is slowly growing (particularly after bad
masquerades like AX2004).

It’s a marketing/distribution tool, it’s free, and we ought to be using
it.

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

I believe Nora had volunteered as well….

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: “Betsy Delaney” <bdelaney@hawkeswood.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 6:31 AM
Subject: [runacc] Excel & Powerpoint

> Hey!
>
> If Marty can’t do it, Dan and I can. I use Excel all the time (including
> processing the labels for the newsletter – well over 800 names), and Dan
> uses Powerpoint all the time in giving his briefings for work and the
Guard.
>
> I could probably show you all you need to know about how Excel works
> (including mail merges to Word) in less than an hour….
>
> Cheers,
>
> Betsy
>
> Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
>
> > Marty, the next time we’re down (no rush), can you walk me through Excel
> > and PowerPoint?
> >
> > I’m not current on some software, but I *know* I can pick it up quickly
if
> > somebody just shows me vs. stumbling through it myself. That technique
> > worked great when a friend taught me PhotoShop.
> >
> > Lisa Ashton said you were a good teacher on PowerPoint!
> >
> > I used to be 6 months ahead of the curve on hardware and software, but
now,
> > due to finances, I am *years* behind…painful…
> >
> > –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/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

I guess I’m not seeing the value here. How many people are we talking to
potentioally reach? This just sounds like a different form of the bulletin
board. Besides, wer’e already on several lists that we really cant’ spend
the time on having to mantain another daily demand on our limted time.

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew T Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 8:07 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] livejournal?

> On Jul 16, 2004, at 3:23 PM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:
> > Excuse my ignorance but what is a “live hournal”? I don’t do ‘chat
> > rooms’,
> > ‘blogs’ or ‘forums’ – is it like that?
>
> Livejournal http://www.livejournal.com/ is one of the original blog
> services (you didn’t need to run your own blog software to use it).
>
> Basic functionality is free. If you want to customize your journal,
> it’s $25/year for advanced services. I paid the money and did a bit of
> work to make http://bovil.livejournal.com/ look like
> http://www.bovil.com/
>
> A nice (basic) function is the “friends” aggregator. If you have
> journals you like to watch, list them as “friends” and your “friends”
> page will display their posts.
>
> Another nice (basic) function is the “interests” matcher. Enter a
> series of comma-separated keywords (“icg, costume-con, costuming,
> slcg”) and you can find people and communities (more about that in a
> moment) that share keywords with you. I found a few local friends who I
> didn’t know were on LJ by using the GBACG keyword.
>
> Along with personal journals, LJ offers community journals. These are
> kind of like web forums, but kind of not. There are two options when
> dealing with communities: “watching” (essentially making the community
> a “friend” of yours so community posts appear on your “friends” page)
> and being a “member” (which puts your posts on the community “friends”
> page and may grant you the right to post directly into the community).
>
> I’ve been watching a few conventions use LJ to promote themselves and
> disseminate information. BayCon, Yaoi-Con and Further Confusion (to
> name just a few) have LiveJournal communities. There are a ton of
> cosplay communities. Dany Slone (our Malfoy recreationista) created a
> con_masquerade community that is slowly growing (particularly after bad
> masquerades like AX2004).
>
> It’s a marketing/distribution tool, it’s free, and we ought to be using
> it.
>
> —
> Andy Trembley, Bull-in-Drag
> The Bovine Illuminati (It’s the Cows, Inc.)
> http://www.bovil.com/
> Moo!
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Thanks, Bruce!

I just figured that we’re a little closer if Karen wants a face to face
instruction session.

I’ve been using spreadsheets in one form or another for the last 16
years or so, for all sorts of things, and as I said, I presently use
Excel to generate the mailing labels for the newsletter, so I have very
fresh experience on making it work with Word.

Dan has to use PP to produce all sorts of things for work and for the
Guard, so he’s equally savvy on that end.

That’s why I offered…

Cheers,

Betsy

Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> I believe Nora had volunteered as well….
>
> Bruce

—
—
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/
************************************************************************

Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> I guess I’m not seeing the value here. How many people are we talking to
> potentioally reach? This just sounds like a different form of the bulletin
> board. Besides, wer’e already on several lists that we really cant’ spend
> the time on having to mantain another daily demand on our limted time.

Total people? Well, my membership number is 3826481 (and yes, they
started at 1, John O’Halloran’s number is in the 6000’s).

Just about any costume-related interest term is going to max out the
match counter at 500.

Some of the established con communities are between 100-200 members.
Established costume communites are also in that sort of range, though
some are larger.

As to the value? That’s for you to determine. I’ve found numerous
bay-area costume fans on LJ who aren’t on any of the mailing lists I’m
on. As a matter of fact, I found a Chicago costume fan who goes to
Archon regularly in the con_costuming community. Pretty valuable from my
perspective.

It all comes down to a simple fact. If you want to reach out to new
groups of potential members, you have to reach. You can’t stick with the
old methods unless you’re going to be satisfied with the old results.

The free-association model of LJ results in a different dynamic than
mailing lists or web fora (after 15 years of mailing lists, I actually
find it kind of refreshing), and draws different sorts of people.

Kevin keeps reminding me “We don’t have to do it all ourselves, we’ve
got a committee.” I don’t do web fora myself (I tried years ago, but I
could never pay attention to any forum for more than a week or so), but
I know we can’t ignore them. We recruited a moderator of the cosplay.com
fora to our bid/marketing committee to reach out to cosplayers through a
media that’s popular with them.

Troll through your committee; you may find people who participate in
these groups. Jeff Morris is on LiveJournal (I know, he’s on my
“friends” list).

andy

If nobody minds, I’m perfectly willing to help Karen and I’ve told her
so. BTW, I’ve been using Excel since it was called MultiPlan running on
a Commodore 64 (pre Microsoft) as well as Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro, and a
Swedish spread sheet that shall remain nameless. Similarly, I use Power
Point not only for business but also for fun (See Susan deG’s “Vampire
Jeopardy”, I did the Power Point programming.)

Marty

Thanks to everyone for your kind offers to help instruct me.

I will definitely need in-person exposure, so I think that kinda leaves out
the Mais (but THANK YOU for offering).

I guess it just depends where I am next and who I see first. 🙂

–Karen

Yeah, I struggle with the time thing, too on a daily basis.

Andy, how do you juggle all this stuff and have a life? I need about 48
hours in a day already, and my head is going to explode if I add one more
thing.

–Karen (who already follows several chat boards and moderates 3 groups on
a daily basis)

At 10:02 PM 7/19/2004 -0500, you wrote:

>I guess I’m not seeing the value here. How many people are we talking to
>potentioally reach? This just sounds like a different form of the bulletin
>board. Besides, wer’e already on several lists that we really cant’ spend
>the time on having to mantain another daily demand on our limted time.
>
>Bruce

On Jul 20, 2004, at 10:00 AM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

> Andy, how do you juggle all this stuff and have a life? I need about 48
> hours in a day already, and my head is going to explode if I add one
> more
> thing.

Well…

First of all you assume I have a life. Until Kevin steps down as
Emperor, that’s not entirely true. Everything is already scheduled
through March next year, including “getting away from it all” time.

As for the computer stuff:

When work is going well it’s a firefighter-like job. I get paid to
spend time in front of a computer, and if I’m doing my job well nothing
is going wrong, so I’ve got a lot of flexibility.

Mailing lists are easy for me, but email is the main focus of my job.
I’ve built extensive filters to manage my email. All mail is sorted
into folders, and spam is dropped into a side folder for more automated
and manual checking.

Some lists I ignore unless I’m looking for something. I’m on 4
motorcycle mailing lists, but I trash three of them without even
reading most days. I also ignore a lot of the inane jabber. I just
junked the “astrology” and “lottery” threads on ICG-D; saves me a lot
of time.

I moderate a half-dozen email lists, but they’re well-behaved so it’s
mostly a “set it and forget it” kind of work. Once in a while I have to
add people to a closed list. Once in a while I have to approve an
announcement on a moderated announcements list. Rarely amounts to more
than about 5 minutes of my week.

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

Here’s an excerpt the text from the convention write-up of Katsucon, where Marty did workmanship judging. http://www.fansview.com/2004/katsucon/kanotes.htm

————————————

But if anything left people with a good feeling from the convention weekend, it was the Saturday night costume contest. The event started way too late, but the show that followed was worth the wait. And the award presentation gave anime convention costumers an unique, independent validation of their hard work.

In the same way that the Westminster Dog Show has a single judge to choose the event’s best of show entrant, and that judge is selected long in advance for his expertise, Katsucon had a single, experienced workmanship judge. That person, Marty Gear, was not familiar with anime conventions, but he had long experience with costuming. Gear had been in charge of judging and organizing at many Balticons and the national Costume Con, and he was familiar with the level of costuming at the many World Science Fiction Conventions.

The workmanship award winners you see on this site all were Gear’s choices. He was exceptionally impressed with all of those winners, and his lengthy comments at the end of the Saturday night costume contest made it clear that the perceived performance gap between the best sci-fi convention costumes and anime convention costumes has been closed. Gear said that the honorable mention workmanship winners were good enough to win top honors at the other conventions he’s attended, and he encouraged all of the Saturday night awardees to head to this year’s Balticon and compete.

Gear praised the top robot costumes for their use of materials, saying the fiberglass work on one outfit had a better surface than his car. He enjoyed the mallet of a Skuld costumer for being made out of hard-to-work hardwood rather than softwood. He was impressed with the use of fabric on the best entries. One entry got a workmanship award for an arching pair of six-foot feathered wings: Gear said he made that award because he knew first-hand the difficulty of working with feathers. And – very important for those who want to win – he gave several awards to costumers who brought documentation to show how their outfits matched the original costume designs.

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

Bruno –
Thanks for the pointer to the write-up and the pictures. The red robot
that I gave the Workmanship Judge’s Award to was a novice, and his
fibreglass finish was outstanding. Having owned an early Corvette I
have a certain amount of familiarity with how difficult a medium this is
to work with and I’ve seen award winning custom cars that were not as
well done.

“Tiki” Brown who got the Workmanship Special Award not only did her
costume which lit up, blinked and rotated, but also made two other
costumes for her group and part of a third. What impressed me most was
that all of her wiring was in harness and dressed inside parts of the
outfit that no one would ever see. In a totally different genre she
reminded me of the kind of work Adrian did. BTW, when her group came up
for workmanship judging they had someone with a power point presentation
that showed various views of the sources for each costume as I was
judging it.

Marty

Marty,

I looked at the Masquerade photos before looking at the award photos. When
I first saw the red armor (ronin warrior?), my first thought was “nice
armor”.

I just sent out an inquiry to the local to find out about the other group,
as it looks really neat, but I have no idea what it is from. Their
documentation sounds most impressive, and having a laptop available, it
sounds like a means to show the media documentation that printouts or color
copies, which can be expensive and not necessarily show the true colors.

I think that your work at the judging was more than well received at the
convention and probably the best advertising that we have for getting
cosplayers, at least from that area, to cross over to CC.

Michael

—– Original Message —–
From: “martingear” <MartinGear@comcast.net>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 9:24 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Write-up about Marty

> Bruno –
> Thanks for the pointer to the write-up and the pictures. The red robot
> that I gave the Workmanship Judge’s Award to was a novice, and his
> fibreglass finish was outstanding. Having owned an early Corvette I
> have a certain amount of familiarity with how difficult a medium this is
> to work with and I’ve seen award winning custom cars that were not as
> well done.
>
> “Tiki” Brown who got the Workmanship Special Award not only did her
> costume which lit up, blinked and rotated, but also made two other
> costumes for her group and part of a third. What impressed me most was
> that all of her wiring was in harness and dressed inside parts of the
> outfit that no one would ever see. In a totally different genre she
> reminded me of the kind of work Adrian did. BTW, when her group came up
> for workmanship judging they had someone with a power point presentation
> that showed various views of the sources for each costume as I was
> judging it.
>
> Marty

Hey, Marty!

I’m not trying to step on toes here – just making a friendly offer in
case Karen needs the info when you’re not available to teach. I never
questioned your ability, just provided info on my own.

IMHO, more options are generally better.

YMMV.

Cheers,

Betsy

martingear wrote:

> If nobody minds, I’m perfectly willing to help Karen and I’ve told her
> so. BTW, I’ve been using Excel since it was called MultiPlan running on
> a Commodore 64 (pre Microsoft) as well as Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro, and a
> Swedish spread sheet that shall remain nameless. Similarly, I use Power
> Point not only for business but also for fun (See Susan deG’s “Vampire
> Jeopardy”, I did the Power Point programming.)
>
> Marty

—
—
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/
************************************************************************

OK, putting on Moderator’s hat…

Let’s take this discussion offlist, as it has little or nothing to do with
Costume-Con except that these are “common denominator” programs that a lot
of people use and I don’t (yet).

–Karen

Way to go, Marty!

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: Bruno<mailto:bruno@soulmasque.com>
To: runacc@yahoogroups.com<mailto:runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 10:47 PM
Subject: [runacc] Write-up about Marty

Here’s an excerpt the text from the convention write-up of Katsucon, where Marty did workmanship judging. http://www.fansview.com/2004/katsucon/kanotes.htm<http://www.fansview.com/2004/katsucon/kanotes.htm>

————————————

But if anything left people with a good feeling from the convention weekend, it was the Saturday night costume contest. The event started way too late, but the show that followed was worth the wait. And the award presentation gave anime convention costumers an unique, independent validation of their hard work.

In the same way that the Westminster Dog Show has a single judge to choose the event’s best of show entrant, and that judge is selected long in advance for his expertise, Katsucon had a single, experienced workmanship judge. That person, Marty Gear, was not familiar with anime conventions, but he had long experience with costuming. Gear had been in charge of judging and organizing at many Balticons and the national Costume Con, and he was familiar with the level of costuming at the many World Science Fiction Conventions.

The workmanship award winners you see on this site all were Gear’s choices. He was exceptionally impressed with all of those winners, and his lengthy comments at the end of the Saturday night costume contest made it clear that the perceived performance gap between the best sci-fi convention costumes and anime convention costumes has been closed. Gear said that the honorable mention workmanship winners were good enough to win top honors at the other conventions he’s attended, and he encouraged all of the Saturday night awardees to head to this year’s Balticon and compete.

Gear praised the top robot costumes for their use of materials, saying the fiberglass work on one outfit had a better surface than his car. He enjoyed the mallet of a Skuld costumer for being made out of hard-to-work hardwood rather than softwood. He was impressed with the use of fabric on the best entries. One entry got a workmanship award for an arching pair of six-foot feathered wings: Gear said he made that award because he knew first-hand the difficulty of working with feathers. And – very important for those who want to win – he gave several awards to costumers who brought documentation to show how their outfits matched the original costume designs.

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