Good thoughts. I think what Dave siad was helpful, as well.

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: “martingear” <MartinGear@comcast.net>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Hotel Contracts

> Bruce –
> I’d be happy to read what the hotel has given you and give you my
> comments. Andy and David have pretty much given you the magic words.
> Telling the hotel that this is a national organization’s model contract
> tells the hotel that someone has dealt with hotels before and has gotten
> that agreement accepted. (True!) If the hotel balks then suggest that
> you start with the national contract and “tweak it” where necessary
> incorporating their concerns, but imply that you expect that the
> necessary changes will be minor. The contract is actually written
> fairly for both parties, and it does cover many of things that most
> hotels don’t even think about, but are very important to Costume Cons.
> If the hotel refuses absolutely to start with your contract then be
> afraid, very afraid. The fact that they have given you a proposal and
> you are now bringing in your own contract can be explained by telling
> the hotel that you have just returned from CC-22 where you won the bid
> and were given the model contract by the national organization. (O.K.,
> so you got it from me… pretend this once that I represent the national
> organization 🙂 )
>
> Marty
>
> Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:
>
> >We have a CC25 committee meeting coming up this Saturday, and one of the
> >things we’ll be discussing with them is the hotel contract. I have the
> >hotel’s version (4 pages) and Marty’s epic <g>. I’d like to run the
> >proposal past Marty and others here who have had hotel experience and get
> >pointers. One of my main questions is: how do I work the CC contract
> >smoothly into the mix at this point, since we haven’t signed anything
yet,
> >but have their proposal in hand? If possible, I’d like to get feedback
> >before tomorrow Saturday evening.
> >
> >Bruce
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >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
>
>
>
>
>

Have CCs in the past used general releases for entire convention or just the
masquerades?

Does anyone have any realiable info on people refusing to sign safety and
photography releases? How high an incidence is there?

Has there ever been a plan for dealing with anyone refusing to sign?

How appropriate would it be to state a release policy ahead of the
convention so that members know what they’re going to encounter (safety,
photography, video, etc.). Has this ever been done? Is it even nedessary?

Bruce

I believe that there was a group at CC-7 who refused to allow their hall
costumes to be photographed although I don’t remember their reasons
why. For all the convention masquerades that I have run, the policy has
been if you don’t sign the release (one for both photo and safety) you
don’t enter the masquerade and you don’t set foot on the stage. I can’t
remember anyone ever challanging that, although I do remember someone
who forged some signatures from her group. When we discovered that, we
caught them in the Green Room and had all group members sign which they
were quite willing to do.

In particular you have to have them sign the “hold harmless” or you are
leaving the con open for a massive law suit and it could well affect
your insurance coverage. No release protects you in cases of gross
negligence or deliberate unsafe practices, but it does prevent one from
sueing the convention or the venue if he steps blindly off the stage.
(He writes, speaking from experience.)

Marty

Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

>Have CCs in the past used general releases for entire convention or just the
>masquerades?
>
>Does anyone have any realiable info on people refusing to sign safety and
>photography releases? How high an incidence is there?
>
>Has there ever been a plan for dealing with anyone refusing to sign?
>
>How appropriate would it be to state a release policy ahead of the
>convention so that members know what they’re going to encounter (safety,
>photography, video, etc.). Has this ever been done? Is it even nedessary?
>
>Bruce
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

No problem, Marty–thanks for bringing this up. I guess it should be on the
“list of stuff to discus with the hotel.” I’m just trying to think of ways
we can conserve function space at future cons, as I know we are extremely
space intensive for the size of the con.

We’re looking at a Mariiott as a possibility for 30, so that’s a good
heads-up, too.

–Karen

At 05:50 PM 4/17/2004 -0400, you wrote:

>While I think that the concept of a “Dealers’ Row” is wonderful. (Love
>it at Arisia) some hotels will not approve. I ran into that at the
>Baltimore Marriott when we were looking at the possibility of moving
>Balticon there several year ago. I don’t want to throw cold water on
>the idea, just giving everyone a heads up.
>
>^M^
>
>Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
>
> >As a costume / corset dealer, I LOVE it. With a room with a bathroom,
> >people can try on stuff and not leave the dealer’s domain. (I still
> >recommend having more than one set of eyes to watch the room at any given
> >time.) I also like being able to set our own hours.
> >
> >I don’t know Devra all that well–anybody else have a closer relationship
> >where they could possibly ask?
> >
> >–Karen
> >
> >At 08:57 AM 4/17/2004 -0400, you wrote:
> >
> >
> >>And one further consideration in favor of this arrangement:
> >>
> >>Security becomes the problem of the dealers, not the conference.
> >>
> >>In a shared Dealer Room area, someone has to be sure that nothing walks
> >>overnight. You can plant someone in the room overnight for security, or
> >>hire someone to watch the space. I know we had some issues at CCXV, and
> >>I think there were also some problems with locks on the doors at CC22.
> >>
> >>I’d be interested in hearing what Devra Langsam might have to say about
> >>such an arrangement, since Poison Pen Press is more or less a fixture at
> >>CCs.
> >>
> >>Cheers,
> >>
> >>Betsy
> >>Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>Future concoms should give some thought to handling dealers the way some
> >>>East Coast S/F and clown conventions are doing it lately: hotel rooms are
> >>>blocked into a “Dealer’s Row” on the same floor as, and preferably near,
> >>>the con suite. Dealers deal out of their hotel rooms, so they can set
> >>>
> >>>
> >>their
> >>
> >>
> >>>own hours (and maybe a dealer such as AlterYears would be able to get a
> >>>suite in order to maximize their space). Charge is a nominal fee over the
> >>>price of the hotel room so the con gets its cut.
> >>>
> >>>Most of these conventions have a regular dealer’s room as well, but I can
> >>>see advantages to going 100% to the Dealer’s Row format–it frees up
> >>>breakout rooms or ballroom space for other con programming. Since space is
> >>>usually at a premium at CC, this could be a Very Good Thing.
> >>>(Also solves the eternal problem of finding a space large enough for
> >>>AlterYears.)
> >>>
> >>>Ricky and I did the “Dealer’s Row” thing at Arisia and LunaCon this year,
> >>>and it was very successful, especially considering we were frequently
> >>>closed because we were on programming, in competitions, etc. It also gives
> >>>conventioneers something else to do late at night besides hanging out in
> >>>the con suite (sort of spreads the party around).
> >>>
> >>>Just a thought, as we’re all thinking about hotel contracts and trying to
> >>>get enough space, etc.
> >>>
> >>>–Karen
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>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/
> >>************************************************************************
> >>
> >>
> >>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
>
>
>
>

Bruce,
We had a general release for all pictures at the taken at the con by
anybody. I can e-mail you a copy of it, if you would like.
Henry

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

Might this topic be appropriate on runacc?

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: “J Price” <taknflyte@yahoo.com>
To: <ICG-D@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 8:28 PM
Subject: Re: [ICG-D] Upcoming CostumeCon Locations

> I have to disagree with you, Karen. Key people do not
> need to be co-located, they just need to do their
> homework about the area, know what they’re doing and
> how to coordinate from a distance. That’s not to say
> the committee is running with whatever the pig in the
> poke ends up being. Consistent and regular contact is
> mandated and site visits are a necessity. Probably
> wouldn’t be a hardship though, expecially if one were
> looking at locations like Las Vegas or New Orleans or
> similar.
>
> However, I think it’s a better discussion off list
> between people who might have an interest. =)
>
> JP
>
> — Ricky & Karen Dick <castleb@pulsenet.com> wrote:
> > I’m with Carole, and I’ve mostly seen it be a total
> > disaster. You need some
> > key people on the ground in the area (hotel liaison,
> > exhibit room, dealer
> > room, and an events coordinator)–other departments
> > are plug-and-play
> > (green room, fashion folio/show).
> >
> > –Karen
> >
> > At 11:27 PM 4/16/2004 -0700, you wrote:
> > >Definitely not quoting the Worldcon
> > > > model but I’ve been involved in successful
> > smaller
> > > > conventions where members of the committee did
> > not
> > > > live anywhere near the actual site.
> > >
> > >I’ve seen that work, and I’ve seen it be a total
> > disaster. For it to
> > >work really requires the right people.
> > >
> > >Until later–
> > >
> > >Carole

I know that I disagree with Sharon Trembley over this point, but I would be
extremely worried about an attempt to hold a CC in Las Vegas with no local
committee members at all. So far as I am aware, there is nothing to
indicate that the city is at all costumer friendly.

BTW, as a native New Yorker, I’d feel the same way about an attempt to run a
CC in New York City; it is a terribly difficult venue in which to hold a
convention unless you have 5,000+ attendees or Donald Trump’s money. I have
a feeling that Las Vegas poses similar challenges that would demand people
on the ground and familiar with the city’s culture and economy.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: “Scott & JoAnn Abbott” <bubblemum@comcast.net>
To: <ICG-D@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2004 1:03 AM
Subject: Re: [ICG-D] Upcoming CostumeCon Locations

> Las Vegas….just to drool at the Liberace museum would be nice…then
there
> is the Star Trek experience and all kinds of other neat places to see and
> play.
>
> Might wind up missing the con though, having too much fun in the rest of
the
> town!
>
> JoAnn in VA

Having been involved in several business and techie type conventions in
L-V, I’d like to make several comments.
1- The LV Convention & Business Association advertises that you can book
1 Million hotel rooms with a single telephone call.
2- Most LV hotels get the bulk of their revenue from gambling and aren’t
particularly interested in groups that don’t gamble heavily.
3- I have yet to visit a Las Vegas hotel that was non-smoking. Even if
they offer non-smoking rooms, they are usually set up so that you have
to go through the casino to get from the sleeping rooms to function
space, and the casinos are heavy smoking areas.
4- Las Vegas is one of the most heavily unionized cities that I have
ever work in, and this includes the hotels.
5- NetWorld/Interop brought 50,000 visitors into Las Vegas and had to
pay for the hotel function space that they used in addition to the
Convention Center rental.
6- Unless you have a local group in Las Vegas that wants to run a CC and
can work around or through the above, don’t even think about that city
as a location. If you want to go to Atlantic City, or Reno, or Las
Vegas go on vacation or on business when someone else is paying for it,
but don’t try to combine it with costume con.

Marty

Byron Connell wrote:

>I know that I disagree with Sharon Trembley over this point, but I would be
>extremely worried about an attempt to hold a CC in Las Vegas with no local
>committee members at all. So far as I am aware, there is nothing to
>indicate that the city is at all costumer friendly.
>
>BTW, as a native New Yorker, I’d feel the same way about an attempt to run a
>CC in New York City; it is a terribly difficult venue in which to hold a
>convention unless you have 5,000+ attendees or Donald Trump’s money. I have
>a feeling that Las Vegas poses similar challenges that would demand people
>on the ground and familiar with the city’s culture and economy.
>
>Byron
>
>

>I don’t have an argument with people basing designs on bogus period
>sources; the source itself is legitimately historical even if the
>garment it describes never existed. I doubt I’d ding somebody in that
>case. I’d actually probably give extra credit to somebody who
>identified that a real historical source had bogus content and entered
>something based on it as a recreation of a historical fantasy.
>
>I’m more concerned (and I know this is nitpicking) with bogus
>out-of-period sources, such as discredited pop anthropologists.

Andy,

I hate to be annoying, but there are lots of us out here who haven’t a clue
how to know if the source was a discredited pop-anthropologist! Lots of us
want to try wetting our toes in historicals, but you, quite frankly, can
scare us away!

I am a costumer who happens to want to reproduce some of the wonderful
garments I have seen pictures of. I have looked in books and pattern
sources. I have asked friends for advice. I have gotten the courage to
make said garment – which (as we all know) is much harder than I had
anticipated! I have screwed up the courage to go through rigourous
pre-judging. I have done all of this, but you say I also need to find out
if my sources were bogus!?

Fageddaboudit! I’ll go back to the F/SF. Judging criteria like those are
the big reason why I continue to do only humorous entries in historical –
but I got to be a Master that way!

Elaine

Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall always be amused.

_________________________________________________________________
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Elaine,
ANy historical costume needs more than one source to coroborate the info,
just like the weekly world news or the enquirer does.
But serouosly, your first source is the thing that inspired you to make it.
You don’t necc. need tons of info on that dress itself, but a couple of
other overviews of the time period would make your’ first source seem resonable

For example, My Baseball Player from CC-9. was inspired by the statue of
Casey at the Bat in Cooperstown. So it’s like any other art piece. (
although in this case a fictional one)

So easily whithin the same library, I found pic’s of REAL players of the time,
then I found a sporting goods catalog with fabric descriptions, and a few
samples
I also found out that the statue was WRONG about some things.
So I changed them for my costume.

So if you have a pic or a painting of something you like, it seems logical
to just study the period in general and find more than one book that seems
to tell you the same things generally, and use it as an overlaying guide to
building the costume.

> Judging criteria like those are
>the big reason why I continue to do only humorous entries in historical –
>but I got to be a Master that way!

Well, you know you’re preaching to the choir here. After the ass-munching
that I got as CC-6,
I chose never to compete the Baseball uniform, even though I actually did
all the research.
So I have my 3 Historical wins as The Motown group, ( cc4)The Hobo
Clowns,(cc10)and now the Beatniks.(cc21)
And if there’s a cool dress you want, just make it and enjoy.

Ricky

On Apr 19, 2004, at 12:09 PM, Elaine Mami wrote:

> I am a costumer who happens to want to reproduce some of the wonderful
> garments I have seen pictures of. I have looked in books and pattern
> sources. I have asked friends for advice. I have gotten the courage
> to
> make said garment – which (as we all know) is much harder than I had
> anticipated! I have screwed up the courage to go through rigourous
> pre-judging. I have done all of this, but you say I also need to find
> out
> if my sources were bogus!?

There is plenty of room for this in the historical interpretation
category. It is generally accepted that a historical interpretation
entry only need show that it’s based on historical sources, and all you
really need for that is a picture or two. I’ve specifically been
talking about historical recreation and that’s a whole different
animal. Part of this is informed by my observations of SCA
arts-and-sciences judging where research skills are valued a skill as
actual technique.

And in any case, I expect that you would be smart enough to steer clear
of sources like Erich von Daniken (unless, of course, that were part of
your joke).

You know, now you’ve got me thinking about next year and doing a
historical Egyptian based on old Rosicrucian sources…

😉

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

OK, Andy, that’s the best answer for Elaine-now. Now what about the answer
for Elaine-who wants to do Recreation? What about anyone who wants to try
recreation? Are you saying that everyone MUST have knowledge of bogus
sources? How are we to do that without training? And what about the vast
numbers of us who are not SCAdians?

And, while I am smart, I just may not know who Erich von Daniken is. What
may seem obvious to you is not always obvious to everyone else. My major
was nursing; not art, history, religion or fashion. I’ll just bet the same
would apply to many other costumers, as well.

I think the judges should rely, again, on the documentation presented,
instead of what they “know” about the source of the documentation. They
might want, at another time, to let the costumer know more about their
sources – which will educate them a bit for future research. I look at the
historical in general as a whole new field of education for myself, and
welcome information. However, I am not interested in taking formal studies
just to participate.

Sorry, but I have to continue to disagree with you on this one. Please do
not summarily consign everyone who is less knowlegeable than yourself to
Interp.

Elaine

>
>There is plenty of room for this in the historical interpretation
>category. It is generally accepted that a historical interpretation
>entry only need show that it’s based on historical sources, and all you
>really need for that is a picture or two. I’ve specifically been
>talking about historical recreation and that’s a whole different
>animal. Part of this is informed by my observations of SCA
>arts-and-sciences judging where research skills are valued a skill as
>actual technique.
>
>And in any case, I expect that you would be smart enough to steer clear
>of sources like Erich von Daniken (unless, of course, that were part of
>your joke).
>

_________________________________________________________________
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Ricky,

>And if there’s a cool dress you want, just make it and enjoy.

That is exactly what I do, as I’m sure you have seen. I was playing Devil’s
Advocate here. Someone has to speak up for the wannabees. I want to
encourage people to wade in and test the waters, because we need them! And
I WAS thinking about CC 6, and about Kathy & Drew’s “The Rape of the Lock,”
which was a bead-for-bead recreation of the painting – but not historically
perfect – according to the judges, who “knew.”

But I thank you for the encouragement!

Elaine

_________________________________________________________________
Watch LIVE baseball games on your computer with MLB.TV, included with MSN
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Kevin and I just got back from Denver Coronation, where we hung out
with folks from The Imperial Rainbow Court of Northern Utah (Ogden) and
The Imperial Court of Iowa (Des Moines). Showed them WorldCon and CC
masquerade pictures after the ball. Those queens just went ape. None of
them had any idea anything like this happens.

Go to their coronations. These are events where folks from around the
country and particularly within the region come to congratulate the
local Empress and Emperor on their successful year raising money for
charity. Dress for the theme. Hand out fliers and award ribbons if you
have them. Think about “walking as an in-town organization” (and if you
decide to, email me and ask how protocol works). These folks live to
dress finely and look spectacular. You’ll get members, particularly
from the in-region folks.

http://www.impcourt.org/icis/chapters/ogden.html
Ogden’s coronation is November 19, 2004. They’ve got a crap theme: “An
Evening of Diversity, Worldwide Celebration” — not much inspiration to
make something specific for it, but just about any formal or ethnic
costume would be appropriate.

http://www.impcourt.org/icis/chapters/desmoines.html
http://www.imperialcourtofia.org/Coronation%20XI.htm
Iowa coronation is September 25, 2004, and there’s a tiny chance we
might be there. Now they’ve got a theme… “Vampires, Witches and
Warlocks: A Nocturnal Journey into Magic, Voodoo and Beyond.” The
fancier and gothier the better.

—
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

This is the message I sent to our new court members in San Jose the
beginning of this reign. For more information about what Imperial
Courts do these days, check out our website at http://www.irlm.org/

Begin forwarded message:
Subject: [IRLM-R34] Court History in a nutshell 1

Chapter 1: When dirt was new, and some drag queen decided it might make
a nice facial mask

It’s not all about Mama José, but great parts might as well be. Mama
José really is a legend in her own time. If only a quarter of the
stories she tells were true, she would still be a formidable queen.
There’s plenty to back all of them up, though. Even the really crazy
ones.

Back in the 40’s and 50’s, a young gay man named José Sarria made a
name for himself hosting and doing drag at a gay bar/restaurant in San
Francisco called “The Black Cat.” The Black Cat closed when the staff
and ownership finally got tired of fighting with the state, city and
county regulators, which is what it took to keep a gay bar open at the
time. Afterwards, José still kept his hand in and stayed in contact
with the fledgling Tavern Guild, an association of SF gay bar owners
that formed in the early sixties. He also ran for County Supervisor in
1961, the first openly gay man (and definitely the first drag queen) to
run for public office anywhere.

In 1965, the Tavern Guild sponsored a drag ball where José was offered
the crown of queen of the ball. She took it, saying something to the
effect of “I’ve been a queen all of my life,” put the crown on her own
head and declared herself “Empress of San Francisco.” The Tavern Guild
turned this into an annual ball, electing and crowning a new Empress
every year.

There’s some parallel stuff going on in Portland at this time, too. In
1958, Queen Samuel of the Court of Transylvania declared herself
Monarch of Portland. Only lasted a little over a year, but in 1966 they
started electing “Rose Queens” twice a year.

Note: This was all pre-Stonewall. There was gay life before Stonewall.

San Jose comes into the picture in 1970, electing our first Empress (or
“Reina” as we referred to them back then) of Casa de San Jose, the
first “new” Imperial Court to follow San Francisco. Shortly after that,
Portland elected its first “Rose Empress” and Vancouver, BC elected the
first Empress of Canada (well, after Queen Victoria). Amongst protocol
wonks you’ll hear arguments (pretty much worn out by now) who has the
oldest court. Don’t worry too much about it. The nice thing is at
coronations where courts are presented in order of first reign
(sometimes jokingly referred to as “age before beauty”) we walk really
early.

But let’s get back to Mama José. By 1974, Empress José had declared
herself José, Empress Norton I, the Widow Norton, wife to the late
Joshua Norton, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.

So here’s your ancient history lesson. Joshua Abraham Norton was a San
Francisco businessman who lost his fortune in a bad business deal in
the 1850s. He went a bit crazy, hid away from the world for 5 years,
and when he re-emerged proclaimed himself Norton I, Emperor of the
United States (he added “Protector of Mexico” later). Emperor Norton
was a classy nutcase, though. Breezing through San Francisco high
society, dressed to the nines in a military uniform appropriate to an
Emperor, and without a dime to his name most of the time, he was loved
by the city. He was loved to the point that many businesses accepted
his personal currency. He died in 1880, some forty years before José’s
birth.

The Sunday morning after San Francisco Coronation 1974, Mama José and a
few other drag queens got into a limo with their escorts and were
chauffeured to Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma to visit the grave of Emperor
Norton, beginning a 30 year tradition. Not to buck a trend, the
cemetery directors (including a former Mayor of SF and a California
Superior Court Judge) quietly welcomed them back after the first year,
providing coffee, danish, and a place for the visitors to assemble
before walking up the hill to the grave-site.

Keep that ever in mind.

We’re playing an old and very silly game here. We’re following the
vision of a short little hispanic drag queen with unbelievable
chutzpah, walking in the footsteps of a nearly 200 year old San
Francisco street person. Whatever you might say of either of them, both
have made their place in the world with grace and style. It’s up to us
to maintain a sense of both the ridiculous and sublime.

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

Andy,
Actually, it’s a good idea for any upcoming CC.
Henry

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

On Apr 26, 2004, at 6:52 PM, Andrew T Trembley wrote:

> http://www.impcourt.org/icis/chapters/ogden.html
> Ogden’s coronation is November 19, 2004. They’ve got a crap theme: “An
> Evening of Diversity, Worldwide Celebration” — not much inspiration to
> make something specific for it, but just about any formal or ethnic
> costume would be appropriate.

‘k, the theme isn’t as dire as I though; it’s just schitzophrenic. I
found their flyer.

Coronations take part in “acts” and they’re doing a different theme for
each act (I assume in this order)
A Journey to Cirque du Soleil
Party Down Bourbon Street
Celebrate A Chinese New Year

Oh, and it’s at… Ta Da! the Ogden Marriot. Good chance to look over
the hotel while a function is going on. Also good chance to get the
scuttlebutt on how the hotel is to work with.

—
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

Forgot one for y’all

Memorial Day Weekend (assuming you’re not going to BayCon or something
else scheduled then) is Salt Lake City’s coronation.
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Hilton Salt Lake City Center
http://www.rcgse.org/calendar/2004-05-Coronation.html

Now these folks have a theme… “Namaste,” a celebration of India’s
golden age. Salt Lake Coronation is also one of those destinations that
imperials from all over the continent go to. It’s a chance to do some
nationwide marketing within an hour’s drive of home.

—
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

What about St. Louis?

Nora

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew T Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: “Sallie Abba” <srabba@worldnet.att.net>; “David Doering”
<dave@techvoice.com>
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 8:52 PM
Subject: [runacc] Marketing opportunity for Ogden and Des Moines

> Kevin and I just got back from Denver Coronation, where we hung out
> with folks from The Imperial Rainbow Court of Northern Utah (Ogden) and
> The Imperial Court of Iowa (Des Moines). Showed them WorldCon and CC
> masquerade pictures after the ball. Those queens just went ape. None of
> them had any idea anything like this happens.
>
> Go to their coronations. These are events where folks from around the
> country and particularly within the region come to congratulate the
> local Empress and Emperor on their successful year raising money for
> charity. Dress for the theme. Hand out fliers and award ribbons if you
> have them. Think about “walking as an in-town organization” (and if you
> decide to, email me and ask how protocol works). These folks live to
> dress finely and look spectacular. You’ll get members, particularly
> from the in-region folks.
>
> http://www.impcourt.org/icis/chapters/ogden.html
> Ogden’s coronation is November 19, 2004. They’ve got a crap theme: “An
> Evening of Diversity, Worldwide Celebration” — not much inspiration to
> make something specific for it, but just about any formal or ethnic
> costume would be appropriate.
>
> http://www.impcourt.org/icis/chapters/desmoines.html
> http://www.imperialcourtofia.org/Coronation%20XI.htm
> Iowa coronation is September 25, 2004, and there’s a tiny chance we
> might be there. Now they’ve got a theme… “Vampires, Witches and
> Warlocks: A Nocturnal Journey into Magic, Voodoo and Beyond.” The
> fancier and gothier the better.
>
> —
> 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
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

On Apr 27, 2004, at 4:29 AM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> What about St. Louis?

St. Louis doesn’t have an Imperial Court. Sorry. Doesn’t mean that the
Des Moines and Ogden folks can’t put out your fliers there if they go,
though.

You can check the chapter listing
http://www.impcourt.org/icis/chapters/index.html for what’s near, but
it looks like Des Moines, Chicago, Lexington (KY) and maybe Omaha are
the nearest courts to you. Probably a bit too much of a trek for the
return.

—
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

Still on the theme of PR:
I’ve got the germ of an idea that I’d like to put out here and get some help
refining.
Since all CCs are aiming at the same general market, no matter what the
geographic area, shouldn’t we at least have all of our flyers at the same
cons? Particularly the hot-bed, costuming friendly/intensive ones? Couldn’t
a shared mass-marketing scheme be devised to promote all CCs

PR can be expensive. By sharing PR efforts we can generate more extensive
interest while reducing overall costs by pooling our resources and efforts.
Here’s some thoughts:
1. If one CC is sending flyers to a Con, include flyers from all the others;
maybe bids as well.
2. Collective flyers for smaller cons? Something like “Interested in
Costuming? Upcoming CCs are…”
3. Collective ads; similar content to #2 above. Program ads can be
expensive.

In other words, instead of marketing as individual cons, start using each
other’s sources and promote Costume-Con as a recurring event. Obviously each
group would devote more of their resources to their own effort but why not
piggyback? Share the work and the cost, and possibly produce wider benefits.
Nora

How many and which Cons have Costuming GOHs regularly?
I don’t know the whole list but think those would definitely be the ones to
focus on for PR. To me, that would be an indicator that they have an active
costuming community.

Nora

On Apr 28, 2004, at 5:01 AM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> Since all CCs are aiming at the same general market, no matter what the
> geographic area, shouldn’t we at least have all of our flyers at the
> same
> cons? Particularly the hot-bed, costuming friendly/intensive ones?
> Couldn’t
> a shared mass-marketing scheme be devised to promote all CCs

Yes.

> PR can be expensive. By sharing PR efforts we can generate more
> extensive
> interest while reducing overall costs by pooling our resources and
> efforts.
> Here’s some thoughts:
> 1. If one CC is sending flyers to a Con, include flyers from all the
> others;
> maybe bids as well.

We do color flyers. I looked into having them printed at a copy shop,
but it’s cheaper for me to buy a cheap inkjet printer, paper and ink
for 1000 flyers, run the job and throw out everything at the end and
start over. Keeping the printer for another run, of course, saves a bit
of money 😉

I used to run a pack of 200 flyers for a big con, but I’ve found most
of them go to waste (unless we pick the extras up at the end of the
con). These days I keep a stack of about 100 on hand (unless it’s a
really big costume-heavy con) and put out 20 or so at a time,
restocking if they run low.

Mail us a pack of fliers, we’ll put them out at the cons we go to.
Email me a PDF, and we’ll print and put out a few dozen. Next stops
are:
May 8: Imperial Dove Court de Fresno/Madera Coronation
May 28-31: BayCon
June 19: Silver Dollar Court of Reno Coronation
July 2-5: WesterCon
August 7: Imperial Court de San Diego Coronation
September 2-6: Noreascon4 (WorldCon)
September 18: Chicago Coronation (probably)

> 2. Collective flyers for smaller cons? Something like “Interested in
> Costuming? Upcoming CCs are…”

One of our fliers is “Mark your calendar for Costume-Con” with seated
committees’ and our bid’s dates. As soon as St. Louis has a published
date and venue, I’ll be updating your information on it.

> 3. Collective ads; similar content to #2 above. Program ads can be
> expensive.

I’m not sure of the value of program book ads for marketing to the
general membership. They’re very valuable in terms of building
connections with other convention committees.

—
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 Apr 28, 2004, at 4:37 AM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> How many and which Cons have Costuming GOHs regularly?
> I don’t know the whole list but think those would definitely be the
> ones to
> focus on for PR. To me, that would be an indicator that they have an
> active
> costuming community.

Julie Zetterberg is Costume GOH at MarCon (Memorial Day Weekend) this
year. She’s going to be taking some of our fliers and award ribbons
with her.

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

On Apr 28, 2004, at 5:01 AM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> In other words, instead of marketing as individual cons, start using
> each
> other’s sources and promote Costume-Con as a recurring event.
> Obviously each
> group would devote more of their resources to their own effort but why
> not
> piggyback? Share the work and the cost, and possibly produce wider
> benefits.

So here’s a starting point:
We’ve got a calendar on the RunaCC yahoogroup.
Log your events into the calendar with a subject format like
“CC26? at BayCon”
and the start-date of the event
Include in the notes what activities are planned for the event.
Set a reminder for 14 days in advance. That will give people time to
mail out fliers to you.

At least we know then who will be where and when

—
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

Think of applying some of the cross-marketing schemes to some of the big
sewing and Fiber Arta magazines, too–if several CC’s could get a display
ad together, it might cost everybody a lot less.

We really need to keep pushing CC to markets outside of fandom–think
design schools, sewing magazines, bead groups, art-to-wear folks, etc. I
wouldn’t go nuts pushing the con to schools and clubs outside the
aforementioned 500-mile radius of a given con, but I would try to hit as
many nationally circulated magazines as possible that appeal to creative
type people–Threads, Belle Armoire, etc. (Is Theater Crafts still around?
I haven’t had a subscription for years.)

The con needs to grow, and we need “new blood” from whereever we can get it.

–Karen

That one we knew. What other cons (in any state) regularly have Costuming
GOHs? Our regional, Archon, has for several years now. What others?

Nora

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew T Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
> Julie Zetterberg is Costume GOH at MarCon (Memorial Day Weekend) this
> year. She’s going to be taking some of our fliers and award ribbons
> with her.

Inserted comments below.

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew T Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
> We do color flyers. I looked into having them printed at a copy shop,
> but it’s cheaper for me to buy a cheap inkjet printer, paper and ink
> for 1000 flyers, run the job and throw out everything at the end and
> start over. Keeping the printer for another run, of course, saves a bit
> of money 😉
> I used to run a pack of 200 flyers for a big con, but I’ve found most
> of them go to waste (unless we pick the extras up at the end of the
> con). These days I keep a stack of about 100 on hand (unless it’s a
> really big costume-heavy con) and put out 20 or so at a time,
> restocking if they run low.

Yes, we’ve noted that color is cheaper to do at home, as well. And we’ve
also observed that re-stocking flyers is much cheaper.

> Mail us a pack of fliers, we’ll put them out at the cons we go to.
> Email me a PDF, and we’ll print and put out a few dozen.

Both ideas could work but which might be better? I see this as a
co-dependency thing – “You take mine, I’ll take yours” – so nobody loses and
you don’t have to worry about whether your flyers got there or ended up in
the trash because someone reliable is handling them for you.
FYI: PDF creation is not accessible to the average Joe. Would other formats
work for you? I’d be willing to accept Word docs and .rtfs (which
conicidentally is what I’d be able to send).

> One of our fliers is “Mark your calendar for Costume-Con” with seated
> committees’ and our bid’s dates. As soon as St. Louis has a published
> date and venue, I’ll be updating your information on it.

Yeah, that’s kind of the idea. We have info & links about past and future
CCs on CC25’s website. My thoughts on this would be to ‘share the wealth’.
if someone’s interested but can’t make a particular location, they’ll have
an easy list of upcoming sites. It will also reinforce that CC is a
traveling con and they’ll have future opportunities to attend if the
immediate ones aren’t in their area.

> I’m not sure of the value of program book ads for marketing to the
> general membership. They’re very valuable in terms of building
> connections with other convention committees.

So a collective ad would still build good will with the con committees and
yet cover more areas with less cost per con. We’ll still be supporting the
cons and get more PR coverage.

Anybody else?

Nora

On Apr 28, 2004, at 4:23 PM, Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

> FYI: PDF creation is not accessible to the average Joe. Would other
> formats
> work for you? I’d be willing to accept Word docs and .rtfs (which
> conicidentally is what I’d be able to send).

Depends on what software and system you’re using. There is almost
always some way in which PDF creation is available to the average joe.

I do have full Adobe Acrobat, and use it to create PDFs, but I know not
everybody can afford it. Educational Discount (and indulgent management
at work) is nice.

If you’re on a Mac using OS X, you can create a PDF from any program;
it’s a standard printing feature of the system.

Some packages like Corel Draw and just about anything from Adobe offer
a “save as PDF” option.

There is also free PDF software available for windows:
http://www.primopdf.com/

The reason I ask for PDF is because then I don’t have to worry about
fonts and layout. PDF displays and prints consistently everywhere.
Can’t say that about MS Office doctypes, whether you’re talking .doc,
.xls or .rtf

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

Arisia and Lunacon do, but it varies from year to year, depending on who’s
on the committee and pushing for it.

Ditto Balticon.

I was Fan GOH of WesterCon in 1989 based mainly on my costuming. Does that
mean they should count? (Andy probably has a better grasp of how
costumer-friendly the con is now.)

–Karen

At 06:07 PM 4/28/2004 -0500, you wrote:

>That one we knew. What other cons (in any state) regularly have Costuming
>GOHs? Our regional, Archon, has for several years now. What others?
>
>Nora
>—– Original Message —–
>From: “Andrew T Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
> > Julie Zetterberg is Costume GOH at MarCon (Memorial Day Weekend) this
> > year. She’s going to be taking some of our fliers and award ribbons
> > with her.
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Bruce & Nora Mai wrote:

><snip>
>
>FYI: PDF creation is not accessible to the average Joe. Would other formats
>work for you? I’d be willing to accept Word docs and .rtfs (which
>conicidentally is what I’d be able to send).
>
>

If Adobe is too rich for your blood, and it is for mine, I can recommend
the following program:

PDF Creation, Tools and 100+ Templates for Office
One step creation & emailing of PDF files and yes you get pw protection,
hyperlinks, TOC, encryption and much more.
WOW special – Reg $39.95 – Just $19.95

http://www.templatezone.com/pdf-writer/officeready-pdf.asp?CID=153

It’s an add-on to Word & Excel and so far it has worked seamlessly for me. WordPerfect comes with a built-in “Save to PDF” and the above program seems to work equally well from Word. As usual, YMMV. I don’t have any business relationship with the company, but I’m always happy to recommend cheap software that does what it is supposed to do.

Marty

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

On Apr 28, 2004, at 5:25 PM, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

> I was Fan GOH of WesterCon in 1989 based mainly on my costuming. Does
> that
> mean they should count? (Andy probably has a better grasp of how
> costumer-friendly the con is now.)

WesterCon, like WorldCon, depends entirely upon the committee putting
it on. There is the strong traditional support for Masquerade, but some
years that might be it. This year the head of programming just happens
to be the president of SWCG and the FanGOH is John Hertz, so it’s going
to be a very costume-friendly con.

As for the Fan GOH question… regardless of the membership, any
convention that picks costumers as FanGOHs regularly is worth
cultivating a relationship with.

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

Sounds like an idea! It might work best in terms of program book ads, which
can be too costly for an individual concom.

Flyers get cluttered up on freebee tables or racks; a flyer advertising
several CCs would need a VERY prominent headline to grab fannish attention
in the chaos of competing flyers (but that’s not impossible to devise).

Certainly, it would be good to bring/send to a con flyers for seated (and
therefore noncompetitive) CCs. I distributed CC 22 con and CC 26 bid flyers
at Arisia and Lunacon this year. If possible, have the flyers available at
masquerade registration and in the masquerade green room.

Now, what further steps can we take to attract costumers from venues other
than SF cons?

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: “Bruce & Nora Mai” <casamai@sbcglobal.net>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 8:01 AM
Subject: [runacc] Cross-Marketing

> Still on the theme of PR:
> I’ve got the germ of an idea that I’d like to put out here and get some
help
> refining.
> Since all CCs are aiming at the same general market, no matter what the
> geographic area, shouldn’t we at least have all of our flyers at the same
> cons? Particularly the hot-bed, costuming friendly/intensive ones?
Couldn’t
> a shared mass-marketing scheme be devised to promote all CCs
>
> PR can be expensive. By sharing PR efforts we can generate more extensive
> interest while reducing overall costs by pooling our resources and
efforts.
> Here’s some thoughts:
> 1. If one CC is sending flyers to a Con, include flyers from all the
others;
> maybe bids as well.
> 2. Collective flyers for smaller cons? Something like “Interested in
> Costuming? Upcoming CCs are…”
> 3. Collective ads; similar content to #2 above. Program ads can be
> expensive.
>
> In other words, instead of marketing as individual cons, start using each
> other’s sources and promote Costume-Con as a recurring event. Obviously
each
> group would devote more of their resources to their own effort but why not
> piggyback? Share the work and the cost, and possibly produce wider
benefits.
> Nora

Inclusion of a costume GoH seems to has been a growing phenomenon in recent
years — a good thing! Arisia and Lunacon have added one recently; I do not
know about other East Coast cons right now. This could reflect the presence
in their areas of active ICG chapters interested in competition costuming.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: “Bruce & Nora Mai” <casamai@sbcglobal.net>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 7:37 AM
Subject: [runacc] Costuming GOHs

> How many and which Cons have Costuming GOHs regularly?
> I don’t know the whole list but think those would definitely be the ones
to
> focus on for PR. To me, that would be an indicator that they have an
active
> costuming community.
>
> Nora

Very good point.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew T Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 9:19 PM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Costuming GOHs

> As for the Fan GOH question… regardless of the membership, any
> convention that picks costumers as FanGOHs regularly is worth
> cultivating a relationship with.
>
> —
> andy trembley, Bitchy Design Queen

At 09:43 PM 4/28/2004 -0400, you wrote:

>Arisia and Lunacon have added one recently; I do not
>know about other East Coast cons right now.

Balticon had Carol Salemi as Costume GOH in 2002, but there has been no
follow-up since.

Ricky sez you typically have to have a costumer-friendly con chair to get a
Costumer GOH to happen.

–Karen

I have very deliberately NOT pushed for Balticon to have a “Costumer
GoH”. Andrew Bergestrom (the con-chair that we fired) was the one who
decided to have a CGoH, and while the con was very happy to have Carol,
there was a good deal of unhappy talk afterward about were we trying to
turn Balticon into Costumecon. Given that I have been able to convince
Balticon to spend much more money on tech for the masquerade then it
really deserves (given the number of entries lately), as well as having
a costume programming track, providing a large function room (free) for
a Costumers’ party, and permitting a costumers’ guild fund raising
auction, I think that Balticon is sufficiently “Costumer Friendly” that
I don’t need to irritate anyone in the club by pushing for a CGoH. If a
future con chair decides to do it again, I won’t vote against it, but
neither will I propose it, and no, I’m not going to run another Balticon.

Marty

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

>At 09:43 PM 4/28/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>
>
>>Arisia and Lunacon have added one recently; I do not
>>know about other East Coast cons right now.
>>
>>
>
>Balticon had Carol Salemi as Costume GOH in 2002, but there has been no
>follow-up since.
>
>Ricky sez you typically have to have a costumer-friendly con chair to get a
>Costumer GOH to happen.
>
>–Karen
>
>
>
>
>
>View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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

Byron Connell wrote:

> Now, what further steps can we take to attract costumers from venues other
> than SF cons?

Well, first we need to identify those other venues.

My take on this is…

Imperial Courts (well, it’s what I’m stuck with this year, but it’s also
something I participate in anyway).

Local SCA chapters

Ethnic heritage societies

College art and drama programs

Local conventions (of all sorts)

I’ve imported my marketing database into the databases section of the
RunaCC yahoogroup so you can look it over. Right now it’s only about 2
dozen entries, and I haven’t started making heavy use of it, but it’s
something.

Feel free to enter your own marketing targets.

andy

Wow Marty, thats interesting.
Was it general fandom who made the costume-con statements?
or was it con-com types?
was there a perception that anything Andy Bergstrom wanted must be tainted?

The “turn Balticon into Costume -Con” quote seems so illogical.
Imagine what they’d think if it was still drawing 50-60 entries like in the
old days.

I’m in no way questioning your message of what’s going on there, just, as
an outsider, I always viewed Balticon as the warmest fuzzyest place for
costumers anywhere.
Perhaps thats more because of you and Bobbi than the con-coms themselves?

Ricky

martingear wrote:

> I have very deliberately NOT pushed for Balticon to have a “Costumer
> GoH”. Andrew Bergestrom (the con-chair that we fired) was the one who
> decided to have a CGoH, and while the con was very happy to have Carol,
> there was a good deal of unhappy talk afterward about were we trying to
> turn Balticon into Costumecon.

I’m assuming that the Balticon in question ran sometime near when CC ran
in the area.

I’ve got to wonder, though, what drugs people were taking when they
concluded that adding a Costume GoH was an attempt to turn Balticon into
Costume-Con. It’s not like having a Costume GoH takes anything away
(besides a bit of budget, which had to have been there in the first
place) from the convention being a general con.

It’s a perception thing. There will always be “trufen” who believe that
their fandom is the only fandom, and anything different is a dangerous
distraction (the worst examples seem to be found in fanzine fandom).
There will always be people who assume that folks involved in fannish
niches (gaming, art, costuming) aren’t interested in anything else.

The former can go to hell. The latter… I can forgive. A costumer out
of costume doesn’t look any different than any other fan, much like a
gamer away from the gaming table does. Considering how often my friends
don’t recognize me in costume, I can understand when folks who don’t
know me don’t realize when I’m doing a more general panel that they’ve
seen me on stage.

So where does this leave the question of Costume GoH’s?

I guess I like the idea of Costume GoH’s. I’d rather, though, see more
conventions considering costumers for Fan GoH candidates. Costume GoH’s
reinforce the idea that we’re something different from other fans (and
since for most of us this isn’t a profession, that isn’t true; even for
the professionals it often isn’t). Costumers as Fan GoH’s reinforce that
we’re part of the happy fannish family. It may mean less chances for
costumers to travel and enjoy a con on a committee’s nickel, but I think
it would help show that costume fandom is in the heart of general fandom.

andy

Andrew Trembley wrote:

> I guess I like the idea of Costume GoH’s. I’d rather, though, see more
> conventions considering costumers for Fan GoH candidates. Costume GoH’s
> reinforce the idea that we’re something different from other fans (and
> since for most of us this isn’t a profession, that isn’t true; even for
> the professionals it often isn’t). Costumers as Fan GoH’s reinforce that
> we’re part of the happy fannish family. It may mean less chances for
> costumers to travel and enjoy a con on a committee’s nickel, but I think
> it would help show that costume fandom is in the heart of general fandom.
>
> andy

Hear, Hear!!!

I think that you’re right – the perception is frequently that costumers
aren’t “real” fen, because they devote their free time to something
other than reading. Sadly, the same perception at Balticon has occurred
for other niches as well (not just costume).

While it isn’t (and never will be) as bad as Boskone for the
not-readers, there have been times in the fairly recent past where
members of the Balticon concom have been less than friendly towards the
“other” fen, and the con has suffered a reduction in attendance as a
result. Many of the people who took their toys and went elsewhere are
showing up now at the Anime cons.

There are other factors as well. The con used to be Easter Weekend, and
now occurs on Memorial Day weekend. Sadly, that puts it in direct
competition with about a half a dozen other major events (including
MediaWest), which draw long-time masquerade participants away from the area.

Add to that the number of local costumers who have burned out, are
dealing with health/financial issues, or who just don’t get to cons
anymore, and you have a substantially smaller field of entries in the
masquerade.

I don’t think that this is Costume-Con’s fault, but I can understand the
perception problem.

And I’m one of the ones to blame for not competing. I really *hate* the
Omni (or whatever it goes by these days), and commuting does not go with
costuming for competition. Now that we have a van, things might be a
little different, but with a new baby, it will likely still be some time
before I get up on stage with a presentation again.

I heard a hot rumor (unsubstantiated) that the Hunt Valley will be
taking Balticon back in the near future. If that’s the case, we may
start attending on a regular basis again.

YMMV!

Betsy
—
—
Betsy R. Delaney
Web Mistress at large

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

In a message dated 4/28/2004 8:43:41 PM Central Daylight Time,
bconnel1@nycap.rr.com writes:

> Inclusion of a costume GoH seems to has been a growing phenomenon in recent
> years — a good thing!

I just remembered that you were the Costuming GoH at Archon some years ago,
Byron. I was happy to see you there, but then again, I’m happy to bump into you
at any con!

I think that the reason that more cons are having a C GoH is because they
realize that the masquerade IS a major drawing event on Saturday night. At least
the smart conventions. At WindyCon in Chicago, getting them to treat the
masquerade more than just an after thought has been a struggle for ten years. They
seem to think that their long and windy art auction, which doesn’t sell as
much art as it should because its long and windy, is much more important.
Henry

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

In a message dated 4/28/2004 9:03:35 PM Central Daylight Time,
castleb@pulsenet.com writes:

> Ricky sez you typically have to have a costumer-friendly con chair to get a
>
> Costumer GOH to happen.

Hmmm. That would explain the troubles at WindyCon.
Henry

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

Andrew Trembley wrote:

><snip>
>
> I’m assuming that the Balticon in question ran sometime near when CC
> ran in the area.

Actually, no. Because Balticon is Costumer Friendly, and has supported
the three CC’s that we have held in the area, we have been careful not
to step on their weekend.

See my answer to Ricky.

><snip>
>
>I guess I like the idea of Costume GoH’s. I’d rather, though, see more
>conventions considering costumers for Fan GoH candidates. Costume GoH’s
>reinforce the idea that we’re something different from other fans (and
>since for most of us this isn’t a profession, that isn’t true; even for
>the professionals it often isn’t). Costumers as Fan GoH’s reinforce that
>we’re part of the happy fannish family. It may mean less chances for
>costumers to travel and enjoy a con on a committee’s nickel, but I think
>it would help show that costume fandom is in the heart of general fandom.
>
>andy
>

I am in total agreement with you here. I’ve been Fan (or Fang) GoH at
three large regional conventions and while I’m sure that the reason had
something to do with my costuming, I hope that wasn’t the only reason.

Marty

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

Betsy Delaney wrote:

><snip>
>There are other factors as well. The con used to be Easter Weekend, and
>now occurs on Memorial Day weekend. Sadly, that puts it in direct
>competition with about a half a dozen other major events (including
>MediaWest), which draw long-time masquerade participants away from the area.
>

The reason that Balticon changed weekends is that attendance had been
dropping steadily and people kept telling us that it was because Easter
or Passover was a family time, and if we’d change the weekend they would
come. We did and they didn’t.

><snip>
>And I’m one of the ones to blame for not competing. I really *hate* the
>Omni (or whatever it goes by these days), and commuting does not go with
>costuming for competition. Now that we have a van, things might be a
>little different, but with a new baby, it will likely still be some time
>before I get up on stage with a presentation again.
>

Excuses, excuses, excuses .

>I heard a hot rumor (unsubstantiated) that the Hunt Valley will be
>taking Balticon back in the near future. If that’s the case, we may
>start attending on a regular basis again.
>

Betsy, you can always ask a member of the Board of Directors. It is not
unsubstantiated, the contract has been signed, and it will happen two
years from now (2006). The reason that we haven’t gone back to Hunt
Valley sooner is that the convention was being blackballed by a
saleswoman at Hunt Valley who got caught, by us, trying to stick the
convention with $10,000 worth of false charges. She lost a promotion
for getting caught (not for the padded bill) and kept us out of Hunt
Valley until she finally moved out of the area.

Marty

Ricky –
It was a couple of the older con com members, and I think that in part
their concern was financial/ “GoH creep” rather than being
“anti-costumer.” The fear was that if we had a Costumer GoH as a
standard thing then pretty soon there would be demands for a Gaming GoH,
a Media GoH, Anime GoH etc. each year and Balticon can’t afford that.
Balticon has to support BSFS (pay for a building etc.) and vice versa,
and both are run by pretty much the same committee. We do our best to
make compromises so that we can all work comfortably with each other.
I’m sure that part of the problem was Andrew and his attempt to
run/micromanage every aspect of the con. The con chair has the ability
to choose 1 special guest in addition to choosing the Writer GoH and the
Art GoH (the filk Czar chooses the Filking GoH). This is not to say
that there won’t be a Costuming GoH at some time in the future, just
that it probably won’t be an every year thing.

Marty

Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:

>Wow Marty, thats interesting.
>Was it general fandom who made the costume-con statements?
>or was it con-com types?
>was there a perception that anything Andy Bergstrom wanted must be tainted?
>
>The “turn Balticon into Costume -Con” quote seems so illogical.
>Imagine what they’d think if it was still drawing 50-60 entries like in the
>old days.
>
>I’m in no way questioning your message of what’s going on there, just, as
>an outsider, I always viewed Balticon as the warmest fuzzyest place for
>costumers anywhere.
>Perhaps thats more because of you and Bobbi than the con-coms themselves?
>
>Ricky
>
>
>

There is a directory of all 245 public and private colleges and universities
in New York State on the New York State Education Department’s Web site, at
www.highered.nysed.gov/ocue/. It is downloadable as either an HTML or a
Word file, as well as printable as a PDF document.

Byron

—– Original Message —–
From: “Andrew Trembley” <attrembl@bovil.com>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 1:13 AM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Cross-Marketing
>
> College art and drama programs

>
> andy

On Apr 29, 2004, at 4:56 PM, Byron Connell wrote:

> There is a directory of all 245 public and private colleges and
> universities
> in New York State on the New York State Education Department’s Web
> site, at
> www.highered.nysed.gov/ocue/. It is downloadable as either an HTML or
> a
> Word file, as well as printable as a PDF document.

A good start. I’ve actually been combing local university and college
websites to get contact info specifically for the theater and art &
design departments. From an inside perspective, I can tell you that
results are much more forthcoming if you can actually contact the
person responsible for correspondence in the department rather than
chancing that a general inquiry gets properly routed.

—
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

I hate to keep hammering this in, but you ain’t been to Archon yet….

Bruce

>
> I’m in no way questioning your message of what’s going on there, just, as
> an outsider, I always viewed Balticon as the warmest fuzzyest place for
> costumers anywhere.
> Perhaps thats more because of you and Bobbi than the con-coms themselves?
>
> Ricky
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

I think that Andy’s probably right about the whole FGOH vx. CGOH thing. So
the question becomes, outside of having a friendly commmittee, how do we
get more cons to recognize the value of a costuming guest?

Bruce

—– Original Message —–
From: “martingear” <MartinGear@comcast.net>
To: <runacc@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 9:22 AM
Subject: Re: [runacc] Costuming GOHs

> Ricky –
> It was a couple of the older con com members, and I think that in part
> their concern was financial/ “GoH creep” rather than being
> “anti-costumer.” The fear was that if we had a Costumer GoH as a
> standard thing then pretty soon there would be demands for a Gaming GoH,
> a Media GoH, Anime GoH etc. each year and Balticon can’t afford that.
> Balticon has to support BSFS (pay for a building etc.) and vice versa,
> and both are run by pretty much the same committee. We do our best to
> make compromises so that we can all work comfortably with each other.
> I’m sure that part of the problem was Andrew and his attempt to
> run/micromanage every aspect of the con. The con chair has the ability
> to choose 1 special guest in addition to choosing the Writer GoH and the
> Art GoH (the filk Czar chooses the Filking GoH). This is not to say
> that there won’t be a Costuming GoH at some time in the future, just
> that it probably won’t be an every year thing.
>
> Marty
>
> Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
>
> >Wow Marty, thats interesting.
> >Was it general fandom who made the costume-con statements?
> >or was it con-com types?
> >was there a perception that anything Andy Bergstrom wanted must be
tainted?
> >
> >The “turn Balticon into Costume -Con” quote seems so illogical.
> >Imagine what they’d think if it was still drawing 50-60 entries like in
the
> >old days.
> >
> >I’m in no way questioning your message of what’s going on there, just, as
> >an outsider, I always viewed Balticon as the warmest fuzzyest place for
> >costumers anywhere.
> >Perhaps thats more because of you and Bobbi than the con-coms themselves?
> >
> >Ricky
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> View the Document: http://www.Costume-Con.org/procedure/runacc/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>