There is a recurring thing with anime convention staff that I’ve noticed over the years. Long-time staffers seem to fall into one of three categories – people who put their life into it and love doing it, people who put their life into and hate doing it, and people who don’t really put in a ton of effort and are welcomed back because many hands make light work.

I want it clear that I’m the first type – I love the convention. Although I get moments of burnout, they only last a short time and then it’s back in my mind and heart. The convention is my passion and my life. My life has been greatly enhanced because of my work with it. I’ve made wonderful friends, and in spite of the anxiety over failing, I somehow managed to fake that I knew what I was doing long enough that I kinda do know now. I’ve learned a ton and I’ve had so many wonderful experiences and met some amazing people because of my efforts with the convention.

There are members of every convention I’ve attended, including mine, that are sick of staffing conventions but do it out of loyalty. It seems like the reason they staff is more out of a sense of loyalty to the other convention staff instead of a love for what they are doing. And rather than be that third kind of person who keeps coming back with a minimal effort and kind of floating along – they are the kind who puts an extraordinary amount of effort into the convention, allowing people under and around them to float along while they kill themselves.

This bothers me quite a bit. I don’t know what I can do about it, but I hate to see it. If you’re going to do anything with the convention I want you to end the con with a sense of accomplishment . . . of PRIDE. Be proud of the piece you played, this is YOUR con and your effort and actions made it better. I want you to look back at it and be happy at all the great things you did and see how happy everyone is because of you.

I do not want anyone to look back at the convention and the only feeling they have is that they are glad it’s over. Ever. You can be glad that it’s over, as long as you’re glad that it happened, too.

The convention should be something positive. I want everyone involved to feel positive about it. Excited. Elated. It’s a wonderful thing that we built out of so little, and it’s wonderful that we keep building up better every year out of what we gained from before. Our staff is wonderful. We get shit done. We problem-solve. I am constantly amazed at the wonderful and extraordinary staff.

If you put your life into it and get out something positive then keep doing it. If you put your life into it and only feel grief and regret then STOP! Seriously. It’s not that we don’t want to have you here, it’s not that the staff-family at other cons don’t want you, but out of love, no one wants you to be unhappy.

My first suggestion would be to back down. Take some lower positions and let someone else handle the burden. If you’re already in a low position, maybe you’re in the wrong department? If you’ve tried everything and you just can’t be happy staffing, then don’t. Attend the con and be happy. We can’t promise we won’t try to woo you back, but in the bigger picture we would rather you didn’t staff if staffing makes you unhappy.

Do something that makes you happy. Run a panel. Organize a game. Or don’t. This isn’t a job. We aren’t paying you but you do need to walk away with something of value to you. If you aren’t getting anything out of the convention (not even pride) then you need to do something different and if that means giving up staffing for a while or forever then that’s what you need to do.

If you can’t walk away from the convention tired, content, and proud, then something is wrong. Fix it.

Your happiness is your own responsibility. Fix it.

SCIENCE

The Supreme Council Initiating and Empowering Nerdy and Cool Events.

There was a comment in a staff meeting about us being a non-profit.
“We’re not a non-profit”
“Well, a not-for-profit, then.”
Same thing. “We’re not a not-for-profit.”

The terms “non-profit” and “not-for-profit” are interchangeable. The latter is the most correct form to use because not-for-profits CAN have quite a bit of profit.

Not-for-profits have employees and pay employees. Those that run the companies are about on-par with the CEOs of for-profit companies.

Just because you’re a not-for-profit doesn’t mean you don’t make any profit, and just because you’re a for-profit company, doesn’t mean you have to make a profit, either.

SCIENCE, LLC is a FOR-profit company. We’re an LLC. There is no such thing as a not-for-profit LLC. Not-for-profits are, by definition, CORPORATIONS, and thus, not LLCs.

Do we pay people? No. Do we pay ourselves? Not really. I say not really, because I have a 10k investment in the company that I make interest on. I occasionally get checks on this amount so my investment is down to about 6k, but it goes up and down depending on how much personal money I spend on the convention.

Additionally, the company writes checks to Nathan and myself every year to cover the tax liability that owning the company creates. Here’s how that works – say that we were each going to get a refund of $200 before the company money. Once we add the company money to our personal tax returns, we now owe $900. The company will cut each of us a check for $1100 to cover the company’s tax liability. This is a little oversimplified, but is pretty much the process.

So, no, it doesn’t really pay us, the owners.

Will it ever? Probably not.

Why aren’t we a not-for-profit corporation? Because rules. The rules and hoops that I would have to jump through for us to be a not-for-profit is annoying to me. The books are harder, we’ll be audited regularly, and if we break away from our purpose at all, then we would be disallowed any benefit that being a not-for-profit would bring. The benefits just didn’t outweigh the cost for me.

I am the bookkeeper and the accountant. I’m the most important person when it comes to the decision of what company to be and how to do the books. I’m NOT doing non-profit books. I did that in college and I decided then that it just wasn’t worth it for the convention.

Additionally, SCIENCE, LLC was started as an event planning company. You know what that means? It means that we can plan your party if you want us to. We originally wanted to make it our living but after losing jobs and actually trying to make a go at it, I realised that I just didn’t have the passion for it that I do for the convention itself. I’ve given up on it ever being something we make a living at and have moved on to other ventures.

Every con, I do get a glimmer of “I wish I could do this for a living,” but it fades quickly. I can’t.

I’m working on a photography business, PictureNV, LLC, now. We’re in our third year and still not profiting. In another year or so we’re likely to shut down if we can’t make it work. I’ve got much higher hopes for this, and just need to put the effort in – I truly feel that I haven’t put in the sales effort necessary.

Anyway.

SCIENCE – not a not-for-profit, but not a greedy company, either. Money we make gets put right back into the company for the con. We’re not paying ourselves and we’re not likely to ever pay ourselves, either.

So registration achievements started initially as a joke but almost immediately became a real plan because it was just that awesome. In 2012 we came up with the idea and wanted to do it “someday,” and early 2013 we decided that for 2014 (year 5) it would be a great thing to do. We discussed it a lot, came up with exciting plans, but didn’t really do much until 2014 came around.

I put it in place. It was one thing I was super excited about and I was not going to let it fall behind because it was something less immediate. I tend to let the other programmers work on the important or immediate stuff, while I clean up the database, work on fixing things that bother me, come up with new modules (“bits”) and things like that. Sam worked on his bit, Ryan worked on his bit, Sammich worked on important things only Thomas understood, Thomas worked on annoying things that needed to get fixed. . . etc.

I put the achievements code together on a very slow afternoon at work. I managed to get it working in about 2 hours after I got home (it never works without testing).

I feel that the achievements system is a wonderful marketing opportunity. We can make achievement badges that people can post to their webpages, forum stuffs, facebooks, etc.

Some achievements/scores start as of 2013, some 2014, and some go all the way back to 2010. It really just depends on what we were tracking and how. Panelists were only started in 2013, while masquerade hasn’t been successfully tracked yet (hopeing for 2014). So, although it sucks to be missing some data and starting at random times, the fact that we’ve got what we got is (IMO) pretty damned cool.

We currently have one genius professional who knows how to do things the “right way.” He never gives an accurate ETA on a completion date, but he handles the most complicated (and cool) bits of the system. It could not run the way it does without him. He tends to come up with huge projects that would be really fucking cool, but would take way too long to complete. He also disappears randomly for no apparent reason and usually at the worst possible times.

We have one grad student who will become a professional. He’s more-or-less on the same level as the aforementioned professional. He handles a lot of complicated bits, and some tedious bits. He’s usually the first on the scene when the site breaks and is the main go-to-guy. He keeps the system working and he also adds some cool Bits like the graph system so that staff can see stats from previous years.

We have one completely self-taught and completely insane person who handles getting shit DONE NOW AND WORKING NOW I DON’T CARE IF IT’S NOT PRETTY OR IF IT’S NOT “RIGHT” JUST GET IT WORKING NOW. I come up with the majority of the new Bits (we need this handled in the DB. We need THAT handled in the DB. We should really track that . . . etc.), and work on what I damn well feel like while giving tasks to others. I drive the team along when they would otherwise become stuck worrying about making a REALLY cool system, programmed the “right way” which would take WAY more time than we have. I also am usually the one handling the tedious database crap. The majority of the “terrible code” is mine, but so is a LOT of the code. I make shit happen when everyone else is busy or disappears.

We have two novices who are learning VERY quickly. They have limited knowledge and experience about PHP and MySQL and have their Bits that they own. They are (and should be!) proud of the stuff they write in the system. They have been REALLY valuable in getting the less urgent, and not-so-large, but still pretty needed things added to the system.

Meeting notes for 3/15

This is for the people who couldn’t attend, and a reference for the people who did. I’m not going to promise I’ll do this every meeting, but here it is for this meeting. Also it is really not the same as actually attending.

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Upper staff were asked about price for this year. After some discussion we will be going to $40 for our final price. The $5 bills at reg are burdensome, and it’s just easier for everyone. Additionally, since we have so much more space this year, it’s an easy justification.

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Are we going to do a Day-Zero party again, and more importantly – are we going to spend money on it? I thought the sodas were insanely expensive and it was like $300-$350 to run. What about a karaoke night with refreshments or a cash bar instead of a dance?

Karaoke Party Day Zero – cash bar

Staff discussion is that Karaoke sounds like a fun day zero activity, with probably a cash bar instead of us buying outrageously expensive sodas – we need to talk to AW about it but Whirlwind has a backup system. Additionally, we will run a day-zero swap meet. Putting day zero on our fliers and having be a thing from the start instead of a last-minute addition should increase attendance.

Swap meet – AA is up for running a day-zero swap meet, there’s also a group that was suggested we talk to who might come in and do a more significant swap meet. Cost for swap meet is up in the air until we know whether it will be day zero only, or run for more days.

LIKELY costs (may change) are $30 ($15 + $15) for day zero, or $40 ($15+$25). No matter what, it costs us $15 for a person to sell or advertise.

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Fan table? Where, how much, and who runs it?

We will have a new division of merchants for clubs/fans/orgs. It will be handled by artist alley and will be a segregated section of artist alley. It will be priced the same. There will be a different contract and a different title for it.

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Staff Business Cards – dept heads & upper-levels who have been with us 3+ years. Email me with your preferred details.

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Press Staff – We kinda need a press liaison / press ops – can anyone do it or do you know anyone who can do it? Want someone with experience as to how it works.

Reg, contract, gopher

Gopher is taking on this new department. It’s not that we haven’t done some of it before, but we really need someone dedicated to it. Additional staff welcome to join under Gopher.

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OTRS – Reg wants to move away from OTRS into something else but it’s what we have so until that happens I’m going to start putting people on it.

A few things to keep in mind – BCCing to your dept is a GOOD idea, but it will reopen your ticket, so you will need to close it after the final email goes out. Otherwise no one really knows you answered, or how.

We will not be going to every dept until we have a permanent setup, but we want to set up departments which have a heavy qty of email.

It is NOT intuitive, it takes a bit of time to learn it, so I want to get everyone who’s going to need to use it on asap.
I did a small tutorial, and will work on some screenshots to assist people. It’s not really difficult, it’s just not intuitive.

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Start of general staff meeting –

Meeting protocol -
- Please do not be disruptive to the meeting.
- Please do not have private conversations during the first part of the meeting. Just make a note and have that conversation in the second part of the meeting. Don’t think I don’t see/hear you – I do and I do call people on it.
- Please DO ask questions and make suggestions. That’s what we’re here for.
- Please do not leave immediately when the first part of the meeting is over. Try to stay 10 minutes in case someone needs to talk to you (especially important for dept heads). This is a good time to introduce yourself to the rest of your department, exchange contact info, and start planning.

The first part of the meeting is for announcements and questions, the second part is a free movement where we all group where we need to to have the private planning conversations.

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New staff policies -

• To qualify to be staff all members need to attend a MINIMUM of three (3) meetings. If you’re already attending all meetings, please keep attending all meetings. Meetings will be tracked and you must log in to be counted (LEARN YOUR USER/PASS). You must log out when you leave or have someone log you out. This will MOST heavily affect gaming and a few department heads. Eventually I expect that dept. heads will be required at more meetings, but this is a start for 2014.

YES, if it is a hardship for the staff member to come to meetings we will work with them but only if notified in advance. We will not work with people the week before the convention (or at the convention) – they will have to volunteer for 2014 if they’re that late to the game.

• Contract needs to be initialed, signed, and turned in before online registration closes – llama doesn’t want to track people down at con. Not doing this WILL disqualify you as staff for the year and you’ll have to pay and volunteer. It’s long, but it’s YOUR responsibility to read and understand it.

• Don’t mess with tech’s equip unless tech has qualified you to mess with it.

• No one can make announcements on main stage except Main Stage Department or those authorized by Main Stage.

• No one can use the mics at all on main stage except main stage dept or those temporarily authorized by main stage.

• Lights are to be controlled by the person in control of that room (panelist, event coordinator, etc) with the exception of the main area which is to be controlled by the tech department only. People (including Chairs) can tell tech to do something with the lights, but only tech is to mess with it. There were too many problems last year with people messing with the lights and panicking tech. Both Nathan and myself, along with a couple of other staffers, added to the problem, so from now on, all light changes in main room go through tech.

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At-con refunds are being phased out. As of 2014 if you are in a group then you will no longer qualify for a volunteer refund, your time will go towards a discounted badge for the following year. 12 hours will discount your badge for next year completely.

As of 2014 if you are not in a group you still qualify for a refund – 12 for a weekend badge, 4 for a day badge.

This may affect volunteer numbers, but we need to stop refunding people at reg. I’m hoping that by doing it slowly we will be able to compensate for it over time.

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No panelists took the refunds so we are going to start automatically appling panelist refunds to the next year instead of refunding the amount at-con. Panelist hours will still combine with volunteer hours.

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Reg opens . . . soon? I was going for 15th, but didn’t happen. All attending staff can log in “now” if we set you for that at the meetings. (Anyone attending could add their name to the list so they could log in to the system now before it’s ready for the public)

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The Registration line was a surprise for some staff and volunteers last year, so here it is – If you don’t want to wait in the line then pick up your badge early. THERE ARE STAFF HOURS. The staff hours are on Thursday and early morning Friday when you should be there anyway.

OTHERWISE, Staff will be in the paid line, so it is shorter, but AT Con it’s too hectic to give you special treatment.

You know how many staffers picked up on Thursday? This isn’t an exact number but it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 5, not counting the reg people who were there. That’s why I did not have patience for staff members trying to pick up on mid-day Friday. We were lonely on Thursday. We were playing games. Friday morning was equally uneventful.

Pick up your badge on Thursday evening or Friday morning, or don’t complain when you have to wait in a line when you show up at the busiest part of Friday.

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Progress Reports -
Reg is moving servers. There should be no difference to users and we should not have to reset email passwords.

Google Checkout is shut down, we are paypal only for this year. We are also moving to the Paypal API so that payments will be automatically applied all the time instead of only when the user clicks back to the site when they’re done paying.

AA contract is done and ready to open.

Vendor contract is done we just need the map for the year.

Panel feedback is in the system and will be displaying for the panel dept and applicable panelists soon and should be ready before we open.

Promotion for Karaoke dept. Can AW head? (Did not attend for personal things so don’t know yet.)

Graphics has our mascot for this year but hasn’t done any graphics yet. I’m poking, it will be soon.

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I would like to encourage everyone to go to the forums and try to make a few posts. It would be good to make it alive again.

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Achievements! – Totally a thing now, and the points are based on participation so the more a person participates the more points they get. Therefore the points are skewed heavily towards staffing. Anything we can track can add points.

All departments tracking things (COSPLAY) needs to add a badge number to their forms so I can add it in the system. If you want attendees to receive points for something that’s going on in your department, then you need to track it as well. (Example: participation in the bottlecap lottery might have been a good thing to track.)

Some items which are tracked and were entered into the system recently are peacebonding and panel feedback. Panel feedback is effectively anonymous, but linked to an account so that they can get points. IOW – admin COULD look up who said what, but we won’t because we don’t care. Panelists do not have access to the info.

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AMV Contest is happening – spread the word. It’s our first year trying it so it’s a little jagged around the edges.

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Marketing

We bought a button machine and supplies. I will be making buttons for various marketing purposes, some free, some for a small cost.

Other marketing ideas?

Also the button machine means we can do button-ribbon prizes. I just need to know who wants them.

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Ending Note: Fully Unscripted (Improv group) is performing at BLFC on March 28. April 5 will be their review of the BLFC performance and they will be open for new auditions. Do not audition if you can not commit to every first and third Saturday for like 4 hours of improv workshop, critique, and practice.

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