[Deptheads] As we grow...

Thu Jun 9 14:05:47 PDT 2011

Lots of good stuff here. Thanks to Neil for bring it up and his awesome work
getting lots of events on the schedule that expand our traditional thinking
about gaming events (like Yoga Twister and the cool Simon Sez event). If we
want to continue down this line, I have three friends who do kid's music as
a profession and if we can turn over the stage to them, they might come out
for free performances - most are really interactive and fun for the
pre-tween/tween set.

I think Tanya's organized the comments well - put a band-aid on it for
Gateway and tackle for at Orccon 2012.

Eric D has created a "Board Game" Family flyer but I recommended some edits
late in the game and he'd already printed it and may not have done as many
as a result. I think those were out there but the distribution would be
better if we included them with the books - or if registration perhaps
included them with any purchase of a kid pass (maybe pre-stuff those and
grab one when a kid pass is sold - I think I may owe Tracy a candy bar for
suggesting that). We could do a nice one for Gateway that included more
items, including other departments.

We can also publicize 'family' events as 'you and your kid can enjoy playing
this together'. I'm sure every department can do at least one or two for
Sunday and we can blast that out on the marketing. Right in the listings we
could say, "This event is designed for an adult and a child of 6-10" and
encourage people to sign up with them.

Totally agree on the daytime version of more 'social' games that kids love -
a great alternative to the video game zone. Plus, when the VGZ kicks the
kids out for Mature video game time, there should be some good events for
the kids to jump into.

People with kids (yours truly included) do often want that downtime to play
a game with adults and I love the idea of the professional daycare (at a
separate cost to the user of said services, with liability removed from
Strategicon through careful, signed disclosures). One thing I've heard about
Kublacon is that their kid area is awesome. I understand they have a
'family' movie room, too, that changes in the evening hours but during the
day, it shows family movies. Maybe the babysitting service can have this in
their mix.

At the end of the day, we do need someone to coordinate these events across
the departments and to look into the child care issue. Anyone know a person
who could do this? I have one or two people to contact if no one else has a
good one.

...ERB
www.boardgamebabylon.com
www.strategicon.net

On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 12:03 AM, Tanya Aldrich <tparry at strategicon.net>wrote:

> 1. Yes, we should work on more kids friendly programming in each dept and
> make sure it is labeled appropriately.
>
> 2. I also like the idea of generating a list of the kids friendly events.
>
> 3. No isolating of the kids and especially not in the room with Video
> games, because no matter what your intention, it will likely lead to
> abandoned kids and/or irate parents. If we want an area cordoned off for
> parents to sit and watch there kids, it might be possible to fence off a
> corner in the expanse between Collectibles and Miniatures, with the hotel's
> permission. And, this would be mostly for those too young to play the kids
> games we offer and maybe we'll be able to provide a few toys as time goes
> by.
>
> 4. We can look into professional daycare in the 6 month gap after Gateway,
> but it has to be something where they take on the liability, not us, and
> we/they would have to charge the parents. This expense or liability aspect
> is what has stopped this concept from happening in the past, because we also
> can't be liable for significant charges by the agency, if they don't get
> enough kids.
>
> We've had this topic resurface every year or so, yet no one has stepped
> forward to supervise an organized kids track across all depts at the con.
> And with more kids games, you need more volunteers willing to deal with
> kids. It's great to hear that we have people volunteering to do a game here
> or there in various depts, if we can keep those people doing it and keep
> adding a few new people/games each con, the track will develop.
>
> Tanya
>
> On Jun 8, 2011, at 1:08 PM, Victor B wrote:
>
>  As I said earlier....years ago we had kids programming until it turned
> into daycare and the volunteers and staff for it were burned out. They
> volunteered to work a game convention not work daycare. So currently we
> offer kids, tween and teen events in several areas. Making sure parents can
> spot those events easily in the program book will help.
>
> There are cons like gencon  that offer kids tracks (kid rooms with lego,
> blocks, crafts, candy land and other board games, etc.) but they charge for
> that room and you can only drop off your child for 1 or 2 hours at a time.
> They have volunteers as well as daycare staff in the room. Some have
> parents co-op volunteer. Note that most all of them charge a fee and have
> actual daycare staff.
> The family fun pavillion area of gencon is for kids 4-12  and free....but
> kids must be at all times be accompanied by an adult. Families playing games
> together. Sunday is family day and extra events for families that day.
> Comiccon uses an outside agency (kiddiecorp) for kids. Music, age
> appropriate games, story time, board games, group games and arts and crafts.
> It also costs additional money.
> Gencon and some others not only have kids rooms (at addditional fee) but
> also have spouse programming- things for non-gamer spouses to do at the
> convention (crafts like knitting and beading, irish dancing, tours of sights
> outside of the convention area, yoga, self defense, etc).
>
> It is not as simple as making a kid's room and having volunteers man it.
> Liability is an issue (negligent supervision). You have to have so many
> adults per kids at certain ages etc.
> Since we do not offer daycare or invite parents to drop off their kids for
> us to watch them we are ok. Once we do provide those services we get the
> liability that comes with them unless we have an outside source handling
> it (which we discussed in the past).
>
> At this point kids programming and daycare can be discussed and hammered
> out after Gateway when we have our 6 months of downtime and can weigh all
> options carefully.
> For now let's sprinkle in some more kids events for Gateway and make sure
> the kid friendly events are easily spotted in the program book.
>
>
> V
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Nekojin <nekojin at gmail.com>
> *To:* deptheads at strategicon.net
> *Sent:* Tue, June 7, 2011 11:51:37 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Deptheads] As we grow...
>
> Let me give a resounding NO to that idea. Video Games volunteers are mostly
> teenage and post-teen video game players, not babysitters. Making us
> actually be responsible for children and keeping track of them, coordinating
> with parents... no. Not unless you can find us a handful of people who WANT
> to be substitute parents. By my reckoning, we'd need at least six volunteers
> - two people to cover 4 hours each day Saturday and Sunday (10-2, 2-6,
> 6-10).
>
> And if you're going to go to that effort, at that point, you may as well
> make a Kids/Babysitting department.
>
> Jason DuVall
> Head Videot
>
> On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Frank <Frankvas at pacbell.net> wrote:
>
>>     Me being a parent, I think it would be nice to enlarge the video games
>> room and add some non video games in it for the younger ones.  Make it the
>> kids corner, have some blocks, yougling board games, large legos, etc. (I
>> can lend some of these by the way)
>>
>>     Parents are with their kids all day, every day.  I don't think they
>> want to go to the con and have to play with their kids there again, they
>> want to spend some time with adults and play with adults for a change.  If
>> you (we) get someone to volunteer to watch the kids:
>> -To leave your child you have to leave your cell phone number.
>> -If called, you must come back within 5mins.  If not then you are banned,
>> no second chances.
>> -No kids under ... 7?
>> I've watched my daughter play, it doesn't require any effort, a book is
>> recommended.
>>
>> Frank V.
>>
>>
>> On 6/7/2011 10:59 PM, Karl Kreder wrote:
>>
>> I would say that maybe we are approaching this thing all wrong.  It just
>> dawned on me, why don't we encourage the parents to play games with their
>> children.
>>
>> I understand there are a few parents out there that do not want to do this
>> (I am not going to argue the reasons why) but what if we gave incentive to
>> parents to game with their children and have the take part in the games that
>> make the con what it is.
>>
>> This is what I am doing with my kids...
>>
>> My two cents
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 8:34 PM, <fad23 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> One of my new volunteers approached me last weekend and had one item of
>> conversation which she felt we (the convention) must consider as we grow:
>> how we deal with our child guests.
>>
>> At the moment we have a "family Sunday" which seems like an attraction. At
>> other times it appears that children are left by their parents in the video
>> game room, or roam with no real direction. This is just an observation, but
>> I imagine that means that we could implement some idea that could give these
>> visitors some real content.
>>
>> For the last convention, I brought in Bill Chott to do Simon Sez. I'm sure
>> he'd come back to do it again, but I think we could do a lot more!
>>
>> I'm not suggesting a specific plan at the moment. I'm not a parent, so I
>> can only guess the concerns of the gamer parents I know who attend. The aim
>> of this message is to spark a discussion that might lead to ideas that
>> eventually become a plan.
>>
>> Obviously there are many issues that would be of concern: content,
>> staffing, scheduling, and other practical matters. I suppose I'd like to
>> read your thoughts on this notion, and consider them as much as I am able.
>>
>> Then there's the idea of a short term plan and a long term plan - things I
>> can add to the schedule for Gateway and what we imagine as the shape of the
>> convention in the years to come. Just in the typing of this message I'm
>> getting inspired. Any light bulbs popping over your heads?
>>
>> I expect I'll be opening this discussion up to my friends in private. In
>> the mean time, if you have opinions or ideas, I'd be interested in reading
>> them.
>>
>> Thanks for your time. I look forward to reading your responses.
>>
>> twenty-three-skidoo,
>>
>> Neil Figuracion
>> Fad23
>>
>> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "Eric M. Aldrich" <ealdrich at mac.com>
>> Sender: deptheads-bounces at strategicon.net
>> Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:10:01
>> To: <Deptheads at strategicon.net>
>> Reply-To: deptheads at strategicon.net
>> Subject: [Deptheads] A few new additions to the list
>>
>> I've added three new people to the list -- one way overdue :-(
>>
>> The overdue one is Fred Upton -- he's the second on the RPGA side. He's
>> been actively helping us for years, and Mickey and Mike have frequently
>> asked me to add him and I've flaked, so he's finally here.
>>
>> The next person is Taralyn Frasqueri-Molina, or "TL" as she goes by. She's
>> the person behind lining up the artwork and is working with marketing.
>> Thanks to her we had the wonderful conbook cover art and TShirts this last
>> show.
>>
>> Finally, we have someone who is genuinely new, Frank Vassallo, who is
>> taking over for Harmon Ward running the historical end of the miniatures
>> team for at least this show. Harmon is still on the list as well. Things are
>> a little complicated right now, but more on that later.
>>
>> Glad to have the three of you here!
>>
>> I still need to add some of Neil's board game assistants.
>>
>> Hopefully we'll have final numbers from Gamex soon. They're looking pretty
>> good.
>>
>> Eric
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Karl (zeotter at gmail.com)
>>
>> "When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half."
>>
>>   - Gracie Allen
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> "Would you like another drink, sir?" asked the bartender.
> "I think not," replied Descartes, and promptly vanished.
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