[Deptheads] Meeting minutes from 16 October

[Eric M. Aldrich]

Minutes by Mike James with some editing by yours truly. Thanks Mike.

Eric

Strategicon Meeting 10-16-11
 
1.       Welcome and Announcements- at five years, this makes the second longest stint of ownership since original formation of Strategicon.
	a.       Staff changes- Joe Eder of the video room has stepped down. Nick Chavez will most likely take his place. Also, please welcome Shawn Hendrix to help with the selling of ads, though this is not final either. John Paiva will be taking over dealer room sales.
	b.      Owners meeting- First one in five years (congratulations?)
2.       So, what have we done in five years?
	a.       Attendance- Cumulative attendance from 2800 to about 4000 a year. All cons over 1000 each with a steady gain.
	b.      Revenue- From roughly 60k a year to roughly 90k a year.
	c.       Expenses- Also increased at roughly the same rate.
	d.      Profit? Yes, this year anyway.
3.       Gateway 2011 and 2011 in general.
	a.       How did we do? 2011 was easily the best year so far. Orccon was great, Gamex was good expect for the extra costs, and Gateway was surprisingly good despite a lot of competition.
	b.      What went right? Open gaming ran well and boardgame staff did a good job of making people did not spread their stuff over multiple tables. Boardgame event selection was good. Library is getting pre-releases from publishers. Publishers are interested in sponsoring wargame bootcamp.
	c.       What went wrong? Need more lights in Minis, Collectables, and Dealers Room. Need better representation of manufacturers in the dealers room, with game support for said manufacturers. Possibly hooking up dealers to represent manufacturers who can’t justify expense f manning their own booth. Boardgame signage was handwritten and reserved signs seem to be in short supply. Movie night was a disaster. We lost a lot of LARPers to a LARP convention that happened to fall on the same week this year. Need more Mini events on Friday and Monday.
	d.      Things we have learned- There needs to be a dedicated dealer room person on site to handle any issues that may arise. Publicity needs to in early so word can circulate. Possibly going back to color flyers, but of a smaller size.
	e.      Why were there 5 conventions on labor day weekend? The LARP con was not intentional, as the date shifts year to year. Celesticon also sapped away the Northern California gamers who were fed up with Conquest that usually attend.  As a side note, the argument that more cons are a good thing doesn’t seem to add up. Numbers suggest that all the competing cons hit roughly the same cap of total attendees. Eric A has hard numbers for those who are interested.
	f.        Dept. reports- Video Games is gearing up to add more tournaments.
	g.       Hotel- Hotel is good, we are hitting room numbers and we have a good rep for working with the hotel after they double booked a portion of the third floor away from Gateway.
	h.      Has everyone got their money back yet? Eric A was handing out money, so get it while you can. Receipts help, but don’t let not having one stop you from asking.
	i.         Winners list- Send any outstanding winner lists to Tanya. They need to be in so final results can be tabulated for the yearly awards. Badge numbers makes this go a lot smoother if at all possible. Also, point out to players who win dealer dollars that they did so.
4.       2012 and beyond!
	a.       Hotel- Room prices are set to rise $5 a night.
	b.      Special guests and events- Full slate for the year. Dirk Henn at Orccon. Tom Jolly and Richard Borg at Gamex. Antoine Bauza at Gateway. Broadside Bash at Orccon. World Catan qualifiers and Warmachine/Hordes Gencon qualifiers at both Orccon and Gamex.
	c.       Publicity- Need more in general. Need to get any noteworthy info to Eric D so the word can get out early. Discussion about having boilerplate PR template to make it easier. Eric D needs to contact Neoncon about ads within the week (oops). Any volunteers to help in the PR dept would be appreciated.
	d.      Website changes- Minor changes to entry system. Recommendation to put map on website. Recommendation to add ability to list events by room. Rooms for events will be by drop down list, and tables (if needed) will be by text box. Heads, if you have events left in the queue on purpose, please add a comment in the notes section as to why. Also, noteworthy events and such should make it onto Facebook, or Twitter (which auto updates on facebook anyway).
	e.      Job Descriptions- Eric A needs a list of job descriptions just so he knows what we think we should do. Please send to him or he might get creative as to what you actually do.
	f.        Need art director- If you know of anyone, let Eric A know. Also, Eric, talk to Kate Wadey  about the Art.
	g.       Need Kid’s event track coordinator- Self explanatory, spread the word and let Eric A know if you have anyone in mind.
	h.      Need a dealer coordinator- Was possibly solved after the meeting, pending Eric’s word.
	i.         Time to take these shows to the next level. Eric’s stated goal for the conventions was to save them, which seems accomplished. If there are any off the wall ideas you have, make them know. Bring the noise, folks.
	j.        Resources- Manpower is always needed.
	k.       Cost Structure- With room costs increasing, badges will need to increase slightly also. Final decision to be made by the end of 2011. Was also a discussion about the group discount, also to be determined. Idea to possibly include dealer dollars as incentive for certain badge deals.
5.       Misc
	a.       Neoncon- Robyn is head of Neoncon operations, contact her for anything. Eric Nyquist, Robyn needs to Strategicon banner SOON. Also attending Neoncon is Victor and possibly Karl.
	b.      GAMA Tradeshow- Please contact Norm or Victor regarding GAMA.
	c.       Other cons- Eric B will be going to BGGCon, and we should have something to pass out detaining special events and guests.
	d.      Some shirts left over from Gateway, contact Eric A if you need one. Ideas were floated about having Strategicon tote bags, not con specific. Idea  to sell the convention dice. Also, you should email Eric A about the alternative Gateway shirt because information wants to be free. Need to reprint badge holders, we are completely sold out.
6.       Q&A- Suggestion to start some recycling program at the con was not immediately met with an open mind when someone (who shall remain anonymous) laid it at Tracy’s feet and was slightly outside striking distance. Most other pertinent points were folded into the appropriate category. Important time sensitive points, Eric D needs to contact Neoncon about Ads. Eric Nyquist needs to contact Robyn about the banners.  Anything else should be emailed to Eric A where he promises to maybe read them.