Convergence XVI Bid Selection - Request for Proposal
Axel
The time for choosing where CXVI is going to be is nearly upon us.
Everything you need to know is on the wiki:
http://www.altgothic.com/wiki/index.php/Convergence_News
Timetable & Bid requirements follows.
Key dates:
Bid Proposal Request Period BEGINS 2009 February 07
Public Announcement of Results 2009 April 03
Let the flaming & bitching begin.
That timetable in full:
Convergence 16 Timetable
Bid selection is intended to occur in Spring to allow the selected
committee at least 12 months lead time. Therefore, we are publishing
the time line for Convergence 16 selection nice and early to assist
people who are considering entering a bid for Convergence 16.
Bid Proposal Request Period BEGINS
2009 February 07 00:00EST (03:02GMT)
1. All Convergence 16 Bid Proposal Committee Chairpersons must
contact Siobhan (conve...@virulent.org) to have a web account set
up on altgothic.com to host their proposal web sites.
Bid Proposal Submission Period BEGINS
Bid Proposal Public Discussion and Debate Period BEGINS.
2009 February 14 00:00EST (05:00GMT)
1. During this time Bid Proposal Committees must submit their Bid
Proposals and preliminary event budgets to Siobhan
(conve...@virulent.org) for inclusion on the Convergence 16 ballot.
After receipt of submission they must post their Bid Proposals to the
alt.gothic.* news groups' they may open their web sites to the public.
Posting to regional mailing lists, web communities, blogs etc. is
acceptable but not essential.
2. See the Bids page for information on how to create and submit a
Convergence 16 proposal.
3. The Convergence 16 Bid Proposal Public Discussion and Debate
Period also begins at this time. Discussions will take place primarily
on the alt.gothic* news group hierarchy.
4. If you don't have a newsfeed that can access alt.gothic , Google
can help you out.
Bid Proposal Request Period ENDS
Bid Proposal Submission Period ENDS
2009 February 28 0:00EST (05:00GMT)
1. Additional Convergence 16 Bid Proposals will NOT be accepted
after this date. If you submit after that date, we will hold on to it
for the Convergence 17 Bid Selection Process.
Proposal Modification Period ENDS
Ratification Period BEGINS
2009 March 12 0:00EST (05:00GMT)
1. The Bidding Committees may no longer make any changes to their
bids.
2. The proposal websites are frozen.
3. The denizens of alt.gothic decide if they wish to reject any of
the bids, as per the ratification process.
Ratification Period ENDS
2009 March 23 0:00EST (05:00GMT)
The C*B*L determine which bids are ratified.
1. The voting system is announced on alt.gothic.
Bid Clarification Period BEGINS
2009 March 23 0:00EST (05:00GMT)
The purpose of this period is to ensure that what is voted on is what
was ratified.
1. The Bidding Committees may modify their bid websites to
incorporate clarifications of the bid that came up during
ratification.
2. The Bidding Committees may not add net new content to the bid.
Bid Clarification Period ENDS
C*B*L Bid Review BEGINS
2009 March 25 0:00EST (05:00GMT)
1. The Bidding Committees may no longer make any changes to their
bids.
2. The proposal websites are frozen.
3. The C*B*L will review the bids to ensure the changes are
appropriate.
C*B*L Bid Review ENDS
Voting Period BEGINS
2009 March 26 0:00EST (05:00GMT)
1. The people decide.
Voting Period ENDS
2009 April 02 0:00EST (05:00GMT)
1. Voting is closed and results will be reviewed and tallied.
Committees notified of Results
2009 April 02
1. The C*B*L notifies the Chairs of the bids of the results.
Public Announcement of Results
2009 April 03
1. On receipt of a response from the Chair of the winning bid, or
after 24 hours of sending the notification, the winning proposal and
relevant voting demographics are announced on altgothic.com and the
alt.gothic news groups.
Bid Selection Process
There are 4 steps to getting a bid chosen to be a Convergence:
1. Bids are entered.
2. The C*B*L vet the bids to ensure they are within the bounds of
reason[1] and fulfill the requirements.
3. alt.gothic ratifies the bids.
4. The voters vote for the bid they want to go to.
The events occur on the dates laid out in the timeline
[edit] Bid Proposal Requirements
If you are at all unclear about what is and is not acceptable, ask
The_C*B*L before acting. If you act first and get it wrong, your bid
could be disqualified.
If you want to put this show on, you need to read these requirements.
If your bid breaks the rules, it will not be included in the vote. We
does not want to have to do so but we have to be fair to all the
people who invest time, effort and money in putting a bid together.
The core planning and decision making membership of a Convergence
committee should consist of at least 50% net.goths. We prefer it if
ALL members of your committee have attended at least one past
Convergence. These numbers do not include and are not relevant to the
volunteer and paid staff who assist in actually presenting the event
on its scheduled days.
In your Convergence Bid Proposal you must
1. Introduce your Bid Committee. We put this at the top, 'cos it's
the most important part. We have to trust you to put on our party and
to do it right so knowing who you are and why we can have confidence
in you is really important.
2. Explain why we should come to your town.
1. What's in it for us?
2. How does it rock?
3. Outline what your tentative plans are for Convergence. Over the
years this part has typically been the most emphasized in the bids,
and has become way rather more than 'tentative'. Since you will only
have about a year between vote and execution the more planning you can
do in advance the better.
[edit] Audience
Your core audience are the denizens of alt.gothic and their friends.
The expected attendees includes our friends and families from the
alt.gothic.* news groups, related mailing lists and other forms of
electronic communities.
[edit] Content
The themes, locations and activities are up to your committee's
creativity and resources. We are trusting you to design an affordable,
accessible and highly social event for us to attend.
As long as your committee keeps its core audience in mind with
realistic goals and strives to maintain a high degree of organization
and professionalism, you can expect great success in planning and
executing your alt.gothic Convergence^(SM) party, should the vote be
in your favor.
[edit] Submission
To have your proposal included on this year's ballot, you must
1. Register for web space on altgothic.com as noted below,
2. Submit your proposal via email to Siobhan
(conve...@virulent.org)
3. Await receipt that your proposal has been accepted
4. Upon receipt, you must cross-post your proposal alt.gothic,
alt.gothic.announce, alt.gothic.fashion and alt.gothic.convergence
during the proposal nomination period.
The first public posting of your bid must be on alt.gothic. After
that, feel free to post and discuss it anywhere you want, but
alt.gothic MUST come first.
You can talk about your potential bid prior to this anywhere you want,
and indeed we encourage you to ask alt.gothic what we want, and to get
input from previous organisers and attendees to make your bid the best
possible.
Posting to weblogs, regional mailing lists, web communities and other
resources is permitted but not required.
[edit] Bid Proposal Submission Period
See the timeline.
[edit] Bid Proposal Web Sites
Proposal web sites must be hosted on altgothic.com. No exceptions.
Each Bid Committee will be allotted 10MB of disk space, CGI-bin access
and a single FTP login account with 24 hour access. No other website
may be used to provide informational content, only to provide a
reference to the altgothic.com-hosted proposal site.
To receive your altgothic.com web account, you must send Siobhan at
the conve...@virulent.org address the following information
immediately:
* Your full contact information (name, address, phone number,
etc).
* Your Bid Proposal Committee information (city/state/country).
[edit] Best Practices
(Some advice from past committees)
* Talk to alt.gothic as you build your event. We are your
audience. We can give you very fast feedback about what is worth
investing your time and money on when you put the event together.
* Talk to former Convergence committees. Odds are someone has
relevant experience that you can learn from, instead of making the
same mistake twice.
* Talk to The C*B*L. We have experience putting on the party. We
have experience attending the party. We know an awful lot of people
who know stuff about things that you can leverage. We do this because
we love Convergence. Not for the money, drugs or women[2]. We will
keep anything you talk to us about in the strictest confidence.
* Avoid scheduling conflicts with similar events. It'll limit the
people who can come, and since most others are on a regular calendar
schedule but since Convergence floats chronologically, you'll look
like a dick. Piss people off and they won't buy tickets, and because
Convergence is first and foremost a social event that can have a
ripple effect. For instance Whitby Gothic Weekend, WaveGotik Treffen,
Black Sun, the various 'Dark Arts' festivals.
* Listing specific musical acts, venues or other information which
can change drastically over the next 9 to 12 months in your bid is
strongly discouraged. Firstly because it's not about the bands;
secondly, if you promise to resurrect Ian Curtis and don't deliver,
there's a good chance you'll be lynched.
* Keep your committees small. A small committee of 4 people or
less is far more efficient and likely to succeed than a larger
committee.
* Maintain regular open communication within your committee,
volunteers, hired help, venues, venders, DJs, bands
* Maintain regular open communication with alt.gothic and The
C*B*L.
* Nominate one person to speak on behalf of your committee. It is
a practice which can spare your audience from a lot of confusion and
your committee from embarrassment. However, make sure it is somebody
who has time and energy to spend on answering seemingly dumb
questions.
* Limit your live band rosters. Live bands are nice but not
essential. The primary focus of Convergence is the people of
alt.gothic. Events should be people oriented and inclusive, relaxed,
inexpensive and above all FUN.
[edit] Extended Resources for Bid Proposal Committeess
A growing library of text documents written by the past alt.gothic
Convergence^(SM) Committee members who now act as advisors will be
available to all Bid Proposal Committee members, as well as specific
contacts in all areas of Convergence planning. These members have
volunteered their time and expertise to remain highly available to
assist all of you in constructing the best Bid Proposals and
eventually the best Convergence events possible. Browse this wiki for
more information.
It cannot be emphasized enough the importance of consulting with past
Convergence committees members (especially Siobhan and Axel of
Convergence 8, Eilis of Convergence 9) and the plethora of web and
Usenet based diaries of past events to get a solid perspective on what
works and what does not.
Axel
wrote:
>The time for choosing where CXVI is going to be is nearly upon us.
>Everything you need to know is on the wiki:
>http://www.altgothic.com/wiki/index.php/Convergence_News
>Timetable & Bid requirements follows.
>
>Key dates:
>Bid Proposal Request Period BEGINS 2009 February 07
>Public Announcement of Results 2009 April 03
Just a reminder that submissions close on Feb 28th.
One week left to submit Bid Proposals and preliminary event budgets to
conve...@virulent.org for inclusion on the Convergence 16 ballot.
BlackRose
> Ratification Period BEGINS
> 2009 March 12 0:00EST (05:00GMT)
> 1. The Bidding Committees may no longer make any changes to their
> bids.
> 2. The proposal websites are frozen.
> 3. The denizens of alt.gothic decide if they wish to reject any of
> the bids, as per the ratification process.
What happened to the Ratification Period? Wasn't it supposed to have
started already?
Axel
Yep - the thread was named "C16 - Utah Ratification',
--
Axel... ...of the C*B*L
BlackRose
I posted that before the thread was up.