February Meeting Announcement

[Michael Hanscom]

Join us to help plan for Norwescon 44!

The February ConCom Meeting is coming soon!

# Meeting Details

DATE: Saturday, February 5, 2022

NEW TIME: 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

PLACE: Zoom

Join the meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2632204943?pwd=QUpNK3p3NnJpd0Z1MmRod3BVZ1JjUT09

Meeting ID: 263 220 4943

Passcode: 5033

This month we'll be using Zoom.

## Agenda

We will start by going directly into department breakouts at 10 a.m. The main meeting with announcements and department reports will start at noon. If you don't need to attend one of the breakout meetings, feel free to just join us at noon to find out what we've all discussed!

## Conduct

If you need to activate your camera or microphone during the meeting, we ask that you respect all of your fellow staff members and refrain from broadcasting inappropriate imagery, symbols, or language. If you need a neutral virtual background, a Norwescon background image is available [on our website](https://www.norwescon.org/media/promo-web-banners/).

# JANUARY MEETING RECAP

## Elections

The Norwescon 45 elections are fast approaching! Nominations will open at our March meeting and close at our April meeting. Please start thinking about whether you would like to run for any of the elected positions, or if you would like to nominate someone who you think would do a good job.

The elected positions are Chair, Vice-chair, and two Guest of Honor Selection Committee seats.

## Norwescon 44 Update

The Exec team has had several meetings to confirm our plans for this year's con in the face of the ongoing Covid pandemic. Norwescon 44 will be in-person, on-site at the DoubleTree hotel, and we will offer a virtual component for those who cannot attend in person. Details on the virtual component are being discussed. We discussed canceling or moving fully online again, but it would simply be too expensive to break our contract with the hotel. The hotel is actively working with us to reduce our costs as much as possible.

We will be restructuring several aspects of the convention to make it as safe as possible. we are capping membership (including all staff, guests, pros, panelists, performers, and attendees) at 1,000 people. We will have fewer but larger panel rooms, and some of our function space will be rearranged. More changes are being discussed.

While the past few years have impacted our reserves, we benefit from the conscientious financial stewardship of prior Executive Teams, and we will be able to produce a convention this year and continue on into the future. This year will be a bit smaller, and we do need to be cautious with our spending as we rebuild our reserves, but Norwescon is getting through this.

## Department Updates

Business is looking for ideas for and assitance with fundraising.

Convention Services has been having a lot of discussions around safety at the convention. A proposal covering various measures has been sent to the Exec team and is in active discussion. We are looking for assistance with tech, lighting, and other areas.

Member Services continues to accept applications for club tables, the art show, and the dealers room.

Personnel is working on planning how we will be safely handling and distributing snacks. Our summer picnic and camping trip are happening this summer. Our book club continues to meet, and will be reading Cat Rambo's _You Sexy Thing_.

Publications will have a daily 'zine, and will be looking for submissions of items of interest! This will be a great task for teens -- be our staff reporters, and let us know what you've seen, fun or funny things you overheard, what's happened at the con, reviews of panels and events, and so on! Also looking for announcements of contest winners, promos for events, and so on. We are discussing how to handle the souvenir program, given the expense in producing it; we may go primarily digital with a small print run for collectors. Pocket programs will likely be dropped in favor of Guidebook.

Programming has been in a light pause as we determined whether to plan for in person or virtual panels; now that a decision has been made, the final pieces will be falling into place soon. Programming will be a bit lighter to accommodate the room changes, but will still be the quality you've come to expect.

Special Events is in much the same situation as programming. The Single Pattern Contest pattern has been announced. Film Festival submissions have closed and the final selections are being made. The Philip K. Dick Award nominees have been announced!

# MEETING DOCUMENTATION:

Meeting agendas and minutes, the policies and procedures manual, Norwescon bylaws, and more information can be found on the [Staff Updates page of our website](http://www.norwescon.org/get-involved/concom/). The agenda should be posted a few days before the meeting.

 

# FUTURE EVENTS:

* ConCom: February 5, 2022

* ConCom: March 19, 2022

* ConCom: April 2, 2022

* Norwescon 44: April 14-17, 2022

* ConCom: May 14, 2022

Want to join us outside of ConCom meetings? Wonderful! Until we can safely host in-person gatherings again, you're welcome to join us on our [Norwescon Discord server](https://discord.gg/nwMvMA7) for geektastic socializing in the online world!

-- 
Michael Hanscom (he/him)
Norwescon 44 Secretary
http://www.norwescon.org/ | http://twitter.com/norwescon | http://facebook.com/norwescon