From empubs@minicon48.mnstf.org Fri Nov 16 16:56:49 2012 Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:56:47 -0600 (CST) From: Minicon To: [address] Subject: Minicon 48 Progress Report 1 MINICON 48 Progress Report 1 March 29-31, 2013 Author Guest of Honor: Julie Czerneda Fan Guest of Honor: Richard Tatge We know of the following people at this email address: [NUMBER] [NAME] [registered or not] Greetings! This is the first of two progress reports from Minicon 48, our latest in the long line of Minicons, to be held this coming Easter weekend at the DoubleTree in Bloomington, MN. This Minicon will be much like recent ones, featuring panel discussions, readings, signings, costuming, a Medallion Hunt, films, gaming, an art show, dealers, kids' programming, a science room, filk and folk music, a well-stocked consuite and bar, room parties, and various special events. New this year is a department devoted especially to teen fans, *lower* membership rates, and a new layout in the hotel. Read on for details. == Registration == Pre-registration is open until March 5. This year's rates are *lower* than last year's. They are: $40 for adults $20 for students (13-20) $10 for kids ages (6-12) Children 5 and under are free and don't need to be registered, but if they are, they'll get a nice pre-printed badge. Supporting memberships are $15 and are convertible to a full membership for an additional $40 at the door. You can pre-register online at or you can print a form off the website to mail in. At the door rates will be: $60 for adults $25 for students (13-20) $15 for kids (6-12) Still $0 for children (0-5) We'll have Friday-only memberships for $30, intended mostly for new people who aren't sure if they want to attend the whole con. They are upgradable to a full membership at no penalty; just another $30 to make up the difference. If you register at the door on Saturday, the adult rate for the remainder of the con is reduced to $45; on Sunday, $20. Note the slight change from previous years: in effect, we have replaced the Saturday-only rate with a Saturday+Sunday rate. Naturally, pre-registering is cheaper, anyway! Memberships are transferable at no cost (but are not refundable). To transfer, e-mail . We are working on a project to reconstruct older historical registration data. Can you help us by filling out a survey? == Hotel Rooms == We are in the same hotel as we have been for a number of years, which is currently a DoubleTree by Hilton (you might know it as a Sheraton or Radisson; we now call it the RadishTree to cover all our bases). Rates: Both traditional and poolside cabana rooms are $89. To book your non-cabana room, please visit , or call the DoubleTree reservation line at 952-835-7800. To book cabana rooms for sleeping and/or running a room party, please send your request to . If you have already made a reservation for a cabana room, please send us your confirmation number from the DoubleTree in your e-mail. The $89 rate is good until March 5, 2013; afterwards, it increases to $99. Members booking room is (indirectly) Minicon's biggest funding source. If we rent enough rooms, the hotel gives us the function space for free. So if you can afford it, please get a room! == Volunteers == Minicon is run entirely by volunteers. Please join us. We greatly appreciate the gift of your time. E-mail to participate. We're all in this together! == More About Minicon == If you are interested in learning some gory details about Minicon's finances, please check out the article "Minicon Budget and Such" in Rune #87, available at == Ride Shares == Help Save the Planet! and maybe a few dollars. Plan on car-pooling and ride-sharing at Minicon this year. If you have skills that can help connect and coordinate participants, or ideas for incentives, please contact Laramie Sasseville . == New Layout == If you were at Minicon 47, you know that the hotel abruptly forced us into the north tower of the hotel by rescheduling their renovations to begin ahead of Minicon on very short notice. We scrambled to deal with this and things mostly came out ok, except that the art show was unfortunately stuck way back in the corner of the 2nd floor and was missed by most people. We had previously, for a good string of years, had most of the con in the south tower. Now having sampled the modern Minicon experience in both towers, we debated the pros and cons of each. In the end, we decided that we really wanted to keep the consuite and bar poolside (south), but we also really wanted to keep the nicer programming rooms on the north side. To prevent spreading the con out too much, we will keep as much as possible on the 2nd floor. The exceptions will be first floor party cabanas, and open use of the garden court (area adjacent to the pool). == Programming == We recently wrapped up a very successful programming brainstorming session, but it's still not too late to submit ideas. Minicon 48 will have panel discussions, readings, demonstrations and other events. The deadline for submission of programming ideas is December 1st. If you'd like to suggest a topic, or you'd like to find out about how to volunteer, links are available at the Programming page on the Minicon Website. == Rumpus Room == Rumpus Room, formerly known as Children's Programming, will run all three days of Minicon 48. Most activities are open to children of any age (even adults). Throughout the weekend, we will have a craft swap. Bring your excess stash and/or pick up some new treasures! We will have tables available for your browsing enjoyment! == Art Show == Our art show this year will be back in a hotel ballroom space next to the dealer's room, hopefully attracting more attendees. We will have more hallway signs as well. The art show will feature science fiction and fantasy themed 2- and 3-dimensional art, with consideration for entries of audio-visual media. Art show rules and procedures will be posted and in writing for everyone visiting and hanging art to help avoid misunderstandings. We will continue Quick Sale auctions and Sunday morning final auction. With no artist GoH we will have a larger variety of art related programming and activities to fill those spaces. Youth art space will also be promoted, with no hanging fees (up to a limited number of pieces). We welcome our two sub-heads this year, Alec Phillips and William Ketter. We have plenty of space for artists this year and would like to encourage anyone who has a large number of pieces to hang to attend. We had only three quarters of our available space used last year! We will have an equal amount of horizontal and vertical space as well as floor space for large pieces. Volunteers are needed to spell the head and sub-heads. == Gaming == Hello from the Gaming Department. I have been travelling around at various conventions and events around the Twin Cities collecting even more games and coming up with even more ideas. First off, for you Magic the Gathering fans we have a new format: Emperor Archenemy! This is a 7 player format that pits two Emperor armies against one evil Archenemy. What? You have 8 players you say? Well that's great as we also have Emperor Archenemy 2.0 that adds an 8th player ...the Minion! For our board game aficionados, I have a great selection to choose from this year: Runebound, Descent 2nd Edition, Mansions of Madness, Seven Wonders, and more! As usual I will schedule a few games but as usually happens my gaming friends will mill about and create their own fun as well! Please make time to stop by if you can, at least in honor of Richard Tatge - one of our Guests of Honor! We both share a passionate love of board games and you don't want to miss the opportunity to play a game or three with him (I know I won't). Finally, for our video game crowd, I have expanded my systems, which includes a GameCube this year. Some of my favorite games are Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and the Mario Party games! So if you are in to gaming and you don't stop by and hang out ...your boredom is your own fault! Look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. Oh! And speaking of old friends, Level Up Games has agreed to sponsor us again this year, so look forward to more cool prizes as well! == Video Room == The video room returns for Minicon 48. It will be open from 6pm Friday through late afternoon on Sunday. == Minicon: the Next Generation == Jory Phillips and Delia Ihinger are forming a new department this year for teens and other young fans. Activities that may occur include a juggling show, boffing, and/or a sword fighting demonstration. We will also have a new teen lounge. == Advance Warning: Minicon 49 and Minicon 50 == The Minn-stf board has approved both Minicon 49 and Minicon 50, to be held Easter weekend of 2014 and 2015, respectively. Look out for news on these as they come closer, particularly our plans for celebrating our Golden Minicon. == Progress Reports == As in recent years, this progress report is primarily sent by e-mail to save money. The second progress report is primarily sent on paper. However, in both cases, you should get them as long as we know either your e-mail address or your postal address. If you would like to change the way you get your progress reports, please let us know at . == Minn-stf == Minnstf, the Minnesota Science Fiction Society, is Minicon's parent organization. If a few cons a year isn't enough fandom for you, check out Minn-stf's bimonthly house parties (called "meetings"). Upcoming parties are listed at and . -- Minicon 48 Concom To unsubscribe from this list please email You can also write (or send flyers) to: Minicon PO Box 8297 Lake Street Station Minneapolis, MN 55408-0297