From: horne@physics.su.OZ.AU (Geoff Horne)
Subject: what to do (Re: Timetable blues)
Organization: School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 06:39:30 GMT


Obviously everyones idea of how to organise a con is going to be different
but I reckon there are a few things that should atleast be attempted
Now I know you'll all just set me alight and say "that's impossible, that
will never happen, we can't possible do it" etc, well i say bullshit to that..
	firstly i've been involved with the organisation of enough games
	and cons in my life to know what i'm talking about
	and secondly i've been to an ORIGINS and trust me - we do things
	a **LOT** better here...

	IF ORGANISERS CONTINUE TO HAVE A SLACK ATTITUDE THEN ENTRANTS WILL
TAKE TOTAL ADVANDAGE OF IT - IF YOU HAVE IDEALS AND CONCEPTS, STICK TO THEM
LET EVERYONE KNOW YOU MEAN BUSINESS  - thats the name of the game folks:
_organisation_ if you need a help desk manned 24hours a day - find the people
don't just think it can't be done...

anyway..

my suggestions are:
- HAVE A HELP DESK - id doesn't have to have soomeone there all the time, but
  it can't be that hard to find someone to sit there between sessions and
  point people in the right direction - try bribery - grab some DM and say
  you'll get a mug if you man the desk for 1/2 an hour - all this person
  has to do is be able to point people in the right direction and help
  lost souls - most of the problems _during_ a con are clashes and these
  are best sorted out by the game organisers
- find out if the designer has any limits to the number of entrants
  and make this clear on the entry form - if the limit is exceeded - too bad
  no more entries for that game
- make sure the designer has some idea of how many entrants there will be for
  that game - so the designer can organise dm's
- Have a registration period of _AT_LEAST_ 3 hours before the games start
   where players have plenty of time to find out:
	- what games they are in
	- when they are playing them
	- who they are playing with
	- where the games are being held
	- where the game organiser can be found
  	- what clashes there are and how they can be fixed
  every session wasted sorting out these problems is a session where a clash
  could have been avoided
- give each game a _FIXED_ set of rooms, this way you can tell someone "the
  major cthulthu? oh thats being played in rooms s3,s4,s5,s6,& s7 look there"
  To avoid the sceptics bitching about wasted empty rooms - all you have to
  do is make an estimate, as rough as it may be and allow some overlap - even if
  you go so far as to let 2 games share 6 rooms - at least you will solve 2 
  problems:  1) people know where to look for a game
	     2) DM's aren't fighting for rooms. 
- Keep the catering seperate - treat it as a game - you are an organiser, you
  organise, you do not work in the canteen - get someone else to do it. IF they
  then come to you and say, we don't have enough people to run the canteen, then
  you can consider offering your help - but an organiser has to be available
  to solve problems.
- make sure entrants can be contacted - give them warning if there is a problem
  don't assume the game organiser will work around the problem - the entries 
  have to be made to fit the games not the other way around

any questions??


--


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        Geoff Horne               |      Egotism is the anesthetic that
  horne@suphys.physics.su.oz.au   |       dulls the pain of stupidity
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