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Convention Policy
Camarilla-US Convention Policies (revised 8/24/2004)
Currently there are four major, notable factors that have been steadily reducing the viability of regional conventions held by the Camarilla-US for the past few years. These factors are not expected to change in the near future, so adjustments must be made. These factors include, but are not limited to:
•Limited Economic Resources of the average member.
•Decrease in Overall Attendance, which affects our ability to negotiate favorable contracts for events.
•Lack of Plot arcs that provide PC’s with compelling reasons to attend.
•Lack of Experienced Staff to man primary positions and train replacements.
From January of 2003 through December of 2004, The Camarilla has hosted/attended or is slated to have significant presence at the following thirteen main events; with repeated annual conferences this becomes 25 events in total during that timeframe:
12th Night (GL)
NoCtuRnE (NC)
NERE (NE)
NoWheRE (NW)
SCaRE (SC)
SERE (SE)
SomeWheRE (SW)
NEGLECt (NE, GL, EC)
Origins (Ohio)
Gencon (Illinois)
Gencon So-Cal (California; 2004 only)
DragonCon (Georgia)
ICC (Varies)
Economics and Attendance:
An average member may have sufficient discretionary funds at his disposal to attend one event in a given year. Combined with a decrease in memberships after the free period ended in January, the total number of prospective attendees for any given fan club event has been reduced. If the Camarilla had 8,000 members, and each could afford to attend one event, then we could support a 1,000 member ICC and several hundred members at each major event. But we do not have that many members, and generally money is tight.
Thus, Camarilla events are competing with each other for a smaller pool of potential attendees. In recent years, the US RC’s and their staffs have worked consistently to try and avoid scheduling events too close together by dates and by geographic proximity, but the simple fact is that the calendar is overfull for the best interests of the club.
As the membership’s average age increases, the Camarilla also has to compete with other interests for that ‘fun money’. When our members attend, they want to participate in well-run events, and such events have become increasingly difficult to deliver as experienced staff has been worn thin by too-frequent events. If a convention does not deliver – the member is less likely to plan to go in future years.
This, in turn, affects the viability of a convention when negotiating contracts for future events. Hotels routinely check for previous event history, with the locations that have hosted the same regional conference in the past. When they see a pattern of decreasing hotel rooms – or when we ask for smaller room blocks, so that the Camarilla can be sure of making contract – the hotel then imposes “meeting room rental fees” or “required food and beverage minimums” (as in the case of NCRE 2002 which went into debt, and had to be bailed out by WW, because of that clause). This means that one of three things currently happen:
•The Camarilla must settle for less desirable locations (For example SCaRE 2000 – which was 1.5 hours from the nearest airport – but had a great rates of $52 for standard rooms and did 265 room nights – which gave the SC Region leverage to move SCaRE 2001 to a Hilton in Dallas with a good deal)
•The Event will have insufficient space to host all attendees comfortably because the hotel does not give us enough space or simply has too little space to allow us to spread out well. (Examples of this might be SWRE 2004 or SERE 1998- Atlanta)
•The bulk of the event funds must be dedicated to paying for play space and all other areas are run on a shoestring (Example - ICC 2001).
None of these are ideal, and running less-than-ideal conventions is making all our conventions less attractive, to hotel partners, and more importantly to our members.
IC Convention Issues:
This has been a consistent concern and complaint of the general membership in recent years. The ST side of house for these events has often been seen as having failed to lay sufficient ground work for their plots leading up to the various events; in some cases, failing to write their plots until the last possible moment before the convention.
The lack of preparation affects player willingness to attend. When it’s less than a month before the event and the IC premise has not been released ICly and hotel cut-off dates and 21 day advance cheap airplane tickets are about to disappear, it deters members from attending. The club needs to have the members excited and committed to attending well before that point. OOC preparation is not enough.
In simplest terms, we are stretched too thin on both sides of the house. It is better to do fewer events, and do them well, than to do many events, and handle them poorly.
Leadership in Conventions:
Staffing of Camarilla Conventions is an ongoing concern. Most players want to go to an event and dive into the games, so finding members willing to give up their weekend of fun and frolic to earn prestige is always challenging.
At this time, while most RC’s have an ARC-Events, in most cases these people – while providing enthusiasm, energy, and a desire to make a significant contribution to the fan club – do not yet possess the practical real life skills needed to review a hotel contract and avoid the pitfalls of buried clauses. They don’t have the personal wealth to pay up front for office supplies and items needed before the convention revenues are generated. And some simply find it hard to hold a team of volunteers together and make them accountable for accomplishing tasks by a given deadline – after all, the volunteer can choose to just walk away.
The NCA-US provides guidance and mentoring, but at current pace it is almost impossible to supervise all the regional events effectively and identify problems early enough to correct them. As it stands right now, room night totals are still not in from two conventions and (with a few notable exceptions) prestige has gotten to the membership more slowly, or incompleted, each year. This is indicative of the decreasing organization for the conventions- things are falling through the cracks. Moreover, as Prestige comes out more slowly, recruiting members to work at conventions is increasingly difficult. Another concern deals with money management and follow through on budgeting. By mid-May, at least two conventions have yet to submit appropriate budgets, which are required to estimate expenses and allocate funds. Some of these problems may be alleviated through education and training, but not all of them.
The Global level is working to provide some universal tools that will be available for future events -- an official Camarilla Guidebook to Conventions -- but this project is not expected in draft form until early 2005. Even after the Guide is released, the problem is still inherent in overstretched staff members.
Section II
So, given all these issues – how does this affect the US?
The Camarilla US needs to simplify and reduce the number of events.
By dedicating our resources to a smaller number of events, we can better provide the members with the best conventions for their time and money. We owe it to them to make each convention the best it can be, and we can’t do that unless we reduce the number of events.
By focusing on fewer, larger events, the Camarilla will be in a position to negotiate favorable deals with big-chain hotels – like Hilton, Hyatt and Sheraton – to get locations near major airports, with low rates and free meeting space rental (which helps reduce the pre-reg and admission prices, keeping our rates reasonable for budget-conscious members, as well).
Storytellers at the Regional and lower levels will benefit from mentoring by National Staff, development of long-term plot arcs that spike and move forward at the designated events. More ST brainpower will be directed to fewer conventions – improving the overall quality of game for the members, and allow the ST’s to properly seed their plot kits months in advance at local games.
Future Events: Selection Process and General FAQ
There are some events scheduled in the coming year that we cannot alter:
ICC – 2005 in Phoenix, contract signed.
ICC – 2006 – location TBA, late October
Origins, Gencon, DragonCon, Gencon SoCal – So long as WW has a presence at these events, the Camarilla will be running recruitment games. Normally 3 venues will be run, all Chronicle-affecting activities. These events will be run by global staff – drawing heavily from the US membership for actual ST/Narrator/NPC and Dealer’s Hall Booth staffing.
1st Night 2005 – in St.Louis, contract signed. The Kick-off event of the new chronicle. Jan 6-9, 2005 $69.00 per night for Standard Queens, $79.00 for Kings/Doubles – and full use of all meeting space at no charge to the Camarilla.
Caine 2005 – The Canadian National Event will be the weekend of March 17-20, 2005 – they should be signing contract before the end of May.
1 Specialty Camarilla Golden Ticket Event – looking at February 2005 in Atlanta.
Neglect Convention (to continue the use of the title for the purposes of using event history with prospective hotel locations) under the auspices of the Cam Council and US NST office as an official US National Event – effective in 2006. Neglect 2005 will be
Held in the GL Region.
Everything else is TBD as of July 2004.
There will be 4 regional/multi-regional US events in 2005 and 4 in 2006.
Based on a suggestion from the Rspalt list, rather than a formal, annual Bid process to host the four allocated slots, the US regions will go on a rotating schedule of events – 4 events on even and four on the odd numbered years. (Should the US regions be re-aligned in the future to 9 or 10, then a fifth annual event will be added to the rotating schedule.)
The schedule is as follows:
2005
1st Night – Jan
ICC – Phoenix
SCaRE – Feb/Early Mar
NE – June/July
NW – Late Aug/September
SE – April/May
Caine – Mid March
Origins – June 30 – July 3, 2005
Gencon – 8/11-14/05
Dragoncon – 9/2-5/05
2006
TBD
ICC - ??
GL – Jan/Feb
NC – June/July
SW – Feb/March
EC –April/May
Caine - ???
Origins – 6/29-7/2/06
Gencon – 8/10-13/06
Dragoncon - ??
This configuration allows for the greatest spread in terms of geography and time of year for the membership. The recommended month-windows for each event is not set in stone. The four regions listed may swap ‘windows’ amongst themselves – so long as there is a good spread of days between the events in question throughout the calendar year.
Should multiple regions ask for a bid guideline document for a joint event – the request to the US Conventions Office must come from all Elected Regional officers involved. A single email from a point person with all parties cc’ed is sufficient for said request.
Based on the archived history of previous events in the region(s) and anticipated numbers of attendance, the US Office will provide a customized document with the perimeters to be given to potential hotel sites, as well as specific information that will need to be provided by the prospective event staff. The document will be similar in format layout to the current ICC 2006 bid guidelines, with an added ST focused section to be created in consultation with the US NST.
There will be common requirements for any regional or nationally run event that will not change from document to document. Those sections will include such information as: proximity to local airport, does the hotel offer a free airport shuttle, a listing of suggested team leads for the event, etc. Because the template bid guidelines will be a living document, it will be subject to regular revisions which streamline the process and work to the benefit of the membership.
For Questions – please contact: Dee Beutel -camevents at white-wolf.com or princessd at gmail.com
Backup contact is: Kelley Barnes-Herrmann – Krisnitori at nyctophobia.com
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