PROJECT: BRAIN SUCK

(A questionnaire prepared for Minicon [Minneapolis] convention departments by Lydia Nickerson

As e-mailed to convention committee:

"What I want to do is yet another version of the Big Book of Minicon. Kay Drache and I kicked around some ideas. Kay suggested that we should have a template with information on each department. She and I, with material assistance from DDB, have put together a template/form/thingy. It is at the bottom of this post.

"The general idea on how this would work is as follows. I want to mail out this template to many of the previous and perhaps current department heads for Minicon. (I have no delusions about being able to find all of them, and I am uncertain as to whether or not the current department heads will have time for this.) In addition to the mailing, Martin Schaeffer has tentatively agreed to host a party at the Rad, which would be called Datacon. The party would have A Room of Many Computers, which would have this template in some useful word processor already up. Another room would have Good Company and Interesting Consumables. The plan is to have people fill out the forms while having a good time. I would also (obviously) accept mail in contributions.

"Once I have lots and lots of information, then I get to try to condense it, crunch it, and generally beat it into submission. The goal is to have a template for each department to give to each department head by Minicon 33. I would hope to have a 3 ring binder for each department with the template and other supporting documentation. It would be the responsibility of the department head to return the binder after the convention with whatever additions and corrections would make it useful for the next year's head.

"Hopefully by then Minicon will have a Continuity Director. My own preference is that this be a board position, rather than a con com position.

"This is in the most general of terms. I actually do have more precise ideas about what I'm doing, but don't want to bore you all.

"I would appreciate feedback on the sample template below. Please e-mail me, as I don't want to clutter up the list too much with specific suggestions. However, I would also be pleased if this provided a jumping off point for people to discuss Mini-issues, as well."

PROJECT: BRAIN SUCK

Name (yours):

Department: (One per file, please. Do this again [and again and again] for each department worked upon):

Term: Years or Minicons you did this:

RESOURCES MODULE

I. Stuff: Stuff you need to run your department
II. Volunteers: Whom do you need?

   Body Count: Please complete matrix below:


Position |  # of bodies |  By when should they  | Training needed
	 |              |    be recruited?      |
_________________________________________________________________
	 |              |                       |

Job Descriptions: Please include description of the job for each position listed above, the time frame in which the job exists, and some idea of how much time it will take from your poor volunteer's real life. Please list skilled positions, critical positions, and cannon fodder. If you need gophers, be sure to say so. If you need a rocket scientist, be sure to say so. Red shirts to be supplied by department heads.

III. Documentation Available: What information currently exists that you need to use? Examples would be art show rules, ops manual, pubs requirements, the OTML, the art show list, the comp policy, etc. Where is this documentation?

IV. Hotel Resources: What do you need in terms of hotel rooms, tables, phones, and other equipment/space that belong to the hotel?

V. Spock's Brain: Who knows lots about what you do who would be willing to share? What do they want in return? How can we get a hold of them?

COMMUNICATION MODULE

I. Interdepartmental Feud (I mean, Fugue)

What do you need from the other departments? When? Please list both information and supplies.

What do you need to give to the other departments? When? Please list both information and supplies.

II. Politics. (I mean, Policies. I get those two confused.) Please list all departmental policies you can recall. If you had a policy, but didn't enforce it, either don't list it, or do list it and explain why it wasn't enforced, your choice. But please don't list policies which you later discarded as useless without telling me that's what you did.

III. Tradition: Tell me anything about your department which is not quite at the level of policy, but which has been handed down to you by the ancients, and which you wish to pass on to generations unborn.

LEARNING BEHAVIOUR MODULE

I. Cool ideas that didn't work, and other noteworthy mistakes.

II. Serendipity: Things that shouldn't have worked but did.

PHILOSOPHY 101

If you had a philosophy or mission statement which you would like to articulate, please do. This is entirely optional, but I'll give extra points to clarity, concision, and/or humor. Please don't bother with the obvious and banal. If your mission was to "Make this the best Minicon within your power", I don't want to know. If, however, your mission was not to work towards a good Minicon, I'd love to know.

SPACE AND TIME MODULE

Timeline: For each of the following tombstones (I mean, Milestones), please indicate the policies that should have been decided by that point, the work that should be accomplished by that point, the positions that should be filled, the equipment that should be acquired, and anything else about that milestone which some poor sucker following in your footsteps should know. Please don't fill in all the blanks.

MILESTONES:
  1. Organizational Meeting, May.
  2. PR 1, July or so.
  3. PR 2, Say, December
  4. Pre-Reg deadline, say February
  5. Minicon - 90 days and counting
  6. Minicon - 76 days and counting
  7. Minicon - 60 days and counting
  8. Minicon - 45 days and counting
  9. Minicon - 30 days and counting
  10. Minicon - 20 days and counting
  11. Minicon - 10 days and counting
  12. Minicon - 9
  13. Minicon - 8
  14. Minicon - 7
  15. Minicon - 6
  16. Minicon - 5
  17. Monday before Minicon
  18. Tuesday before Minicon
  19. Wednesday party
  20. Pre-con party
  21. Minicon
  22. Post-Minicon

REQUIREMENTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR EACH MILESTONE: For further information on the "Brain Suck"/Big Book of Minicon project, contact Lydia Nickerson at lydy@terrabit.mn.org, nicke001@tc.umn.org, or lydy@demesne.com

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