Originally written by Skip Morris

What you did?
PreCon:
Sent out a mailing to 500 area schools
Answered questions
Received entries
Set up web page with entries to allow voting
Contacted finalists with instructions
Recieved art in mail
Gave Registration preliminary list of attendees
Ordered ribbons for finalists and winners

AtCon:
Gave Registration list of parents
Set up display area for art
Met students and parents, hung art as it arrived
Met with judges, walked them thru judging
Notified students who were winners
Registered students who were selling art
Packed up art at end of con

PostCon:
Send out art back to finalists
Sent out checks and letters

What went right?
Overall the contest was a huge success. There were 75 entries, 29 finalists with 33 pieces of art. The attendees and staff loved it, the students were all great, and the parents were very appreciative.

Prizes were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place plus three Honorable Mentions. The 1st place winner also took a Judges Choice award from the regular art show.

Additionally, five pieces of student art were sold which was unusual.

The students really got into the Pirates vs. Ninjas theme, more so then any other prior convention theme.

Having the art located just by the door in the Art Show on the way in worked great.

Having a dedicated individual was a win. It's a major job and cannot be done by the Art Show Director on the side.

What went wrong?
Dealing with 75 teenagers (even with the help of teachers) is problematic. In general they don't read instructions and don't listen to them either. In other cases they want to confirm every minor detail multiple times. Whomever runs the Student Art Contest needs unlimited patience and understanding.

Coordination with Registration [was] difficult. It's hard to predict how many menberships will be used. Only about one-quarter of the students came to the con, and most of them on Friday and Sunday. They brought an average of one parental unit with them each. We shouldn't have reserved a larger number of memberships on Saturday.

The large number of entries, large number of themed entries, and extensive use of electronic art prodded me to ask the eboard for additional funds for prizes. An additional $75 was awarded in addition to the initial $500 in prizes.

What should be done differently next year?
Budget needs some work since postage and mailing costs have gone up over the years.

What sort of schedule/timeline did you use?
Mailing in late September
Deadline Christmas
Finalists notified January 2nd
Art due at-con Friday night

Are the any changes you'd make to the schedule for next year?
Mailing in early September possibly.

Vendors you used?
None

Experiments to try next year?
The rules need some tweaking. I'm not sure it benefits Arisia allowing out-of-area entries, especially when some places (ie, Canada) have a 13th grade in High School.

We also need to adjust the rules and categories to take in account the use of digital art, Photoshop, Corel, etc. Possibly change awards and prizes for each category.

Any comments about the rest of the con (other divisions, hotel, ...)?
Registration was great to deal with, thanks.

Sign Shop came through with specialized requests as well.