Originally written by Dr. Karen Purcell

What you did?
PreCon:

• arranged for staff for the various Masquerade areas: Green Room, Judges, Registration, Stage Manager, Webmaster, House Manager
• kept the web page updated with rules, registration documents and the stage layout
• encouraged costumers through messages to the ICG and Noel lists, Arisia LJ and handouts at Anime cons
• handled pre-con registrations
• worked with programming and events to organize the Masquerade and its attendant pre-planning events
• arranged for the halftime entertainment
• ordered ribbons
• set up and copied appropriate forms

AtCon:
Friday

• set up and ran Masquerade Registration
• signed up volunteers for den parents, ushers, ninjas
• moderated Masquerade 101

Saturday

• moderated the mandatory entrant meeting for tech review and sign in
• worked with the stage manager and tech crew to run tech rehearsal
• assisted and MC'd for halftime event rehearsal
• oversaw run order and distribution of information
• ran a Masquerade
• MC'd the halftime
• put out several fires
• made sure pubs got a copy of the winners with pictures

Sunday

• manned the masquerade table to return cds, documentation and hand out certificates
• moderated the post-Masquerade show and tell for judges and entrant feedback
• organized the Masquerade gear for return to storage

PostCon:

• sent thank you notes and unclaimed certificates to the entrants, thank you notes to staff and judges
• collected commentary from the staff and other crew members for the debrief
• wrote simple debrief for con, detailed debrief for future Masquerade Directors

What went right?

• having a completely trustworthy team at registration with tech experience, thereby freeing up tech to do what they needed to do but still getting the info we needed.
• pre-con registration made life much easier
• having a presentation judging team and an MC that I was comfortable with

What went wrong?

• there was no pre-con communication with the security folks about the Masquerade Line
• fan photographers were sent to the Green Room by security instead of being sent to the House Manager for their preferred seating
• the judges and tech decided NOT to stop the show for the children to be seated with their parents, that could have been avoided in a number of ways
• cell phones and the FRS radios ceased working in the ballroom as soon as everything was plugged in, having worked all day
• the Green Room staff was rude to the Anime Judges til they were in tears, this is unacceptable behavior to guests of any sort
• events were often not linked to programming, leading to doubling up for some folks

What should be done differently next year?

• notes from the divhead meetings should be distributed to at the very least the area heads, if not the staff list as a whole. Communication between departments was suboptimal at best
• security needs to be cc'd on all people moving decisions in the future
• judges, MC and house manager should be cc'd on the run plan for the con as decided by the stage manager and the MD
• tech should have a cell phone list of events staff to contact when there are issues
• there will be a list of detailed notes by section for future MD's, with suggestions for staff

What sort of schedule/timeline did you use?
a basic list on a Word document

Are the any changes you'd make to the schedule for next year?
If the staffing is available, Costume Friendly tech should run on Friday night and masquerade registration should also happen Saturday morning

Vendors you used?
Staples, Café Press, Boards & Bits, USPS

Experiments to try next year?
maybe send the tech requests to tech from the pre-regs before the con to get a head start on rehearsals?

Any comments about the rest of the con (other divisions, hotel, ...)?

• tech was phenomenal, couldn't have done it without them
• Ops was invaluable on Saturday night with our communication woes. They took care of my judges and halftime folks as well when there were room snafues
• security got rave reviews from a number of folks in the masquerade line, thank you again
• the plan to have folks in the lobby on Friday in volunteer shirts lead to many comments from folks planning to volunteer to get one, need to continue that one in future, maybe put the shirts on the website pre-con