Author Topic: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations  (Read 7019 times)

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Offline JeffT

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Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« on: September 06, 2012, 12:42:04 am »
This thread is for questions and answers for the candidates for the 2013 Director of Operations.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2012, 12:42:28 am by JeffT »
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Offline @random

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2012, 08:41:44 am »
  • What do you see the role(s) of the Director of Operations as being, and what do you believe you bring to the table in this regard?
  • As the Director of Operations, what changes (if any) would you like to institute?
  • Looking at the respective sizes of the staff list sections, it seems as though Operations is one of two mega-departments by comparison to the others (and the larger one at that). Considering how much our staff levels have grown, do you believe it's appropriate for Operations to be in charge of all of the functions it presently has, or should some of the responsibilities be parceled out?
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Offline Rathany

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2012, 02:20:22 pm »
1. Just from people that I know, I count eight staffers who have special dietary needs.  What responsibility does con suite have to these staff?  If con suite cannot handle special diets, should/could other arrangements be made for these staffers? 

2. This year some awesome new staff made fairly basic mistakes due to bad information or lack of training.  Since Yojimbos are often the ones carrying out or enforcing rules and policy, how can Operations best support new staff so they don't wind up in these situations?

3. If  a change is made at con in, say, how we need to read ages off of badges, what is the best way to make sure all staff know what is going on? 

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Offline Dealrith

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2012, 07:19:44 pm »
Although I haven't decided if I will be running for Operations just yet I will answer these questions to keep up with the group and possibly add some suggestions.

  • What do you see the role(s) of the Director of Operations as being, and what do you believe you bring to the table in this regard?

When I look at ops I see the forward facing department of the convention. Between the Info Booth that helps direct attendees, the Yojis always there to watch over what's going on, and registration to invite everyone into the party. As director (although it can be said for any director really) the director of ops is there to mold this team into a well tuned (instert awesome classic car of your choice here) ready to take our attendees on the spin of the year. Whether this be choosing the policy for how registration will operate for the year to a quick call on what Yoji will do for an incident.

  • As the Director of Operations, what changes (if any) would you like to institute?
  • Looking at the respective sizes of the staff list sections, it seems as though Operations is one of two mega-departments by comparison to the others (and the larger one at that). Considering how much our staff levels have grown, do you believe it's appropriate for Operations to be in charge of all of the functions it presently has, or should some of the responsibilities be parceled out?

For these two I'll answer together.
There are changes I would like to see these year. The main one is that ops has become a giant in comparison to the other departments. I have a concern with this first off because of how it effects the checks and balances put in place by having sepparate departments.
I would like move some sub departments from ops to the other directors to help reinforce my belief of what ops is.
Communications become an invaluable group for helping the con run smoothly this year but they're a background group that never get seen by the attendees. A better department for them to go under would be secretary.
Another movement would be staff preservation/con suite back under Vice Chair.

Both of these movements would orient ops back to a more forward facing group and put these other sub departments into departments that reflect their needs.


1. Just from people that I know, I count eight staffers who have special dietary needs.  What responsibility does con suite have to these staff?  If con suite cannot handle special diets, should/could other arrangements be made for these staffers?
There should be no reason why within reason that we can't accommodate some of the needs of these staffers.
Depending on what the needs are there could be some meals made for all staffers that still fit the needs of these staffers. Depending on how restrictive the needs are as well it should also be possible for a small dish being made in the time that a larger one for the staff as a whole is cooking.

The main thing is knowing the needs of those in question early on and then preparing a menu early on so questions can be asked.
This would also help with the planning and shopping to insure the is enough for everyone and maybe help avoid some of the current rants the con suite is currently getting.


2. This year some awesome new staff made fairly basic mistakes due to bad information or lack of training.  Since Yojimbos are often the ones carrying out or enforcing rules and policy, how can Operations best support new staff so they don't wind up in these situations?
Planning!!
Our convention is at the point where it no longer matters how many staff we have. Whether it be the newest staffer or the most tenured we should be able to account for all degrees of readiness with our staffers and prepare them for them.
Also ensuring that the department from the very bottom to the very top is on the same page so that when someone jump a page ahead or falls a page behind the rest of the team can bring them back.
Something that has been talked about in years past and seems to fall through the cracks are SOPs for each department and sub group. Giving the team something to reference allows for a standard to be made and implemented.

3. If  a change is made at con in, say, how we need to read ages off of badges, what is the best way to make sure all staff know what is going on?

Meetings.

And not those kinds of meetings were the minutes are recorded and the hours are lost.
As a new shift gets ready to start having a opening meeting to get the team caught up on what's going on for e day and any changes that had to be made.
There was at least one of these but more will help.
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Offline Bresslol

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2012, 08:47:07 pm »
Tell us about a time about a great success you have had working in this department, or in the one you currently staff for.

Tell us about a time where you did not do as well as you had hoped with something regarding your department, or the one you currently staff for. How do you think you could have handled it better?

If you had no resistance or restrictions, what is something you would like to do with Operations?

What is your definition of a successful Operations directorate?

Thank you for your time, and best of luck to you all!


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Offline DarkStar

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2012, 09:20:02 am »
1. Just from people that I know, I count eight staffers who have special dietary needs.  What responsibility does con suite have to these staff?  If con suite cannot handle special diets, should/could other arrangements be made for these staffers?
I'm kinda curious on this topic as well since my wife has a wheat allergy. She didn't bring it up this year, however she did check out Con Suite once and was disappointed in the lack of options not involving some sort of wheat ingredient. Working in Main Events, we really appreciated Con Suite bringing us lunch on Sunday, however since it was just sandwiches she still had to find food on her own.

I would add to Rathany's question: What can be done to have alternative food selections available for everyone?
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Offline Bresslol

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2012, 09:51:00 am »
I'm not running for ops, but I can offer a solution:

When staff are signing up, have an area where they can list food allergies.

This way, Con Suite can put aside some of their budget to being as allergy friendly as possible.


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Offline Fevenis

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2012, 10:01:00 am »
I'm not running for ops, but I can offer a solution:

When staff are signing up, have an area where they can list food allergies.

This way, Con Suite can put aside some of their budget to being as allergy friendly as possible.

That's a pretty good idea! There is always a chance of someone being allergic to.. well almost anything food wise. They can't read minds and know what allergies to look out for, so we can't really fault them for not knowing.

Offline JeffT

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #8 on: September 07, 2012, 01:51:57 pm »
I'm not running for ops, but I can offer a solution:

When staff are signing up, have an area where they can list food allergies.

This way, Con Suite can put aside some of their budget to being as allergy friendly as possible.

That's a pretty good idea! There is always a chance of someone being allergic to.. well almost anything food wise. They can't read minds and know what allergies to look out for, so we can't really fault them for not knowing.

This has already been done for the past two years.
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Offline Haru

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2012, 06:44:55 pm »

This has already been done for the past two years.

Yes, this has been asked in the staff sheets but do keep in mind that people can become allergic to things on any day. Take me for instance, I am now not allowed to eat just about anything and this only happened like 2 months ago. I signed up for staff in January, how was I to know that I would have such a hard time eating anything in the future?
Last year I had options of what I could have eaten(that would have worked with my restrictions now), this year I was given sandwiches and bagels and I can't have any of that. We had nothing for someone who is allergic to dairy and peanuts.
If we are going to try to make sure that staffers get fed during con it might be wise to find out what people can and can't eat and to make sure they have food for everyone not just 90% of the staffers. What about the other 10% do we just get screwed and have to grasp for straws that are not even there? Con Suite needs to actually find out and use the knowledge of what people can or cannot eat and make some option.
My questions is. Next year what will you do to ensure that you make it so EVERY staffer can eat the food, not just some of the staffers? If you must, will you use surveymonkey, or some other surveyor, before the convention to find out what people can and cannot eat, since prepping food doesn't take a year?

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Offline JeffT

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2012, 06:59:23 pm »
This has already been done for the past two years.

Yes, this has been asked in the staff sheets but do keep in mind that people can become allergic to things on any day. Take me for instance, I am now not allowed to eat just about anything and this only happened like 2 months ago. I signed up for staff in January, how was I to know that I would have such a hard time eating anything in the future?

Then you can update your information, just like if your phone number or address changes.

Con Suite needs to actually find out and use the knowledge of what people can or cannot eat and make some option.

Agreed, that information should be used (perhaps with other surveying) for Con Suite.
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Offline Dealrith

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2012, 07:19:39 pm »
These can kind of be answered in one swoop.

As it was pointed out for the last 2 years we have requested dietary needs from staffers to help prepare for them at con.
Just like any information that is collected this section can also be updated post-registration through the staff section of the site. Ensuring the con-suite staffers are aware of this so should someones dietary needs change they can answer the question of how.

Towards preparing the menus and such, if it isn't already available, putting a way for the staff to collect the needs into a spreadsheet of sorts and then being able to go off that.

With planning put in place to know what is needed the menu can be made to fit the needs or at least a side dish can be concocted to take care of the staff.

Now in case it's brought up: Distribution

Because of how few people we have at least listed with dietary needs I don't think it is that theasable yet to distribute the food to multiple location if it is in the form of a side dish Manley because there is no guaranty or where most of these staffers are.
If a meal is made that fits all of their needs and can be made to feed the whole of staff then yes but otherwise keeping it in one central area whether that be con suite or if that is to unexacible a separate location.
If nothing else so that those who are needing the specialty selection know where's they need to go without having to hunt down multiple locations.
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Offline Washougal_Otaku

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #12 on: September 08, 2012, 09:09:39 pm »
Question - Since many staffers (including myself) are often wanting to contribute to the con BEFORE said weekend comes, would you like to recruit members to help you out with pre-con preparations? If so, how?
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Offline Tank

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2012, 07:33:12 pm »
I actually will be declining my nomination for Ops director 2013.

I'm honored that you would nominate me, but I have more important matters to attend to at con actual.

Thank you,

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2012, 05:50:41 pm »
These positions are picked by the board, who do you like for them
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Offline Bresslol

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #15 on: September 25, 2012, 04:32:42 pm »
For the first time in three years, Kumoricon experienced a growth in attendance, and a record one at that. What is your opinion of growth of the convention, and what more likely would you give an aye vote to if the convention outgrows Vancouver: Staying in Vancouver and instituting an attendance cap, or moving to a venue that would work well with growth?

Give us your schedule of major milestones for Operations in 2013 (Manager hires, Registration Deadlines, Con Suite food orders, Yoji Training, anything lse I may have missed)

Wes, you are running unopposed. Give us an idea of an ideal assistant director or two.

EDIT: swapped out a word

« Last Edit: September 25, 2012, 04:45:11 pm by Bresslol »


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Offline Bresslol

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #16 on: September 25, 2012, 04:49:04 pm »
Oh yeah! One more question!

What is your opinion of the proxy balloting system for elections?


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Offline rayne273

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #17 on: September 27, 2012, 01:15:28 am »
Wes here.

I Feel it is close enough to elections I have all the questions and I am giving my responses here very shortly. If you have any other questions please put them up So I can answer these shortly Because I will not be near the forums from Friday on.

I will also be bringing up some of these points during elections and will not be answering them on here.

Thank you,

Offline Fevenis

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Operations
« Reply #18 on: September 27, 2012, 08:18:36 am »
Go Wes!