Author Topic: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison  (Read 9972 times)

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Offline MichaelEvans

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2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« on: October 08, 2007, 01:21:19 pm »
the FACILITIES LIAISON
is responsible for the following:

(Not explicitly defined in the Bylaws document posted in General Discussion, defined elsewhere?)

Failure to actively persue the reasonably associated responsibilities relating to meeting spaces including the convention space is legitimate cause for a motion to dismiss by any member of the board.

Please post your comments and questions for the nominees who have accepted the nomination for  below.

Nominees are listed here: http://www.kumoricon.org/forums/index.php?topic=5593.0

Corrections to this list may be made by nominating a person...
... Follow This Link and reply.

To Facilities
   1) What system do you plan to implement for Hotel/Altonimbus communications?
   2) What are you plans so far as the space that we shall be renting?
   3) What sort of services and arrangements do you plan to make with the hotel?
   4) Do you have any hopes for the 2009 Hotel? (specifics not necessary)

Facilities Liaison:
Miles from the hotel can be deceptive, how easy is it for you to go to the hotel and speak with them in person?
Do you have a reservation at the hotel yet?
What experience do you have with contract negotiation and "legalese"?
What are some things you'd like from the hotel that we might not have had before?
Do you have any ideas for making parking easier?
(I have more, but I think they should be sent once you're elected.  ;) )
« Last Edit: October 08, 2007, 01:41:51 pm by guspasho »
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Offline guspasho

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2007, 03:04:26 pm »
What system do you plan to implement for Hotel/Altonimbus communications?
Hotels don't like to have to deal with a lot of different people when they plan an event. It leads to a lot of confusion, and creates risks for unaffiliated agents to do take advantage of us or them. The main duty of the Facilities Liaison throughout the year is to coordinate all communications with the convention hotel. The Facilities Liaison sort of acts like a funnel on our end and the hotel (at least the Hilton I worked with for 2007) has a similar funnel person on their end. To properly accomplish that task of funneling, the Facilities Liaison should listen to the convention staff and convention community for what they need to know from the hotel, forward those questions to the hotel, and report back. This requires that the Facilities Liaison absolutely must be in reliable contact with everybody on the convention side as well as their point of contact with the hotel.

The Facilities Liaison should not be the only point of contact with the hotel but should coordinate all contacts. I was extremely cognizant of the problems that Sean caused by restricting all approved hotel contacts to himself only and then bailing. I will prevent that from occurring by selecting a few other individuals I can trust to keep me in the loop to serve as backup points of contact, authorized to communicate with the hotel's contact and trusted to coordinate through me what they are doing. This provides a protection for the convention community should I become unreachable and unwilling to do my job the way Sean did prior to his resignation.

I will most likely choose the chair (who is my boss :P) and the treasurer (who pays the hotel's bills) to be other points of contact, primarily because they will already be familiar to the hotel and in communication with them. I will also appoint an assistant, should I be able to find a good one, who will be able to fill in for me immediately as a backup, and who I will also expect to act in my place during parts of the con when I need rest.

Sometimes, as I did with Jaki in coordination with the hotel's CCTV in 2007, rather than "run interference", I will put a staffer in direct communication with the hotel to coordinate an isolated task that I myself cannot contribute any useful input to, so they may coordinate their task without me slowing the process down. I will do this when I trust the staffer to handle the task exceptionally well and when I know my involvement is more of a burden and slowdown to the task than it is of use to coordination.

What are you plans so far as the space that we shall be renting?
So far, I plan to leave the use of space up to the various other departments, programming, exhibitors, etc. As to the acquisition of space, I plan to ask for changes to our contract to cover any additional space needs should important ones arise, and I shall ensure the terms of our contract are clear (or have them changed to become clear) so that the hotel does not attempt to book another event in our space during Kcon.

I plan to contact other hotels in the area and discuss options for room block rates nearby, so we can get better rates for our attendees, hopefully at no risk to the convention, and so we can track how many room-nights the convention fills. Knowing how many room-nights overall we can fill is extremely useful to future contract negotiations because the more rooms we can offer to fill at our hosting hotel, the more leverage we have in acquiring cheaper rates or other benefits from the hotel.

What sort of services and arrangements do you plan to make with the hotel?
Services and arrangements is rather unclear. Unfortunately, the hotel contract is already signed and that limits my ability to ask for very much in addition to what we already have.

However, I have already secured several options for general meeting space such as the room we booked for the annual meeting last weekend. By options I mean discounted rates for booking meeting space. We have five more such options to use during the year. I limited this to five because I did not know what the 2008 chair's preference would be in regard to general meeting location, whether they would want all meetings at the hotel or whether they want to hold some meetings in Salem or Eugene or elsewhere.

In 2007 I warned the hotel that there would be an extreme run on their ATM and they warned their bank - and as a result their ATM went through over $300,000 before their bank ran out of cash as opposed to the $50,000 it was originally was stocked with.

I will discuss options with the board to provide for food events that don't cost us a bundle. The tea party, host club, and VIP dinner cost us thousands of dollars in catering costs. I would like to plan as much as possible in advance in order to limit those extraordinary costs, and hopefully use the hotel's concession stand and restaurant sales as negotiating leverage to that end.

I will also explore CCTV this year too, though I don't have much to say because I left the coordination of this up to Jaki last year.

And I will respond to any creative and reasonable suggestions from forum discussion by exploring them with the hotel and reporting back on their likelihood, rather than simply ignore possible options. However, some suggestions that, for whatever reason do not get my attention, or may in my judgment be unfeasible, may go ignored.

Do you have any hopes for the 2009 Hotel? (specifics not necessary)
Part of my job is to find the hotel for 2009 and to negotiate (get board approval for,) and sign a favorable contract with them. This may be the first year where we will be bound to return for a second year in a row, and based on what I have heard, contract negotiations in those situations can be unfavorable. So I will seek out and explore creative options, including returning to the Hilton in Vancouver by using the park across the street as our exhibitors' hall and (gulp!) putting gaming in the garage. I may discuss these options openly on the forums. However, based on my current knowledge of available spaces, returning to the Doubletree may be our best and only option.

Miles from the hotel can be deceptive, how easy is it for you to go to the hotel and speak with them in person?
It is actually extraordinarily hard. Hotel staff like to work during inconvenient hours, usually when I am also working. And I work in Beaverton, about 30-45 minutes away from this hotel (depending on traffic). I will be relying primarily on telephone and email to stay in touch with the hotel, and I will arrange in-person meetings well in advance because it will most likely require taking time off from work, and not just for me but for others if I choose to ask other convention staff to be involved.

Do you have a reservation at the hotel yet?
No, I don't. I don't expect to for another couple of months, at least, and probably won't until well after the hotel block rates have been publicized, but hopefully I will well before we run out of space.

What experience do you have with contract negotiation and "legalese"?
Starting with other "legalese", I wrote the staff policies on the staff registration form, I reviewed and wrote some of the convention policies but that was mostly Meg and Brownie, I've pointed out an embarassing number of flaws in the current bylaws and I've spent a ridiculously long period of time trying to rewrite our bylaws, taking much care to consider implications and loopholes. Too long, I'm afraid. I wrote the bylaws amendments we passed at the annual meeting last weekend.

Contract negotiation? I've read the 2007 and 2008 hotel contracts and had one discussion with the 2008 hotel to work to repair unfavorable conditions in the 2008 contract. I've discussed with Sakuracon's Facilities Liaison the options available to us in negotiating changes to the 2008 contract. I have very little experience when it comes to actual contract negotiation, and that is probably the skill this position needs most of all right now.

What are some things you'd like from the hotel that we might not have had before?
So many! I can say that for the first time we have options for our general meetings built into our contract, and I asked for that. I would like to see Internet access built in but the trouble with that is hotels contract with third parties for Internet access and that limits their ability to negotiate it with us, so I don't expect much to come of that. This is nothing "of the hotel" but I would like to discuss with a few banks for our own contract to provide the exhibitors' hall with ATMs, preferably at no cost to us and ideally for a profit.

Food catering is always a very sticky issue with hotels. We've been able to get away with ramen fire bowl attack without a problem but other events require the hotel's catering. I would like to do this without cost by leveraging the additional concession stand and restaurant sales that we are capable of providing.

Do you have any ideas for making parking easier?
Ride the MAX to the hotel :P It's the only way your parking will be free. Sorry, but some things are just impossible to do, and securing free parking for 4000 cars in downtown, only a few hundred feet from your hotel room, is one of those. If anyone wants to try, be my guest! I'll even do whatever I can to help.

This year we have a parking lot. If I have time and the option looks feasible I may attempt to discuss reduced or eliminated prices for parking in the hotel's lot but I haven't explored this in the least yet, it's still a pipe dream, so don't expect anything! I can inform people of nearby parking garages, but I also don't know what power I have to negotiate prices.

Although we have a parking lot, we have street parking that will cost money on Saturday and possibly also on Monday. Nothing I can do will alleviate that. Can you tell I'm not optimistic? Sorry.
2008 Facilities Liaison

Offline guspasho

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2007, 03:05:18 pm »
PS. I really hope somebody reads all that because I spent a very long time at work to write it :P
2008 Facilities Liaison

Offline MichaelEvans

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2007, 03:52:02 pm »
I already have.  I have two suggestions regarding the Internet access, and one additional problem about parking.  First, depending on the contract the hotel has signed, there may be room for us to temporarily acquire internet access for the weekend and setup our own network. (Difficult, but not impossible for the convention space, and we should be able to provide hotspots in all the staff covered rooms without much physical issue.)  Second, if we're able to do the first, it's a definite bargaining point for us to set up simply open accessing the internet for the whole hotel, and maybe adding additional wireless node points where signal is pathetic.

The parking garage however, will probably mostly already be used by hotel guests.
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Offline TomtheFanboy

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2007, 04:04:06 pm »

I plan to contact other hotels in the area and discuss options for room block rates nearby, so we can get better rates for our attendees, hopefully at no risk to the convention, and so we can track how many room-nights the convention fills. Knowing how many room-nights overall we can fill is extremely useful to future contract negotiations because the more rooms we can offer to fill at our hosting hotel, the more leverage we have in acquiring cheaper rates or other benefits from the hotel.

Cool. Any interaction with hotels in the area of the doubletree is great in the long run since they're the ones in the area of the Oregon Convention Center. <_<

Quote
Do you have any hopes for the 2009 Hotel? (specifics not necessary)
...So I will seek out and explore creative options, including returning to the Hilton in Vancouver by using the park across the street as our exhibitors' hall and (gulp!) putting gaming in the garage. I may discuss these options openly on the forums. However, based on my current knowledge of available spaces, returning to the Doubletree may be our best and only option.

"Gulp!" is right! I know that we can improve ventilation in the garage if we have to use it for something in the future. And returning to the Hilton won't be that bad since we've already had to open communications with the other hotels in the area. Hopefully they're buying more chairs now.  ;)

Quote
Miles from the hotel can be deceptive, how easy is it for you to go to the hotel and speak with them in person?
It is actually extraordinarily hard. Hotel staff like to work during inconvenient hours, usually when I am also working. And I work in Beaverton, about 30-45 minutes away from this hotel (depending on traffic). I will be relying primarily on telephone and email to stay in touch with the hotel, and I will arrange in-person meetings well in advance because it will most likely require taking time off from work, and not just for me but for others if I choose to ask other convention staff to be involved.

Ouch, hadn't thought of that when I worded my question. I guess face to face meetings aren't that important with their kind of scheduling. I guess I just should have left it to going to the hotel itself.

Quote
Do you have a reservation at the hotel yet?
No, I don't. I don't expect to for another couple of months, at least, and probably won't until well after the hotel block rates have been publicized, but hopefully I will well before we run out of space.

^_^ Well I hope that the contract has a good room for you if you're elected! Mike and I have 2 of the Lanai suites reserved for staff people already. (Leave the Lanai suites alone rich attendees :p staffers need them!)

Quote
Do you have any ideas for making parking easier?
This year we have a parking lot. If I have time and the option looks feasible I may attempt to discuss reduced or eliminated prices for parking in the hotel's lot but I haven't explored this in the least yet, it's still a pipe dream, so don't expect anything! I can inform people of nearby parking garages, but I also don't know what power I have to negotiate prices.
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Offline guspasho

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2007, 04:53:23 pm »
I want to elaborate a little on the parking question. Parking is one of those things that makes you realize that the scope of Facilities extends beyond just the hotel where the convention will be held. What I wished I had time to do earlier for 2007 was visit all the parking garage spaces in the area and post their rates and policies to answer the flurry of questions we had about parking from people who had never been in the area. And this year, if Tom doesn't beat me to it, I'll scout out the parking information for available lots at least a few months before the con and report it on the hotel page of the website.

And to answer Tom's intended question about getting to the hotel. I currently work in Beaverton and in a month I will live close to where both Meg and I work. So to get to the hotel I will either drive into Portland on Hwy 26 or take the MAX. Either way it takes about 30-45 minutes. MAX probably takes longer because it takes 30 minutes just to get from one end of downtown to the other on the MAX.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2007, 05:33:36 pm by guspasho »
2008 Facilities Liaison

Offline melchizedek

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2007, 05:40:35 pm »
Just a note, there is free parking down town on sundays, so depending of if someone wants to hoof it, they won't have to pay for parking.  (I parked my bike right on the curb next to the temple hotel and didn't have to pay a penny.

Also, what do you all think about having events outside in the adjacent park in 2008?  (Only saying this because there were a number of events that the hilton just didn't have room for the amount of people who wanted to go) I can think of 4 events: Saturday night dance, mask ball, cosplay contest and closing ceremonies
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Offline MichaelEvans

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2007, 01:55:54 am »
1) Lloyd Center 11th st. Maxline stop is the last eastbound stop in the fair-free zone (It's at the park you mentioned).
2) I've heard that there are Very interesting issues with the park at night (Dealers (the kind we'd bar from the room of the same name), Users, etc.)
3) The maxline between Beaverton and the hotel takes less then one hour.  I got on at the Willow Creek TC (Kind of near Hillsboro, on 185th) literally just after 9am, and got to the meeting room at the hotel either at 10am, or just before it.  However, accounting for how close this is to the stops I think Guspacho is talking about, and adding in a little slip-time for worst case scenarios, he's about right in just rounding it up to an hour.  Of course, that's one hour without worrying about traffic, parking, gas, and more cost (though not time) effective then driving it.  2.05 for a 3 zone 2hr ticket... 4.25 if you don't want to worry about the return trip ticket.
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Offline TomtheFanboy

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2007, 11:44:43 am »
During the con you don't want to have your car a MAX ride away. Transit will be choked with the weekend, Saturday Market, Lloyd Center shoppers, and any other crazy Labor Day events.

OK, Parking. These are the blocks nearby. Most of them are private lots for the office buildings nearby.
Code: [Select]
Private----LLoyd Center mall parking open from 10am to ??pm
Private----Hotel-----thepark-----Cinemas parking----cinema
none------none-----public pay lot----no blocks------no blocks


I have an area map ready for use.
http://pockyclub.com/maps.html
I plan to make a version for parking, food, driving, and hotels.
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Offline staze

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #9 on: October 09, 2007, 06:42:10 pm »
As a note, there is hotel parking, and when that's full, or you don't want to pay, you can park at Lloyd center. Obviously this isn't something that people want to do if they're staying at the hotel... but if they're commuting to the hotel daily, or just for a meeting, it works just fine. And it's free.

Parking is always an issue. Remember 2004? 2003 obviously wasn't an issue... but then again, that hotel is now blacktop/Bestbuy. I believe if you have a room at the hotel, parking is cheap (few bucks a day).

Max rocks for this hotel. We used it even for the Guest dinner to get to Bush Gardens (the Guests actually enjoyed it, the max ride).

Also, Food isn't too much of an issue with the mall so close. There is also a Stanfords, BJs, close Subway (who will hopefully listen when we say "hey, we're going to have 4000 people here, you should have extra staff/bread"), and several other eateries... as well as food that's only 2 or less Max Stops away (heck, China Town, and still in fairless square) is only a few stops away from the DoubleTree).

Remember people, this hotel rocks, and it's staff loved us (there were off duty hotel staff in panels and such). Our main problem was the group that was there with us screwing with the elevators... they won't be there (hopefully) so we should be okay. =)
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Offline MichaelEvans

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2007, 07:53:30 pm »
Actually I saw a Subway in the mall (Lloyd Center mall?), what's directly across from the Max stop/park is a Quiznos, but yeah.  Other places in the area that should be notified are pretty much every restaurant on the hotel's list.
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Offline MichaelEvans

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2007, 12:52:37 am »
Fresh Question
In the current revisions of the bylaws, this position doesn't have explicitly noted responsibilities.
If elected as the 2008 Facilities Liaison, what duties would you propose are added to the bylaws to state this position's responsibilities?  Are there any duties you feel the position carries that you would not propose are added?

I will qualify that I am seeing your opinions, and not binding statements.
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Offline gemineye42

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2007, 09:04:46 am »
I am firmly against gaming being in any area that could possibly have weather issues, as the equipment is quite expensive should there be a flash flood.
 :o
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Offline RemSaverem

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2007, 09:44:33 am »
Rian thank you for going to such lengths and into such details.
I think delegating (as you did with Jaki) is wise so long as those to whom one delegates are responsible (and Jaki is).
I'm very dismayed as I continue to sort of sideways get glimpses into the malfeasance on Sean's part. Is there a responsibility on the part of KC to warn SC? what if he does the same to SC programming????
Thank you for thinking ahead about not being the only one with all the info. Innocent things  can also  come up that make having all the info in one person's head / files inconvenient (remembering when I was hospitalized with asthma a couple days before KC 2005....).
I am confused why street parking wouldn't be free on a national holiday?
Is it considered safe, and is it free, to leave one's car at a park & ride for the max? is there, actually, such a thing? if so, where?
what is your thought regarding staff rates & staff rooms?
what is your thought regarding allocations such as departmental suites? is that up to the treasurer? you? chair? each department?
i had no idea the con paid a lot for the lolita party, ouran, etc. did programming go over budget? given the controversy in the forums (a lot of folks upset to be turned away on costuming judgements from lolita tea party) how much money should go to those? is it possible within a hotel contract to be able to collect donations and/or charge admission to a catered event to recoup some of those expenses?
wise choice re: atm
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Offline TomtheFanboy

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2007, 01:51:01 pm »
The convention reimburses quite a lot of money (up to $100 for any one event if I recall) to the panelists. These events were a bit fancier than the others so their budgets are more controversial. It's really up to the Panelist coordinator, or whatever Programming person Jaki puts in charge, to speak with any panelists that are requesting budgets. The money isn't just tossed to them, they have to present their budget requests in and then get their receipts in before any checks are written to reimburse them.

Basically the controversy arises when the attendee turn out and enjoyment doesn't justify the budget requested. That's a call for the Programming personnel to figure out since all that money comes from their budget.

I forget where I was going with this..... that's what happens when you post in class. <_<
Oh, I thought of a question.

The issue of who has keys was a problem before 2007 so steps were taken to only have keys available to very specific staff members. This year all of the EMC rooms and the EMC itself is accessible with an EMC key card. Multiple events will be going on within the different rooms of the EMC and they'll be closing/opening at different times throughout the convention. However, any EMC keycard can open up every room in the EMC.
What personnel do you think should have access to this key(s)?
Would you put this decision fully in the hands of Programming?
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Offline staze

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #15 on: October 10, 2007, 02:07:44 pm »
Rian thank you for going to such lengths and into such details.
I think delegating (as you did with Jaki) is wise so long as those to whom one delegates are responsible (and Jaki is).
I'm very dismayed as I continue to sort of sideways get glimpses into the malfeasance on Sean's part. Is there a responsibility on the part of KC to warn SC? what if he does the same to SC programming????
Thank you for thinking ahead about not being the only one with all the info. Innocent things  can also  come up that make having all the info in one person's head / files inconvenient (remembering when I was hospitalized with asthma a couple days before KC 2005....).
I am confused why street parking wouldn't be free on a national holiday?
Is it considered safe, and is it free, to leave one's car at a park & ride for the max? is there, actually, such a thing? if so, where?
what is your thought regarding staff rates & staff rooms?
what is your thought regarding allocations such as departmental suites? is that up to the treasurer? you? chair? each department?
i had no idea the con paid a lot for the lolita party, ouran, etc. did programming go over budget? given the controversy in the forums (a lot of folks upset to be turned away on costuming judgements from lolita tea party) how much money should go to those? is it possible within a hotel contract to be able to collect donations and/or charge admission to a catered event to recoup some of those expenses?
wise choice re: atm

Ellen,

As a point, most of these items are either not the responsibility of the facilities liaison, or overall just not valid for the discussion. The facilities liaison is basically the person that serves as a go between for the hotel to the con, and vise versa. They have very little to do with room reservations, budgets, events, etc. They take part in hotel contract negotiations, setting room night agreements, upping a room block, getting the go ahead for CCTV, etc. They don't have any kind of budget, or budget authority.

We can charge whatever we want for getting into events/panels... but it was ultimately decided that it's bad form, and more work for us to charge someone to get into the con, then charge them again for a given event (the VIP dinner being an exception).

Please try to stay on topic with this. Overall, the questions Tom and Jess asked are very much the types of things the Facilities Liaison does, and will do... and really that's about it. Most of the time, they act on behalf of other departments in getting things taken care of. Other than keeping an eye on the room block, and contract negotiations (which, they do not have authority to sign themselves), they don't really act on their own... they're kinda a "tool" of the board and chair (no offense Rian).

Thanks.
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Offline guspasho

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #16 on: October 10, 2007, 02:45:34 pm »
Fresh Question
In the current revisions of the bylaws, this position doesn't have explicitly noted responsibilities.
If elected as the 2008 Facilities Liaison, what duties would you propose are added to the bylaws to state this position's responsibilities?  Are there any duties you feel the position carries that you would not propose are added?

I will qualify that I am seeing your opinions, and not binding statements.

I would define the Facilities Liaison as under the direction and supervision of the president and the board, responsible for coordinating between the board and the convention's hotel. The Liaison is responsible for negotiating and securing a contract with the hosting hotel (or hotels, or convention center), hopefully under the most favorable terms possible. The Liaison presents the contract to the board for their approval, and, after the contract has been agreed to and signed, the Liaison is responsible for the coordination of communication between the hotel and the board.

At the moment I can't think of any responsibilities that the Liaison takes on that they should not. Except that I don't think the position deserves a vote on the board, and I probably will abstain from policy issues when it won't affect the board's ability to reach a decision (ie no minimum requirement of votes cast). The Liaison doesn't have a department, doesn't have a lot of independent authority, and isn't elected by the membership but appointed by the board. However, the Liaison obviously needs to be at the hotel and coordinating massively during the convention, and that requires independent authority to make snap judgments in the absence of policy on issues such as to continue providing catering for unexpectedly popular events, and I will exercise that authority because I won't tell a panelist who contacts me they need to get ahold of someone else. In those events it is obviously my responsibility to inform others later on. But that's just sort of a general rule for anyone in the "power structure".

The Liaison is ideally suited to arrange meeting space at the direction of the president, especially with a hotel contract that provides options for general meeting space. The Liaison should report nearby hotels on the website and schedule room blocks with them whenever possible. The Liaison probably could report information nearby restaurants, parking, and other services, but I'll be honest about the one reservation I have about that one - some of the questions I've seen on the forums are really dumb and could have been easily answered using Google.

Ryan reminded me of a biggie. It is the Liaison's responsibility to check in on room blocks regularly so that nobody is told by the hotel that the block is full when there are still rooms in the hotel. Ideally I would like to negotiate this into contracts if possible, to just increase the block at need, but historically hotels haven't been equipped to do that automatically for some reason, or the previous Liaison fed us more misinformation (it wouldn't be the first time.) And as I mention that I should warn that based on what I know of our current contract with the Doubletree it may be very difficult to obtain any kind of expansion to our original room block.
2008 Facilities Liaison

Offline TomtheFanboy

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #17 on: October 10, 2007, 03:18:32 pm »
When you mentioned the Liaison talking to other businesses in the area I thought of something.

With the dissolution of Street Team as a generalized entity, will the Facilities Liaison take on any subordinate staff members to act as intelligence gatherers and messengers for the businesses in the area?

Rian mentioned that he'd be coordinating with people (like me, with my maps) but I am curious if there will actually be any staff placed under this position to do this officially. I'm not fishing for a position, I'm going to make my maps anyway. It's just that street team did a lot to get the word out and get information back to the rest of the staff when it came to stuff in the area.

Since the other positions the Board elects don't have personnel under them (unless the VP does Registration) it would make sense if it remained a solo position.
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Offline JeffT

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #18 on: October 10, 2007, 03:21:45 pm »
With the dissolution of Street Team as a generalized entity

There has been no such dissolution. Merely you cannot become staff automatically with an open-ended commitment to distribute posters and flyers (if it's that board resolution you are referring to).
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Offline guspasho

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #19 on: October 10, 2007, 03:58:17 pm »
When you mentioned the Liaison talking to other businesses in the area I thought of something.

With the dissolution of Street Team as a generalized entity, will the Facilities Liaison take on any subordinate staff members to act as intelligence gatherers and messengers for the businesses in the area?

Rian mentioned that he'd be coordinating with people (like me, with my maps) but I am curious if there will actually be any staff placed under this position to do this officially. I'm not fishing for a position, I'm going to make my maps anyway. It's just that street team did a lot to get the word out and get information back to the rest of the staff when it came to stuff in the area.

Since the other positions the Board elects don't have personnel under them (unless the VP does Registration) it would make sense if it remained a solo position.

I'm not sure. As Jeff said, Street Team hasn't been dissolved, we just modified the org chart to remove the open-ended street team member position. There will still be a coordinator and maybe regional coordinators responsible for their regions, but the work under them will be done by volunteers.

I would have to talk it over with whomever took on Street Team to see if they'd be willing to do work for me, but I might do this myself or with an assistant. I'm not sure I'd hire staffers for it.

I'm talking about taking on a lot myself. So I should mention that when I feel I'm reaching my limit and the opportunity is available to me I'd attempt to delegate through staffers under me (or through coordination with Street Team.) Basically, I don't know yet.

All the officers are authorised to have assistants, and all of them are at this point somewhat required to have assistants. At least I believe that's what Mike wants. So as far as departments under them that could always become an outgrowth of that depending on need. I'm sure the board would authorize it if I asked (because I wouldn't ask unless and until I needed it.)
2008 Facilities Liaison

Offline staze

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #20 on: October 11, 2007, 10:36:56 am »
There is nothing, anywhere, that says the officers can't have staff. Hell, for a few hours, I had staff (Secretarial Ninja). In a proposal/recommendation by the previous board, there would be the creation of a position under the treasurer (staff benefits coordinator/manager).

Basically, we've never really thought of anything that would go under the officers directly, because ultimately, the officers are outside the con. So if there is a job that should be extra-con, or would be silly to have exist within each event (should we ever have a secondary event), it would probably get moved to the officer level. That was one thought about registration, because it could be "reused" by any event we had, it might be good to relocate. But ultimately, that's going to be a board discussion (probably at the retreat).
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Offline RemSaverem

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Facilities Liaison
« Reply #21 on: October 11, 2007, 11:30:30 am »
Thanks for helping me understand what is and is not part of FL :)
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