NotaCon

Review of the NotaCon Meeting

Madi
Renee
Sara
Dean
Mikey
Rob
Thorfinn
Julian
Rosanne
Bruce

Apologies if I've forgotten any names. There was a lot of sugar at the meeting. I also apologise to those people that attempted to show up, and didn't as I'd posted around the wrong address, I'm an idiot.

Part of the reason of the meeting was to revise the goals of NotaCon and look at methods of achieving them, here's what we camne up with.

To provide a gaming space
To attract new players and current players
To promote convention style gaming
To present con games in a non-threatening, open, friendly enviroment
To hold a social event
To do something for the gaming community

Various methods of reaching these goals were discussed. I shall list them all and then address each one.

More advertising
More organisation
web catalogue of availibe games
more scheduling of games and advertising of blurbs
levels of committment

Advertising is our biggest problem, if we want to get new people, we have to reach them. Various methods for advertising were suggested. What we really need is an enthusiastic contact person for each university club who will promote us. The University clubs I know about are Infinite Images (Melb Uni), MURP (Monash Uni), LURG (Latrobe Uni, The RMIT group (forgotten name) - the should be advertising NotaCon at club meetings, in club newsletters, also in the university dail newsletter - at Melb Uni its called This Day, at LaTrobe it was the Rat Sheet. I'm assuming other Uni's have something similar...If anyone out there would like to volunteer to be a contact for each university club that would be really good.

Posters in gaming shops/ book shops etc
Web pages
Mailing lists
Whether Wormhole Games/Mil sims whatever would advertise us in their catalogues.
Conventions (naturally :)

As I see it, the web page is my problem, but I'm looking for volunteers to design posters, talk to gaming shops, do poster runs, talk to distributers, you name it, what ever you'd like to volunteer to do. I'd really like to find a logo/mascot or symbol to associate with notacon - so any budding graphic artists out there - here's your chance to be creative.

A long discussion was held about the timing of NotaCon - and suggestions were made to hold it in Con months provided it didn't actually clash with a con on that weekend. As the few weeks leading up to cons are valuble time and NotaCOn is a good venue for playtesting. As far as I'm concerned these dates are still open to debate, and subject to confirmation. And I'm still waiting to hear from Dwarf con re dates for their con.

Jan 14th (Arc) - Prolly another BBQ/ Games in the Park day
Feb 11th
March 11th (Conq)
April 8th
May 13th
June 10th
July 8th
August 12th
September 9th
Oct 14th
Nov 11th
Dec 9th (probably not to run in Dec due to xmas etc...)

At NotaCon we'd like to run more special events - not nessesarily every month, but definately a few times a year. To do this we need volunteers prepared to make the committment to present an event (be it theatre games or a large freeform or demo of a new game or 40k tournament) They have to schedule well in advance, help with advertising, and arrange GM's etc and present the event. All volunteers are welcome - I stress again - NotaCon is an open event, what ppl get out of it depends on what ppl put into it, everyone is free to do what they want and have an opinion, there is no real organisational body, there is just a group of people who are willing to do stuff, and I'm (Renee) the co-ordinater.

A suggestion was made that we produce the 10 Short Trip ticket equivilent for NotaCon - where you can purchase a ticket, and its good for say 10 NotaCon's - and you just bring your ticket along and get it marked each NotaCon. To avoid paying the $2 fee everymonth.

Does NotaCon want to investigate the possibility of changing venues, finding a new one, moving around to various locations in various months???

Mailing list changes - It's been decided to split the notacon announce list into two lists (as soon as vurt gets its new harddrive). A FAQ will be written for each list. There will be two lists - sunday@vurt.net and notacon@vurt.net. NotaCon@vurt.net will be announce only, for advertising of games, notacon annoucements etc. Sunday@vurt.net will be a more general discussion list, for all organisational matters relating to NotaCon, and discussion about games/events/etc at NotaCon. This is to encorage discussion about organisation and NotaCon on the list, and have a separate list for those that only want to recieve announcements and not be bothered by discussion. This is in line with NotaCon's open house stance, where everyone gets a say.

It's NotaCon's birthday this month! We need to go shopping and buy more supplies. We are going to be running a NotaCon NottheOlympics special games day - with everything from trivia, to physical challenges to theatre games and word games. With Prizes and all! This will then be followed by a prizing and Special Birthday Dinner and Cake! at Il Gambero's on Lygon St. Of course several things need to be done - room bookings if I can ever find the person I need to see who seems to be out campaigning in student elections, I need to go shopping, does anyone want to volunteer to make a big birthday cake?

A NotaCon Organisational Meeting

This is an open invitation for interested people to attend a meeting. I made an announcement about this at NotaCon, and also discussed the possibility on this mailing list awhile ago.

What I want to do is hold a meeting, and talk about NotaCon, I want to talk about ideas, concepts, goals, and possible directions for the future. September will be NotaCon's first birthday. Now would be a good time to look back and re-evualate what we have achieved so far, to look at the original goals and concepts from the first NotaCon meeting and look at how close we have some to achieving them, and where the direction has changed.

I firmly believe that in order for NotaCon to be a good and vibrant thing it needs focus. I want people to come along, and discuss this and come up with new ideas and new visions and new goals to keep NotaCon an active dream.

I'm not asking for volunteers to do lots of work, to be honest their isn't a lot of work to do, I just want ideas. Of course volunteers are also nice :) I can't do this by myself, NotaCon exsists through good will and the enthusiasm of those who attend.

Below is some comments, some history, and some possible agenda items for the meeting.

History of NotaCon

The original concept for NotaCon was born in conversation me and Morgan had in a small cafe in Newtown (Sydney) after a con. A theory along the lines of wouldn;t it be great to have a regular thing were we run old con modules for friends. It then got put on the back burner and eventually forgotten. Until yet another meeting, were the old idea was brought up again, and we decidedt o do something about it.

The call was put out to interested parties, and a smallish group of us showed up at a similar cafe, however in Melbourne this time. Aand we sat down and discussed the possibility of a monthly gaming day.

Original Ideas

We conceptualised a 'gaming space'. We would do some advertising and arrange to hire a space, and gamers could come and play games - not just roleplaying, but also card games, board games, war games. We would try to arrange freeforms, and talk people into bringing along games and running them.

As an original concept - that developed quite strongly. Our focus is very much on con games, and con style roleplayer, but also we hope very friendly and open to new comers. We try to ensure that everyone has something to do. We have also become a ground for testing ideas, play testing games and that sort of thing.

We also have the regular after notacon dinner, drinks and Munchausen in the pub. While I'm not entirely happy with the venue, I'd say the secondary goal of making Notacon a social event as well as a gaming event has had reasonable success.

We also held a very fun BBQ in January that lots of people enjoyed.

Other idea's that have never really taken off the ground, included setting up a 'find a gamer/game mailing list' and having a moving NotaCon, where the location changes on a regular basis.

Money.

We have some. We even have some in the bank, and cheques with NotaCon written on them. We don't have much however. We are covering rent, and also covering the costs of getting good food from Threshermans. We actually need to go shopping and restock drinks and chips and chocolate - which leads me to believe we wont have anymore money soon.

NotaCon's in other states - Sydney and Canberra.

Several people in Sydney and Canberra have expressed interest in starting there own version of Notacon, what support/advice should we give them. What relationship between NotaCon's in different states would it be possible/advisable to develope?

Birthday celebration

September NotaCon will be our first birthday. What should we do to celebrate?

Advertising

web
mailing list
gaming shops
cons

Future Directions.

I'd like to expand the scope further - maybe seminars, theatre games, more alternative activities, workshops etc. For example - the cheaparse game demo's and theatre sports workshop - I'd like to push the special events more.

I'd like to encorage growth, and reaching new audiences, we generally always have a few new timers show up, but not enough.

And any other ideas people have, and suggestions on how to make them happen.