Lou, KY Our next meeting (3rd)

Wow, last night was really fun, and I was glad to see so many people turn out!

Before I go any further, let me just say to Bob and Greta: THANK YOU! The office is great, and I think I speak for everyone when I say how much we really appreciate you hosting the meetings! That was fantastic!

The general consensus last night was that we have our meetings once a month, preferably about the third weekend of each month. Tinker brought up a great idea too, that each meeting have a theme: Costuming, Gaming, Books/Comics, Collecting, etc. Which goes along with John's suggestion that we keep the group focused together rather than splintering off into Book Clubs,Collecting Clubs, etc.

There was also alot of talk about the upcoming Conglomeration, being held August 16th-18th. That also happens to be the third weekend in August. I know not everyone is interested in going to Conglomeration, but I was thinking.....

If some of us do go, and decide to have a room party one night, we could have our meeting there. Those of us who aren't going to conglomeration, can still come up to the hotel room for the party/meeting. Just an idea.

If not, we could certainly have our monthly meeting the weekend before or after Conglomeration. (We have a GREAT place for meetings now!)

We also need to decide by our third meeting (wherever we have it) about our City Rep and our leadership organization of the group (or lack thereof).

Some groups elect a President, Vice President, etc. Some just have a City Rep as the defacto leader. Others have a City Rep but just leave the leadership up to group consensus.

Everyone needs to decide what they would like best, and to decide on a City Rep by our next meeting. Then we'll be official!!!!

 

City Rep would be fine I dont agree with haveing presidents and powerheads.This is suppose to be our fanclub so everyone should just enjoy it lets be official but not so OFFICIAL.The week of the convention I will be in Chicago so the weekend after would be much more better for me personally.

 

For right now we might be fine with just a city rep (the city rep works directly with theforce.net's admins to help organise community and charity events). But if we get to be a bigger group we might want to elect different positions as well to co-ordinate different things, and so the City Rep won't have all of the responsibility.

 

What a great bunch of Folks!! Thanks everyone for making it last night! My vote is to start out with just a "city rep"

Bob

 

Everyone - my office e-mail (which is the one checked most often) is ...
hearinky@bellsouth.net
Bob

 

I totally agree with the city rep idea. It's good to have some sort of leadership, but without a huge amount of "officers", it won't get too political. Sounds awesome!!

 

I like the idea of having the meeting at Conglomeration EXCEPT that Saturday is the costume masquearde and I am going to compete. It would have to be timed just right.

 

I like the idea of just having an city rep. It keeps the group loose like the enviroment we had last night. Let's keep the meeting on the third weekend for everymonth except next month. It would be neat to meet the weekend before Conglomeration, so those who are attending the convention can do some plans for the convention and put our group on the map.

 

Ditto on the city rep idea. I agree with crawfod, its more loose and enjoyable without having to have someone call all the shots, which could take the fun out if it

 

I agree with everyone else as far as having just a city-rep for now. But I do like Phil's idea that each month we should have a theam. One month be about the novels and/or fan fics, another be about collecting, another be about the RPG's, etc.

 

Hey everyone, thanks for making me feel welcome last night and opening me up a bit...so to speak. I also like the idea of just a city rep...no need to go Imperial on the whole chain of command thing...
Once again, thanks, and I think we'll all be seeing more of each other.

mindtwister

 

I've got a little bit of experience at being a "facilitator" meaning I can help keep discussions on track and such - I'd be willing to try and keep meetings organized without having a title or such.

I like not having a president and such. Too many clubs I've been in led to unwanted power trips (The Dark side is too strong!)

I'm a big fan of the Magic of Myth and would love to lead some discussions on it!

*On meeting at Conglomeration - I am also competing this year. I think meeting before hand "unofficially" would be great to make sure your room party is well planned - and I think the idea of meeting at the convention is great too - BUT - leave the official meeting to a less stressful weekend.

 

Man, you guys are great. I'm glad we have a laid back group. I don't know if any of you ever check out some of the other city forums, but some groups really have some problems when it comes to "politics".

The city-rep only is a good idea in my mind too.

So how about making our third meeting the weekend before conglomeration?

 

I'm up for that. I took some pictures of the meeting last night, who should I send them to?

 

John (Unicron) has the web space. His address is <john@deceptitech.com>.

 

I 2nd that! (As far as setting the meeting for the weekend before conglomeration)! Just my 2 cent......

 

That was a great time on Saturday. The only problem was that I run my SW:RPG campaign on Saturday nights so I had to leave a little after 10:00 to get ready for that at 11:00 PM. My biggest problem at the meetings is that I get into conversations with people (about all kinds of crap... found some fellow "Transformers" and NBA fans on Saturday!) and by the time club business is starting to be discussed, it's too late! But that's a good thing that comes from the informal atmosphere, I think.

Man, Phil is dead-on about problems in some other fan force groups with officers and stuff. I used to visit the Cincinnati FF, and that was a disaster for a while, then this guy called for a "vote of no confidence" in the city rep, and the politics of it are just ridiculous when you think about it. I love the unstructured way our meetings go. If you make it too formal, it'll probably become more like "work" than a gathering of friends.

Whoever becomes city rep probably won't have to worry about having too much work; I'm sure there are plenty of us here who'd volunteer to help out anytime it was needed.

Hey Bob & Greta: thanks a million for letting us use your place; it was absolutely fantastic.

As for the third meeting, I can make it at Conglomeration or the week before either one, so whatever works best for everyone else. I was kind of wishy-washy on going to Conglomeration until last Saturday, but Tink and Chris pretty much convinced me to go. So if someone's organizing anything for our group to do there, let me know & I'll help out if I can.

-John

 

Hey, gang! Sounds like this weekend was an absolute blast! Our schedule has calmed down a bit during August, so we will definitely be there next time!

As for the next meeting, I'll also vote for having the official meeting the weekend before Conglomeration. We can meet as an official group beforehand and have some plans put together for the convention.

I'd also cast my vote for 'City Rep Only'. I'm also of the "keep it loose, keep it fun" philosophy. Ultimately, as John said, it should be a gathering of friends for the purpose of having fun.

 

Great meeting everyone!! Great place for the meeting too!
Well My vote is for a city rep too.. no politics please I get enough of that at work! LOL
I would like to place my vote for the offical meeting befor conglomeration and an informal one at the con AFTER the masqurade!
that way we can plan for the con before we go who's going what opur informal meeting will be like etc...

 

ok by me - meeting weekend before ConGlom - and what weekend is that?

 

That would be the 10th.

 

In order to avoid the problem we ran into with Evansville, IN becoming official, I thought I'd repost this here so you guys have a better idea what you're getting into as a FF City Rep...I've edited out/rewrote parts to make it more relevant to your situation, though it makes it tough to read grammatically

...It's FanForce policy that CR's be at least age 18 or older. The age limit is purely for liability reasons and in no way excludes those under 18 from being an officier in your club, or even president for that matter.

CR duties/responsibilities:
1. Main contact between club and FF Administrative staff, specifically the Regional Support Admin (in this case, me).
2. Submits meeting notices and other FF related activities & news to RSA for posting on FF News page.
3. Participates in discussions with all City Reps in the CR private forum.
4. Expected to act in a manner (on & off the forums) that would represent FF in a good light, and therefore held to a somewhat higher standard of behavior.
5. Alerts forum moderators if there are any problems in the forum (someone trolling, posting profanity, selling items, spamming, etc).

Once this position has been decided, I will need the person's contact info (user name, real name, & active email account) in order to promote them to VIP status (blue username) & title.

Other items that you would also need to inform me about (though it is only optional):
1. Chapter name & website address (if you have one)
2. Forum editing time (currently you can edit posts up to an hour...this can be extended or even set to unlimited).
3. Custom banners & color scheme. Some chapters have their own, and you are more than welcome to create your own.
4. Custom Chapter Icon - Each official club gets the option of creating & having their icon uploaded for members to use.

The main point of all of this is to continue to gather and have fun, so please don't let these technicalities & paper work type items ruin your achievement of becoming official.

Hope this helps...let me know if there's anything else I can do for you guys.

 

Thanks Sebulba-X! That's FANtastic! (Sorry I could'nt resist! )

 

Sounds great to me too.

 

Good information. Anyone interested should consider the time needed to do the above.