Minutes of the July 9, 2016 Meeting of the NJ/NY Costumers’ Guild, aka The Sick Pups

Presented by Tina Connell, Recording Secretary

Meeting held at Hyatt House, Whippany NJ

Attending: Byron & Tina (hosts), Kathy, Rich & Stephanie, Susan, Marcy, and (guest) Mike Bruno

Pre-meeting ‘workshop’ – viewing Costume-Con 34 videos

Meeting called to (dis)order at 2:20 pm.

Minutes of the previous meeting approved.

Treasurer’s report: Our bank will be merging with Univest. Recently the bank has been trying to hit us with a service charge (on our non-service charge account). Marcy fixed it last month – they said it was ‘a mistake’ but they did it again this month. She will get after them again. She will also ask if the merger will result in continued monthly fees. Our present balance is $273.95 plus $40, for recent two year membership renewal plus a donation, from Heidi.

Kathy: a list of past officers, with addresses, has been sent to the ICG. Updated 2015-16 info should be put up on our web site under ‘Pups Biz’. We were missing e-addresses for Lin, Heidi, Ricky, Denice, and Ron & Jeannette (the later three are among our founding members and are permanent Pups). Byron & Tina were able to provide e-addresses for Heidi and Lin, and Byron said he thought he had a couple of the others at home.

A motion was made, and passed, that meeting notices will, effective with the last notice in 2016, be subsequently sent by e-mail.

Kathy said that there will be a (Steampunk theme) one-month-only show by Cirque de Soleil in the NYC area, starting 9/29, ‘Kurios.’

Byron & Tina went to the MFA-Boston exhibit of #TechStyle. They particularly mentioned the 3-D scan custom clothing by digital printer system, and the LED-covered gown with programmed light patterns. They will be going to the costume exhibit at the Met on Monday.

Mike mentioned an item on his FB page, about a mirror and platform system that scans a body and takes measurements. He also said that a vintage hat factory in Manhattan (Makins hats, 212 W 35^th St.) is selling vintage hat supplies.

Tina mentioned the Edith Head movie costume exhibit in Lancaster, OH, which is running in July and August at the Decorative Arts Center there. Byron & she plan to visit on their way to WorldCon in August.

Tina & Byron brought along the books they had acquired at the Kent State Museum, as well as a couple they had picked up in Stratford, ON.

Kathy showed us the necklace and earrings that she had made for CC for her fairy costume, as well as a couple of other jewelry pieces she made. She also showed us a camera lens hood made by Diane of black felt, which is intended to reduce glare/reflections when photographing through glass. It was suggested that this would be a good workshop project at a future meeting.

Costume-Con 34: It was agreed (by those of us who attended) that it was a pretty good con, competently run, with good attendance. There were a couple of minor flaws. There was no pocket program; the schedule was only listed in the (large format) program book, plus a couple of wall signs. Byron said that they had good directional signs. There was some controversy about the SF judging format, which used a point system and took ‘forever’ backstage. Tina’s impression, from the repair table location, was that the panel of judges wanted to preview/workmanship judge all of the costumes, not just those who wanted workmanship judging. It’s possible that the MD may have been bringing the format from cosplay, in which case we may see this again in parts of the country that are not familiar with ‘traditional’ CC masquerades. There was a good con suite, but some sponsors were not well mentioned during their sponsored period.

Restaurants: Some were located too far away. There was no restaurant guide. The hotel restaurant had numerous deficiencies. Hotel: Housekeeping wasn’t very good; Byron & Tina had to call for room makeup at 4 in the afternoon, and the housekeeping person said, “You had the do-not-disturb sign up on your door.” (It had been taken off by 9:30 am.)

Balticon: The move downtown and GRR Martin as GoH swamped the hotel. Martin was visible and accessible during the con. There was considerable congestion in the halls and elevators, and poor space usage. The con situated the space for GRRM’s autographing right next to the elevator lobby (the ONLY elevator bank in the hotel). There was a fairly good dealers room.

Masquerade: the masquerade was good – the ballroom was large, well laid out, and had decent width aisles. We gave a Spazzy to entry ‘Duck Vader and Queen Quack-ma-dala’ – Byron brought a certificate and award ribbon along, and was able to present them. There were problems with the private security hired by the hotel; they were ogling and harassing the female contestants.

Rich and Stephanie went to the Arisia Relaxacon instead of Balticon. They mentioned that Shore Leave is this weekend, at the Hunt Valley. Special guest stars for the 50^th anniversary.