July 19, 2014 Meeting of the NJ/NY Costumers’ Guild (aka, the Sick Pups)

Hosted by Diane at Kendall Park, NJ

Meeting Minutes presented by Tina Connell

Attendees: Diane, Byron & Tina, Rich & Stephanie, Susan, Toni, Marcy

The meeting was called to (dis)order by Byron at 3:26, following the Handy Sewing Gadgets “workshop.”

Official Stuph:

Minutes from the May 31^st meeting were approved.

Treasurer: Marcy reported that as of the June statement the treasury was at $376.13. Byron commented that he has recently invited three well-known costumers to join the Pups, but has not heard back from them yet.

President’s Report: ICG activities: The proposed Standing Rule regarding special interest groups passed unanimously. The resolution to recognize the first application closes on Tuesday. Members must be ICG members. The process to apply is easy. He has thought from time to time about a military uniform interest group.

The ICG has the capacity of hosting member chapter websites. Phil Gust is looking for contributions/

services that the ICG can provide to the members. Diane said that we don’t need to rush to decide; let’s look at the ICG website and gallery and see what they’ve got. Byron will send the Pups the link to the ICG Gallery and ask them to compare it to the Pups’ “gallery” and give us feedback. He asked Susan to check and see how many “hits” we get on our website. Susan would like to keep our activities and workshops on our own site. Rich suggested that, if it is available, we buy the rights to “sickpups.com”, as it has been running as a porn site, and we don’t want people looking for us to get the wrong idea. We should have info on our site about our chapter, what we’re like, what we do. He also asked how we can get people to click on us when they find us on a web search. Byron asked what are good keywords to use.

Election of Officers: The present slate of officers was re-elected, as no one else wanted to run and the present officers were willing to serve for another year. Toni was surprised to learn (she forgot!) that she is President of Vice.

Activities and Con Reports:

Diane told us about her recent peregrinations. She’s been traveling to interesting sites all over Europe! In Brussels, she visited the Musée du Costume et de La Dentelle (Costume and Lace), which had an exhibit of costume of the Glamorous ‘30s, as well as a lace exhibit in drawers. Then on to Vienna, and the Sisi (Empress Elizabeth) Museum at the Hofburg. She was one of the most beautiful women in Europe of her time. (In the order she mentioned them, not necessarily the order in which she did so) she visited Heidelburg, which she recommended highly, Hadrian’s Wall (England) and the Vindolanda archaeological dig there, Castle Howard (which no longer has a costume exhibit), two plays at the Globe Theatre, which were disappointing (very bloody, and costumes and sets were not at all inspiring). She and Jim toured Munich, Vienna, San Moritz, various lakes, the Matterhorn (snow in July!), Luzerne, and back to Frankfurt. Jim flew home, and she continued on to England, and visited various sites.

Back in the States, she said that the performances of Richard III and Twelfth Night were amazing, that they must have upped their game for export. The MacBeth at at the Park Avenue Armory, starring Kenneth Branagh, was very atmospheric. Toni commented that she loved it.

Recent Cons:

Balticon: Diane was there. She said that the Masquerade is doing pretty well; they had 30-some entries. There was a retrospective of Marty, with a video of Marty coming out on stage. The science program track was wonderful - she mostly went to science programming items. The art show wasn’t very good; they haven’t had a good art show in years.

Upcoming Cons and Events:

LonCon 3: (WorldCon, London) (8/14-18): Toni said that the deadline for (pre-con) site selection voting is August 8. Byron has been given his program schedule; he’s on three program items.

Shamrockcon / EuroCon: (Dublin, 8/22-24): Byron hasn’t heard anything from them lately, Byron & Tina will be going, following LonCon.

Long Island Dr. Who Convention: (Ronkonkoma, 11/7-9)

AtomaCon (Charleston, 11/14-16): Rob & Sandy will be helping them. We’ll be getting a lot of our helpers for CC 33 from them.

Philcon: (11/21-23): No Masquerade Director known, as yet. Their website is pretty minimal.

Arisia: (1/16-19/15): Stephanie said that the stress levels for tech have dropped drastically, with the move of the Masquerade to Sunday evening. Membership cap is 3,500. They’re getting a lot of newer members from the anime community.

Costume-Con 33: (5/15-18/2015): Toni said that she hopes that CC 33 will have as much “fun ambiance” as CC 32 did. Byron pointed out that most of the young people there were local, and probably won’t be able to travel as far away as Charleston.

Byron went to their committee meeting at the end of June. Lisa is head of Programming. The committee was given a grand tour of the hotel. They figured dimensions and location for the stage; both stage right and stage left use will be possible. They are encouraging groups to sponsor the con suite. There is an exterior patio outside of / part of the con suite area. The former gift shop area will make a great place for the costume exhibit; there are two glass walls just off the lobby. Gordon Rose has agreed to be MC for all three stage events.

Hotel contract: they will run breakfast, lunch & dinner buffets each day of the con. There will be an airport shuttle, but after 11 pm it will be necessary to get there by taxi. That should cost around $12-15, all cabs take plastic, no surcharge allowed. The hotel has changed their name (again!), to the Charleston Plaza Hotel.

Pi-Con: (Connecticut): Debi told Byron & Tina that the dates for 2015 haven’t been firmed up yet. It will either be in April, or at the end of July.

Sasquan (WorldCon Spokane, WA, 8/19-23/15): Susan said that the US DiscWorld con is going to be merged with Sasquan. Sharon Sbarsky will be Masquerade Director. Byron will be running the Green Room. Toni expressed concern about the distance of some of the hotels from the convention center. She heard that the party hotel is 7 blocks away, too far for her to limp.

General Discussion:

Toni said that she understands that New Zealand will be bidding for 2020. Where? Diane said she will definitely want to go. The last time she checked, round trip airfare was around $1,700. She said Air New Zealand is good. Toni added that night flights are generally emptier.

Upcoming Meetings / Workshops:

September 20th. Byron & Tina will host, at one of our usual hotels in the Parsippany/ Morristown area, as Diane will be busy getting ready for her trip to Morocco (chorus from all: We hate you, Diane!). Workshop: Alternatives to Sewing.

November 15^th. Probably at Diane’s. Workshop TBA.

Byron mentioned that Debi would like to host a meeting in the Albany area sometime. She could do a sari-draping demo / workshop.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:00 pm.