December 3, 2016 Meeting of the NJ/NY Costumers’ Guild (aka, the Sick Pups)

Meeting held at Embassy Suites, Parsippany, NJ

Meeting Minutes presented by Tina Connell

Attendees: Byron & Tina (hosting), Debi, Susan, and guest MaryAnne Gruszecki (in costume!).

The meeting was called to (dis)order at 5:14 pm., following a food break and a fairly lengthy and comprehensive workshop on running masquerades.

Official Stuph:

Minutes: The minutes of the November 5th meeting were distributed and were approved as written. Before the move to approve, Tina noted that the printed copies included a typo, which she had already corrected in the file.

President’s Report: None

Treasurer: Byron reported for Marcy, as she was unable to attend. We had $276.70 in the account as of 12/2/16. The reduction from last month was caused by payment of dues to the ICG.

Byron had a printout of our membership from Marcy’s latest list. Of the 42 on the list, 23 are not ICG members (our chapter does not require ICG membership to join), and of the 19 ICG members, we are shown as the primary chapter for 14. Marcy’s computer lost a lot of data files recently, which she is trying to reconstitute from receipts and hard copy. Debi said that she is shown as primary with NOEL, and secondary with NJ/NY – that is incorrect, and it should be the reverse. Byron suggested that she contact NOEL to be sure that their records get corrected.

Recent Cons:

Philcon: Byron & Tina were there. There were long autograph lines for CJ Cherryh. There was a good David Seeley exhibit in the Art Show.

Heliosphere: March 10-12, 2017, Tarrytown, NY. Being run by the group that splintered off from the Lunarians(2). We understand that there will not be a masquerade, but that they are planning a masqued ball.

Albacon: (Byron & Tina’s ‘home’ con) March 31-April 2, 2017, Albany, NY. Tina is Con Chair this year. Charles Gannon, multiple Nebula Award nominee, will be Guest of Honor, and Stephen Hickman is Art GoH. There will be an all-day writers’ workshop on Friday (9 - 5), with various authors, editors, and publishers on hand for the sessions. There is no additional fee for the workshop, but attendees must have an Albacon membership. No formal masquerade, but there will be an informal costume contest on Saturday afternoon, with cash prizes awarded.

Lunacon: April 7-9, 2017, Tarrytown, NY at the Westchester Marriott. As previously mentioned, Byron will be Masquerade Director. Debi will be Green Room Manager. On-line registration is now open. Hotel and masquerade rules are up on the Lunacon web site. Carole Salemi is in charge of the Costuming program track.

Costume-Con 35: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, at the Hilton Mississauga/Meadowvale.

Other Business: Mary Anne entertained us by creating balloon shapes (flowers, etc.)

3/4/17: Debi Chowdhury will host, in Albany

5/6/17: Heidi will host, at Stroudsburg, PA (everybody bring her nice colorful dryer lint)

Debi volunteered to host again, on July 22^nd, but subsequently realized that her schedule will be too full to permit it, and withdrew that.

Meeting was adjourned (relapse into chaos) at 6:19 pm.