Hey, why not.
1) Panels is where you sit to listen to people talk. Workshop you get a chance to do something, or see someone do it.
2) You do not have to register to *attend* a panel , or ask questions. There is no requirement or extra costs [1] to attend aside from a valid membership in Anime North. The sole exceptions are that a few events are age-limited due to content (mostly Yaoi North stuff, oddly enough) and workshops * can* put a limit on the number of participants but that should be obvious from the descriptions. (that basically means, only as many peeps can attend as we can fit in the room
[1] Once in a while we get a workshop idea that could require money. To date we've always fixed. If different, it will be *clearly* indicated.
3) You have to register with our database to host one of those events,
4) In the process you will receive an email with the emails of the other people with you on the panel. It's pretty dumb (and rude) not to get in touch and prepare before the convention.
5) You get swag commensurate to the number of events you participate in. This goes from token items for a single panel up to a free pass for next year or a refund. There also tends to be T-shirts and other AN merchandize available. The specific will be announced in the process, but it's usually 5 for a refund.
6) Some weird little event that don't technically fit within the scope of panels/workshops are also handled here. Just 'cuz I'm too dumb to dodge the work, so if you have an idea for something to do at AN and you can't figure out who you should ask about it ask me. I'll either take it in (like the Gothic lolita Tea Party, or the Conga line) or pass it on to whoever should be in charge.
7) You do not need a long experience to join the team. You do have to convince me to let you on tho
8 ) Yaoi-North, Doll-North and whatever-North are still run ultimately by the same department. But when a group of events gets big enough to get the -North name there is an actual team in charge of such a specialised Chibi-Con So you should be aware of it and contact them directly. In case of need (like, not being sure where to ask) ask the top directly (ie, Me. If it has to go higher, I'll pass it on
9) Question usually get a reply within 42 hours by policy. If after twice that period you're still out of an answer, try again differently; Your first message quite possibly got lost.
We reserve the right that the answer be "I'll get back to you later" "Still working on it" or variations thereof.
10) We don't have to answer questions posed on *any* forum that's not run on Anime North.com or the Teahouse of the Maple Moon. We're just too busy to hang out on the site of your local anime club, so if you have to ask something, do it *here*. (Yes, I had someone wonder why I wasn't replying to their post on a website I never heard of. That person waited quite a while for an answer. )
11) In the later stages of the process you will receive emails from our database the programming team, or me. READ THEM. And reply when it asks for a reply. Most will be clarification that are needed about 2 minutes before we send the email. Among other things they'll be sending in the prototype scedules and moving anything once the schedule is created is a pain and a half. We'll fix mistakes if we find out about them in time, but checking your own schedule is part of your responsibility. Don't put your life on hold for it, but do check. Again, it's part of the job.
12) You'll get with your badge a copy of the schedule you've commited to be on. This should be signed by the other people on the panel/workshop to get your swag. And turned in to collect
13) If something goes belly up, at the Con or before, Tell Us . AN even pays for me to have a local cellphone *during AN* for exactly that reason. The number will be on your schedule, and basically should be the same as last year (tm) By the way, texting works better, AN is a *noisy* place
14) When you fill up your application, pick a name and email and stick to it for the rest of the process [1][2]. I have had people email from 3 different names/emails combinations. With AN, we do not have the time to guess who's writing. There's about 200 people on the schedule, and we can't keep track of all your emails, nicks and forum handles.
Besides, that's just common sense; how else can people recognise it's you ?
[1] That's also why the registration asks for it, so we can sort out who's who.
[2] Starting this year, if we can't find who's trying to say something, the answer "Who the [censored] are you" will be authorized.
15) Our AV room will have a laptop hooked into a projector. It's equipped to play DVDs, CDs, show pictures, videos, current versions of Open Office and Microsoft Office (Powerpoint '97 viewer, Powerpoint 2007 complete) and all. If your presentation has an AV component you will have to send it in *in advance* so it can be approved and tested. Expect the deadline for that to be yesterday so the sooner the better. You will be allowed to update the files for a bit, but we have to see it in advance.
15a) Formal deadline of AV files is Friday the 15th at noon. Earlier is better, and much much much preferred. Suggested format is Zipped and by the name of the panel.
If you need multiple folders, they`ll unzip along the same structure. You can email me the files, or send them directly to mechamomiji (at) live.com via MSN messenger.
(Don`t try to email her things, she never bothers to check her mail)
16) That laptop (known as MechaMomiji) does *not* have internet access. It's not reliable in panel rooms. It won't work, so send in your files. Too bad.
The main login screen will have your name, name of the panel, something obvious as an account name. Your files should be on the desktop there.
CD-roms, DVD-Roms, and USB sticks are no longer supported. *but* you should have sent the final form earlier, so you shouldn't need them,.
16a) Mekamomiji (Mecha`s kid sisterand our backup unit) does not have an optical drive, so we don`t allow bringing stuff on disc at the last minute anymore.
We cannot promise which of the sisters will be there.
17) As we only rig one room for AV, we can only have so many things needing it. therefore, only events that convinces us *need* AV will get to play with it.
18 ) We don't have a Mac. This might change, if not, too bad. MechaMomiji has handled everything thrown at her so far, so not to worry. If you really need to present on one, we'll take a petition.
19) Panels are defined as starting On the hour, and ending at 10 to. It is okay to stretch to 5 to if you really hafta, but then you should clear out. There are clocks with AN Standard Time on them. Use Them! Them's are expensive pieces of modern technology! Your responsibility is to *end* on time. If for any reason whaysoever you have to start late, you *still* have to stop on time (okay, you could stretch it to 2 to then) but your panel starts late, it's your problem to end on time.
20) At 10 past **if** the panelists outnumber the audience, a vote can be taken to move the whole shebang to the nearest bar[1][2]. This is not mandatory. In such cases you are considered having fulfilled your obligation.
[1] As a tie-breaker, the audience gets to pitch in
[2] This assumes that 5 audience or more rate as "enough" even if your panel had 20 panelists.
21) If your panel is cancelled at the last minute (ie, anytime after we send the draft schedules) you are considered having fulfilled your commitment.
22) Punishment is simple. Either a good talking to for correctable issues, or a banned list. Which will then be passed along to all conventions I know the organizers of. That's right now Anime North, G-Anime, Otakuthon, and most of the SF conventions in Toronto and Montreal. If you notice problems with other panelists, bring it to our attention. It will be fixed.
23) Outside of the minimum number of emails necessary (at the discretion of our staff) to arrange the schedule, you will not receive further communications except for:
i) An invitation to come back next year if appropriate. (at which point the list is deleted)
ii) Invitations by reputable colleagues (your email is not given to them, I forward the message.) to other Conventions. This is usually 3 messages a year and can either be deleted if you don't care, or result in you getting a free pass at a Cool Event(tm)
edited to turn the sunglasses smilies back into 18s
24) Merging. Projects will be merged according to typos and to get things working. This is done on the assumption that we thought all the projects we merged actually meant to be about the same thing. *If* your thing gets merged with something it has nothing to do with and you weren't told about it. TELL US. It's called an accident and it can be fixed.
25) due to the new system, delays and staffing issue, projects can now be killed APPARENTLY later than usual. Basically we normally recruited, debated, approved and THEN contacted people about it. We now have someone in charge of getting peeps in touch as soon as you get enough people for it to be considered. So, from now on, a project should not be considered accepted until it gets on the GO list. (Altho you getting the email adresses of the other panelists is effectively a 95% chance of it taking place)







