Communications

Effective Internal and External Communications is critical to a smooth running convention operation.

To the Membership

Most communications to the membership will be written, in the form of Progress Reports and websites pre-con or daily newsletters at the Con.

Among Staff

In addition to progress reports and newsletters, the staff will probably need more immediate and interactive forms of communication. Email, restricted access websites, and good old telephone communication work well pre-con. Make a phone list to call the person you need to reach, or set up a phone tree to broadcast a message to everyone in the staff.

Bulletin Boards, literally a piece of paper hung on a cork backboard with a thumbtack might work for passing messages at-con, but chances are you'll want a more sophisitcated approach. A central messages desk might work.

Handheld radios, or cell phones with person to person modes might work well too. Be sure to check coverage, clarity, signal strength and restrictions before you commit to a solution.

Remember, you never want a disaster. You especially never want to explain a disaster by saying, "I couldn't reach ..."

FRS Radios

About Family Radio Service radios in general: [1]

FRS radios are a must for con staff. They can often be purchased or rented by the con at discount from professional communications companies, if done in bulk. Within a broad range of circumstances, they are all inter operable among brands and type. Advise your staff of the virtues of the units for everyday life. A good set of dual radios with a recharging station is a must for the modern family. They can talk to the kids in the neighborhood, or use them for road trips and camping. Also they can bring them to the convention when they volunteer. Practice is essential, so think up excuses to use them in preliminary sessions. Advise your staff what frequency you will be using before they travel, so that they can be "live" the moment they hit the perimeter, without having to wait to get a radio on the right circuit.

So Called Privacy codes are a misnomer. They do not keep your conversation private or secret. They prevent you from being interrupted by the conversations of others. Everyone else can hear you just fine if you use the codes. But you cant hear them if they don't use your codes. Codes are not universally supported. If all your staff supports the same codes, the you can use them to filter out the non-members who may snoop and barge in on your frequency.

Most radios will display their frequency and code to anyone who chooses to look carefully. Trying to keep them secret from non-staff is a pointless exercise, but if you must, you could tape over the relevant portion of the display.