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Welcome to ConRunner, a Why and How-To reference for Convention organizers.

ConRunner was started in July 2005, and we are currently working on 337 articles. You are invited to join us, and to help make them better.

We hope to document all aspects of running a successful convention. Please browse our pages, and if you have something to add, please do so. Registration is required to edit or add pages, however anyone may browse articles.


Featured Article - Gopher Bucks

noun. An incentive for gophers and other volunteers.

Many conventions have done this different ways. Some have used it to help an ailing dealers room and to promote volunteering. Some like Anime Mid-Atlantic use it as the convention center does not permit outside food and so they eat at the convention center food service.

Some of the Gopher Bucks concepts fall under the general plan for "if and how you will feed your staff, volunteers and guests". I.e. Staff Lounge, Gopher Hole, Green Room, etc.... see Hospitality.

Groats

In the UK, Groats, from Gopher Reward Tokens, are paper scrip handed out to volunteers to thank them for shifts worked at the convention. Useable at the bar or hotel restaurant, and sometimes to buy t-shirts, they are more a novelty than a cash substitute. These are employed at British cons, which don’t issue membership refunds.

Often done in pretty patterns, and easy to overlook in a pocket, many a con treasurer is delighted when they are not all redeemed by the end of the con.

The volunteer nature of conventions means everyone works for pleasure, there are no employment or minimum wage issues that might occur in other professionally run events.

Article on UK usage

Departments

There is no One True Way to organize your committee into departments. Often times a convention will run for a few years one way, and then combine departments that share a lot of the same resources or purpose into a single department. Or a department may split, as the needs of the convention grow. Do what works for you, and recruit reliable department heads. Create, publish, and maintain a clear set of objectives and methods to document continuity of what works, what doesn't, and why. Check on the senior staff regularly to make sure they're getting whatever support they need from you and the rest of the committee, pre-con and at-con. Department heads then recruit what staff and at-con volunteers they need to accomplish the goals of the department.

Have your department heads document the procedures of running their department, and train people under them so that you have a pool of people ready to be future department heads, and you are capturing knowledge from one year to the next.

A common way to split a science fiction convention into departments is like so:

  • Contests:
    • Young writers contest
    • Anime Music Video
    • Original Animation
    • Fan Art
    • Student Art

You can easily see how Volunteers might also go under Operations, Masquerade and Dance under Programming, etc. A small enough convention may not have a person dedicated to publicity separate from their publications head, or an information desk, or whatever. And of course, some conventions don't have Art Shows, or Charity Auctions, or whatever. Try to pick a structure that best supports what you do and how you want to do it.


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