"Minutes" from NC's Meeting during EC 2012

The same version was sent to all NC!

VEKN National Co-ordinator Meeting
Budapest
26th October 2012

Attendees:

VEKN (7)
JW Johannes Walch - VEKN Chairman
AC Antonio Cobo Cuenca - VEKN Vice Chairman & Spain NC (Ginés Quiñonero)
PB Pascal Bertrand - VEKN Rules Team & French NC
RS Radoslaw Staszewski - VEKN Marketing Director
MK Michal Kazmierczak - VEKN Marketing Director
BP Ben Peal - VEKN Design Team Leader & NA NC
MN Mike Nudd - VEKN Design Team & Storyline coordinator

National Coordinators (12)
CP Carl Pilhatsch - Austria
DD Dennis Devriendt - Belgium
PD Peter Ducai - Czech Republic & Slovak Republic (Czech Gerhard Breytenbach)
MR Martin Randers - Denmark (for Jesper Boje)
JL Janne Lonnqvist - Finland
AN Andreas Nusser - Germany andPrize Support
PP Paolo Pasqualin - Italy (for Emiliano D'Onofrio)
PW Paul Wiggers - The Netherlands
TB Tiago Brum - Portugal
DB Djordje Bjelajac - Serbia
IB Isak Esbjornsson Bjarmark - Sweden
HA Hugh Angseesing - United Kingdom and Playtest Coordinator

Guests (1)
JO Jeroen van Oort - The Netherlands

Via Email
Steve Harris - Australia
Simon Cross - South Africa

Start: 20.05

Meeting held in Granada room of Hotel Flamenco, Budapest. Food and drink provided by Walch and Nusser.

Actions

• MK to work with Design Team on poll for next set.
• RS to create mailing list for NCs.
• All to help with Archon Submission testing.
• Returning officer to be nominated for 2013.
• 2013 VEKN Chair/Vice-chair election to be announced.
• BP to decide on appropriate subdivisions in USA.
• IB and team to suggest 3 day format.
• All to suggest suitable prices for playerbase to IB.
• All to assess their suitability for 2014 EC.


Minutes

1. JW noted that NCs in general should use the forum available to them and keep up to date e.g. stating if attending NC meeting:
www.vekn.net/index.php/forum/14-national-coordinator-list

2. JW announced that Stockholm in Sweden would host 2013 European Championships.

3. JW announced that POD (Print on Demand) cards were available to view from AN. POD intention is:
a. Every card to be available
b. No rarity
c. Different expansion symbol from currently available cards

4. Danse Macabre Official VEKN Set
a. Release approval via Bookshelf or not required.
b. PDF likely to be released prior to POD.
c. Artwork complete.
d. Poll for next set to be issued.
i. MK working on poll for next set

5. RS to create mailing list for NCs.

6. JW asked for Nations Cup feedback

a. Generally positive feedback
b. Sweden/Finland players less keen
c. EC team for 2013 to decide on suitable format but likely to repeat Nations Cup in lieu if Legendary due to ratings not existing.

7. PB asked what remaining stocks were available
AN 2,000 displays were saved from CCP. These include a substantial amount of LOTN and starter displays. David Tatu/Levin Mergen’s supplies are separate to the European supplies obtained by Walch and Nusser.
Every promo card that could be saved was, estimates are that there are at least 2-3 years of support stockpiled.
BP stated that attempts were ongoing to obtain the remaining North American supply of Dan Murdock/Marianna Gilbert.

8. AN noted that there were substantial number of 2012 Qualifier T-shirts available.
a. MK/RS to investigate how to use this surplus.
b. NCs/Princes to contact AN to obtain t-shirts.
c. MK/RS to print 2013 t-shirts, AN to fund this, but t-shirts were likely to be cheaper in 2013 with MK/RS printing sources.
d. Old VTES artwork is unavailable however Danse Macabre artwork is available for 2013 t-shirts.
e. It was noted that a pamphlet listing EC/NAC/SA/Asia/Australia dates in each support pack would be very useful.

9. MK/RS are looking at Pool Counters/Edges and other potential support items.

10. HA noted that it would be useful to have 2014 –t-shirts ready and available for the NAC Jin May/June 2013.

11. PB asked JW how the Archon test was taking place.
JW noted that:
I. Ratings test ongoing
II. More testers required
III. Archon 1.4b used in testing

JW noted that the view was to reset all ratings to zero from 1st January 2013.
JL objected that resetting all ratings and only using ratings from 1st January 2013 would penalise princes who kept their data accurate.

IB noted that a reset would make a Legendary Vampire tournament difficult at the 2013 EC.
It was noted that the Legendary Vampire has a cut-off ~4-6 weeks prior to the event.

Some discussion then followed over whether data should be rest or not and a vote was held.

Option 1: Reset start 1st January 2013 and all tournaments prior to that = zero
Option 2: Upload all valid archons
Option 3: Choose an arbitrary date in 2012 to cut-off

Option 1 received 7 votes, option 2 received 12 votes, option 3 received zero votes.

Option 2 will be enacted and all valid archons should be submitted when the testing is over.

12. PB asked the meeting to talk about his suggestion to increase the co-efficient for National Championships to 0.5 from the current 0.25. Following a period of discussion it was decided to keep the co-efficient for Nationals to 0.25 (the same as Continental Qualifiers).

13. HA raised some concerns from Steve Harris (Australian NC). Steve noted in his email that:

a. Australia is a very large country
b. Few players travel to multiple qualifiers
c. Those players that do travel to multiple qualifiers often double qualify

IB noted that the Swedish playerbase suffered from similar issues where players would potentially travel to multiple qualifiers (outside of Sweden) but that multiple qualification is common and players who would like to travel to EC do not qualify. However it was noted by IB and JL that Swedes and Finns will often travel anyway.

Alternative options suggested for qualification:
• Any player with a GW qualifies
• Wildcards e.g. player who travel x, players who qualified last year etc.
• Each NC has x wildcards for their ‘country’
• Go back to old system and remove double qualification


All agreed that they would support a solution that worked for Australia as they saw fit (approx 1 Australian/NZ player attended an EC/NAC/SAC every 2 years)

14. It was generally agreed that the LCQ (Last Chance Qualifier) was ‘a typical car crash’. IB indicated that for EC 2013 they may split qualified and non-qualified into an alternative LCQ format.

15. HA also noted that Steve Harris wasn’t aware of prizes/t-shirts being available. MK/RS to work on alternative support. AN to catch up with Steve Harris outside of the meeting.

16. RS suggested a new website for the VEKN. JW replied that we should utilise the current website more fully through Gines.

17. PB raised a query on how POD would interact with bricks and mortar shops. JW indicated that it was unlikely that shops would be able to afford the POD due to the increased cost but that they would look into potential options.

18. Storylines

a. PD stated he wants storylines that force players to travel to different cities in a country to play.
b. TB noted that it was very possible from his experience (Palma de Majorca) to produce your own official/unofficial storylines.
c. JW indicated that one main storyline would take place a year with smaller support for other events and that players who wanted to rune vents should liaise with MN.

19. Rulings
DB asked what card migrations/bans were being looked at e.g. Lilith’s Blessing.
PB noted that migrations to card text were unlikely to take place without POD being available.
PB noted a new rulings update would be available on 12th December 2012 or 2nd December 2012.
PB noted he was working on a unified rulings documents.

20. EC 2013 – IB gave a small talk on this event
a. 11-13th November 2013
b. Potential Week of Nightmares
c. JW to arrange announcement at EC 2012 (took place Day1)
d. Walk around of Stockholm to be available
e. Pre-registration early-mid 2013
f. All NCs to list reasonable prices by country to help price the event
g. MN suggested a mashup with local live roleplayers/tabletop
h. IB will host a series of lectures. The group noted that earlier lectures would be beneficial (pre-alcohol).
i. VTES trivia was suggested as good activity at a welcome party
j. IB will have responsibility to obtain a list of hostels for players with less spare finances.
k. Everyone in the room wished the Swedish organising team the best of luck for 2013.

21. TB asked if we should re-elect VEKN officers on a regular basis.
JW suggested a 3 year cycle for Chair/Vice-chair (elected as a running pair), with other positions appointed on a cabinet basis by the Chairman.
There were no dissenting opinions voiced.

First vote will be held at the 2013 EC NC meeting. Nominations will be opened prior to the event (to be determined) and NCs not available at the EC will be polled for their votes prior to the EC.

A returning officer will need to be nominated to obtain these NC votes. This returning officer will need to be not standing for a position at the time.

BP noted that as it currently stood he only had ‘1 vote’. This was greeted by silence by the other NCs in the meeting. It was eventually determined that he should work with his playerbase to determine subdivisions as necessary.

22. MN noted that it was the 20th anniversary of the game in 2014 and we should work towards a celebration in 2014.

23. JW asked for 2014 EC volunteers. PW and JO volunteered as potential for 2014. JW suggested that is would be quite easy for he/AN to assist PW/JO for a 2014 EC as they were only 2 hours away.

CLOSE 22:00

Thanks for uploading this. It's nice to get some insight into the workings of the V:TES leadership and such open information helps to tamp down on incorrect and/ or unpleasant rumors.

RY

Yup, transparency = good.

Thanks indeed for publishing this.

Better late than never.