National Championships, organization, publicizing, etc.

Re: moving the US National Championshiop away from Origins to the Gand Masquerade event for 2011

Loughman wrote:

When and where was this decision made? Did I miss the conversation or was it ever open to debate?

...

What are the plans for 2012? WW/CCP has cut us loose...do we need to tie our events to theirs?

Not being privy to the super secret prince list or forum, I can only speculate.

I suspect that the appropriate national coordinator needs to be involved in discussing and promoting national championship events.

When the Grand Masquerade was announced as having a second year, the US Nationals move should have been widely discussed then, if a move was going to happen.

I think that the North American Continental Championship is probably tied to Origins for the foreseeable future. Having the US National Championship at the same event wastes that possible promotion time. If it were to be at DragonCon in Atlanta or at one of the 3-day weekend LA events , I'd be more likely to attend it in addition to Origins.

This is definitely a good issue for V:EKN to get out in the open and be transparent about how this process happens.

(Re: moving the US National Championshiop away from Origins to the Gand Masquerade event for 2011)

Loughman wrote:

When and where was this decision made? Did I miss the conversation or was it ever open to debate?

I also was unaware until a little more than a month ago that the US Nats had been moved. Evidently, there was some confusion, and the parties discussing such things thought they had CCed me when they hadn't. It was an honest mistake, and there was no malice about the decision that I could see.

I posted the US Nats location change ~5 weeks ago, on vekn.net, on my Facebook page for the VTES North American Championship event, and via my Twitter account. I alerted players as soon as I confirmed the change and that it couldn't be undone. I'm sorry that you missed it.

Loughman wrote:

What are the plans for 2012? WW/CCP has cut us loose...do we need to tie our events to theirs?

Adonai wrote:

I suspect that the appropriate national coordinator needs to be involved in discussing and promoting national championship events.

When the Grand Masquerade was announced as having a second year, the US Nationals move should have been widely discussed then, if a move was going to happen.

I think that the North American Continental Championship is probably tied to Origins for the foreseeable future. Having the US National Championship at the same event wastes that possible promotion time. If it were to be at DragonCon in Atlanta or at one of the 3-day weekend LA events , I'd be more likely to attend it in addition to Origins.

This is definitely a good issue for V:EKN to get out in the open and be transparent about how this process happens.

I for one would think that Dragon*Con would be the best place (of the places that I've seen and heard mentioned) to which to move the US Nats. Everyone likely has some kind of bias as to where it *should* be, so some sort of discussion and then a vote of whomever makes these kinds of decisions would seem to be in order.

ALSO NOTE that the schedule for Origins next year is tentatively on Memorial Day Weekend, so I'm not sure how that is going to conflict with the traditionally-held L.A. events on that weekend. I'll keep players posted on this, of course, since they are going to announce firm 2012 dates at the con and that is only six weeks from now.

OK, so CCP's final US Nationals has come and gone.

15 players

sad.

So, what are our plans for 2012? When and where? I know Kevin had hoped to include it in his annual spring VTES events, but his recent cancellation leaves this very much in doubt. Templecon, Dragon Con or free standing events in other cities were discussed. Let's get a jump on this so next year's can be bigger and better attended.

Loughman wrote:

OK, so CCP's final US Nationals has come and gone. 15 players. sad.

It really it too bad that such a great city like New Orleans isn't palatable for the majority of American VTES players. Perhaps a reduced-cost Grand Masquerade badge VTES-only badge would help, but I don't know if that's the issue.

Loughman wrote:

So, what are our plans for 2012? When and where? I know Kevin had hoped to include it in his annual spring {Las Vegas} VTES events, but his recent cancellation leaves this very much in doubt. Templecon, Dragon Con or free standing events in other cities were discussed. Let's get a jump on this so next year's can be bigger and better attended.

My suggestion is that it be allowed to rotate around the country, as the NAC used to, since the NAC is now essentially static.

There are many options here, such as TempleCon, DragonCon, the Labor Day convention events in L.A., or any other city that is willing to put forth some kind of proposal. I'd like to see what happens.

(Sorry Las Vegas fell apart. It was fun while it lasted! There were options available but it felt right just to end it. Rising costs and people losing their jobs all over their place or encountering expenses that are causing them to reconsider all but the largest conventions meant that I was on thin ice, and I wasn't willing to go out any farther. Email me if you want the entire story.)

KevinM wrote:

It really it too bad that such a great city like New Orleans isn't palatable for the majority of American VTES players.

Timing was more important than anything else.
No one from Georgia attended. The Tatus had house moving requirements, I had a trade show that I had to attend for work. That's only 3 players, but I suspect that similar things could be said for lots of groups with an event that soon after a 3 day weekend.

Atlanta is still offering to host the US Championship at DragonCon, or if convention prices are a problem, we can do it a different weekend further away from scheduled breaks that keep people at home.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no Atlanta players in the prince forum, so any discussion of what we will/can do must be public.

I love to travel and attend but need significant lead time to get off of work. I didn't realize the US Nats had moved until May, and by that time I was unable to schedule vacation time. That's why I'm hoping we can hash this out soon.
I don't care if it is at a Con or if it is free-standing. I have reservations about traveling to Boston in February (I've done it once and we just missed getting snowed in) but am otherwise open to just about any place and time.