Departments

Cereal & Cartoons

Monica Olsen

Hello from Cereal & Toons!

I’m Monica Olsen and I’ll be doing Cereal & Toons again this year. If you have any requests for what Toons you would like to see or Cereal you would like, please E-mail me. Since I don’t have my own E-mail address, yet, be sure to put "Cereal & Toons" in the subject line.

Dealers' Room

Alan Olsen
Lea Rush

There has been some confusion on the form for the Dealers’ Room, and we will be getting in touch with any affected dealers as soon as we can make some headway through the info now plopped in our laps. Contact either of us with any questions. Meanwhile, here is a list of dealers for whom we have at least some paperwork (and who are therefore likely to be on hend this year). Dealers marked with a * need to contact us ASAP:

Other dealers who have expressed interest in the remaining spaces (once we figure how many that is) will be notified as soon as possible. There will likely be a lottery of some sort for the remaining spaces.

Many of you wrote on your forms "Same as last year". Unfortunately, the person who did it last year isn’t available this year. I’ll be contacting the necessary parties and asking for a detailed description of exactly what was so useful last year.

Hotel

Melanie Schaber / Hotel Reservation Form

Once again OryCon will be held at the Columbia River Doubletree Hotel. Our $92 room rate covers up to four people in a room; each additional person adds $15 for rollaways. If you specifically ask for a river-view room you’ll pay $10 extra.

Parties: The Interstate Wing is designated as a "party wing"—if you plan to hold a party, you need to make sure your room is reserved there. As before, the hotel will charge a $100 deposit against damage/cleaning for open parties (they do this for all groups, not just OryCon). To date, however, all such deposits have been completely refunded and the hotel has been very happy with us. Open parties also need to be registered in the convention office, so that we can coordinate with the hotel and help you get needed trash bags and cleaning supplies from the hotel.

If you have any problems with the hotel I would be more than willing to help in any way possible.

Internet Cafe

John Bartley

The Internet Cafe department is on track.

Monthly checks of our ISP are made to assure connectivity, as the e-conomy has been rather rollercoasterish, and if alternate plans must be made, we will know about that need ASAP.

Older PCs are needed. The I-Barrista has completed a Linux sysadmin course and is anxious to acquire equipment for the I-Cafe so we don’t have to rent all our PCs. Last year’s working donations have been transferred to other departments who have an immediate need (e.g., Registration), so we don’t have the machines we used for free last year.

If you or your company have older PCs (minimum Pentium 100) you’d like to donate, please call John Bartley at 503-BAR-TLEY (503.227.8539) or email him at johnbartley@mail.com - and remember, all contributions are tax-deductible!

Publications

Kip Krauss / Souvenir Book Publication Release

Greetings from the Publications Group. This year we will be doing something a little different. We will be publishing the programming schedule on the OryCon Web site. Pocket program books will have the panel descriptions in them instead of the Program Book. The Program Book will change in format to be more of a Souvenir Book.

We are looking for artwork, short stories, cartoons, or poems for the Souvenir Book. The publications group will go through all the submissions and will choose the items to be published.

For written work:

Mailed submissions not selected for publication can be returned only if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with appropriate postage. Be sure to retain a copy of any written work you submit.

For artwork:

DO NOT send original artwork! Send only a copy or duplicate of your art. We can only return mailed submissions if accompanied by an appropriate SASE or other mailing materials & postage.

For all submissions:

Authors and artists retain all copyrights in their original works; in the case of works selected for publication, OryCon 23 will exercise only the one-time right to publish submissions in the Souvenir Book. Unfortunately, our budget does not permit us to pay for submissions that are published, so please understand this before you submit. We cannot be responsible for lost or misdirected submissions.

In the case of e-mailed submissions, written work should be submitted in plain-text (ASCII) format, either in the body of your message or as an attached file. Art may be submitted as an attached file. Be sure to compress large files using PKZip or a compatible utility, and query before submitting large attached files.

The publication release, or an accurate copy thereof, must be included with all submissions whether sent by regular or electronic mail. (Our lawyer recommends that if you e-mail your submission, you should also send a signed copy of the release by regular mail.)

All submissions must be received by August 1st to be considered. You can send your submission to:

Orycon 23
Attn: Publications Group
PO Box 5703
Portland, Oregon 97228-5703

or by e-mail to: David Schaber
(be sure to put "Attn: Publications Group" in the Subject field)

Registration

The usual advice applies: get your membership now if you haven’t already! We expect that we’ll reach our 1600-member cap again this year, and the sooner you become a member, the more you’ll save.

That’s especially important this year, because rising costs have finally forced us to modify our rate structure. Current membership cost is still $35 (as it was last year). But this rate applies only until July 15 (unlike last year). From July 16 to Oct. 15, memberships cost $40. The rate then jumps to $50 at the door, up $5 from last year, and as before we do not plan to sell one-day memberships. Children 5 and under are admitted at no charge; those ages 6 through 12 are half price. All children must be accompanied and supervised by an adult attending member of the convention.

If you’re already a member, your Progress Report mailing label includes your name, address, badge name (if you asked for one), and membership number. A /T indicates that your membership is attached to a dealers’ table; a /G indicates that you are the guest of another member.