Division Head: Steve Huff (shuff@vecna.org)
This year, Arisia staff faced the additional challenge of an unfamiliar hotel, and the Fixed Functions division was in no way exempt.
Assistant Division Head: Tamar Amidon (tamidon@gmail.com)
Our attempts to save money and effort by coordinating food purchases (Sysco, BJ's) met with partial success; the Con Suite managed to put out a lot of food while leaving a significant chunk of budget unspent (fortunately for Staff Den, which ran for extended hours this year but ran over budget in so doing).
We significantly underestimated how much soda the con would need, requiring daily emergency trips out to BJ's.
Plans for next year including centralizing food preparation, so that Con Suite and Staff Den will be more focused on serving food. Tamar has indicated a willingness to do this job next year.
The rental of a commercial-grade convection oven was a great idea; next year we should rent several (and perhaps ask Mike Tractenberg to create another portable subpanel to ease the strain on the hotel's electric system?).
I failed to fill the position of Quartermaster this year, and that turned out to be a mistake; as a result, I ended up going on a number of supply runs when I could have been solving other problems back at the hotel.
Department Head: Rachel Olson (jedilora@gmail.com)
As a fan said at the Gripe Session, "Arisia has a reputation for having the best Con Suite on the circuit, and, well, now I can say I agree."
Rachel has indicated a willingness to run Con Suite again next year.
Department Head: Crystal Huff (chaiya@chaiyahuff.com)
Staff Den operated longer than it has in previous years; the home-cooked Thursday night dinner was particularly popular with Tech and Logistics.
An extended report is available.
Department Head: Mike Tractenberg
Green Room came in under budget and without any significant problems other than complaints from program participants about the room being too small. Suggestion for next year: ideally Green Room would get a suite, but if one is not available, then Green Room should have at least two adjoining rooms for food service and a third room for preparation/storage/sleeping.
Attendees were very happy with Mike's food; they apparently have come to expect it year after year.
Department Head: Karen Purcell (drkaren11@yahoo.ca)
Despite some security scares, the Art Show went well; the "docent tours" by the Artist GoH were particularly popular.
An extended report is available.
Department Head: Pam Koretzky (dr.pamk@gmail.com)
Dealers' Row, conveniently located on the third floor, was a big success with both dealers and fans; Dealers' Room, unfortunately, suffered greatly from the problems with the elevators.
Next year, it would be a very good idea to find a full-time assistant for the Dealers department head; it's a big job, and hard on one person.
An extended report is available.
Department Heads: Krista Ernewein (krista_ernewein@hotmail.com), Ocean ThunderMoon (revthundermoon@gmail.com)
An extended report is available.
Department Head: Steve Balzac (sbalzac@alum.mit.edu)
The Massage Den had another busy year; all available time slots were used. One particular quirk of the Hyatt is their inability to supply sufficient linens for the Massage Den; this year we rented linens from a vendor in Somerville:
North Star Rental Systems 37 Fremont St. Somerville, MA 02145 617-623-1200
100 flat twin sheets were sufficient for this year.
An extended report is available.
Department Head: Lily Moore (dosvidaiya_ana@yahoo.com)
Coat Check was busy and understaffed, but successful; some fans complained about not being able to retrieve their items during the Masquerade, but my understanding is that people complain about this every year (in addition, Coat Check reopened during the Masquerade intermission).
Art Show asked to borrow some coat check tags on Sunday in order to run a bag check of their own; I got the tags from Coat Check, but I failed to deliver them to Art Show, underlining the fact that it's important to arrange interdepartmental collaboration beforehand.
An extended report is available.
Department Head: Lori Ann Goode (naw337@hotmail.com)
Smoking Lounge was attended by a small but happy band of smokers; Lori Ann provided snacks and a comfortable ambiance, Arisia provided an air purifier and fans, and I didn't hear about any smokers-related problems this year.
Department Head: JB Segal (jb@lse.org)
Despite the department head being sent out of the country the week before the con(!!), Fan Tables hosted a number of active fan groups. A challenge of working in the Hyatt was that Fan Tables had to share space with Registration, which meant that they couldn't set up at the beginning of the con.
Communication between Fan Tables and other inhabitants of the lobby (Registration, Info Desk, Masquerade, etc.) was critical.