NZLARPs Auckland Regional Committee Meeting Minutes
13 March 2013
Present: Anna Klein, Cameron Burns, Mikaere Curtis, Hannah Jackson, Michelle Burt, Clare Stones
Start: 7:40pm
Action Points from last meeting:
Anna: Auckland account: all info entered into MYOB, up to March 1st. Overdue game fees have all been paid by people owing them.
Action Point: Anna to do: Send email of accounts summary to Hamish, print out MYOB report.
Clare: Email game organisers. – Facebook and diatribe messages sent.
Clare: Collect gear from Zara: Haven’t caught up with her yet.
Action Point: Clare to catch up with Zara re gear.
Mike: Trailer quote: still trying to get hold of one. Est cost 3-4K.
Rowena: What is Larp marketing –not here this evening.
Hannah: vaccum not purchased yet.
Action point: Hannah to buy vaccum.
Anna: Put pre-game reports on Committee area of Diatribe for approval: Done. Chimera one still to come.
Finance Report:
Anna: Accounts looking good, as Teonn money has come in.
Mike: Has asked Teonn GMs regarding whether they have found a logistics person. Has not heard back yet.
Action point: Mike to follow up with Teonn GMs re. Logistics person.
Anna: Venue payments have gone out for next 2 Friday Night LARPs. Has sent account info to Wellington LARP committee and National secretary. Still need to change banks.
Gear Report:
Hannah: Working on gear database/photos. Purchased gear from Auckland Sword and Shield garage sale – 2 dresses, 12 glass carafes, big silver tray, floor mat.
Anna: Needs to talk to Hannah about getting some gear for Fri night LARPs. GM buy-in has improved for Fri Night larps. Has games until beginning of July.
Hannah: gear workshops – community calendar is busy for next couple of months. After that?
Anna: Treasurer account sometimes eats emails.
Mike: Linda wants a bolt cutter for chain mail for NZLARPs, to get people out of armour during medical emergencies.
Anna: estimates cost to be less than $50.
Cameron: Small bolt cutters should work.
Anna: Linda’s First Aid course amazingly useful. Made her feel a lot more confident.
Mike: Motion that we thank Linda for running the course. Anna – 2nded.
Discussion about allergies. It is important for GMs etc to be aware of serious allergies and other medical conditions.
Anna: Suggests that NZLARPs buy a more generous first aid kit, for emergencies that might arise.
Action Point: Anna to ask Linda for recommendations for a large first aid kit.
Crucible: Application to become a project.
Mike describes the setting of the game- fantasy, human culture based, lots of factions. Rule set being worked out. Vanya working on project documents.
Anna: Would be good if Vanya and/or Patrick came to the NZLARPs meeting. Confident in team’s ability to pull project off, and in their drive and experience at GMing.
Hannah: Are they aware of code of conduct?
Mike: Yes.
Anna: Likes gender consciousness of faction teasers – clearly, thought has been put into gender roles. Have not accidentally inherited outdated medieval gender rubbish. As a female LARPer, really appreciates that limitations of genre have been worked around.
Mike: Thinks committee needs to see project documentation before voting on whether to make Crucible an NZLARPs project.
Hannah: A bit concerned that Crucible hype might detract from end of Teonn campaign.
Anna: Teonn co-operated very well with St Wolfgangs. Wants official launch of Crucible/ opening of character creation to happen after the Teonn campaign ends.
Action Point: Mike to take this back to Crucible GM committee. Esp. lets focus on Teonn, then on Crucible.
Hannah: Pressure of character/group creation should be happening later. Should not be open for approval until after Teonn.
Cameron: Rules need to be assessed by people outside GM team. Need more than one round of mediation on rules, so they can be properly assessed.
Hannah : Should incorporate into project timeline.
Anna: Would like to request (not demand): Logistic plan, covering for example bullying, safety issues, food. People to go to if players have questions/problems. Essentially middle management. Preferably volunteers, not faction leaders. This is necessary, given scale of game. Happy to volunteer to be one of these people.
Cameron: Should include fire plan, for evacuation out of buildings etc.
Hannah: Fire service likely to have advice.
Anna: Needs to sort out fire plan for Chimera. Logistics plans need to be ongoing concern of committee.
Mike: Fire plan to be included in game briefing. Fire wardens, muster point, etc.
Mike: Suggests move towards self catering, as there are issues with feeding that many people.
Anna: Suggests game provides food Sat, players to sort out own food Fri/Sun.
Michelle: Mythodea charged for entry, accommodation, food separately. Run by different people at event. Had in character tents for hire.
Mike: We may be able to think about starting to invest in this kind of stuff- tents etc.
Matters arising.
Hannah: How to guides. We have received a guide from a player that we want to change and edit a bit. This is because the article touches on concerns not fully sorted out by committee.
Mike: was unable to get any professional advice re. letter that committee received earlier in year.
Anna: We need to be enormously careful about what we publish. Information in how to guides needs to be based on expertise/experience in running games etc.
Mike: How to guide submission had some useful points. Post modern feminist/left wing identity perspective.
Anna: Mention of lowering costs in submission.
Discussion about LARP being a hobby that already offers some targeted discounts for students. About discounts being a GM choice that needs to be factored into budget. About LARP as a luxury. Also discussion about not disenfranchising people, don’t want to accidentally alienate regarding access to LARPing.
Anna: Committee has made huge leaps and bounds in communicating with members and dealing with problems. However, are we doing enough? Do we need to push for submissions? We can support LARP, but we ar4e not a policy organisation. Are there any areas we have overlooked?
Mike/Anna: Make an anonymous form for Google submission.
Action Point: Take matter up to National Committee – raise with them.
Upcoming LARPs:
Anna: Need more people to come along to Fri night LARPs.
Western Larp.
JFK LARP.
Action Point: Mike to follow up with Shetland re. Hobbiton LARP.
General Business:
Cameron: Looking at doing charity event – Hobbit Walk. Matamata to Mt Ngaruahoe. 212Km. Will take submissions from volunteers who are interested in doing the walk.
Keen to fundraise for Child’s Play foundation, which provides games for children in hospital. Starship is one of the hospitals that you can select to support.
Clare/Mike: Agree.
Cameron: Could get a replica ring for journey. Could auction off at end. Would like to do walk at end of year.
Hannah: What if there is a lot of public interest?
Cameron: Need to sort out what we say about club/website etc. Working title = A not-so-simple walk for Charity.
Anna: NZLARPs could run a couple of games to fundraise for costs – eg. sunscreen, food, petrol.
Big celebration to start it off.
Anna: Media/Marketing – web presence, separate from blogs. Need promotional manager.
Michelle: Premiere for Hobbit is in June 2014.
Cameron: Would like to do walk just before.
Anna: Tweet back updates.
Mike: Get National Committee involvement. See if they want to devolve it to Auckland.
Anna: Support crew- “What is LARP” on back of tshirts.
Mike: his work is involved with Cure Kids fundraising. Going to run a kid’s Skirmish as a fundraiser. Will need to borrow gear, including dragon. Will try not to clash with other games.
Unanimous agreement on Mike running a Kid’s Skirmish fundraiser game.
Hannah: Talked to Walter Hamer recently, ha has some ideas for LARPs that will include children.
Hannah/Mike: NZLARPs laptop? To help Clare with minutes, prevent her writing them in a book then typing later, to avoid 2 step process.
Clare: Look into recording minutes, for committee use?
Mike: Issues with suitable microphone
Action Point: Clare to investigate electronic stores, to see if a microphone suitable for group recording can be found. If one can be found at a reasonable price, try it out next meeting.
Mike: Would be suitable for Skype calls as well.
Meeting closed: 9:40pm.
