NZLARPS Wellington Regional AGM
11th September 2011, 1pm, Northland Hall
AGENDA:
1: Attendance & check for Quorum (10 voting members needed)
17 Present
Scott Kelly
Ellen Boucher
Brooklynne Kennedy
Stephanie Pegg
Rebecca Harris
Donna Giltrap
Malcolm Giltrap
Bryn Jones
Nick Cole
Sophie Melchor
Rhiannon Daymond-King
Frank Pitt
Nick O’Keefe
Mel Duncan
Anthony Doornebosch
Hannah McKie
Paul Wilson
Apologies for Absence and E-votes from:
Chris Rosedale
Naomi Guyer
Karen Wilson
Stephanie Cybart
4 people paid for membership on the day:
Paul Wilson
Mel Duncan
Nick O’Keefe
Miranda Eckford (not present)
2: Officer’s reports:
Treasurer (Anthony Doornebosch)
There have been 2 NZLARPS sponsored games run in Wellington in the past year, both by Donna. These have both turned a profit. There have also been a lot of games run giving discounts to NZLARPs members, by GMs including Stephanie Pegg and Scott Kelly.
Currently we have $426.60 in the bank. There is some money to come from the National account for gear and similar. We have enough to cover outstanding liabilities- Turnbull House have not invoiced us for a couple of bookings, these total $80. Scott Kelly has taken on responsibility for bookings at Turnbull House in order to facilitate development of a relationship with them by having one go-to person.
Secretary (Ellen Boucher)
We have 32 paid-up members of NZLARPs in Wellington, including the 4 who joined today.
The Wellington Committee have started holding quarterly committee meetings, with the intention of planning the LARP calendar a quarter in advance.
The National Committee have now arranged access to the relevant databases and accounts for the Wellington committee.
Gear Officer (Scott Kelly)
The library has grown over the past year, once again, through donations made by Kapcon and by members. Scott reported that he has purchased a First Aid kit for the gear library in Wellington, and is assembling an Amenities Box similar to that used at Chimera, containing things like sanitary pads, toothpaste, toothbrush, and those painkillers that we can legally give to others (in the case of some medicines of this kind they require a nurse). He has also assembled a LARP Box, containing cups, tablecloths, name badges (both sticky and plastic holders), and pens, as these are things that people always want to use.
Malcolm Harbrow and Scott have both been involved in making weapons and similar for the gear library this year. The committee is very grateful to them for this.
Currently gear is stored mostly with Scott, with Malcolm Harbrow and Donna Giltrap taking the overflow. We also have some gear currently in Auckland for Teonn. Frank Pitt and Sophie Melchior both offered additional storage space if this would be useful. Planning the LARP calendar a quarter ahead means that people can access gear easily, despite it being stored at different locations. Scott has updated the Gear Library spreadsheet, and has included where things are stored.
Marketing Officer (Bryn Jones)
Bryn expressed the committee’s thanks to all those who have run LARPs in Wellington this year. Currently, demand outstrips supply, so the committee is keen to get more and bigger games run in Wellington. We currently have potential for several Auckland games to be run down here- we have approached the writers of ‘The Great Exhibition’ (60 players) and ‘One Night In Heaven’ (30 players but with the potential to add more) to ask if they will run those games down here, and Scott has approached the writers of ‘Asterix and the Council of Carnutes’ to ask if they will run this at Hydra. Chris Rosedale plans to run ‘Sebastian T Rawhide’s Circus of the Spectacular’ in Wellington.
3: Aspirations and plans for 2011-2012
The committee is very keen to see more games being written and run in Wellington. As such we are keen to support people wanting to GM or write in any way we can. There was some discussion of what this might look like.
Useful suggestions included potential GMs either co-GMing, or NPCing for an experienced GM to get a better handle on what it involves, and to learn from them. Experienced writers/GMs could ‘mentor’ new people, and NPC for them on the night of a game so that someone is on hand to support them.
In order to meet demand, we also discussed ways to encourage writers to do the extra work involved in preparing a game so that someone else could run it. There was some discussion of potentially having a LARP design contest, though it was felt that the Scenario Design Contest at Kapcon could cover this, provided the rules of the contest allow for it. It was felt that encouraging writers to do the work and have the games added to build up a Wellington NZLARPS Library would be a positive step, so that we can encourage more games to be written up in formal documents.
Another suggestion made was to contact the organisers of LARP conventions in other countries, who frequently have games running that are not publically available, to investigate whether we can exchange games with them.
Reviewing scenarios and games was also raised as a good way of learning what goes into writing a game.
Malcolm Harbrow currently maintains an RPGnet Wiki with details of as many games as possible that are available online- however the quality of these games varies a great deal.
Sophie Melchior noted that Ellen Boucher is running a game in December (‘The Night Before Christmas’) where she had announced it was running early, but initially was looking for expressions of interest, but not opening sign-ups for the game. Ellen explained that this was to gauge interest and work out whether the game would need to be run more than once, but also to make sure that new players found out about the game and got the chance to sign up. The quarter-ahead calendar planning would facilitate this way of getting players happening more often, and does make it fairer in terms of sign-ups, as currently new players are often missing out on games. Another possibility for making sure everyone who wants to LARP gets opportunities to do so is giving priority to new players, which Mel Duncan is doing for ‘Masquerade on Fleet Street’ and which Jenni Dowsett did for the second run of ‘Silver Kiss of the Magical Twilight of the Full Moon’. Going forward, the committee wants to see popular games running more than once, either simultaneously or having re-runs at a later date- however we do not want GMs to feel that they have to run the same game again. This is another reason for writers producing a formal document that would allow someone else to re-run the game if they are unable to or do not wish to.
The Committee, tying in with the quarterly LARP planning, has produced a budget sheet and letter with options to delete as appropriate for prospective GMs- this can be those looking to have NZLARPS Wellington underwrite their games, or those looking for other support- the letter provides a variety of options. NZLARPS Wellington can help GMs by:
• Underwriting (dependent on the budget)
• Offering use of the NZLARPS Wellington bank account to collect entry fees electronically.
• Use of the gear library.
• Advice and support.
• Marketing games on behalf of the GMs.
The Hydra LARP convention will be running from Friday 13th-Sunday 15th April at Brookfields Scout Camp in Wainuiomata. There will be 6 rounds, with games running for about 3 hours each, and games will be for around 20 players. A conservative estimate of attendees is about 40-50 people. Currently, we are keen to gauge interest from the community about who will be attending for the whole weekend, wanting accomodation, wanting catering, all of which are very important to help with budget forecasting.
Ellen Boucher explained that the Committee are looking to organise regular workshops on various things related to LARP- we will put a list of possible workshop topics up for people to say which ones they would be interested in attending, and to make their own suggestions. Possibilities include: sewing costumes, making swords (a series of workshops, and would depend on people committing to the series), making small weapons or shields, make-up, special effects (eg prosthetics). Hannah McKie offered to run some acting workshops, Paul Wilson offered to run LARP combat workshops, and is also looking into the idea of half-LARP, half-combat-training games. Brooklynne Kennedy offered to run some costuming workshops.
Anthony Doornebosch also expressed that the Committee needs to look into ways to grow our bank balance. If we can get more money coming into the Wellington account, it means we are better able to underwrite games, replace gear as needed, and run more activities and events. Suggestions for ways to do this included seeking community funding (from organisations like the Lions and Rotary), having fundraising games, a ‘Friends of NZLARPS’ donation system with some kind of recognition for donors. Higher pricing for games was also suggested, and is starting to happen. With demand for games currently outstripping supply, there is scope for those running games to experiment with pricing to see what people are willing to pay. Mel Duncan (Vice President of the Victoria University Games Club) said the Supervillain LARP run by the Club, where entry was $30, still filled very quickly, and made a considerable profit. What is a ‘reasonable’ entry fee of course depends on what people are offering, but it was felt that $20/$15 for NZLARPS members was still very reasonable.
Finally, the committee has had an expression of interest from the Victoria University Games Club in becoming affiliated with NZLARPS. The committee is keen to pursue this, and Mel Duncan has offered to act as a liaison with the Games Club.
4: Elections for 2011-2012 Committee
Stephanie Pegg acted as Returning Officer.
For each position, those voting had the options of voting for a candidate, voting ‘no confidence’ and abstaining.
Elections were held for the following posts:
a. Regional Director- Nominees: Ellen Boucher
b. Treasurer- Nominees: Anthony Doornebosch
c. Secretary- Nominees: Chris Rosedale and Brooklynne Kennedy
d. Gear Officer- Nominees: Scott Kelly
e. Marketing Officer- Nominees: Bryn Jones
f. General Officer (x 2 posts)- Nominees: Donna Giltrap, Brooklynne Kennedy, Chris Rosedale.
Candidates were given the opportunity to say a little about why they were standing for the positions in question. Chris Rosedale was not able to attend, but e-mailed a statement which was read out at the meeting by Scott Kelly.
The results of the elections were as follows:
Regional Director: Ellen Boucher
Regional Treasurer: Anthony Doornebosch
Regional Secretary: Chris Rosedale
Regional Gear Officer: Scott Kelly
Regional Marketing Officer: Bryn Jones
Regional General Officers: Donna Giltrap and Brooklynne Kennedy
These results were proposed as accurate by Paul Wilson, seconded by Sophie Melchior, and ratified unanimously by those in attendance.
After the election results were announced, the meeting was closed.
