Further Confusion 2012 May newsletter

1. New Venue, New theme
2. New Reservation policy and a message from our chair
3. FC2012 Pre-Registration is Open!  Now Fully Online!
4. Dealers Room Applications now open!
5. Hotel reservation time
6. Next Staff Meeting
7. For 'would-be' Staff

1.  New Venue, New theme

The theme for Further Confusion 2012 is "The Infurmary (For a limited time
every surgery comes with a free prize inside!)". It will be held at the
San Jose Convention Center, from January 12th through the 16th 2012, with
the San Jose Marriott and the Hilton San Jose as our main hotels and the
St. Claire as our preferred overflow.

2.  New Reservation policy and a message from our chair

This year we are moving to what may be our final home at the San Jose
Convention Center just one block from last year's location at the
Fairmont.  We have secured the site for the next 3 years on the Martin
Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.  This new location holds promise with
more programming space, indoor parking, and two wonderful hotels attached
to the property.  The San Jose Marriott and the Hilton San Jose will be
our main hotels continuing with the St. Claire as our preferred overflow.
All in all, an outstanding move.

So that we can continue to offer the best attendee experience the
convention, hotels, and venue can provide, we must make a difficult but
necessary change to our hotel room registration process and policy.

Beginning May 15th at 1pm Pacific Time (4pm Eastern, 9pm UK, 10pm Central
Europe) we will be accepting hotel reservations for Further Confusion
2012.

At the time of registration each person will be immediately billed their
first night's room and tax for each room reserved.  This will be
considered a non-refundable deposit and will not be returned in the event
of cancellation.

This tough decision is necessary to help mitigate room holds that are
released shortly before the convention start date and after the room block
has closed.  Conventions such as ours are granted concessions and program
space based on how many rooms are filled over the course of the
convention.  Once the room block is closed if someone releases interest in
a room it counts against our room block.  If enough rooms are released,
which has happened, the convention is liable for those rooms and must pay
for them.  The costs can be very high which can diminish the ability of
Further Confusion to offer world class amenities to our deserving
attendees.

Further Confusion is asking that attendees reserving rooms within our
block carefully consider their reservation before making it. If you are
making a reservation with a debit card for example, your bank account will
be deducted the first room night and tax immediately and no refunds will
be offered.  In the event of a cancellation no further charges will be
made beyond the first night and tax.

Please consider your choices carefully as you reserve!

Contact hotel@furtherconfusion.org with any questions about this policy.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

3.  FC2012 Pre-Registration is Open!  Now Fully Online!

You can pre-register for Further Confusion next year with our spiffy new
online registration system!  Just follow the directions to the online
registration system at the top of the Registration page our web site and
then enter your information.

Pre-registration is $45 for regular attendees (through August 31st, then
the price will rise to $50), but you can also pre-register at the sponsor
($100) or patron ($200) levels.

Since this is a new system, it's going to look a little different to what
you might have used in the past (but may be familar to some).  The big
benefit is that you'll be able to work out whether you've pre-registered
or not at any time of the day, just by logging on!  No more worried emails
at the last moment wondering if you remembered to pre-register or not -
the answer will be just a few clicks of the mouse away!

First, create an account with your real first and last name, and then you
will be asked to set up a security question that no-one else can answer.
The first time through, you'll also be asked to give your contact
information, but when you've done that once it'll be there from year to
year.  Then pick the membership type that you want, and how you want to
pay.  Currently, you can choose to either mail in a check or money order
with a form that you print, or you can pay instantly online through PayPal
(which also works for credit cards).  Coming soon, we'll also have a
separate credit card option for those people who don't have a PayPal
account.  Watch this space!

It's not all automated, of course!  If you have any questions, you can
still talk to a real person by emailing registration@furtherconfusion.org.

4.  Dealers Room Applications now open!

Yes, you read that right, we are now open for dealer table sales! To apply
for a table, go to the Further Confusion website, and then to the Dealers
page, and there will be a link to the application process.

This year, all but one small step will be done online. You will still need
to mail in something to us (a signature form, and payment if paying by
check or money order), but there's not going to be any 'if we receive it
before date X, you go to the back of the line.

We have slightly fewer spaces than we had last year due to the new
facility, but not by much, so we do recommend that you try to get into the
system as soon as you can.

5.  Hotel reservation time

We've said this above, but we'll say it again because it's important.

Beginning May 15th at 1pm Pacific time, we will be accepting hotel
reservations for Further Confusion 2012. If you haven't read the message
from the Chair (above closely - do so! There is a very important change
regarding room reservation policy!

6.  Next Staff Meeting

The next meeting is May 14th, and will take place in the Willow Glen room
of the San Jose Marriott. Meeting time is 1pm.

For those furs wishing to participate in our staff meeting from out of
town, we will be doing a trial run with a conference bridge at this
meeting, using pro-grade conference phones.

You do not need to be staff to join the call, but we are keeping this
number unpublished at the moment while this solution is in beta: please
contact info@furtherconfusion.org for the number, along with what you're
interested in doing for the convention.

(Note that this is a regular number in the Bay Area, and is not toll free
-- FC is not responsible for your phone bill)

We will join the bridge from the meeting room a few minutes before the
meeting starts, and will make time for folks on the conference during roll
call, etc.

7.  For 'would-be' Staff

Are you working with FC2012?  Have you been officially hired?  Are you
able to access our private site?  Do you see your name there?

If the answer to any of these is "no" or "Wait, what private site?",
please speak to your track leader or "boss" (ie, the person who hired you)
to make sure your info has been sent in to our HR team and that you've
been added to the appropriate lists.
 
If you would like to be staff, but have no idea what you would like to do
(or even if you have an idea of what to do), you can contact our HR team
at HR@furtherconfusion.org.

--
Further Confusion
info@furtherconfusion.org
http://www.furtherconfusion.org/