Vice Con Chair and Merchandise Coordinator

Duties of the Vice Con Chair:

To act as intermediary for the Con Chair, to handle all the issues that are of lesser importance. This is a lot more work than is implied by a single sentence. Be prepared for it.

To support your con chair, as well as to make sure he or she keeps his feet on the ground. Supporting your con chair includes telling him or her if you think they have their head up their butt on a specific issue. You also may need to run interference for your con chair (especially over the convention weekend), so they only have to deal with any more major issues that might have arisen.

People will always find something to bitch about. Try to discern if the bitching is (A) justified, and, (B) about something you can do something about. If the answer to the first is no, ignore it. If the answer to the second is no, acknowledge that you’re aware of the problem, and then ignore it.

On site, you are responsible for EVERYTHING your Con Chair doesn’t have time to handle. Mostly manning the Dealer's and/or Registration table and selling all that merchandise you helped bring into production

Merchandisey stuff...

While the whole staff should vote on who wins the contests for the T-shirt and Calendar art it is your job to arrange for the production of the merchandise- and that it is in Convention Staff hands several days (or preferably, weeks) before the con is scheduled.

First the con staff- be that the chair alone, the chair, vice, and treasurer, or a quorum of *all* of the con staff- needs to decide what merchandise they want to have available. For a list of merchandise and a sampling of both production and sale costs, please turn to the budget section linked here. Second and Third, you need to track down the best places to have your merchandise produced, and how you want to arrange for content. The Gathering has a history of contests open to the fans, and usually arranges for a fan or two (unless it is an open contest for the fandom) to produce the content (usually art) for the various merchandise. Then you need to work out the deadlines involved in each item- if you are holding a contest, when does it start and end? How soon do you need the winner settled so you can get the items produced in time for the con? How long until winners are chosen, and announced? If the work is written, how much time is needed for editing, and formatting if it is a book? How much time do you need for proofs on the work? How long does production take from start to finish, and how long after that will the product be shipped and in your hands? Based on the last, when should you submit your merchandise order to its producers? How many extra do you want to order of each type to cover any you sell between when you take the pre-orders and when pre-registration ends, and how many-if any- to sell on site during the convention?

You'll need to coordinate closely with both the Registration Coordinator to track how the sales numbers are doing for each item, as well as with the Contest Coordinator to make sure the needs and limits (and preferences) for any contest that is related to the production of merchandise is clear. You also need to apprise your Treasurer of how much each set of merchandise is realistically going to cost, including an estimate on shipping and handling if you can get it.