@Ryan, well, it is what it is. Part of this is dictated by our other travel schedule - my older daughter has her college orientation in Wichita, KS 16-19th, so we will do a big triangle by heading to Amarillo before going back to the Dallas metroplex.

Since I'm already taking time off for my daughter's travel, I can't really stay too much longer. At least I can hang out, meet everyone FTF, discuss rules and help with setup and whatnot.

-T

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 12:35 pm: Edit

We will certainly be glad to see you there Ted.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 01:32 pm: Edit

Ted, you are always welcome!

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 03:11 pm: Edit

For the purposes of staff work, I will be able to attend via Zoom on my non working days once I know what they will be.

By Mike Curtis (Nashvillen) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 09:13 am: Edit

Ted, my sister and her family live in Wichita. Let me know if you want her contact information as a local resource for your daughter.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 02:33 pm: Edit

I am not a big fan of zoom and don't intend to use it during this project. Nothing beats sitting around a table in person. Anything else is at best fractionally useful and I'll have enough in person people that zoom won't add anything I don't already have. It might be practicable to email PDFs to some reliable effective people but it will be important to get the reports in 24 hours.

The theory is this.

Every morning I will go to the office and work on doing new pages and using reports to fix old pages. That will include some reports emailed to me over the previous 12 hours. During the day I might or might not be able to process more email reports.

Every day at 5pm I will print off what I have done (new or corrected) and drive to Jean's (stopping on the way for some food).

I will sit at Jean's for an hour or so (whatever it takes) listening to anyone tell me anything they have to say about the printouts I took to them 24 hours earlier. (This might be during dinner for all concerned.) I will take notes and collect reports on any previous documents, from 24 or 48 or more hours old. There might even be some discussion of the new documents although I doubt anyone will want to take much time away from gaming.

Then I will pass out the "new" pages and the "revised" pages that I did that day and leave.

During the 22 or 23 hours from when I leave one day to when I arrive the next day, staffers and others at Jean's house will find time to read everything I gave them and produce reports, comments, and notes. It just depends on what it is. If you see a mis-spelled word or other typo, just circle it and when we go over the pages tell me and I'll mark it (or maybe Jean will produce a consolidated markup copy including her own notes). If I leave a cross reference blank, make a note and tell me (or tell Jean if she's compiling a copy). If it's a big discussion of changing a rule, make notes or prepare a written commentary or email it to me. We can discuss it.

Repeat each day.

Maybe the last day nobody games and we all just sit at the office doing one-hour cycles instead of 24 hours cycles.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 11:57 pm: Edit

Well I for one would like to tour the office at some point (I am sure others do as well) having never been there.

I also plan on some Texas Style BBQ...lots of it...and anything else that is good local faire.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 01:07 am: Edit

My arrival to Amarillo should be around 3:30 on Sunday. Sadly I could not make any changes tonight arrive earlier. I hope Ted is still around.

I fly out at 2:30p on Saturday now that SW eliminated the 4:30p flight.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 02:51 am: Edit

3:30 am or 15:30 pm?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 27, 2021 - 11:33 am: Edit

You are all welcome to tour the office.

By Mike Curtis (Nashvillen) on Wednesday, June 02, 2021 - 08:22 pm: Edit

I have gone from F10 to F0. I have been selected to be a voting member of our redistricting committee for the 2020 census reapportionment for our county. This is a great honor, but the next meeting, which is required for me to attend personally, is the 23rd of June. This is right in the middle of our event. I will no longer be able to attend.

On the other hand I will be spending many hours working on the documents SVC sends out and may actually be able to spend more time on the warbook project than if I was there personally. I will also be able to participate virtually with the staff meetings via zoom or some other medium we may sort out later.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Wednesday, June 02, 2021 - 10:49 pm: Edit

Sorry Arrival is 1530 Saturday; Departure Plan to leave for AMA @1230 for a 1430 Flight back to Oakland.

Oh man that is rough Mike.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 12:31 am: Edit

Mike, I would have seriously considered cancelling the whole thing had we known earlier. Your participation is critical and no computer system can replace real live presence.

Seriously, is it too late to kick this to July?

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 12:50 am: Edit

I have non-refundable tickets...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 01:43 am: Edit

I guess we'll do what we can with Mike doing reports by email, but it's going to cost more effort and produce a less perfect product. (BTW, Zoom is not a solution to anything. I have done it before and frankly it's not worth bothering. If somebody wants to Zoom with Mike, leave me out of it. The problem is zoom, not Mike.) I had to trash the entire product schedule to take advantage of Chuck-Mike-Ryan being in Amarillo; now I wish I had not.

To make this work, I am going to need more non-staff participation, I will have to take Chuck and Ryan away from the game for more time, and Mike will need to really do the best email reports in the history of the staff.

Not Mike's fault, but had I known this in April we wouldn't be doing Stratcon in June.

By Mike Curtis (Nashvillen) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 09:00 am: Edit

We have a plan B, I will know by Monday for sure.

This is the plan: I will fly out of Amarillo on Wed morning, attend my meeting that evening and fly back to Amarillo first thing Thursday morning to be gone just over 24 hours. Ryan, Chuck and I worked on this all last evening.

I will know more Monday evening.

This is something that was sprung on me last night. There was no way for me to "kick this to July" as it involves State constitutional law. It is a classic real life interfering with our hobby.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 10:20 am: Edit

Mike, if you haven't changed your plans yet, here is something to consider. Fly out late on the 23rd or on the 24th and spend the rest of the time (even an extra day) working on warbook in the office. Just thinking out loud.

And Mike, nobody said it was your fault. I wanted to kick Stratcon to July, not your work task.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 10:55 am: Edit

I don't know how much it's worth, but I will be there from Sunday afternoon through Tuesday evening, and my primary purpose is to provide what help I can on rules issues and/or rules wording, or even grunt work. My job will require me to be back to work on Wed.

-T

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 11:19 am: Edit

Not as much help as it would be other days. Your only full day is Monday, the one day I cannot be there.

By Mike Curtis (Nashvillen) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 11:50 am: Edit

I have to be at the meeting at 5:30 pm Central time on the 23rd. The flight schedules are limited, but there is an American flight that leaves around 0800 on the 23rd and with a connection in DFW I will be in Nashville around noon. I will be picked up by my daughter and driven home. I will then attend the meeting that evening and sleep at home that night. I will then get up really early on the 24th and fly out of Nashville at 0530 arriving at Amarillo, via DFW again, around 0930. Should be back at the gaming table by 1000 or so. Not the best, but much better than missing the whole event.

There is about a 5% chance that this may all not be necessary but that depends on a meeting Monday evening. I will know then for sure and be prepared to purchase the tickets after that meeting.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 11:58 am: Edit

Mike, thanks for working so hard for a good outcome.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 12:06 pm: Edit

@SVC: I'll try to buy another day from work.

-T

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 12:50 pm: Edit

I'm still in negotiations with my wife about going down for this. I may have to go alone, based on the latest conversation. I'd only be there for one or two days, not the whole week. i haven't touched the files in over three months, but maybe I can make time to fix a couple minor icons and print out fresh copy of the Fed POL deck plans for review and comment.


Garth L. Getgen

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Thursday, June 03, 2021 - 02:28 pm: Edit

Garth, we are asking for the Covid waiver and copy of a photo ID to be in our hands by June 14 (email or snail mail). It would be helpful for planning purposes to know which days. And I will miss Celestia.

By Richard Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Friday, June 04, 2021 - 01:24 pm: Edit

So on the year I have the money and time to attend, health issues (exceptionally poor vision and other issues) will prevent it.

sorry guys.