NEWS AND FORUMS

NADWCON 2011 OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

Greetings!

As summer fades into autumn, our work on the 2011 North American Discworld Convention is heating up. If you’ve visited our website (www.nadwcon.org), you’ve probably seen some new things there. We would also like to announce that we have found our Granny Weatherwax, are looking for someone to fit into a certain golden suit, and so much else. Read on to learn more.

Interviews
Our intrepid Co-Guest Liaison and Convention Advisor - Emily S. Whitten, Esq. --  snagged interviews with several members of the Discworld family. Right now you can find interviews with Stephen Briggs and Colin Smythe at the 2010 convention in England, on the main page of our website for your listening pleasure with more to come.

I can own Angua’s WHAT!?
Emily was also resourceful (or sneaky) enough to get several charity items from Sir Terry and The Mob Film Co. during the convention. Many of the items are from the Going Postal movie, this includes props, bits of scenery and even the costume of a certain morphologically challenged member of the the city watch! It is still early and we plan on getting a lot more for the auction, but this is a very encouraging start.

Our Guest list has grown.
We are very pleased to report that we can add the always entertaining Esther M. Friesner (Some of you may remember her as the lovely woman who introduced Sir Terry at the 2009 NADWCon) and author Stephen Baxter (Who is currently collaborating with Sir Terry on The Long Earth, novels) to our guest list. Look over our official guests list on our website for more information.

Looking for more to do while you visit Madison?
Our Travel and Tourism page has been updated to give you an idea about some of the sights and activities in and around the Madison area. Be it within walking distance of the Concourse Hotel, or up to an hour’s drive away, you’ll find some great suggestions for activities that you will enjoy and won’t hurt your pocketbook.

Faces with the names
In addition to this, people can now place the faces to the names of the committee members. That’s right -- we’ve included photos of the committee! Also, if you visit the page, you can see that we have more people helping to make this monstrosity a reality. Take a good look at all our faces so you will know who to blame.

And that’s cutting me own throat!
The official NADWCon 2011 Owl-logo t-shirt is now available for pre-order in our merchandise section. If you have purchased your membership you can order an official NADWCon 2011 T-shirt for pick-up at the convention.  Why pre-order? Partly because we are offering them at a discount if you order beforehand, but it also guarantees that you will have one in your size, in case we run out at the con.  In addition, it helps fund the convention, and helps us gauge the popularity of the various mechanise we will be offering. We are also hoping that since you are purchasing the convention merchandise so many months in advance that you may have a little extra spending money in your pocket when our charity auction takes place.  You pay less, we get important funds and information, and the charities get more... Everybody wins!

Our Online Registration List
Looking for friends? Well, you can see who’s attending the convention if you look under the Registration button. Currently we have more than 200 people signed up. Recognize any names? This is also an easy way for you to keep tabs on our record keeping. Do you see something wrong with your membership? If so please let us know so we can fix it.

Book your hotel stay early!
We cannot stress how important this is, so we are going to put it yet another newsletter:
The annual Art Fair on the Square (http://www.mmoca.org/events/artfair) will be taking place July 9 and 10 in Madison and will be within walking distance of our convention hotel. This is an outdoor art and craft show that brings in about a quarter of a million people from all over the country. Its a fun event for all ages with food, musical performances, and all sorts of things to do. If you happen to be in the Madison area, for a convention or something, and have an hour or so until the next program, Art Fair on the Square is certainly worth checking out. We have an expandable block of rooms at the Concourse Hotel reserved just for our convention members, but that is still a limited amount of space and with such a popular event taking place that weekend you should expect hotels in the area to fill up fast.

GRANNY WEATHERWAX FOUND!
Several weeks ago our vice-char Jon Lemerond sent out a notice looking for a volunteer to play Granny Weatherwax for a convention program. Jon would like to thank all of you who volunteered for the position, but as I am sure we can all agree, there can be only one Granny Weatherwax, and boy did we every find her!  We want to thank the amazing Pam Gower for agreeing to play the part (health and circumstances permitting). Some of you may remember Pam as the Granny Weatherwax who won the Clarecraft maskerade by staring down audience! Thanks again to all those who volunteered for the job, we still have plenty to do at the con if you want help in some other way.

Are you Moist?
No, not as in damp. Are you the next Moist von Lipwig? The NADWCon is seeking a male volunteer who would like to play Moist Von Lipwig. This task requires someone who is comfortable with speaking in front of an audience, can speak clearly, has a smidgen of acting and improvisational ability, would love to be a charming conman and is confident they can stay in character for about an hour.  A costume can be provided if you need one.

If you’re interested, please contact our volunteer officer at  volunteer@nadwcon.org.

Committee Meeting
The NADWCon 2011 committee is having a meeting at the Concourse Hotel in downtown Madison on Oct 23rd at 2 p.m.. Any local volunteers who would like to join us are welcome. We would love to hear any ideas or suggestions you have, just contact us first to let us know you are coming .

That’s it for this month, we have lots more planned to talk about in our next newsletter. and for more information, be sure to keep an eye on our:
Website - www.nadwcon.org
Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120885434611073
Twitter, - http://twitter.com/nadwcon
and Forum - http://nadwcon.9.forumer.com

See you in Madison!

Josh Goes - Chair
Jon Lemerond - Vice Chair
Vivian Obarski - Online Coordinator