[Asianmedia] A Serious Letter about Anime Boston--IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ.

[Katherine Elisabeth Roman]

--READ THIS WHOLE THING, GUYS--

Lets get ONE thing straight cosplay-wise: Anime Boston is Anime Boston in NAME
ONLY. People will cosplay from games, steampunk, movies, comics, manga AND
Anime. Literally, you find everything. So dont think you HAVE to cosplay from
an Anime.

It hurts me to write this email, it really does.

--WARNING: MAY CONTAIN REALITY CHECKS---

My ~rakish~ co-signer and I met with Pam of CLA today, and while Stefan's
soothing voice and gentle touch and good looks can get him many places, it did
not get us full funding for Anime Boston.


Now. You may all start to hate me now, but really, conventions are a bitch to
plan and a bitch to fund. I want everyone to go and be as comfy as possible,
but it will not be as simple, and it WILL take participation and effort on
Asian Media's behalf. I will try to do everything I can to make this work
without coming off as a dick.
-PLEASE WORK WITH THE SIGNERS, AUUGHH-


This is bad news. However, we can turn this around. As it stands, I've emailed
Ficom to ask how many hotel rooms we can afford if we get a cheaper hotel [we
WANT one close to the Hynes convention center. Trust me on this. You do not
want to walk a mile at 2 am after a rave in an unfamiliar city, most likely in
costume]
but it'll probably be 2 or 3 at max. This means ya'll are going to have to get
used to either sleeping on the floor, with eachother, or not at all.

No, really. I hope no one expected beds to themselves with about 30 people going
on a trip with VERY expensive hotel rooms that Ficom can't afford ten of.


HOWEVER.

IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS/FAMILY IN BOSTON [PREFERABLY NEAR THE CONVENTION CENTER,
WHICH IS ON BOYLSTON STREET, OR YOU COULD JUST GOOGLE HYNES CONVENTION CENTER
BOSTON] THAT WILL LET SOME PEOPLE STAY WITH THEM, PLEASE. LET. US. KNOW.


Number two: IF YOU  HAVE FUNDRAISING IDEAS, LET. US. KNOW.

The total cost of the trip, if ficom was rich and paid for ALL the registrations
and rooms we would need, would be around 4-5 thousand dollars.

YES. THAT MUCH. This means we need to man up and find out how to cut the cost
down. I've started by attempting to get fewer rooms [and hopefully getting by
ficom that we'd be clown-rooming] and I've also contacted UMass' anime Club to
ask if we could split rooms with them. I've been told they usually get 2-3
rooms, which would mean maybe 4 rooms, which means..7 people to a room? Not
bad. If we dont get that, deal with having 10 people in a room. I've done it
before, it involves sleeping on the floor, getting the skinniest people in one
bed, and sometimes not sleeping at all. Since everyone will be on their own
agendas the whole con, its not like the room will be constantly full with
people.

Personally, I've offered myself to the Anime Boston Room Shares on their forums
so that I might be able to crash with some other people so someone else can
have my spot in a room.

What does a "spot" mean?
It means putting your shit somewhere and -maybe- a place to sleep. Sleep at
conventions can be anywhere from 1-8 hours, I personally sleep about 2 and am
getting into costume by 8 AM, so I wont be taking up much space. it does NOT
mean your own bed. This convention gets about 30k guests as of last year. If
you think you'll be getting your own bed, you're VERY wrong.

TRANSPORTATION:
http://www.hampshire.edu/cpsc/4373.htm

SO. DEFENSIVE DRIVING.

Its offered twice a month, I can't find the link.
I don't have a license, or else I'd volunteer. PLEASE THINK ABOUT BECOMING A
DEFENSIVE DRIVER, IT TAKES LIKE 2 WEEKS.

 The vans, we've been told, will probably NOT be allowed 2 nights in Boston.

MORE HOTEL STUFF:

https://www.marriott.com/reservation/rateListMenu.mi

Here is the hotel I'm looking at. Its not cheap, but its the cheapest I can
find, and I might be able to haggle a discount.

its located next to like, 3 restaurants and trader joes, so there's your food,
which YOU WILL BE PAYING FOR.


----------
Again, if you have friends/family near the HYNES CONVENTION CENTER, please see
if you can do something?

REGISTRATION:

Registration costs about 45 dollars a person as of now. PRICES WILL GO UP. In
order to cut corners, I'm asking people who CAN afford their own registration
to please register on anime bostons website, animeboston.com . Email me when
you do/if you do.

FUNDRAISING:

Think of ideas, please? We REALLY need the money.


Sadly yours,

Kat.