IMPORTANT 2012 BOWLING ANNOUNCEMENT, PLEASE READ

Dear LAFFBowl attendees,

I am sad to say that the day has come that I must make the biggest change ever to LAFFBowl in order to resolve the continuing problems a few members of our group cause for our host venues. Last night, we had not one but TWO incidents that caused the bowling alley to come to me and, for the first time ever at Tivoli, started talking in "we don't want to lose you, BUT" language. I cannot accept us losing an event over stupid behavior and something must be done to control it. Unlike our previous bowling alleys, Tivoli has always been very reasonable and their complaints are valid - so if we manage to lose this venue, I will not be finding us a new one - that WILL be the end of LAFFBowl.

With that in mind, I need everyone to first reflect back at the things you may have done yesterday that would have caused the bowling alley frustration. I'm sure we do things that cause Buona Beef frustration too. As a result, I had to make this change so we can identify the troublemakers and weed them out:

ALL ATTENDEES, BOWLING OR NOT, MUST SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO THE LAFF EVENT CODE OF CONDUCT, AND MUST OPENLY DISPLAY MEMBERSHIP BADGES AT ALL TIMES.

The 2012 membership badges will cost $2 cash or $3 PayPal for non-bowlers. If you pay $10 cash for bowling on your first attendance and sign up before signups close at 9:25 PM, I will cover the membership badge cost and it's free for you. The one badge is good for ALL of 2012 (but, same price whether you buy it January or December 2012). You have to bring it back each month, you will NOT be given a replacement if you lose your badge and you will need to buy a new one (and the free badge with bowling does not apply to replacements, either). The badges will be hard plastic like the ones given out at Anthrocon, so they will be durable and made to last all year - and I will include a clip-on but I recommend you bring your own lanyard for easy wearing especially on a fursuit. I'm trying to make this change as simple and unintrusive as I possibly can.

PLEASE E-MAIL ME DIRECTLY with your preferred badge name (exactly as it will appear including Caps) if you plan on attending ANY LAFFBowl meets in 2012 - I will be preprinting all the badges. I will only have dinky paper temporary badges available at the meets. You may also pre-pay by PayPal - laffbowl at timoran.com is the e-mail address - or you may pay for the badge at Buona or Tivoli when you arrive. I am planning to also distribute the LAFFBowl badges at New Year's Eve Con if you're going to that.

The updated code of conduct is at LAFF Event Code of Conduct . I'll update the main Bowling page with this info when I can, probably after New Year's Eve Con (it is a wiki, so one of you may feel free to do it for me before then).

Badges are nothing new to anyone who goes to a convention. It's a small thing that makes a big impact in showing who is and isn't in our group, and gives each person personal accountability to the group for whatever they do - since whatever you do DOES impact the group and can result in difficulties up to and including the END OF THE MEET. I held off making this change as long as I could, and I have done everything I can to control this problem, but a change had to be made. I will also be increasing security staff and seeking out volunteer staff to help with tasks such as badge checks and registration, with a promotion path to security. I hope you appreciate that I will have to sacrifice my own enjoyment of the meets to make the badge and security changes that were necessary, but I'm doing it for the sake of the group.

Also, volunteer staff will receive a volunteer badge for free - no $2 fee for non-bowlers. You can still mingle and enjoy the event, but being a volunteer means you should be prepared to leave what you're doing and help with any issue that may arise. The more volunteers we get, the less time any one person will have to spend helping out.

The attendance last night was huge, I would estimate in the 60s or 70s. We ARE as big as some cons, exceeding the attendance of early years of Feral. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I needed to make the change, although it comes as a disappointment because I really shouldn't have to do this if people could behave like adults. However, we will move on - and if nothing else, the badges will help people with atrocious memory of names and faces (like yours truly) learn people's names!

-TJ

P.S. Please talk to me in private if you believe you contributed to the complaints Tivoli had with us last night.