UPDATE II: Merchandise dead line, money issues, and more.

Merchandise:

-You all need at least 10 different "products". This DOES NOT mean prints. In fact, I'd suggest you make no more than 5 of your products prints. [Business talk] Basically from all the survey's I've done, many people buy prints if they're funny, cute, of their favorite character, or down right gorgeous. Also people are selling too many prints and they're not practical enough for people. Try make something practical. We can make magnets out of your pictures or something similar! Hats, scarves, charms, magnets, pens, gift boxes, badges, pencil cases, bags, paper weights, all these things are good things to think about. [/business talk]

-What DOES constitute as a "product":

• 5 buttons designs. Not 1, not 2, but 5.
  
• 1 print of very high resolution. This means we can make it into a poster, a print of any size, or a bookmark.
  
• 3 charms. These can be clay, shrink dinks. Ask if you're not sure.
  
• 1 plushie.
  
• 1 bag, hat, or scarf.
  
• 1 shirt design.
  
• 2 ornaments. Hair pieces, pairs of earrings, bracelets, necklaces.
  

[If they're listed as 2 or more, it means you need to turn in that many of that particular item before being able to be checked off as having ONE "product". Any questions, just ask.]

-I do NOT want an issue like last year where people were rushing a week before con to get pictures done, so I won't have a mega-giant deadline. So here are a list of all the deadlines that need to be met and how many items I expect done by then. I'm not too strict, but please don't delay everything until the last possible second. D:

• 1 Product by September 28. Last Monday of September.
  
• 1 Products by October 30. The last Friday of October and the day before Halloween.
  
• 1 Product by November 30. The day after Thanksgiving break.
  
• 3 Products by January 8. The first Friday after Winter Break.
  
• 1 Product by February 16. The day after the 4-day weekend.
  
• 1 Product by March 1. The first Monday of March.
  
• Whatever you need to get in! FINAL Deadline: April 5, 2010. First day after Spring Break.

Remember: You are not limited to these dates! You can turn in more on these dates, or you can turn them in earlier. Basically I realized how fucked our schedule is this year. Our Spring Break ends SUPER later. It ends right after Easter. o_o That's freaking late.

-Prints and things that need to be printed should be turned in electronically to me. If you need it scanned, you can give me a hard copy or scan it at the tech center if your scanner sucks. All other products can be given to me at school or given to someone in Dango Dewdrop to be given to me. All products will be stored in Masaki's room [AKA Orch Room] until con. So if you need to adjust something, you can see it then.

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Money Issues:

-Right now, you should all know but if not I'll say it again, Dango Dewdrop is a completely separate organization from Otakus United and Mid-Pac.

-Being an independent organization, we no longer can get money for the school to fund out projects. [Which wasn't really a problem since they paid for the table which we already have handled.] But this also means we don't have to donate our profit to any organization and we can evenly split it, this time with more of it in it for all of us.

-But we need to budget better this year. Last year only Geoff and I paid for the majority of the goods. This year I have a budget plan that should save money for all of us:

• Prints [Calendar, posters, pictures, bookmarks, anything from Costco/Sam's Club Printing Center]: Geoff, Reyna, Lei.
  
• Buttons [Rental and supply cost]: Maria and Summer
  
• Shirts and Tables: Jackie [I was really hoping to get help here, especially since I need 45 more dollars for another half table.]

I'm sure you'll all be willing to do your share. You will talk, collaberate, and make nice to your budget members. :3 I trust you all to take care of your sections for the most part. Not saying I'm abandoning overseeing your sections, it just helps me with stress if everyone could help out.

-Anything not listed is to be your responsibility for paying. If you want money back, I suggest you keep receipts of all purchases made so that I can pay you back the money. No receipt, no money back. Sorry. :[ So keep all your receipts! Or packaging and price tags.

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Calendar:

-There has been dispute over whether or not we're doing a calendar. We are still doing a calendar.

-What we're doing right now is a cute calendar made up of different fairy tales. Personally, I think it might be cute to see every month to have a touch of something series-based [squeezing in a chocobo, using characters from series, placing trademark items, etc], but that's completely up to you at this point. Take all the artistic liberties you need.

-All pictures can be sketched on normal printer paper, but the finished piece should be on watercolor paper seeing that we're water coloring it. You can either draw and ink directly onto the paper or make electronic lineart and then print it on watercolor paper. Your choice.

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Kawaii-Kon vs. School:

-Alright if anyone (like me) bothered to check the dates of 2010's Kawaii-Kon and our school's schedule, you'll notice how they tend to conflict. Basically, we won't be able to get to the convention center until about 3 and then we can start selling things. I would love it if the school could let us out early or even better if we didn't have to go to school. xD But that's not going to happen. [Unless you have a free period like me so that you can skidaddle.] Anyway, if I have a free period 1 on that Friday, I'll head out there first and you all can meet me there when you get there. If not we can figure out some car pooling idea so we can all get there at the same time.

-It's still pending what's happening. But don't keep your hopes up. School's first, after all. :3

-For those planning on going to prom, there's a good chance it lands on the 17th, AKA the Saturday of con. FYI: Prom doesn't start until the evening.. like... 5 or 6 or 7? Something like that. Anyway, if you guys want to go, that's fine, I don't control your lives. But I expect you to at least show up and work your shift, even if it's an early shift. I mean it'll be a 3-4 hour shift, if you take the earliest one, you'll be done by 11 or 12. That gives you 5-6 hours to prepare and pamper yourselves before then. I understand that you all need time to get ready, but I think 5-6 hours should be enough. I would hope so. If, for some reason, you really don't want to come to con, then please talk to me before hand so I can schedule you out. [FYI: I'm not going to prom.]

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Table Space and Storage:

-Current Table Sketch: [X]

-Right now, we're in possession of one full table, the same size as last year. Right now I'm contemplating getting another half table since right now we're literally putting stuff on the side of our table because we lack space. More updates on this later. [The wheel of prizes cannot exsist unless we get this half table. So think about helping me invest!]

-My father agreed to supply us with those wired cubes like this year. But as you can see we'll be able to have more table space because we're not having four collums, but two.

-After a few surveys, I found out that people at cons are, like, afraid of binders or something. xD So that's why I got rid of the commisson binder and made it so people are forced to look at it if they look at our table.

-Because we have those cubes, you know how nice they are for storing things. Along side that, since we're not part of OU anymore, we can now kick people out of our space if they leave their crap there. :/ Thus leaving US more room for OURSELVES and not THEIR stuff. [/rage] Anyway, due to better planning on my part, there will be less space taken up by me [no more giant bags of costumes] and all art pieces will stay at the table. Prints will be organized in one binder like this year so it'll take up little to no space. I'll provide that plastic black divider/holder for envelopes and such. If anyone else has ideas for space convervation, please don't hesitate to ask. This year, I want one or two boxes under our table for shirts. All other things will be in the cubes. Bags, if too large to fit inside cubes, can be stored under. We'll see how it goes.

-A giant cloth or tarp will be thrown over our table every night before we leave so we don't have to come in every day to re-set up everything.

-Always open to suggestions.

Okay! We are for sure getting ourselves a half a table!
Well, if they sell them and we buy it in time that is.
But the money is no issue!
And unless a button machine costs hundreds and hundreds of dollars to rent, I am almost certain I can pay for all of the rental costs. Unless, or course, Summer wants to spend her money with me! ;D

Recession makes money flow out my ears.

Well I think we just need to plan how to get the button machine... all of that. Unless Maria you already know how we are getting it. xD And yea I'm willing to spend money... well I don't have an allowance. BUT I can surely ask :3 I WOULDN'T WANT MARIA TO GO BROKE BECAUSE OF A BUTTON MACHINE.

I say that we should plan all the button making stuff so that we can be done quickly, so we don't need to spend TOO much. :3

Jacquie Custeau said she'd find us the best deal on a button machine, so I'm still assuming that's the case. I wouldn't know where to begin looking for one to rent.
We could try to find one as well, though, cuz she has a ton of stuff to do already. But it would be starting completely from scratch to find it, since I haven't heard anything from Jacquie Custeau about any button machines.