Contents

• Contents
• Defining the Problem
• So You Want To Bid
  • Forming a concom
  • Defining the philosophy
  • Guests
  • Publicity
  • Membership Rates
  • Finding A Site
    • Split Sites
  • Gaining Support
  • Presenting Your Bid
    • What Sort Of Presentation?
    • Preparation
    • Answering Stupid Questions
    • Spoof Bids, Friend or Foe?
• Now What Are You Going To Do With It?
  • Taking money off people
  • Expanding the committee
  • Organising yourselves
  • Who does what?
  • Defining the programme
  • More publicity
  • Nailing Down the Hotel
  • Keeping in touch
  • Party! party! party!
• Making The Most Of Your Site
  • Function space allocation
  • Public spaces
  • Smoking and other foul habits
  • Handicapped access
  • Food and drink
    • Food
    • Real Ale and cider
    • Soft drinks
  • The party problem
  • Traffic and crush areas
    • Passageways and Halls
    • Stairs and Lifts
  • Bedroom allocation
  • Fannish bad habits
• Work Less, Achieve More, Have Fun
  • Don't Do It Yourself
  • The Low-Hassle Approach
  • Areas Which Can Be Delegated
  • Do You Need It?
  • Rules For The Con
• Things To Think About
  • Registration
  • Membership Badges
  • Other Badges and ribbons
  • Envelopes v bags
  • Freebies
  • Programme
  • Ops
  • Security
  • Tech
  • Art Show
  • Guests
• Pre-Con Preparation
  • Treasury
  • Site
  • Registration
    • Stuffing
  • Publications
  • Guests
  • Dealers’ Room
  • Programme Participants
  • Everything you haven’t thought of...
  • Expecting the completely unexpected
• Site Setup
  • Getting There
  • Things To Do
• Lighten Up, Kid, It's Only A Con!
  • Opening Ceremony
  • Panels
  • Games
  • Auctions
  • Masquerade
  • Bidding Session
  • Gripe Session
  • Closing Ceremony
  • Other
• Making The Con Run Well
  • Information
    • Noticeboards
    • Newsletter
    • Signs
    • Voodoo Board
    • Information Desk
    • Information Gopher
  • Green Room
  • Art Show
  • Ops
• Making The Con Fun
  • Mixing Areas
  • Micro-programming
  • Parties
  • Audience participation
  • Committee hug squad
• Crises And How To Fix Them
  • Six Important Points
  • Programme
  • Staff
  • Members
  • Guests
  • Site
  • Other
• Striking The Con
• It's Not Over Yet...

• Hotel Contracts
• Flyers and Progress Reports
• Links and Other Sources of Information
• A Short History of Recent Eastercons

State of the Rat (by John Richards)