Wrapping 2012 and the Future

Shorah Everybah’ro

This will most likely be the last time I post here as Chair of the FMG or the Mysterium Committee. As of September 1st 2012, I am stepping down as Chair and leaving the Mysterium planning group. Don’t worry, this is entirely for personal reasons; Mysterium is still safe (for now… but I’m getting ahead of myself). Eleri and Odo were at this before I got here, and they’ll continue to make great Mysteria after I leave.

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for helping to make Mysterium 2012 successful. There were certainly some bumps (your shirts are coming, I promise!), but overall it went well. We had some fun activities, some very cool presentations, and I understand people enjoyed traipsing around Seattle on Sunday. A big thanks goes out to Eleri and Odo for their hard work, and especially for keeping things going and positive when I was… shall we say ‘indisposed’ on Sunday. Also, thanks to Rium, Zib, and Blade for their presentations, Capella for helping get stuff organized, all the artists who donated prizes, Jigsaw for WWAD, and to everyone else who helped in some way. And of course, thanks to everyone who came, even if just for a little while. Mysterium is nothing without people there to enjoy it, which leads me to my main topic.

A little while back, I posted about the future of Mysterium. That post got a lot of feedback, some good and some less than helpful. The current plan, for those who don’t know, is this: The FMG will open for Mysterium 2013 bids sometime soon. If no reasonable bids are received by a certain date, Mysterium will be held in Austin, TX. It will then enter a 3 year cycle bouncing between Boston, Seattle, and Austin, barring special events or bids. This is not the ideal solution, but it is a workable one. More importantly, it is the one the committee can commit to doing for the time being.

If you don’t like this plan, and want to see Mysterium go back to visiting new cities, the solution is simple: offer to help. Mysterium is a convention for the fans, and so it relies on the fans to keep it going. Want Mysterium in your city? Then build a team, write a proposal, and bid! Yes, there’s a lot of hard work, but it can also be a lot of fun! And you will have the support of the FMG behind you, helping with guidance and resources.

What if you don’t want to bid for your city, but want to help out? Well, there are ways to do that too. You could find someone else who is bidding and offer to be on their team in some way. You could offer prizes, like artwork, to whoever is organizing the con. You could help spread awareness of Mysterium and the fandom to people who like Myst but don’t know about us. Or, even more importantly, you could join the FMG.

The FMG can use more people to help with things like PR and various types of planning in general. In addition, my leaving creates another hole, causing the the Board of Directors to be a member short. If you want to help build the framework for bidding teams, or handle some of the paperwork to make the FMG a non-profit organization, then now is the time to stand up and volunteer!

I really can’t stress enough how important it is to have people in the community step up to help keep Mysterium alive and fresh. Running a con is not the impossible task it seems to be from the outside… heek, Zib, Tanshin, M13 and I did it in 2011 with no experience and just a few months, so you can certainly do it with a full year and the support of the FMG! Think about the roles you might want to play in Mysterium’s future, and let us know here.

Once again, thanks to everyone who helped make Mysterium 2011 and 2012 go so well. It has been an interesting experience, and I look forward to what the future holds for the fandom. So, for the last time:

To the honor of our Tubers,
-Taniith

Posted in General, Mysterium 2012.

15 Comments

    • I would totally want a Toronto Mysterium, I’ve never visited the great north…That being said, I can’t really help with planning and stuff, never having been there.

      • No complaints about Toronto. It’s a two-hour drive and a border crossing from where I am, in case hotel investigation is needed. There were some nice hotels in Mississauga last time I was there.

  1. Would anybody be interested in a Mysterium near NYC? It would be pretty cool to explore Times Sq and that sort of stuff with fellow Myst people. If we hold the actual con somewhere outside the city (like in Newark or Hoboken, across the river in NJ), then it could still be affordable, and just a short subway ride across to the city proper.

    Just a thought. I may be able to help plan this, if there’s enough interest, since I’m in the city most of the year. 🙂

    • A few people at Mysterium were considering putting in a bid for Philly, because of cool stuff to explore there, too. Philly to NYC isn’t super bad via public transit. If you were gonna hold one outside the city for affordability, I know a great college hotel with built-in conference center in New Brunswick, which is about an hour by public transit to either NYC or Philly, which means you could have expeditions to both!

  2. Nothing against Toronto, I remember MrM3Fan attending one there in 2004 – – but today it would require a passport. That’s another $100 – $200 expense per person if you don’t already have one.

    • I can’t really hold against Toronto, though. With every location, there’s advantages and disadvantages. The passports thing works in reverse, too, after all… it enables more Canadians that can’t or won’t cross the border to attend Besides, most of the border states have some kind of enhanced license/non-driver ID program that’s far less expensive and permits entry into Canada and Mexico.

    • I don’t know, it’s too early to say if I’ll be going in the future. I suspect I would at least make an appearance at Boston Mysteria

  3. It was a great Mysterium. Thank you everyone for it. Sad to hear you are leaving Tanith, hope you feel better soon. I don’t care where it is held next year, I will be there. I would help if I knew what I could do, but not the slightest idea.
    Maybe I will bring cookies again next year. :0
    Hugss

  4. I’d love to be a local liaison for a Mysterium in Cleveland, OH and/or its suburbs. I live on the East Side of Cleveland. We have everything from a casino to an aquarium and several great museums. Who’s up for that?

  5. shorah taniith, just wanted to say thanks for all you’ve done. You are already missed. I am hoping that Mysterium will be in the midwest area so that i might attend and help. So, keep me posted, kefrith.
    shorah, karoh

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