Updates
Next Meeting: February 26!
After the culmination of much effort, the formalization of local IDGA chapters has finally been resolved and is ready for implementation. The charter forms have been finalized, after a brief delay, and we should be getting benefits within a few months. This should include funding support (for guests and pizza) and insurance (for afore mentioned guests and any pizza hazards that may occur). All chapters, nation wide, will be signed up by the end of April. Once this is done, the process to formalize all international chapters will begin.
In other news, Jason Della Rocca, the long standing Executive Director of the IGDA, has decided to leave the IGDA and pursue other opportunities. If you never met Jason, I should say that he was an extremely helpful and friendly guy to work with while we were starting up. He’s also been a tremendous source of support along the way. If you do know Jason, be sure to send him your best wishes.
Also, one of our members, John Bergman (Guild Software), has informed us that he was interviewed by the Nintendo Community Fangame Convention and was kind enough to share the post with the chapter. Thanks, John!
Our next meeting will be held Thursday, February 26th at Herzing College (5218 East Terrace Drive), starting at 7 PM. There, Eric Francksen will share with us Frozen Codebase’s first Wii Ware title: Sandy Beach. We’ll talk about the game itself, as well as development challenges that came up along the way. We’ll also continue our talks on the chapter chartering process.
Hope to see you there!
Post to TwitterThe Upcoming IGDA Madison Election
As announced at our meeting last week, we are working hard to comply with the IGDA's new bylaws concerning affiliate chapters. One big part of that is having elected officers, and as such we're going to run our first official election. The plan is to cast ballots sometime in December, but before we do that, we need candidates! That's where you come in.
We have three different positions we need to fill for this election: Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer. Six months later, we'll have an election for a Vice-Chair as well. For now, though, see below for details about the positions and their duties.
Chair: The Chair shall give active direction and have control of the business and affairs of the Chapter. He or she may sign contracts or other instruments, which the Board of Directors has authorized to be executed, and shall per form all duties incident to the office of Chair as may be prescribed by the Board of Directors.
Secretary: The Secretary shall keep the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors; see that all notices are duly given in accordance with the provisions of these Bylaws, ensure appropriate records are kept; and in general perform all duties inci dent to the office of Secretary and such other duties as may be assigned by the Board of Directors.
Treasurer: The Treasurer shall be responsible for and oversee all financial administration of the Chapter. The Treasurer shall ensure that accurate bookkeeping and accounting of the Chapter's moneys are performed, and in general perform all the duties incident to the office of Treasurer and such other duties as from time to time may be assigned to him or her by the Board of Directors.
The deadline for nominations for any office is October 28, 2008. You can nominate yourself, or you can accept a nomination from someone else if you like. If you're interested in running for any of them, please e-mail us right away!
July Update
The June meeting went off very nicely. Thank you, to all who came out on a weekend to share your time at the Midwest Gaming Classic with us. If you missed it, and you have any interest in the history of videogames, I would encourage you to mark it on your calendars for next year.
For our next meeting, Mark Fernandez (producer of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for Rockstar and now VP of Marc Ecko Entertainment) will be joining us as our guest speaker on August 14th at 7pm at the East Washington Rocky Rococo’s (Please note, this is not the west side Rocky’s.) We have reserved the large conference room in the back. More information will be posted in regards to Mark’s talk closer to the date. Until then, best of luck in all our endeavors.
March Update
A lot is happening with GDC ’07 this week, but I’ll focus right now on all we’ve accomplished this past month. Our February meeting featuring Professor James Gee was a great success! Be sure to check out his book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy.
Again, I’m excited to introduce our board of directors to you (Norb Rozek, Tim Gerritsen, Matt Forbeck, and a representative from Human Head yet to be named). If you work with any of these distinguished fellows, remember that they are a point of reference to the rest of us for anything you might like to offer or any need you have.
Although I couldn’t make it myself, the reports coming in tell us that the student exhibition in Green Bay was a resounding success. More information about the event, check out our student chapter.
Our next meeting will be hosted at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Oconomowoc on the evening of June 9th. Since this event will be held out of town, please feel free to use the forums for carpool and hotel inquires if you are interested. For our keynote at this meeting, we will be having Tim Gerritsen, Ben Geisler, and a number of others (yet to be confirmed) from our own chapter hold a panel discussion on the subject of starting and working a studio in Wisconsin. This should be a really fun chance for all of us to get better acquainted and learn more about our demographic. Be seeing you soon!
March Update
A lot is happening with GDC ’07 this week, but I’ll focus right now on all we’ve accomplished this past month. Our February meeting featuring Professor James Gee was a great success! Be sure to check out his book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy.
Again, I’m excited to introduce our board of directors to you (Norb Rozek, Tim Gerritsen, Matt Forbeck, and a representative from Human Head yet to be named). If you work with any of these distinguished fellows, remember that they are a point of reference to the rest of us for anything you might like to offer or any need you have.
Although I couldn’t make it myself, the reports coming in tell us that the student exhibition in Green Bay was a resounding success. More information about the event, check out our student chapter.
Our next meeting will be hosted at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Oconomowoc on the evening of June 9th. Since this event will be held out of town, please feel free to use the forums for carpool and hotel inquires if you are interested. For our keynote at this meeting, we will be having Tim Gerritsen, Ben Geisler, and a number of others (yet to be confirmed) from our own chapter hold a panel discussion on the subject of starting and working a studio in Wisconsin. This should be a really fun chance for all of us to get better acquainted and learn more about our demographic. Be seeing you soon!