Revised NCC Chapter Meeting Schedule

NCS Reuben competition rules prohibit anyone but full members of the NCS from being present during the actual judging of the competition. Therefore we have scheduled the judging for Saturday morning, prior to our 1:00 pm full chapter meeting and speakers. Here is our revised schedule for Saturday, February 21st:

8:30 am- Meet at Downtown Holiday Inn for breakfast.
9:15- am- 1:00 pm- Judge our division in private Holiday Inn meeting room.

Scheduled speakers:

• Cedric Hohnstadt- Minneapolis area illustrator & animator
• Tom Floyd- veteran comic book artist
• Jeff Koterba- Omaha World-Herald editorial cartoonist.

1-2pm- Meet at Dish (11th. and O), eat lunch (attendees responsible for purchasing own lunch)

2-5pm- General business meeting and announcements. Some drawing events and activities. First speaker of the day.

5-6:00- Cocktails and dinner (again at attendees own expense)

6:00-????- Our remaining two speakers will make their presentations. This will be followed by socializing into the night.

Participants are responsible for paying for their own food and drink during the Saturday schedule.

Official Chapter Meeting Schedule

From meeting organizer Paul Fell:
____________________________

Here's our schedule for our Feb. 21 National Cartoonists Society chapter meeting and cartoon award judging.

All activities will be held at the Dish restaurant in their lower level party room. Dish is on the corner of 11th and O Streets, right in the middle of Lincoln's downtown entertainment district. It is only a couple of blocks walk from the Downtown Holiday Inn (9th. and P) where some of our members are staying.

Right across O Street is a city parking garage, so you don't have far to walk from your car.

Just a reminder... the reduced rate for rooms at the Holiday Inn is on until Feb. 9. The rate is $94 a night for a double. For reservations call the front desk directly at 402-475-4011 and tell them that you are part of the "NCS N. Central" group.

Here's our schedule for Saturday, which, by the way is FREE to all comers. Our featured speakers will be:

• Cedric Hohnstadt- Minneapolis area illustrator & animator
• Tom Floyd- veteran comic book artist
• Jeff Koterba- Omaha World-Herald editorial cartoonist.

1-3pm- Meet at Dish (11th. and O), eat lunch and watch judging of NCS editorial cartoon division entries. We have received around 30 entry packets, so there will be lots of great work to see.

3-5pm- General business meeting and announcements. First speaker of the day.

5-6:30- Cocktails and dinner.

6:30-????- Our remaining two speakers will make their presentations. This will be followed by socializing into the night.

Participants are responsible for paying for their own food and drink during the Saturday schedule. Our chapter chair, Tom Richmond, refuses to pick up the tab for anyone to whom he doesn't already owe money.

Meeting Location in Lincoln Set!

Chapter treasurer Paul Fell and chapter black sheep Mike Edholm have secured our venue for our chapter meeting in Lincoln on Sat, Feb. 21st.

The meeting will be held at the "Dish" restaurant in downtown Lincoln, in the "Dish Downstairs" private event room starting at noon until whenever. Members will be able to order off the sandwich menu for lunch and, more importantly, there is a bar. Our judging and all our speakers will take place at this location.

"Dish" is a short 5 minute walk from the Holiday Inn, where we have an NCC discount rate on rooms booked before Feb. 9th. For the convenience of those driving in for the day, there is a city parking garage right across O Street from Dish.

We now have well over 30 submissions, so it will be quite the task reviewing all the work. Lots of great cartooning, great speakers and great company. Best of all no fee for attending. I hope to see a great turnout. If you haven't been to a meeting in some time please try and make the effort to come.

Lincoln Chapter Meeting UPDATE

Details emerge for our chapter meeting/Reuben divisional judging in Lincoln, NE on Feb. 21st:

Speakers- We have a great group of speakers who will be giving presentations on Sat. Feb 21st around our judging activities:

• Cedric Hohnstadt- Minneapolis area illustrator and character designer
• Tom Floyd- Nebraska animator and comic book artist
• Jeff Koterba- Syndicated editorial cartoonist for the Omaha World Herald

On-line Hotel Reservations- You can now book your hotel room on-line for the meeting. Rooms are a discounted $94 per night for double occupancy on the 20th, 21st and/or 22nd via the NCC reserved block. Follow these instructions to make reservations online:

1. Click on this link to go to the Lincoln Holiday Inn reservations page
2. Enter your dates under "Check Availability" on the left
3. Enter NOC in the "Group Code" box.
4. Click on "Check Availability"
5. NCS North Central special rate of $94 a night appears, click "Reserve" button and enter your information to book your room.
   

We have received nearly three dozen submissions for our assigned "Editorial Cartoon" division, so please try and make it to the meeting to participate in the judging. There is NO CHARGE to attend the meeting, and the room rates are inexpensive. If you need a room mate post in the comments section here or e-mail me and I will try and pair you up. We'd love to see a good turn out of members.

more Toonfest photos to thumb through

Hey guys got some more photos from Toonfest here...
Had a great time! :)

more Toonfest photos

Toonfest 2008 Chapter Meeting

We had a small but enthusiastic group of NCC members show up in Marceline during Toonfest for our fall meeting.

North Central Chapter members (L to R): Mike Edholm, Me, Cedric Honstadt, Ted Goff, Paul Fell, Eric Scott, Scott Holmes

Our meeting was very productive. We raised the following issues and voted on each:

• Our annual meeting will be switched to March of each year to accommodate voting on the division we are assigned for the Reubens
• This year's meeting will be in Lincoln, NE
• A new officer post was created "Executive Vice Chairman"
• The Executive is responsible for providing all alcohol for future meetings
  
• Bucky Jones was voted into permanent office as Executive Vice Chairman

The Toonfest folks were very hospitable as usual. All the NCC members were invited to the private parties and functions where we were fed and watered until we could eat no more. What a great time. Special thanks to Mike, Paul and Bill (who couldn't make it) for helping organize the whole thing.

I have published a blog post detailing the Toonfest event and our participation in it. Check it out.

Toonfest Meeting Schedule and Headcount

The official schedule for our fall meeting is shaping up. The Toonfest folks are very happy the NCC is coming to the event and have invited NCC members to several special private events and gatherings over the weekend.

Fees for attending the chapter meeting are a measly $20.00, and includes our chapter lunch and admission to the following:

• Thurs. eve., Sept. 18: Farmsite outdoor buffet reception for Toonfest headliners and NCC meeting attendees.
• Fri. eve., Sept. 19th: Vehicle caravan to Johnson-Malins river cabin/lodge home for buffet dinner party.
• Sat. noon, Sept. 20th: NCC chapter meeting and lunch in Marceline.
• Sat. eve: Outdoor event Malins’ former Disney family home and farmsite. Dreaming Tree ceremony, cartoonists autograph Disney barn, headliners tree plantings, outdoor barbecue - buffet dinner.
  

The rest of the weekend we are of course free to enjoy all Toonfest activities including the speaker presentations at the Uptown Theater both on Student day (Fri) and Saturday afternoon, the parade on Saturday Morning, the cartoon art exhibt, etc.

All the money collected for chapter meeting fees will go to the Toonfest folks to help offset their generosity in inviting us to all their special events.

What we need ASAP is a head count of all who intend to attend the meeting. Fees can be paid at the event... we just need your "yea" or "nay", especially for planning the private chapter lunch. Email me at tom@tomrichmond.com ASAP with your response.

Fall or Winter Meeting?

For a number of years now the North Central Chapter has been meeting in the fall for our annual chapter get together. I am not sure why this time of year was chosen, but suspect it was because winter is a precarious and ugly travel time for us tundra dwellers.

The odd thing is that March is the only time of year we have any official duty to perform for the NCS... our Reuben divisional voting. Doesn't it make sense to plan a late March meeting to do our divisional jury and also have our annual meeting? Does beer taste better in September or October than it does in March? Do we plan on camping outdoors?

What do you as members think about this? Should we switch to late March for our meeting time?