Official Chapter Meeting Schedule

From meeting organizer Paul Fell:
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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.

Greetings Fellow NCC Cartoonists!

Just wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself here. My names is James Hungaski, and I have recently become a member of the National Cartoonist Society. I have been a humorous illustrator for a number of years, for both publication and advertising clients. I currently live in Anoka, MN with my wife Kelly, newborn son, Lucas, and our dog Maxx.

I am looking forward to meeting many of you at the upcoming chapter meeting, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Meanwhile, please visit my blog, to view more of my work, in addition to my website, which is www.hungaskiillustration.com

Thanks to fellow members Tom Richmond and Ed Steckley, for helping me become a part of this great organization!

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.

Lincoln Chapter Meeting- Hotel Deal

Thanks to our hard working treasurer, Paul Fell, the NCC has a special rate on rooms at the Downtown Holiday Inn for Friday and Saturday nights the 20th and 21st of February:

The Downtown Holiday Inn (at North 9th. and P Streets in downtown Lincoln, right in the historic Haymarket District) has a block of rooms set aside for us that for Friday and/or Saturday nights. The weekend room rate is $94 for a double room. They will hold the block until Feb. 9, at which time the rate will go up to $124. For reservations, call their front desk directly at 402-475-4011 and ask for a room reserved for the "NCS North Central". You can also purchase discount breakfast certificates for $5 for their usual $7 or $8 dollar breakfasts.

If you run into any problems doing that, call Lauren Wegman in Sales at 402-475-1038.

Again the deadline to take advantage of this deal is Feb. 9th, so don't delay.

Ready to launch...

Lincoln is about to launch a new blog site with an emphasis on arts. Something that has been sadly lacking in our town. www.starcityblog.com takes off this week.

Lincoln Chapter Meeting Feb. 21st

Mark your calendars!

The North Central Chapter will have a chapter meeting to judge it's assigned Reuben division in Lincoln, NE on Feb. 21st, 2009. Plans are also in the works for an evening program and speaker.

Here is a tentative schedule for the meeting:

Friday, Feb 20th:

• Evening icebreaker get together (optional)

Saturday, Feb 21st:

• Lunch gathering
  
• Judging of our assigned Reuben division (Editorial Cartooning)
• Dinner
• Evening speaker/program
• Debauchery (optional, except for Bucky)

Local luminaries/chapter members Paul Fell and Mike Edholm are working tirelessly to organize the meeting space and speaker(s), and more details will be posted here and sent out via e-mail as they become available. Right now we just want to let everybody know about the meeting so you can save the date on your schedule.

Due to our vast geographical area, we don't get together much. This will be a short and very inexpensive chapter meeting where we conduct one of the few official duties we have for the NCS, so I hope everyone will make an effort to attend. It's never convenient or easy to find the time to do this, but it would be great to see a good turn out for the judging.

More details to follow...

Undercover COCKROACH is in full gear!

The Undercover Cockroach is moving right along. Merchandise can be found at www.zazzle.com/undercovercockroach. The 'roach website is still www.undercovercockroach.com. Check it out. I'd like to hear your thoughts.... (This is the page two rough. Changes are in the works. Page one will be seen on the UCC website very soon. All materials are copyrighted.)

NCC To Judge Editorial Cartoon category

The official National Cartoonist Society Reuben awards packets have been sent out to all members, and the North Central Chapter has been selected to judge the "Editorial Cartoons" division. Cartoonists interested in submitting work for this division can submit 12 to 20 samples of work published between December 1st, 2007 and Dec 31st, 2008. Cartoonists are not required to be members of the NCS to be eligible. We are also free to assemble eligible work from any cartoonists we want to consider for the award but who have not submitted the work themselves. Sumbissions must be recieved by January 30th.

Plans are in the works for a chapter meeting to vote on the submissions sometime in february or March in Lincoln, NE.

Happy New Year to everybody!