Commence: OPERATION GENCON 2012

Yes, that’s right. I’ve decided that, though I’m not going to GenCon this year ( ) I’m going to go to GenCon next summer, at all costs. “What’s that?” you say. “But GenCon hasn’t even started yet.” Blame Twitter. Everyone is arriving today, and is already talking about how amazing it all is.

How do I propose to pull it off?

A few steps are required to pull it off, and it’s going to have to be structured like a military operation.

Phase 1: Initiating

This is what I’m doing right here. I’m formulating my plan, and figuring out the logistics, making goals, determining the barriers. I’ve got this handled here.

Plan:
Go to GenCon next summer, arriving Wednesday (last year we didn’t arrive till Friday evening), leaving on Sunday, exhausted.

Barriers are as follows:

Money: This was not a deciding factor in why I didn’t go this year. If we had planned on going, we could have raised the money, but we hadn’t planned on attending this year. I’m guessing I’ll want to raise approximately $1000 to make the trip with Bridget, and not worry about expenses. We’d be driving, so flying expenses are nil. I think last year we pulled off the trip with about half that money.

Childcare: We’ll need someone to keep an eye on the two kiddos.

Disneyland: Bridget really, really wants to go to Disneyland next summer, preferably in June. The money I figure out how to raise will have to work around the money we’re using there.

Phase 2: Planning

How am I going to go about this?

Good question. I’ll have to overcome said hurdles.

First off: Money. I recently made a little money doing some graphic design, and hope to do more soon. Bit by bit, I can build up money. Additionally, I can offer painting services for people to paint their miniatures. Also, I have a Hirst Arts mold, and can start making up terrain pieces to sell. All of these are viable options, beyond scrimping and saving little bits of money here and there from paychecks.

Secondly: Childcare. Prospects are various family members who will need to be primped and fawned over to convince them to handle a four-year-old and one-year-old on their own. It’s the middle of summer, when people travel a bit, so perhaps coercing them with a little “You can come for a vacation for a couple weeks, and we’ll just duck out for five days or so.” We’ll have to see. This is the game-breaker. No child care, no GenCon.

Third: Disneyland. I’ll be saving up leave for this anyway, but I need to make sure that I have enough money left over after that to cover the trip to GenCon. Additionally, we want to go to Disney in early June, but if it ends up getting close to overlapping with August, it could be a problem…

Phase 3: Executing

In this phase, the plan is carried out.

This is where I’ll actually begin gathering money, talking to family, and planning our Disney trip, trying to lean it towards early June. Simple, right?

I hope so. The main sticking point is going to be fundraising.

Phase 4: Controlling

This is the phase at which I have everything well at hand. I’ve raised the funds, I’ve secured childcare, and I know when the Disney trip is.

Phase 5: Concluding

This phase is actually going to GenCon itself. Woo hoo!

So that’s my plan. We’ll see how it goes. Wish me luck!