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the north star

The North Star - Volume 2, Issue 5
The North Star, the official conference newsletter for Terminus, will be delivered approximately once a month between now and August of 2008. Most regular editions of the newsletter will be presented outside of a cut tag because the newsletter is also part of the Terminus website. Between regular editions, the terminus2008 community will post occasional updates and reminders, as well as in-depth articles on preparing for a programming submission, traveling to Chicago, and so on. The North Star is also available by e-mail; subscription information can be found at www.terminus2008.org/newsroom/subscribe.html.

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THE NORTH STAR
The Official Newsletter of Terminus
Delivered via LiveJournal, Mailing List, Forums, Myspace, and Divination
Volume 2, Issue 5

Read the last issue here!
Volunteering
Are you interested in helping host more than 1,000 Harry Potter fans during Terminus? If you can find a morning, afternoon, or evening free, please consider volunteering. Helping hands will be needed to check in attendees, to emcee programming tracks, to act as stage managers to keep the technical magic running, to check badges and help operate programming and events, and to provide attendees with directions and information. If this interests you--and it's a great way to meet new people if you're attending alone--please fill out our Volunteer Form and then follow the instructions to join the Terminus team. Once the programming schedule is posted in late May, our Volunteers Coordinator, Linnea, will match you with a volunteer position that meets your interests and availability. Volunteers make the conference friendlier, safer, and more fun for everyone, so thank you in advance for your help.

Meet Up and Go Out
Terminus has two programs designed to help you meet other attendees. The first is Excursions, a series of mini-trips that will be hosted by conference staff and volunteers. If you're in town early or planning to stay late, we'd love to have you join or co-host one of the Excursions to places like Navy Pier, the Sears Tower, and even a White Sox game. To go on an Excursion, just meet at the clock in the lobby of the Hilton Chicago Hotel at the Excursion's start time. You'll be responsible for any transportation, entrance fees, and extras.

We also have a program called Intersections for attendee-created meetups. These unofficial events are arranged by attendees, and we're happy to provide listings so that communities, friends, and people who share interests can find each other during the conference. Instructions on how to set up an Intersection can be found here along with some resources for planners. The last day to make changes to an Intersection and have it listed in the Terminus program book is May 25, 2008.

Academic Programming
The academic and educational programming for Terminus touches on all sorts of topics. In the coming weeks, we'll point out a few of the presentations on our Accepted Proposals page to help you get an idea of just how diverse and interesting the programming schedule will be! Today, we'd like to highlight a couple of roundtable discussions. Roundtable discussions are scheduled in rooms that hold around 25 people so that all of the session's attendees can take an active part in the conversation--and so that the moderator can ensure that everyone has a chance to participate. As you can imagine, these presentations are very popular, and luckily, many presenters indicated their willingness to repeat sessions during Terminus so you'll have more than one chance to attend.

Censorship in Fandom: How Taboos, Mainstream Culture, and the Law Affect Fan Creativity
Maria Englert
Recently, online fandom has been faced with growing issues in the area of creative fanworks. Harry Potter fans especially have felt the pressure from online communities, such as LiveJournal, to censor fanart and fanfiction or risk being banned. The most notable example of this became known as Strikethrough 2007. This roundtable will offer a chance to discuss and offer opinions on how much of this censorship is legally based, how much of it is influenced by cultural taboos, and what we as members of fandom can do about it.

Family of the Year
Saber ShadowKitten
For the orphaned Harry Potter, family has a particularly strong meaning. Through his eyes, we see how rotten the Dursleys are, how the malicious Malfoys use their position and power to ensure that Draco gets his way, and how the Weasleys are warm and wonderful, the picture-perfect family. But take away Harry’s glasses and what do we really see? From the absentee Grangers to Neville’s strict Gran, from Seamus’s mum to dead Remus and Tonks, who really has it best? Should the Malfoys be taking home the trophy for Family of the Year?

Questioning Tradition: A Discussion of Sorting at Hogwarts School
Cody Wild
Ever since the four founders left the school, students have been sorted into one of four houses by the Sorting Hat. For all these years, Sorting has been taken for granted as a part of Hogwarts life. But what are the real disadvantages and advantages of this system? Does it strengthen the wizarding world or contribute to conflicts? We will discuss sorting and its pros, cons, and implications within wizarding society.

See more roundtable discussions here.

Terminus Registration
The last price jump before the end of online registration was very early May 1. Registrations are still available for $180 until July 1, 2008, which is the last day to register online. All payments for registrations and tickets must be received no later than July 7, 2008, or they will be cancelled, even if that's less than thirty days from the time you added a registration or ticket.

Tickets for the keynote presentation "Potter Past: Lessons from the Harry Potter Series" with Guest of Honor Cheryl Klein are sold out, as is participation in Thoth's Tournament of Knowledge. A limited number of tickets remain for the keynnote presentation "Potter Future: The Changing Face of Fantasy Literature" with Guest of Honor Tamora Pierce, participation to play Quidditch in the Trade Winds Tournament, and for Wrock Chicago.

To be added to the waiting list for "Potter Past," please write to registration[AT]terminus2008.org. To be added to the waiting list for Thoth's Tournament of Knowledge, please write games[AT]terminus2008.org.

You may purchase a registration, or purchase tickets without a registration. To add tickets to an exiting registration, or to make any other changes, please log in to the registration system to access your registration.

Hilton Chicago Hotel
Thank you to those people who have released their rooms after finding roommates! For those of you holding a registration at the conference rate with one or more days at a higher rate, you may find that you can now call the hotel and have your higher rate room modified to the TEM rate for standard and King rooms, as some have become available. If not, we do recommend keeping in touch with the hotel every other week for now and weekly in July, as well as during the week before the conference (as that's when most people realize that they have reservations that they don't need and then their canceled room nights will be available again). If you have any questions, or if you need clarification on any problems with a reservation, please e-mail help[AT]terminus2008org.

Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I check in/how do I get my tickets/where will I look in the hotel for you?
We will e-mail all attendees approximately once a month between now and mid-July with updates about the conference, and the July message will include instructions for checking in to Terminus as well as about how to pick up tickets without a registration. In the meantime, please know that we don't want to give you information that could change, so we'll update you with complete and correct information in mid-July. We'll also keep you updated via our newsletters, of course!

Where's the daily programming schedule?
The schedule will be released later in May. Presenters had until April 15 to register and make updates to their summaries and names, so we've been busily verifying their attendance, making their updates, and taking on the massive project of scheduling about 180 presentations--and we want to make sure that presenters don't need to be in two places at once! (We do also attempt to accommodate as many audio-visual requests as we have equipment for, among other factors such as scheduling presentations in intimate rooms for roundtables and larger rooms for panels, so scheduling is sort of like a big game of Sudoku.) Additionally, we group presentations into themed tracks so that if you're really interested in a topic, you can spend a morning or afternoon immersed in it. Please watch this space for more information toward the end of the month.

Questions? Concerns? Please e-mail us at help[AT]terminus2008.org.