The North East Region Homepage of the Men in Black

The Men in Black Program - North East Region Homepage

The Men In Black are the volunteer arm of Steve Jackson Games (SJG). SJG is the games company responsible for such delights as GURPS, In Nomine, Illuminati (Deluxe and New World Order), Dino Hunt, Ogre, Tribes, Chez Geek, Knightmare Chess, Tile Chess, Car Wars, Hacker, Toon, Killer, the Awful Green Things from Outer Space, Munchkin, Frag, Proteus, Chez Dork, Cardboard Heroes, and many more. Check out their webpages for more details about these games.

The Men in Black (MIB) are responsible for promoting SJG products at game conventions, game stores, games clubs, schools, and anywhere else they can. MIB operations are coordinated online through the MIB mailing list and other stuff classified for nonmembers. Need to contact the MIB? You can reach me or Control just by clicking. I can't tell you where the main MIB webpage is...you're not cleared for that. Still curious? Try this.

There are many pages dedicated to the activities of the North East Region of the Men In Black. Feel free to go to:
The first half of 1998.
The MIB page for Worldcon '98.
MIB activities for 1999.
JohnCon '99.
Balticon '99.
Castlecon '99.
TCEP 6.
Philcon and Walt's Cards
The new millenium (or so *they* would have you believe...): Intercon and Evecon
Johncon 1900
GAPSCon and MonCon
Balticon 2000
CCG Game Day, playtesting, and Marcon (not our region...we just went for the heck of it)
Castlecon '00 & WBC 2000 & TCEP 007
Gaylaxicon 2000
The end of Y2K
Evecon 2001
Johncon 2001
Castlecon '01 (or the bits that I took pictures of...)
TCEP 8 & Ogre Demos at Little Wars
Evecon 2002
Frag at Dream Wizards

Of course, MIBbing is not the only demos done at these conventions. You'll also see other cool stuff that pictures were taken of, notably Cheapass Games.

Propaganda...er, advertisements for the Men In Black. One of the business cards I made up for the MIB's.

The business card for the Men In Black

This was one of the vehicles displayed at the Art Car show at Artscape '98 in Baltimore. No, I don't know where they found that much tinfoil. This, I think, should be the fleet vehicle prototype for the MIB. I hadn't changed the size of this picture in a while; I just realized how freakin' huge it was, so now it's thumbnailed. Enjoy!

And, of course, what site would be complete without an upcoming schedule of where you might find your friendly neighborhood MIBs? Places where I'm sure we'll be going will have "Positive MIB Presence" listed in their descriptions. Some of this is clearly cribbed from the Convention website at http://www.sjgames.com/con - most of the rest comes from Jenga's convention listing at http://go.to/conventions...so anyone who can find me a better con site listing gets a prize from me. Email me if you find something useful!

Clubs we like to support:

Terrapin Gaming Club http://www.astro.umd.edu/~flynnk/tgc/tgc.html
University of MD, College Park

http://www.washingtongamers.org/gaming.asp - Washington DC area gaming clubs
http://www.gwu.edu/~gwugs/ and https://members.tripod.com/~theguild/

Stores we like to support:
Maryland
Walt's Cards (410) 288-7044
Games And Comics...And Stuff
(410-863-7418) 7452 B&A Blvd, Glen Burnie, MD 21061
Legends (in Towson)
Hobby Works (Laurel, Rockville)
Dream Wizards (Rockville)
WotC store in Columbia Mall
Wizards of the Coast, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, 3019261808
Alliance Comics
6820 Hilltop Plaza #101, Bowie, MD, 20715
Ph: (301) 3524322

New Jersey
The Gamer's Realm, Inc.
Pep Boys Plaza 202 Route 130 North Cinnaminson, NJ 08077
(856) 829-2900 voice
(856) 829-8677 fax

Game Edge
122 Market Street
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
(301) 527-0090
www.gamedge.com

New York
Neutral Ground, NYC
Mythica Games, Ithaca, NY
Flights of Fantasy 88 Albany Shaker Rd, Albany NY 12206
Flights of Fantasy II, 1500 Central Ave, Colonie, NY 12206
Empire Trader and Collector, Hope Plaza, West Coxsackie, NY 12192

Evan's Grand Slam
12214 18th Ave.
College Pt., NY 11356

Pennsylvania
New Dimensions Piazza Plaza 20550 RT. 19 unit 20
Cranberry Township, PA 16066-7521
M. Foner's Games Only Emporium (717-761-8988) in Lemoyne, PA.
Compleat Strategist, King of Prussia

RPG Outpost in Glenside, PA

Nittany Line Hobbies
121 S. Fraser St
State College, PA 16801
(814) 2377100
Gatehouse Games
122 Hollidaysburg Plaza
Duncansville, PA 16635
(814) 6939271
Mountain City News
1111 12th Ave.
Altoona, PA 16601
Comic Swap
110 S. Fraser St
State College, PA 16801
(814) 2346005

Northern VA
The Game Parlor (Fairfax) can be found at: http://www.gameparlor.com/

WOTC Store in Pentagon City Mall

The Compleat Strategist
103 East Broad St.
Falls Church, VA

Little Wars
11213C Lee Highway
Fairfax VA 22030
703-352-9222
703-352-9279 (fax)

Wizards of the Coast Store
Springfield Mall
Springfield, VA

Dragon's Hoard http://www.thedragonshoard.com/

Conventions

  Philcon: 13-15 Dec 2002, Marriott Center City, Philadelphia PA
http://www.philcon.org/


  EveCon: 27-29 Dec 2002, Sheraton, Reston VA
http://www.fantek.org/fantek2/econ/index.html

  Since nobody else claimed it, I'll liaison for this one.


  UberCon: 14-17 Feb 2003: Sheraton Parsippany Hotel, Parsippany NJ
http://www.ubercon.com

  GUEST: Steve Jackson


  KatsuCon: 14-16 Feb 2003: Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington VA
http://www.katsucon.org


  PrezCon, 19-23 Feb 2003, Charlottesville VA
http://www.prezcon.com


  SheVaCon: 21-23 Feb 2003, Holiday Inn Roanoke Tanglewood, Roanoake VA
http://www.shevacon.org


  JohnCon: 28 Feb - 02 Mar 2003, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD
http://www.jhu.edu/~johncon

  The folks at JohnCon have expressed interest in doing a GURPS-dedicated
room.  I'd like to see someone who expects to be there (I'll probably be
there, but can't be sure yet) take the con liaison job ASAP so we can get
this, and anything else along those lines, nailed down ASAP.


  NOVAG Gamecon: Spring 2003, details TBA
http://www.novag.org


  LunaCon: 21-23 Mar 2003, Rye Brook Hilton, Rye Brook NY
http://www.lunacon.org


  MonCon: 28-30 Mar 2003, Holiday Inn, Tinton Falls NJ
http://www.completestrategygaming.com/moncon/index.html


  I-Con: 28-30 Mar 2003, SUNY Campus at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY
http://www.iconsf.org/

  Control just sent a message noting that they're interested in demos, and
if possible a guest from SJG.  Thus, it would be helpful to get as many MIBs
as possible (I-Con being opposite MonCon is unfortunate, but we should be
able to cover both) and name a con liaison ASAP.


  MadiCon: 28-30 Mar 2003, James Madison University, Harrisonburg VA
http://www.mephit.net/sffg/madicon/index.shtml

  Preliminary Schedule for GameCon: Westpark Hotel, McLean VA
 GameCon 18: 05 Apr 2003
 GameCon 19:  27-28 Sep 2003
 GameCon 20: 17 Apr 2004
 GameCon 21: 2-3 Oct 2004
 GameCon 22: 12 March 2005
http://www.novag.org

Everything below this line may or may not be active any longer. Since I am no longer NERD, it is up to the current administration to decide which of this to keep and which of this to file in the circular file.

And, of course, some Sooper Seekret information for my MIBs which I shall hide from the public by the use of fatally flawed HTML. You can't see this, because it's not here. YNCFT.

<fnord>

North East Region MIBs:
1) Keep us informed on where you are and how to reach you. Check the website if you're concerned about its accuracy.
2) NY controls North NJ; Philadelphia controls Allentown & South Jersey. DC controls NoVa and Maryland. This will continue until someone demonstrates that they wish to become CL in a region lacking one. It might become time to split NY into multiple cells, the way that Pennsylvania has become. Anyone interested in taking a position as CL? Let me know.
3) Need MIB stuff, like shirts, pins, or a kit? If I don't know about it, I can't help you. If you didn't get stuff, please let me know so that I can bother Control. If your contact information isn't right, then you're not going to get stuff. And if you haven't yet earned enough MIB points, you're not eligible to receive a kit. Get back to work, slacker!
4) Reports: file your reports, get your points. If I don't know that it happened, I won't be able to assign points. If there's a problem with recent points, let me try to solve it before barraging Control with problems, please. If points aren't reported promptly, they might not be allowed.
5) Recruiting: when a recruit of yours earns 5MB, you earn 2MB.
If your recruits work out, you get paid for it (with a bit extra from moi.) Cool, eh?
6) Conventions: if you want support for a convention, make sure it's listed properly at http://www.sjgames.com/con - Control won't send stuff if she doesn't know about it. If you can get
the convention organizer to do it, it's even better.

Extras from your NERD (earning my points by doing stuff)
Recruiting is on tap. Bring me new, active, dynamic people!
To wit: When you recruit, and your recruitee earns 5MB, you'll get 2 from SJG. I'll give you one as well.
Also, infiltrating or starting a college gaming club is worth points to me. I'll give you points for demos you run to college students on campus...but only for *planned* demos. Recruiting MIBs in the club is worth the bonus as above. And starting a gaming club and recruiting MIBs from that is its own reward, but I'll give points for doing cool things with it.

I have discretionary points to burn. Bring me a gaming club at a college or a local area and things will be really nice for you.
Promise.

I am actively resisting, with every fiber in my body, kicking out MIBs who aren't earning 10 points a year. Don't make me do so by doing your work.

For any of my MIBs who have questions about Store Liaisoning:
If you claim a Store Liaison position for a store and then don't send reports, the store is up for grabs...so someone else can take the job if they do the work. As far as I've seen, no bickering going on. Yeah!

MIB Charter Clarifications

I want to *clarify* a few things from the charter for our region. (No, they are not really negotiable, but I will remain open-minded to questions and suggestions.) As always, feel free to seek further clarification. This is in effect as of now. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse.

In order listed on the charter:

- Conventions: Certain events are more of a game day than an actual convention. Although it's easier to arrange demos at these events, you will *NOT* get the bonus points of being a Con Liaison/Chair, even if you arrange slots for other MIBs. It's like the difference between a Store Liaison and a Game Club Liaison. These are noted as such in the Convention/Game Day section of each month's RD Report.

- Con Liaison: 2 *TOTAL* points. If more than one person acts as a liaison to the con, they may /divide up/ the 2 points. (See also Con Chair.)

- Convention: Booth Points: You get point for working an SJ Games booth *ONLY* if the booth is a sales booth. You will /not/ get points for working at a demo table. (See also Scheduled Demos.)

- Scheduled Demos: You *MAY* schedule a demo slot titled 'Open Demo Session.' Do this if you want to run whatever demos for whomever shows up. This is still 2 points per slot. (See also Impromptu/Unscheduled Demos.)

- Impromptu/Unscheduled Demos: 1 point per 2 hours of demo time, *minimum* of 2 hours. This is to be used /only/ when solicited to run a demo on the fly, which should be /infrequent/. If you know you will have time free and want to run unspecific demos, then schedule a demo slot titled 'Open Demo Session.' (See also Scheduled Demos.)

- Convention: Con Chair: 6 *TOTAL* points; this includes all liaison duties. If more than one person chairs a con, they may /divide up/ the 6 points. If a non-chair person does liaison duties, they may earn /up to 2/ of the 6 points. (See also Con Liaison.)

- Reporting for Conventions: Send your *formatted* report to the appropriate Con Liaison/Chair. That person will send the *formatted* point report to the RD (me). They will /then/ send the collected *demo reports* for the convention, appropriately formatted, to the MIB List. Do NOT send either until you are ready to send them both.

- Store Liaison: The store has to be in your area, and you should *physically visit* the store for the month you request points.

- Reporting for Store Liaison: Send *all* store liaison reports together, at the end of the month, to the RD (me). This report should contain *BOTH* points and a liaison report for /each/ store, appropriately formatted. Do NOT send any part of this report to the MIB List. (I'll include them in my monthly RD Report.)

- Non-Store Demos: You get credit for doing demos at Game Clubs, Classrooms, Rec Centers, etc. You do *NOT* get credit for gaming with your friends, or even someone else's. Here's a good, simple guide: "If you can put up advertisements for people to come to the demo (and you should), then it will likely qualify. If your host does not want his number/address posted all over, then have fun (because that is your only reward)."

- Reporting for Non-Convention Demos: *Each* demo report should be sent /separately/; do not add them together. (But, you may wait until the end of the month to do them if you so choose.) Send your *formatted* point report for the demo to the to the MIB List.

Other Things to Note:

- As the RD for the NE Region, you should ask me all your MIB-related questions. If I'm not sure of something, then *I'll* ask Control. That's part of my role.

- I encourage you to *request* to be a liaison/chair for events, but the final decision is mine. Just so you know, I will try to give the opportunity to those with fewer points and/or less going on; I just want to give them the opportunity. However, once that opportunity has passes and someone else has it; it's too late, unless the other person *voluntarily* steps down. There are occasionally events in which someone is a clear candidate for liaisoning, (e.g. they're on the con staff) and that person will receive preference over other candidates. My apologies, but that's the way it should go in order to aid appropriate reporting.

Let me know if you also need clarification/reminding on how to properly format your reports.

</fnord>

You didn't see a thing, as You're Not Cleared For This Level of Information.

Seth
Your Friendly Neighborhood NERD MIB

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