Feel free to head on over to GGJ Play Party 2012 on Meetup and let us know if you’re attending.

We look forward to seeing you there!

This year, there were 11,237 participants registered from 244 official Jam Sites across 48 countries, who created approximately 2,320 game projects.

In Chicago, DePaul University ran a Jam Site for the annual DePaul Game Jam. You can check out pictures and video on their site, as well as the game projects that were created!

IGDA Chicago and DePaul are gearing up for a post-GGJ event in February, during which attendees can play the 2012 jam games and socialize! Stay tuned for details

22 January, 2012

Meeting called to order 12:00 PM CST and closed 2:59 PM CST

Board Members in Attendance

Sheri Rubin, Neal Sales-Griffin, Jay Margalus, Heather Decker-Davis

Conferenced with Christian Arca via telephone for Motions

Agenda

• Board of Director Roles
• Bylaws for IGDA Chicago
• Other Chapter Charter Docs
• Plan for Bank Account
• Account Access
• Mailing List
• Events
• Communication Plan
• Promotion/Sponsorship
• Voting
• Misc

Motion Summary

Motion to appoint Jay as Chair, Heather as Secretary, Sheri as Treasurer, Neal as Multimedia Developer, and Christian as Biz Dev — Unanimously approved

Motion to amend IGDA Chicago Bylaws accordingly — Unanimously approved

Motion for proposed IGDA Chicago bank account — Unanimously approved

Next Meeting

To be held February 1^st, 2012 at 6:00pm CST via Skype.

Today, after an official election and a lot of work, IGDA Chicago can proudly announce its official formalization with elected board positions. There’s a story behind this, though; it didn’t happen overnight.

A little over 2 years ago the dream of a new IGDA Chicago began with Neal Sales-Griffin. After Neal: Heather Decker-Davis, Jay Margalus, Sheri Rubin, and now Christian Arca. Here we are.

The IGDA Chicago board is comprised of entrepreneurs, developers, teachers, industry professionals, and combinations of all of the above. People passionate about Chicago, about games, and about the individuals at the intersect of both of those communities. An organization as diverse as the group it represents.

After over a year of successful events — from the Chicago Games Showcase to guest speakers Eugene Jarvis and Ian Schreiber — our organization of game industry professionals is moving further forward.

What’s next?

Amongst the next six months: game jams and showcases, convention panels, post-mortems, and local meetups. Additionally, new events and initiatives to take the organizaiton further than last year. Most importantly, though, an organizational promise to further strengthen the benefits behind being a supporting member of our great institution.

So on behalf of the incoming IGDA Chicago board: Thank You, and we look forward to serving you in 2012.

Jay Margalus – Chair
Heather Decker-Davis – Secretary
Sheri Rubin – Treasurer
Neal Sales-Griffin – Media Director
Christian Arca – Business Development

For more information, please see check out the official Global Game Jam site.

There are many available sites if you’re interested in participating! DePaul is a GGJ site, one of three sites total in Illinois.

Interested in helping out? DePaul’s Global Game Jam could use volunteers to drop by and mentor participants a bit, particularly designers or producers. Please contact us if you’re interested in helping out January 27th or 28th! Email: info [at] igdachicago.com

Last but not least, we’ll soon be announcing details about our Global Game Jam Play Party, where you can check out the local games produced during the GGJ! Stay tuned

If you were affected in the Day 1 layoffs and agreed to be on the list given out by Day 1 please check your inboxes and spam folders. I just sent an email from sheri@designdirectdeliver.com detailing some additional global/local support that came in and could share now that I could email you all directly.

If you believe you were on that list, and you released your email, but don’t see an email please reach out to me directly at sheri@designdirectdeliver.com.

Stay awesome!
Sheri

We did it!

We’ve successfully completed our first official IGDA Chicago Chapter Board of Director elections. Voting closed December 26th, 2011, and the newly elected officers will take office on January 1st, 2011. The elected officers are (listed alphabetically by last name):

Christian Arca
Heather M Decker-Davis
Jay Margalus
Sheri Rubin
Neal Sales-Griffin

Congratulations to our new Board of Director members!

For the stat lovers of the chapter here’s some visual displays of the results (click to see larger):

Now that elections are over, the new board of directors will work together to appoint a chair (and other officers) sometime in the next few weeks. This chair will serve as the Chapter’s main liaison to IGDA central.

Thanks to Andrew Leaf who worked the backend and verified the results and membership of voters.

Double-thanks to those of you who stepped up and voted!

If you have any questions for the new board of directors please send them to info@igdachicago.com.

Stay Awesome!
Sheri

P.S. If you have any suggestions for next year’s election, or  ideas for encouraging higher voter turnout, please drop me a line at sheri@designdirectdeliver.com.

I’m supposed to be getting the contact list from Day 1 from those who agreed to have their info given out. I’ll be using that list to send you all some offers of help that can’t go up on the blog or in the Facebook group.

If you are affected in the Day 1 layoffs and you did not agree to be on the list but you would like more info on the previous offers of help posted on here as well as what I’ve gotten from friends and colleagues throughout the industry please email me at sheri@designdirectdeliver.com.

If you’re reading this and you weren’t affected but know someone who was please make sure they see are posts and feel free to have them contact me ASAP.

Stay Awesome!
Sheri

What you need to know about voting:

Elections for the IGDA Chicago Board of Directors are underway (they started December 12th). We have 7 nominees running for 5 seats. We presented to you the candidates for the IGDA Chicago BoD  so you can review who it is that has stepped up and is asking for your vote to let them help run IGDA Chicago.

Learn more about the candidates at http://igdachicago.com/igda-chicago-board-of-director-elections-2011-candidates/

Rules:
- Any paid member with a core, hardship or lifetime membership as of 12/1 is eligible to vote. Student and free members are not eligible.
- Vote for up to 5 seats. You may vote for fewer, but you may only cast one vote for up to 5 seats.
- Once you vote, you cannot vote again
- Duplicate votes will forfeit all votes, and voting for more than 5 candidates will also forfeit your vote. Voting for fewer than five candidates is acceptable.
- Voting closes on 12/26 at 11:59PM CST

Those eligible to vote should have received an email with the link to vote (check your spam filters if necessary).

*Note: The form allows you to vote for more than 5, however, any vote that includes more than five candidates will be forfeited.

Please include your name and email address to verify your vote. Incomplete submissions will not be counted.

If you have difficulty voting, or believe you should be eligible to vote, please contact sheri@designdirectdeliver.com.