Festival News

Greetings Zimfest community,
In an ongoing effort to respond to festival feedback and survey comments, the Zimfest Organizing Committee wishes to share with you some of the arrangements with our 2019 host institution, Western Oregon University. Our contract with WOU Conference Services includes housing in their dorm rooms (Ackerman and Butler Halls this year), dining in Valsetz Hall, the services of maintenance and groundspeople, and the use of various facilities and classrooms across campus. As with many universities, hosting conferences during the summer months allows WOU to retain their employees on the payroll rear-round. In order to keep the cafeteria open and food service workers employed during the summer, WOU Dining requires conference groups to purchase meals from them. This is the reason why Zimfest and WOU require festival attendees staying on campus to purchase WOU meals. Our relationship with WOU is a mutual one: they support Zimfest (and they have been very supportive of us as a non-profit!) and we,  in turn, support WOU Housing and Dining Services.

• A number of people complained in 2018 about the lack of flexibility in meal purchasing, so we have negotiated a new set of meal plans. WOU requests that each participant staying in the dorms pre-purchase at least two meals for each night. Those who do not wish to purchase the All-Meal plan (Thursday dinner through Monday breakfast) may select any combination of two meals for each night signed up for in our registration system. For more details, see On-Campus Dining on the website.
• Another of the problems encountered in 2018 was that tent campers in the football practice field were subjected to flying footballs at 7 a.m.! WOU people have responded with a new location for tent campers: the Hammer Throw area, a shady square next to the football stadium. They promise there will be no hammer-throwers during Zimfest! For details, check On-Campus Housing (scroll down to the middle of the page).
• By popular request, we will be publishing the workshop schedule before registration opens, so that people registering large groups will be able to plan ahead. Look for that publication within the next 10 days!
• The OC and Tech committees are still  targeting early May as the opening date for Zimfest 2019 registration.  Woo hoo!

Thanks for reading,
Zimfest 2019 OC