Return to SkålCon!

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

A few weeks ago, we introduced you to the Co-Chairs of SkålCon, Andrew Christian & Jon Dehning. I wanted to take the opportunity to to report the resultsd—it shows just how much good we as a Society can do when we put our mind's to it! In Jon's words:

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Pathfinder Lodge held the inaugural SkålCon convention September 18-20. This convention, previously featured in the Paizo blog, had all proceeds donated to Tubman, Minnesota's largest provider of crisis services. By any and all measures, our convention was a success.

Over 80 people came together as a community to play some Pathfinder and raise more funds for Tubman than I ever thought we would. Going into September I thought, "If we can raise $1500 I'm going to be really happy." We smashed $1500 by 6:20 PM Friday night! At 8:30 PM we surpassed our goal of $2000. When I made the announcement to the room that we had made our goal and that I would be getting a shave and a haircut, Chris Mortika, unprompted, called out "How much more do we need to raise to get Andy [Christian] to shave his head?" Andy set our next goal; we needed to raise $3500.

In the end, we raised $3735 for Tubman. It is a testament to our players' generosity and kindness. As Andy remarked to me Saturday night, "This makes all the hard work and [everything else] of the past six years worth it." I couldn't agree more.

I had an opportunity to tour one of Tubman's transitional housing centers in Minneapolis when I stopped by to make our donation. Knowing our efforts are going to those in need was very heartening. Meeting the staff that do all the hard work and make people's lives better was an added perk. Being able to say "Thank you" to them while I was there, while not much of a thing, was still gratifying; especially when their eyes lit up when it was explained who I was and why I was there. Our plan is to continue working with Tubman next year and into the foreseeable future.


Minnesota Venture Captains Jon Dehning and Andy Christian before and after the charity shave.

Thank you, Pathfinder community, for supporting our convention. To the volunteers and organizers whom kept the convention running with no emergencies. Without their hard work, dedication SkålCon would not exist. Thank you to everyone who donated items to our silent auction. Thanks to everyone we chased down during PaizoCon to collect signatures for auction items. Thank you to Clinton Boomer who volunteered his time to run three sessions of the retired scenario "Hands of the Muted God", and to John Compton for allowing us to offer this scenario for credit. Clinton will be back next year, so if you want to maybe play a retired scenario for credit...

Running a convention for charity is hard work, but a rewarding community experience. If you feel like starting one in your area, know that you have our support. I am more than happy to help in any way I can.

Thank you. Thank you so very much!

Jon Dehning
Venture Captain—Minneapolis, MN

My thanks to members of the Pathfinder Society for their generosity and support. I know we have other conventions worldwide that support charitable causes and extend my thanks to them as well.

Until next week: Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Coordinator

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Community Conventions Pathfinder Society

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I suspect that the title of this blog post may be a copy of a previous blog post title (from Monday 5th)?

Dark Archive 5/5 5/5

Re: The pre and post shave photos

Andy is the short goofy looking on the left and I'm the one holding the beer.

The photo at the top of the blog is the volunteer team that put up with me over the past six months. Their stamina is superhuman. I will let them identify themselves if they wish.

And yes, I did wear the helmet all weekend.

Grand Lodge 5/5

We do charity conventions in our area. How would we go about being able to offer retired scenarios for credit? I think that would be a big draw for a fundraiser.

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Coordinator

Mizkitty wrote:
We do charity conventions in our area. How would we go about being able to offer retired scenarios for credit? I think that would be a big draw for a fundraiser.

Talk to your local Venture Officer, who can request a variety of support for conventions.

Dark Archive 5/5 5/5

Mizkitty wrote:
We do charity conventions in our area. How would we go about being able to offer retired scenarios for credit? I think that would be a big draw for a fundraiser.

My guess is that this is going to be a very rare occurrence. We asked Clinton Boomer if he would come up and visit us which he graciously accepted. We then petitioned John Compton if Clinton could run one of his retired scenarios. John said yes, told us which scenario he could run, and off we went.

Edit: Or what Tanya said.

The Exchange 3/5

Looking forward to next year.

Grand Lodge 5/5

Mizkitty wrote:
We do charity conventions in our area. How would we go about being able to offer retired scenarios for credit? I think that would be a big draw for a fundraiser.

I know locally we wrote our own scenario for a charity event last year (that didn't count for credit), which ended up being a pretty good draw. We are hoping to do the same again this year.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
jon dehning wrote:

Re: The pre and post shave photos

Andy is the short goofy looking on the left and I'm the one holding the beer.

The photo at the top of the blog is the volunteer team that put up with me over the past six months. Their stamina is superhuman. I will let them identify themselves if they wish.

And yes, I did wear the helmet all weekend.

You'll note, I'm also holding a beer!

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Andrew Christian wrote:
jon dehning wrote:

Re: The pre and post shave photos

Andy is the short goofy looking on the left and I'm the one holding the beer.

The photo at the top of the blog is the volunteer team that put up with me over the past six months. Their stamina is superhuman. I will let them identify themselves if they wish.

And yes, I did wear the helmet all weekend.

You'll note, I'm also holding a beer!

Such is the way of the Minnesota lodge.


Is there a story behind the name (SkålCon)? Are any of the people behind it Scandinavian by any chance?

Dark Archive 3/5 5/5

Ah, good times. Had a blast, Hands of the Muted God was one of the best experiences I've had at a PFS table this year, and I got to throw money at a charity to see a guy get his hair cut off.

Jon, Andy, I doubt I could even pick you guys out of a police linup after that shave!

Dark Archive 5/5 5/5

Chubby1968 wrote:
Is there a story behind the name (SkålCon)? Are any of the people behind it Scandinavian by any chance?

If you check out the previous threads linked in the first paragraph, there is a thorough explanation behind the name. And yes, some of us (waves!) have Scandinavian heritage.


jon dehning wrote:
If you check out the previous threads linked in the first paragraph, there is a thorough explanation behind the name. And yes, some of us (waves!) have Scandinavian heritage.

Aha, thank you (waves back)! I missed that when it was first posted (even though it's usually quite easy to spot a danish/norwegian "Å").

Dark Archive 4/5 Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Twin Cities Metro East

jon dehning wrote:

Re: The pre and post shave photos

Andy is the short goofy looking on the left and I'm the one holding the beer.

The photo at the top of the blog is the volunteer team that put up with me over the past six months. Their stamina is superhuman. I will let them identify themselves if they wish.

And yes, I did wear the helmet all weekend.

Except the time I stole it when you were gone getting things... #blessed

Dark Archive 5/5 5/5

There was a whole lot of blessing going on that weekend.

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