Group Cosplay 101 Panel, originally presented at A-Fest 2016 by Cosmic Coterie.

1. Group Cosplay 101

2. 1. How to Build a Group
2. Setting Expectations and Goals
3. Scheduling and Organizing
4. Communication Expectations
5. Delegating Roles and Duties
6. Friendship
7. Q & A
Topics of Discussion

3. How to Build a Group – How did each of us join the group?
1 . How to Build a Group

4. How to Build a Group – Approaching People and Networking
Approaching People
• Don’t be scared! We are all weirdos!
Networking
• Meet people and find out their social media accounts.
Be a fan first! If you like someone’s work then give
them a like or a follow to support them.
• Meet people in your local community. The best way to
meet locals is at conventions!
• Join local online cosplay communities.

5. How to Build a Group – Finding the Right Members
Finding the Right Members
 Choose people that can work well with a group; not dictators or people
who demand “my way or the highway”.
 Choose people who have strong communication skills and don’t have a
tendency to “ghost”.
 Choose people who are willing to learn new skills.
 Choose hard workers with the time to dedicate.
 Choose people with skillsets that can help the group as a whole.
• Everyone doesn’t have to be a seamstress but everyone has to
contribute with some sort of skill to the group such as:
– prop making
– resin casting
– managing schedules
– social media skills
– wig styling
– photography/videography
– graphics
– etc.

6. How to Build a Group – Casting Calls
Casting Calls
 If you do a casting call:
• Don’t NOT ANSWER people inquiring or applying.
• Do appoint a point person to make sure everyone is responded to
promptly and to notify all interested people when you are no longer
looking.
• Do meet and spend time with potential members you are interested in
from the casting call. Get to know them a little bit!
• If ANY physical traits are mentioned in casting calls (e.g., sizing), be
transparent as to WHY
• e.g., a previous member leaves a position and a completed
costume is available but it only fits up to X size, do not just say
“up to size 8” with no reason of why.
Perils of Casting Calls
 You disappoint a lot of people vs. inviting people directly
 Lots of negative feedback from those who were not chosen

7. Setting Expectations and Goals – Structuring the Group
Structuring the Group–
Set the expectation of how the group will be organized
 Is it a group with one leader making decisions?
 Is it a democratic group where everyone weighs in on decisions?
 Is it a group with a handful of decision makers and the rest are volunteers?
 Is the group more informal and a “whoever shows up to the convention day is
in the group” group?
2. Setting Expectations and Goals

8. Setting Expectations and Goals – Time Commitment Expectations
Time Commitment Expectations
 Is this a “meet up at the con with everything done on each person’s own
time” group or a “work on everything together” group?
 Does the time commitment include group work and craft days?
 Is this a one con deal or a multi-con deal?
 What days and times of what cons are you committing to?
 Plan all dates as far in advance.
 Be realistic; not everyone will make all of the crafting days if you plan a
few, so plan on makeup days if people fall behind on their cosplay.
 Your Personal Time Commitment - Be realistic and honest with what you
yourself can commit to before joining a group with lots of time
commitments.
 Convention day activities and schedules
• Contest day schedule vs. non-competing schedule
• Photo shoots (there usually is a photo shoot set up on every
scheduled group convention day since it is rare that everyone is
together dressed out fully)

9. Setting Expectations and Goals – Financial Expectations
Financial Expectations
 What costumes do you plan on completing together?
 How much is it going to cost for each person?
 Is it a big build for each person or a small build for each
person?
 Is R&D involved?
 Remember: It usually costs more than you think so plan on
the high end of costs!

10. Setting Expectations and Goals – Setting Goals
Setting goals - Future Expectations
 Set goals for 1-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months
for long term groups
 Plan costumes and timelines for completion and
what conventions you are wearing them to
 Competitive Goals - What competitions will be
entered in as a group
 Other Big Dreams/Goals
• Being a Guests at cons?
• Doing Panels?
• Go to a big con out of state together?
• Doing a massively huge build together?

11. Scheduling and Organization – Scheduling and Organizing Meetup Dates
3. Scheduling & Organizing
Scheduling and Organizing Meetup Dates
 Polls for finding dates when members are available to meet
• Allows for multiple date/time voting options
• Voting tools: Doodle and Facebook polls
– Both are free to use
– FB poll is limited in terms of options, so keep that
in mind
– Select dates for members vote on based on their
availability
• We go with the dates the majority of members can
make. If someone can’t make it to a meeting time,
discuss make-up times and what can be worked on
individually.
 Create list of to-dos for crafting days so that time isn’t wasted
by wondering what to do

12. Scheduling and Organization – Sharing Scheduled Group Events with Group Members
Sharing Scheduled Group Events with Group Members
 Google Calendar
• Include dates, times, locations, and agendas for meeting
• Syncs to phones for reminders
 Facebook Group Pinned Post with dates to remember
• Gives people multiple outlets to keep up with dates
• Constantly in forefront so no reason to forget or not plan ahead for
events

13. Scheduling and Organization – Organizing Documents: Google Drive
Organizing Documents: Google Drive
 House shared documents in Google Drive and share with group
members’ Gmail accounts
• What to put in Google Drive:
– Brainstorming costume list
– Panel outlines and presentations
– Goals that have been set
– To-Do lists
• Benefits:
– Can share with all members of the group for
editing/viewing/commenting
– Easy/intuitive
– Mobile access
– As long as you have Gmail, easily accessible

14. Scheduling and Organization – Free Scheduling and Organizational Tools
Free Scheduling and Organization Tools
 Voting
• Rally
• Doodle
• Facebook Poll
• Meet (packaged with Sunrise)
 Schedule Sharing
• Doodle
• Google Calendar
• Cal
• Tempo
• Sunrise (packaged with Meet)
 Organization/Storage
• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• Trello
• Evernote

15. Communication – Communication Expectations
4. Communication Expectations
Communication Expectations
 NO “GHOSTING”.
 No hanging around on social media and ignoring the team during a time
crunch.
 Members should keep in touch throughout the entire process of
building the cosplay.
 Breaks from group chats/conversations/etc. are okay if a member needs
a break but members taking a break should let the group know when
they expect to come back to resume participation.

16. Communication – Tools and Mediums for Communication
Tools and Mediums for Communication
 Facebook Group - Polls, Polls for Meeting Dates and other schedule
planning, and time-sensitive goals/projects
 Facebook Messenger - Funsies, off topic stuff, non-important
(Important things get lost in chats. Keep important stuff to the group
Facebook page)
 Google Hangouts/Skype - Conflict Resolution, Emotional Discussions,
Big Decisions
 Phone Call - when it is important to convey emotion or situational cues
but a video chat is not possible
 In Person - huge decisions, big emotional conversations

17. Communication – Negativity
Negativity
 Do not let your group spiral into negative conversations. Hold each
other accountable to this.
 Venting is okay but know when to stop and when it has crossed the
line into a negative spiral.
 It’s okay to take a break! Breaks are good!
 Don't talk about members needing a break from group
communication. If they need to step out, let them have their space.
 Stay away from places and people that breed negativity
 There will always be people who do not like you so do not take mean
comments personally
 Disagreements within a group are completely normal but notice
when it goes from a disagreement into a fight and stop the train
before it gets there.

18. Delegating Roles and Duties – Media Account Roles
Media Account Roles
 Choose one person to be point person for all of media OR
 Choose a different person for each account
• Gmail, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
 Social media point person(s) keep the group updated on any DMs sent to the
accounts and manages responses
 Everyone in our group can post on all social media accounts when they would
like but the point person is in charge of any account maintenance or big
announcements.
 The person(s) in charge of media accounts are also in charge of content upkeep
• Great weekday hashtag ideas:
– Mondays: #motivationmonday
– Tuesdays: #tutorialtuesday
– Wednesday: #wipwednesday
– Thursday: #throwbackthursday, #thankyouthursday
– Friday: #followfriday
5. Delegating Roles and Duties

19. Delegating Roles and Duties – Other Role Ideas
Other Role Ideas
 Documents point person - maintains spreadsheets and documents for the group such as
brainstorming lists, finances spreadsheet, panel outlines, tutorial documents, etc.
 Public Relations point person - a person who is patient, eloquent, has a calm demeanor, and
strong communication skills who represents your group such as being the official moderator for
panels, handling guest invites to conventions, handling outside relations with other cosplayers
and organizations, handling complaints, etc.
 Giveaways point person - monitors number of followers on accounts and composes giveaways
and acquires the gifts
 Dramaturge - person who collects reference images and other necessary information for group
cosplays as well as progress photos. Essentially the group historian and researcher
 Calendar and Scheduling point person - person who manages polls for meetup times and dates
and posts schedules to group calendar and in FB group
 Graphics point person - a point person who has digital skills and can create graphics for the
group
 Sewing Senpai - the strongest seamstress in the group who can be a point person to help for
those who need it with patterning and sewing their costumes. May appoint other point
craftspeople based on their skillsets (e.g., Becky is a designer)
 Sponsorships point person - person who applies for and manages sponsorships
 Merchandise point person - if prints or stickers or other items are requested then this person
acquires them and sends them out.

20. Friendship – The Most Important Thing
Friendship – The Most Important Thing
 Friendship should be your #1 priority
Never let a group cosplay get in the way of your friendships
 Maintain interpersonal relationships
• Make an effort to maintain a personal relationship with each member in the
group
• It is important that all members have a friendship with one another
 It’s not all business, have fun!
• If you’re not having fun then what is the point?
 Spend time with each other outside of cosplay
• Nice way to maintain friendships and have fun outside of con crunch time
• Use previously mentioned scheduling tools to select meetup times
• Examples: movies, Pokemon Go hunting, have monthly meetups, get
dinner/coffee together, wine/anime nights, etc.
6. Friendship

21. Questions and Answers Regarding Group Cosplay

22. Thank You !