Northern Virginia Savage Worlds Gathering

Project Plan 3 February 2013

Action Created Modified Modified Modified Modified

Author Guild Barber Guild Barber Guild Barber Guild Barber Guild Barber

Date 02/08/13 02/21/13 04/26/13 05/07/13 5/13/13

Table of Contents
1. Project Preliminary Scope ............................................................................. 2. Task List ...................................................................................................... 3. Dependencies .............................................................................................. 4. Procurement Plan .. 5. Work Breakdown Structure .. 6. Resource and Cost Estimates ..... 7. Schedule Milestones .. 8. Quality Management Plan . 9. Risk Plan 10. Communication Plan . 11. Project Execution Plan .. 12. Monitoring and Controlling Plan .. 13. Closeout Checklist . 14. Signatures .. 3 5 8 8 9 11 13 13 14 14 17 17 18 19

1 Project Preliminary Scope

Objectives:
This project will handle the event planning required to gather role-players together with fellow role-players, vendors, designers, artists, game-masters, and role-playing celebrities to provide a service to the role-playing game community, role-playing game sellers: Driver: The event must be attended at least a thousand people. Restriction: The event must raise more than it spends.

Constraints:
1. The convention will achieve a significant level of buy-in from the gaming community, vendors, and celebrities. 2. The convention will achieve enough acclaim to justify another convention next year.

Assumptions:
The project can be completed in 5 months. While the main theme is centered on the Savage Worlds gaming system, many other RPG vendors will be interested in getting involved in the process. The majority of the costs of the Convention will be defrayed by the support of the RPG vendors. There will be enough interest by the community to provide significant volunteer manpower to handle the personnel needs of the convention. The project can raise the $50000 operating costs needed to execute the convention. To reduce overhead, project participants will work from home.

Project Requirements:
The Convention will need a Venue. The Convention will need all of the proper Permits and Insurance. The Convention will need Celebrity Guests, Artist, and Dealers The Convention must have appropriate printed materials. 3

The Convention will need Employees and Volunteers for pre and during Event activities. Ensure Refreshments Are Available Money and budget will need to be handled to ensure no overages occur. A small table of Gathering paraphernalia will be sold at the ticket booths.

Project Organization:
Role Project Customer Project Sponsor Approvers Project Manager Subject Matter Experts Legal Consultants Name Northern Virginia Gaming Alliance Chuck Olafson Sarah Binderman, Francine Kriggs, Naomi Rells Guild Barber Greg Daleson, Regina Kront Ludis Valencia Janet Forlance, Roger Penrose

Deliverables:
Celebrity Guest Contracts. Celebrity Guest Flight Reservations. Celebrity Guest Accommodation and Car Rental Reservations. Artist Agreements. Artist Room Layout and Placements. Vendor Agreements. Vendor Investments. Vendor Room Layout and Placements. Vendor Schedule. Rental Agreement on a Venue. All Civil Permits. Insurance Policy. Fliers and Advertisements. Volunteer Agreements and Information. Volunteer Schedule. Agreement with Refreshments Vendor. Stickers, T-Shirts and Other Paraphernalia.

Early Risks:
We may not be able to find enough volunteers to man the various stations about the event. We may not get enough investors to cover the operating costs. We may not be able to find a suitable venue for the date desired.

Authority and Accountability:

Guild Barber is ultimately accountable for the Project. Below him will be two of the main team members; Greg Daleson, Regina Kront. Janet Forlance will report to Greg Daleson, and Roger Penrose will fall under the responsibility of Regina Kront. Ludis Valencia, the legal support will interact mainly through Guild Barber.

Cost Estimates:
$50000 has been determined to be necessary for operating costs as determined by cost necessary for similar events.

Scope Inclusions and Exclusions:

In Scope: Venue acquisition Fliers and materials Guest Agreements Some guest travel expenses Dealer contracts Civil permits Insurance contract Refreshment vendor contract List of volunteers and contact information Training Materials for volunteers Out of Scope: Venue cleanup

2 Task List
1.0 Start 1.1 Research Guests 1.1.1 Research celebrities from the genre and/or similar genres to produce a draw for Attendees. (CC: A list of at least 30 potential celebrity guests to contact with contact information.) 1.1.2 Sort celebrities into from most interesting to attendees to least. (CC: List is ordered in desirable order.) 1.1.3 Contact celebrities in the order of interest and get a verbal agreement to attend. (CC: Three celebrities from the list have agreed to attend the event.) 1.1.4 Research genre artists related to Savage World products and other producers of art within the fantasy/science-fiction genre. (CC: A list of at least 30 potential guest artists to contact with contact information.) 1.1.5 Contact artists and inform them of the event and offer them the ability to reserve tables within the Art Room in which they might display their work. (CC: Each of the artists has been contacted in some way.) 1.2 Research Venues 5

1.2.1 Research possible convention venues that can host up to 2000 attendees. (CC: A list of at least 10 possible venues catering to up to 2000 attendees has been created including contact information.) 1.2.2 Inspect the various locations personally to ensure they meet all needs and desires. (CC: A tour has been made of each venue to assess the accommodations for desirability.) 1.3 Research Dealers 1.3.1 Research the various role-playing game producers. (CC: A list of at least 30 potential role-playing game companies to contact and their contact information.) 1.3.2 Sort the game companies based on their proximity to the core Savage Worlds system with Pinnacle Games at the top. (CC: List is ordered in desirable order with Pinnacle Entertainment at the top.) 1.3.3 Contact game companies in the order of interest and inform them of the event. (CC: Each of the companies has been contacted in some way and apprised of the event and its relevancy to their products.) 1.3.4 Get a verbal agreement to attend. (Reduce List to those who have given a verbal interest.) 1.4 Research Permits. (CC: A conversation has been had with a civil representative and a list of necessary permits for the event has been created.) 1.5 Research Insurance. (CC: A conversation has been had with a civil representative and a list of necessary permits for the event has been created.) 1.6 Research Food Vendor. (CC: A list of at least 8 food vendors has been produced with contact information.) 2.0 Acquire Agreements 2.1 Acquire Celebrity Guest Agreements 2.1.1 Negotiate compensation to celebrity attendees. (CC: At least some attempt at reducing guest costs has been made for each selected guest.) 2.1.2 Sign agreement contracts. (CC: Our legal adviser has signed contracts with each of the celebrity guests.) 2.2 Acquire Artist Agreements. (CC: At least 10 genre artists have agreed to attend.) 2.3 Acquire Dealer Agreements 2.3.1 Negotiate the amount of compensation each company is willing to invest celebrity attendees. (CC: Attending dealers have provided a promise to finance some portion of the event costs.) 2.3.2 Sign agreement contracts. (CC: Our legal adviser has a contract in hand for each attending company.) 2.3.3 Acquire investment money upfront; it is needed for most operating costs. (CC: Investment money has been deposited into the event's account.) 2.4 Acquire Venue Agreement. (CC: A signed contract with the venue has been produced.) 2.5 Acquire Food Vendor Agreement. 2.5.1 Contact vendors and reach an agreement. (CC: An agreement has been made with the most desirable vendor.) 2.5.2 Sign Contract (CC: Our legal adviser has the signed contract in his possession.) 3.0 Design Materials 3.1 Design Fliers and Advertisements 3.1.1. Design or commission several art products to represent the spirit of the Northern Virginia Savage Worlds Gathering. (CC: At least 5 different art designs / pictures have been acquired with the rights for use in advertising the event.) 3.1.2. Research availability and pricing of getting advertisements, schedules, badges, stickers and fliers printed up using the gathering's art products. (CC: A list 6

of prices for the production of each type of item has been produced to choose the 5 best companies to handle this order.) 3.1.3. 3.2 Design Badges. (CC: At least 3 different project related art designs have been identified to be printed on badges.) 3.3 Design Paraphernalia. (CC: A list of prices for the production of each type of item has been produced to choose the 5 most lucrative) 4.0 Obtain Permits and Insurance. (CC: all identified permits and signed insurance contract are held by PM.) 5.0 Advertise for Volunteers. (CC: All genre and cross-genre locations have had an advertisement posted in it unless the proprietor has specifically forbidden it. Advertising has been taken out in local event newspapers or on genre related web-sites.) 6.0 Create Schedules 6.1 Create Event Schedule. (CC: A schedule of each event has been laid out for each room.) 6.2 Create Volunteer Schedule. (CC: Each identified Volunteer position has been scheduled with post changes throughout the event day.) 7.0 Plan Room Layouts. (CC: Maps of both Art and Dealer Rooms has been divided into Booths and assigned numbers. All Artists and Dealers have been assigned to a Booth) 8.0 Order Materials 8.0.1 Research availability and pricing of getting advertisements, schedules, badges, stickers and fliers printed up using the gathering's art products. (CC: A list of prices for the production of each type of item has been produced to choose the 5 best companies to handle this order.) 8.0.2 Place an order with the company selected for the determined materials. (CC: Project Manager has an Order for the supplies marked for delivery at least 2 weeks in advance of the event.) 9.0 Acquire Travel Tickets and Reservations. (CC: Air fares, hotel accommodations, and vehicle rental reservations have been found and purchased for each of the celebrity guest that has this service in their contract) 10.0 Disseminate Travel Resources and Booth Assignments. (CC: All travel arrangements/materials and booth assignments have been communicated to the guests.) 11.0 Acquire Materials. (CC: All ordered materials have been delivered at least 2 weeks before the event happens.) 12.0 Prepare Venue. (CC: The day before the event, all materials have been delivered, all booths have been laid out and registration/paraphernalia table have been set up.) 13.0 Host Event 13.0.1 Greet the guests the day of the event and show them where all the significant sites are that they must be aware of. (CC: Celebrity guests agree that they are familiar with their surroundings and know where they are supposed to be.) 13.0.1. Address volunteers and review schedule. (CC: All volunteers agree that they know where and when they are assigned to be.) 14.0 Complete

3 Dependencies
3.1 Finish To Start : None of the Agreement tasks can proceed before their Related Research tasks are complete; i.e. the research for Celebrity Guests must be done before Agreements with Celebrity guests can start. 3.2 Finish To Start : The Ordering of paraphernalia, schedules, and badges cannot begin until the design of materials has been completed.

4 Procurement Plan
Resource Project Team Source Internal Plan Project Team Members are voluntary insiders with an interest in the execution and success of the event. Project Team Members at 100% are expected to place at least 1 hour of time dedicated to the advancement of their assignments. Except for the day of and the day preceding the event, where 8 hour shifts will be expected of members in preparation and execution of the event. An agreement has been given by the office of Ludis Valencia to provide legal handling of contracts and permits at his normal hourly rate. Guests come in several flavors; Celebrity guests: are used to draw attendees by their fame within the gaming community or related genres. Celebrity guests will be contacted during the early tasks of the project and agreements will be made with those that show an interest and are willing to attend, and willing to participate in Q&A and Signing sessions during the event. Travel and Housing resources will be supplied to celebrity guests. Artist Guests: The genre is supported by a number of artists involved in the production of the products. As a networking exercise, artists often attend such conventions to sell their art and to make contacts with Dealers that might like to use their services in their products. As such, artists participation is entirely voluntary. The only services we will provide to artists beyond making inviting them to the event will be to provide assigned booth space and schedules within the Art Room. Dealers: Dealers are the bread and butter of the event. The producers of RPGs (Dealers) sell products. The attendees of the convention are both past, present and possibly future customers of the Dealers and as such it is expected that the Dealers 8

Legal Representation Guests

External External

Volunteers

External

Tickets, Schedules, Advertisements

External

Venue

External

Insurance Permits Guest Travel Resources

External External External

will have enough of a vested interest in the event that they will be willing to shoulder the costs of the event. Since it is a Savage Worlds convention, Dealers of Savage Worlds specific products will be contacted first and given preferential treatment, with the original Savage Worlds producer, Pinnacle entertainment, at the top of that list. All Dealers must agree to a certain amount of support to participate in the event. To defray the costs day-of-event employment, the ability to volunteer for event shifts will be advertised around all to all the local genre related businesses and periodicals as well as on genre related websites. We are expecting enough people will have enough of an interest in the event and the thrill of participation in the event that all necessary shifts will be covered. All of the material goods necessary for the advertisement and information provision of the event will be shopped around as several of the tasks of the project. The company with the best reputation to price ration will be engaged to produce these materials. The venue to be used for the first event will be heavily shopped around for. If it turns out to be sufficient to our needs, for the sake of continuity, exceeding years will be held in the same place unless enough bad feedback or attendance requires us to relocate The insurance policy necessary to handle event needs will be shopped for during the early tasks of the event planning. The permits necessary to handle event needs will be reviewed and acquired during the early tasks of the event planning. When celebrity guests contracts have been finalized, travel resources (airline flights, car rentals, etc.) will be acquired by monies donated by Dealers. Quality of resources will be determined by the agreements made between the celebrity and the project organization, as well a few unspoken niceties to keep the celebrities favorable to us.

5 Work Breakdown Structure

1.0 Start 1.1 Research Guests 1.2 Research Venues 9

1.3 Research Dealers 1.4 Research Permits 1.5 Research Insurance 1.6 Research Food Vendor 2.0 Acquire Agreements 2.1 Acquire Celebrity Guest Agreements 2.2 Acquire Artist Agreements 2.3 Acquire Dealer Agreements 2.4 Acquire Venue Agreement 2.5 Acquire Food Vendor Agreement 3.0 Design Materials 3.1 Design Fliers and Advertisements 3.2 Design Badges 3.3 Design Paraphernalia 4.0 Obtain Permits and Insurance 5.0 Advertise for Volunteers 6.0 Create Schedules 6.1 Create Event Schedule 6.2 Create Volunteer Schedule 7.0 Plan Room Layout 8.0 Order Materials 9.0 Acquire Travel Tickets and Reservations 10.0 Disseminate Travel Resources and Room Layout Assignments 11.0 Acquire Materials 12.0 Prepare Venue 13.0 Host Event 14.0 Complete

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6 Resource and Cost Estimates

WBS 1 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.3 1.1.4 1.1.5 1.1.6 1.2 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.3 1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.3 1.3.4 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 2 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.2 2.3 2.3.1 Task Name Start Savage Worlds Gathering Research Guests Research celebrities Sort Celebrities Contact celebrities Research genre artists Contact Artists Research Venues Research Venues Inspect Locations Research Dealers Research Various RPG Producing Vendors Sort Vendors Contact Vendors Get Verbal Agreement Research Permits Research Insurance Research Food Vendor Research Complete Acquire Agreements Acquire Celebrity Guest Agreements Negotiate Compensation Sign Contracts Acquire Artist Agreements Acquire Dealer Agreements Negotiate compensation paid by company Sign Contracts Resource Names Cost Duration $10,400.00 110 days Regina Kront Regina Kront Regina Kront Regina Kront Regina Kront Janet Forlance Janet Forlance Greg Daleson Greg Daleson Greg Daleson Greg Daleson Ludis Valencia Ludis Valencia Greg Daleson $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $5,200.00 $5,200.00 $0.00 $0.00 $6,240.00 $3,120.00 Regina Kront Regina Kront,Ludis Valencia Regina Kront $0.00 $3,120.00 $0.00 $3,120.00 Greg Daleson Greg Daleson,Ludis Valencia $0.00 22 days 10 days 1 day 3 days 5 days 3 days 20 days 10 days 10 days 15 days 10 days 1 day 3 days 1 day? 5 days 5 days 5 days 0 days 16 days 8 days 5 days 3 days 5 days 16 days? 5 days?

2.3.2

$3,120.00

3 days

11

2.3.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 3 3.1

Acquire Dealer Investments Acquire Vendor Agreements Acquire Venue Agreement All Agreements Completed Design Materials Design Fliers and Advertisements Design Badges

$0.00 Greg Daleson Janet Forlance $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Janet Forlance,Regina Kront Janet Forlance,Regina Kront Janet Forlance,Regina Kront Ludis Valencia $0.00

5 days 1 day 3 days 0 days 12 days 5 days

3.2

$0.00

2 days

3.3 3.4 4

Design Paraphernalia Materials Designed Obtain Permits and Insurance

$0.00 $0.00 $5,200.00

5 days 0 days 5 days

5 6 6.1

6.2 6.3 7 8

10 11

Greg Daleson,Roger Advertise For Volunteers $0.05 Penrose,Advertise ments[300 Fliers] Create Schedules $3.95 Roger Penrose,Large Create Event Schedule $3.95 Poster Board[1 Boards] Create Volunteer Roger Penrose $0.00 Schedule Scheduling Done $0.00 Plan Room Layouts Greg Daleson $0.00 Order Materials Janet Forlance $0.00 Regina Kront,Airfare[$2,7 Acquire Travel Tickets 00.00],Hotel $5,000.00 and Reservations Room[$1,400.00], Rental Car[$900.00] Disseminate Travel Resources and Booth Regina Kront $0.00 Assignments Acquire Materials Janet $7.20 Forlance,Advertise

10 days 11 days 3 days

3 days 0 days 5 days 5 days

4 days

1 day 12 days

12

12

Prepare Venue

13

Host Event

ments[300 Fliers],TShirts[200 Shirts],Registratio n Badges[3,000 Badges],Event Schedules[3,000 Pamphlets] Janet Forlance,Roger Penrose,Greg $0.00 Daleson,Regina Kront,Guild Barber Greg Daleson,Guild Barber,Janet $0.00 Forlance,Regina Kront,Roger Penrose $0.00 $0.00 $0.00

1 day

1 day

13.1 13.2 13.3

Greet Volunteers and Breif them. Greet Guests and Breif Them Complete

1 hr 1 hr 0 days

7 Schedule Milestones
6.1 Research Complete 5/14/2013 6.2 All Agreements Completed 5/31/2013 6.3 Materials Designed 6/18/2013 6.4 Scheduling Done 7/23/2013 6.5 Complete 8/21/2013

8 Quality Management Plan

The project will follow the standard of its industry, i.e. EV9000, Quality Event Management Standards rev. 5. All the best recommendations as far as suitable venue selection, to include verification if adequate space, health permits, safety inspections, etc, will be met. The customers investments will be maximized by shopping around for the best ratios of price and quality but review a number of different venues, insurance handlers, print shops, food vending and travel expenses. All legal requirements will be reviewed and checked for completeness by the legal offices of Ludis Valencia. The food vendor will be checked for current licenses and health permits. 13

Before any print orders will be completed all demo material provided by the printer will reviewed by the full team and checked for errors and quality. The project manager will regularly revue progress of tasks and make certain they are living up to the standards identified.

9 Risk Plan
Number Originator 1 Regina Kront Open Date Risk Description 4/26/13 Probability Impact Respond? 4 Mitigate; Make certain we have an agreement with a local temp agency Mitigate; We are still under our costs, so there is some leeway if we do not aquire the full $50000 in Dealer funding. Mitigate; If we have any warning, we will keep a list of emergenc y celebrities willing to work on short notice. There will not be enough 4 volunteers to cover all work positions on the day of the event.

Janet Forlance

4/26/13

There will not be enough 3 Dealers interested in this event to fund the event.

Janet Forlance

4/26/13

One or more of the 3 Celebrity Guests does not show up.

4 5

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10 Communication Plan
Who Project Customer When All Phases Why Have Confidence we will deliver What How Phase Completed Regular Status on time, all is well. Report and face to face every two weeks Milestone email.

All Events

Major Milestones Milestone is are all on track completed, all is well Have confidence we will deliver and make them look good

Project Sponsor

All Phases

Phase Completed Regular Status on time, all is well. Report

All Events

Major Milestones Milestone is are all on track completed, all is well Must be aware of Project Scope to sign off. Provide Requirements. Provide who has been involved. Describe the process Requirements completed. Who has signed off?

Milestone email.

Approvers

Feasibility

Emails and meeting to sign Requirements.

Requirements Sign-off Customers Volunteers Construction

Their work on requirements is completed Need to know the event is happening in order to volunteer

Meeting to sign Requirements.

Event is Adverts, forum happening. posts and webpage Information about messages. event. Please volunteer? Emails to all volunteers, and schedules on event day

Deployment

Need to be Volunteer knowledgeable of schedule. expectations day of event Need to know the event is happening in order to promise attendance

Dealers

Construction

Event is Phone happening. Conversations and Information about Reminder Emails event. Please attend and sponsor? Phone Conversations and Reminder Emails 15

Deployment

Need to be Dealer schedule knowledgeable of and booth expectations day locations.

of event Celebrities Construction Need to know the event is happening in order to promise attendance Event is Phone happening. Conversations and Information about Reminder Emails event. Please attend?

Deployment

Need to be Celebrity schedule Phone knowledgeable of and event Conversations and expectations day assignments. Reminder Emails of event Need to know the event is happening in order to promise attendance Event is Phone happening. Conversations and Information about Reminder Emails event. Please attend? Phone Conversations and Reminder Emails

Artists

Construction

Deployment

Need to be Artist schedule knowledgeable of and booth expectations day locations. of event Need to know the event is happening in order to promise attendance

Attendees

Construction

Event is Adverts, forum happening. posts and webpage Information about messages. event. Please attend? Emails to all registrants, and schedules on event day

Deployment

Need to be Event schedule knowledgeable of and event day of event locations.

Project Team Subject Matter Experts Design Need to Project Plan and understand what is communication being achieved info and provide advisement on experiences with tasks. Must construct legal agreements, observe signatures and file documents. Emails and Meetings during Design phase.

Legal

Construction

All legal Signature Event agreements Email. needing signatures and filing.

Consultants

All Phases

Need consistent Regular Status message of what is

Regular Status Report 16

happening All Events Need consistent Milestone is message of what is completed, all is happening well Milestone email.

11 Project Execution Plan

The project during the execution phase will cover all of the relevant project execution tasks. The WBS will be reviewed and updated daily for updates and problems. Staff Meetings will be held weekly, and all of the task performance and risks will be reviewed. The PM will report status reports as per the communication plan. Risks will be reviewed by their responsible parties and watch will be kept on all risk triggers. If a Response needs to be executed, it will be done. When it is time to prepare for the event, all of the volunteers will be contacted to ensure they are still planning to arrive and to make certain they know when and where to gather and how to dress. The PM and the Consultants will review the standards for running a convention of this type and size and ensure that they are performing the most important standards if possible. On the morning of the event. All Volunteers and temporary employees will attend a training session reviewing what is expected of them. All tasks assigned to the PM will be executed at the first viable time-frame. If any of the employees become unavailable, the PM will ensure a replacement is available as soon as possible. The Communication Plan will be reviewed weekly, and the PM will note any and all relevant communication approaching to ensure they are executed. At each milestone, the PM and the Consultants will review all products produced during that milestone for completeness and quality. A list of Change Requests shall be kept and reviewed by a CCB on a monthly basis. If Changes are agreed to, the schedule will be altered to include the changes. A Lessons Learned document will be made available for the entire team to add feedback to in the Project Shared Cloud collaboration space.

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12 Monitoring and Controlling Plan

Any tasks that do not meet their estimates for Cost and Time will have Variance Analysis performed to determine if they will hurt the critical path. All risks will be reviewed in the weekly status meetings. Anyone responsible for a risk will be asked if they had check to see if any alarms had been triggered, or if they had thought of any new alarms that could be monitored. If a response is handled, the risk will be reviewed to see if there are any other effects of the risk that might affect the project. New risks will be reviewed in the status meeting and a monitor for the risk will be assigned.

13 Closeout Checklist
Review Checklist Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 Compliance Notification Operational Staffing Regina Kront Guild Barber Regina Kront Issue Methods and Procedures Training Responsible Guild Barber Greg Daleson Target Close Date 8/19/13 8/20/13 8/15/13 8/15/13 8/20/13 8/13/13 Actual Close Date 8/20/13 8/20/13 8/15/13 8/15/13 8/20/13 8/12/13 Status Complete Complete Complete Complete Complete Complete

Scope Verification Scope Venue acquisition Fliers and materials Guest Agreements Some guest travel expenses Dealer contracts Civil permits Insurance contract Refreshment vendor contract List of volunteers and contact information Training Materials for volunteers Lessons Learned What Worked Right? What Needs Improvement? 18 Signature

14 Signatures
Role Project Customer Project Sponsor Approvers Name Belon Fantoma Chuck Olafson Sarah Binderman Francine Kriggs Naomi Rells Project Manager Guild Barber Signature

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