Windycon
Just a quick note about Windycon.
marahsk drove down to Washington on Tuesday so that we could fly out together to Chicago. While we were in the shuttle coach from the security to the gate concourse, ann_totusek called. She gave us the sad news that a family member of shsilver's had passed away, obliging Steven to travel to the funeral. Ann then begged us for help, as (a) while she was perfectly comfortable with the job she volunteered to do, she wasn't quite sure about running programming at-con for Windycon and (b) while she had managed to get volunteers to help her in the green room, she wasn't sure they'd show up. We told her we'd have her back.
We got in late Wednesday night. kT was kind enough to pick us up at ORD and drive us to the Wyndham, especially nice of her as she wasn't staying at the hotel that night. We went to the IHOP for a late snack.
On Thursday, we checked in with people. Then we went for lunch with Marah's friend smg1404, who she'd known forever (longer than she's known me) but never actually met in person. My idea was to have lunch somewhere near the hotel; Lori's idea was to go to some great place in a distant suburb. We compromised on Maggiano's in Schaumburg. We had a great chat, which of course made us late. Ann asked us to run an errand on the way back, so we went to Jo-Ann's in Des Plaines to get eight yards of clear vinyl sheet. We spent a couple hours helping to set up the green room.
Friday, we spent a lot of time working in the green room. I hung up plastic garlands, and carried a lot of drinks from one end of the room to the other. sciffy_circo spent six hours cutting butterfly shapes out of a patterened fabric. Someone created a spray of flowers with a little fountain running, while others cut up silk flowers to put on the table, with some autumn leaves. We put the plastic sheet on top of everything, creating a flat surface on top of the decorated table. Everyone was impressed with the effect. I think it might have involved more work than the situation may have warranted, but they take hospitality seriously in the Midwest. We got to see lots of people in the green room on Friday. I think andpuff was surprised to see us; I explained that we are, in fact, Chicago fans, we just have a long commute.
Marah and I grabbed a meal in the hotel restaurant. I had meatloaf, for which the execution did not match the florid description in the menu. We went back and helped in the green room a bit more. Once that was done (done is a strong word, Ann still wanted to shop for a few last-minute things), we went to some parties.
Saturday was the day of our party. kT drove us to Dominick's to shop, and we overbought a little. We got back in time for the Chicago bid corporate AGM. We discussed plans for the years to come. Four of the directors were up for relection: Dave, Helen, Marah, and myself. Steven and Raymond were also nominated as directors, so I decided not to run this year. Dave, Helen, and Marah were immediately elected, and Steven was elected for the fourth spot in a runoff. I was pleased that Marah was elected. The bid should have at least two out of town directors; Marah and Jill meet that requirement. There is a good chance I'll run again next year. The meeting then got into the whole membership question. Broadly speaking, we all share very similar goals, we just disagree somewhat on the best path to those goals. We started with a lack of consensus, and we made a lot of progress at the meeting. My personal opinion is that a low bid membership rate is the best way to encourage participation, and that overall this is likely to generate a larger total committee dues revenue than a higher corporate membership rate can bring in. The question of how much people pay when was not resolved. I have become a bit paranoid about this stuff for very good reason, ever since the day when the conrunners got outvoted by the posers at a Torcon meeting in the fall of 1998. While one of the proposals has a loophole I'm not happy with, the informal mechanisms of Chicago fandom are a safeguard. My input is to try to ensure an open process; the end result belongs to the community of mainly Chicago fans.
The Seattle party itself was successful, especially in light of competition from many other parties. The chicago-sf.org party was across the hall from us, which both drew people down to our end of the hall and pulled people into their party. We sold four presupports. The apple punch (apple cider, Smirnoff's apple vodka, sour apple schnapps, and some appletini mixer) did not work quite as well as the punch in St. Louis. More experimentation is required. We had good conversation, which is the important thing. The party went on longer than I would have liked. Rather than kick people out, I left at dawn for breakfast.
Sunday, we loaded out of the room, donated leftovers to the con suite, then helped Ann tear down the green room We managed not to annoy the media guest (Richard Hatch), who stayed in the green room for a while. kT got us back to the airport for around 7, in plenty of time for our flight back to Washington.
marahsk drove down to Washington on Tuesday so that we could fly out together to Chicago. While we were in the shuttle coach from the security to the gate concourse, ann_totusek called. She gave us the sad news that a family member of shsilver's had passed away, obliging Steven to travel to the funeral. Ann then begged us for help, as (a) while she was perfectly comfortable with the job she volunteered to do, she wasn't quite sure about running programming at-con for Windycon and (b) while she had managed to get volunteers to help her in the green room, she wasn't sure they'd show up. We told her we'd have her back.
We got in late Wednesday night. kT was kind enough to pick us up at ORD and drive us to the Wyndham, especially nice of her as she wasn't staying at the hotel that night. We went to the IHOP for a late snack.
On Thursday, we checked in with people. Then we went for lunch with Marah's friend smg1404, who she'd known forever (longer than she's known me) but never actually met in person. My idea was to have lunch somewhere near the hotel; Lori's idea was to go to some great place in a distant suburb. We compromised on Maggiano's in Schaumburg. We had a great chat, which of course made us late. Ann asked us to run an errand on the way back, so we went to Jo-Ann's in Des Plaines to get eight yards of clear vinyl sheet. We spent a couple hours helping to set up the green room.
Friday, we spent a lot of time working in the green room. I hung up plastic garlands, and carried a lot of drinks from one end of the room to the other. sciffy_circo spent six hours cutting butterfly shapes out of a patterened fabric. Someone created a spray of flowers with a little fountain running, while others cut up silk flowers to put on the table, with some autumn leaves. We put the plastic sheet on top of everything, creating a flat surface on top of the decorated table. Everyone was impressed with the effect. I think it might have involved more work than the situation may have warranted, but they take hospitality seriously in the Midwest. We got to see lots of people in the green room on Friday. I think andpuff was surprised to see us; I explained that we are, in fact, Chicago fans, we just have a long commute.
Marah and I grabbed a meal in the hotel restaurant. I had meatloaf, for which the execution did not match the florid description in the menu. We went back and helped in the green room a bit more. Once that was done (done is a strong word, Ann still wanted to shop for a few last-minute things), we went to some parties.
Saturday was the day of our party. kT drove us to Dominick's to shop, and we overbought a little. We got back in time for the Chicago bid corporate AGM. We discussed plans for the years to come. Four of the directors were up for relection: Dave, Helen, Marah, and myself. Steven and Raymond were also nominated as directors, so I decided not to run this year. Dave, Helen, and Marah were immediately elected, and Steven was elected for the fourth spot in a runoff. I was pleased that Marah was elected. The bid should have at least two out of town directors; Marah and Jill meet that requirement. There is a good chance I'll run again next year. The meeting then got into the whole membership question. Broadly speaking, we all share very similar goals, we just disagree somewhat on the best path to those goals. We started with a lack of consensus, and we made a lot of progress at the meeting. My personal opinion is that a low bid membership rate is the best way to encourage participation, and that overall this is likely to generate a larger total committee dues revenue than a higher corporate membership rate can bring in. The question of how much people pay when was not resolved. I have become a bit paranoid about this stuff for very good reason, ever since the day when the conrunners got outvoted by the posers at a Torcon meeting in the fall of 1998. While one of the proposals has a loophole I'm not happy with, the informal mechanisms of Chicago fandom are a safeguard. My input is to try to ensure an open process; the end result belongs to the community of mainly Chicago fans.
The Seattle party itself was successful, especially in light of competition from many other parties. The chicago-sf.org party was across the hall from us, which both drew people down to our end of the hall and pulled people into their party. We sold four presupports. The apple punch (apple cider, Smirnoff's apple vodka, sour apple schnapps, and some appletini mixer) did not work quite as well as the punch in St. Louis. More experimentation is required. We had good conversation, which is the important thing. The party went on longer than I would have liked. Rather than kick people out, I left at dawn for breakfast.
Sunday, we loaded out of the room, donated leftovers to the con suite, then helped Ann tear down the green room We managed not to annoy the media guest (Richard Hatch), who stayed in the green room for a while. kT got us back to the airport for around 7, in plenty of time for our flight back to Washington.