my kind of town
I went to Chicago last weekend. Stayed at the Blackstone Hotel, which is very, very comfortable, and surprisingly cheap in, like, February. Saw The Watchmen at Hollywood Boulevard, and I want to see it again. Probably have to get the graphic novel compilation too.
On Sunday, ann_totusek gave me a ride to O'Hare by way of the Duckon concom meeting. I helped Ann and Helen print out an 80-page document that Ann used at the meeting. The chair, Kevin, was sick, so Ann chaired the meeting. Having seen many concom meetings over the years, there was pretty much the usual range of personalities and experience levels in the group. Ann banged through the agenda very efficiently and with a minimum of drama.
Helen has been my friend for a decade and I am superficially acquainted with many of the Duckon crowd, but I'm not close to most of those people so I wasn't invested in decisions made. In the context of starting a new convention, it was a very interesting experiment for me. Avoiding some of the special problems of existing Toronto conventions should be relatively easy with people like Catherine Crockett and dlacey as moral guides, but I thought about what "my" convention might be like in eighteen years and realized how easy it would be for me to become one of the annoying old guard that the young turks bitch about.
I could go on about what I perceive my strengths and weaknesses to be and what I might be like a couple decades from now, but that's not the point. One tangible thing I've learned is how to write by-laws to avoid these problems, and the main approach is to not entrench too much power in the same core group indefinitely.
(None of this is about Duckon per se; I don't really know the by-laws or political dynamics and I assume they'll work out whatever short-term issues they might have. I was just thinking about our own future on this end of the Great Lakes.)
Anyway, overall it was very relaxing to be in Chicago that weekend. I'll almost certainly do this again, and next time I do, I'll call some more friends and be less of a hermit.
Had a snack at Cheeseburger Paradise on the way to the airport. Got to the airport on time. Weather did not cooperate. United 246 was cancelled (many flights were delayed, but ours was the only one I saw in red on the board). Inbound flight was delayed, then crew started timing out due to shift-duration regulations. When the captain had to go off shift, the flight was cancelled. I wanted to fly to Toronto, but I had to fly back to Buffalo in the morning. Stayed at the Sheraton Gateway Suites, which was also very nice and really not busy.
Minor delays on the return flight, taxiing and whatnot, and a delay at the border were just enough to lose me a day of work on the Monday. Oh well.
On Sunday, ann_totusek gave me a ride to O'Hare by way of the Duckon concom meeting. I helped Ann and Helen print out an 80-page document that Ann used at the meeting. The chair, Kevin, was sick, so Ann chaired the meeting. Having seen many concom meetings over the years, there was pretty much the usual range of personalities and experience levels in the group. Ann banged through the agenda very efficiently and with a minimum of drama.
Helen has been my friend for a decade and I am superficially acquainted with many of the Duckon crowd, but I'm not close to most of those people so I wasn't invested in decisions made. In the context of starting a new convention, it was a very interesting experiment for me. Avoiding some of the special problems of existing Toronto conventions should be relatively easy with people like Catherine Crockett and dlacey as moral guides, but I thought about what "my" convention might be like in eighteen years and realized how easy it would be for me to become one of the annoying old guard that the young turks bitch about.
I could go on about what I perceive my strengths and weaknesses to be and what I might be like a couple decades from now, but that's not the point. One tangible thing I've learned is how to write by-laws to avoid these problems, and the main approach is to not entrench too much power in the same core group indefinitely.
(None of this is about Duckon per se; I don't really know the by-laws or political dynamics and I assume they'll work out whatever short-term issues they might have. I was just thinking about our own future on this end of the Great Lakes.)
Anyway, overall it was very relaxing to be in Chicago that weekend. I'll almost certainly do this again, and next time I do, I'll call some more friends and be less of a hermit.
Had a snack at Cheeseburger Paradise on the way to the airport. Got to the airport on time. Weather did not cooperate. United 246 was cancelled (many flights were delayed, but ours was the only one I saw in red on the board). Inbound flight was delayed, then crew started timing out due to shift-duration regulations. When the captain had to go off shift, the flight was cancelled. I wanted to fly to Toronto, but I had to fly back to Buffalo in the morning. Stayed at the Sheraton Gateway Suites, which was also very nice and really not busy.
Minor delays on the return flight, taxiing and whatnot, and a delay at the border were just enough to lose me a day of work on the Monday. Oh well.