4th Street 2012: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[cloudscudding]

This year's writers workshop went very well (the workshop can be kind of hit-or-miss). I signed up not sure if it would do much for me, but because it was a thing that I wanted to continue. I ended up feeling like I got my money's worth in spades (and hearts, clubs, and diamonds). I should mention that the sandwiches provided were also fantastic (2

Comments

[mrissa]

It's interesting that you're willing to quite so sweepingly state, "Those who have been attending for a couple of years have solidified into groups (even as they complain about others doing the same!)," since I ate meals with a bunch of people I haven't eaten with before, including making sure that I took first-timers into dinner expeditions early on. And for all that Steve Brust can be abrasive, I know he did too, because I saw him in a lunch group with his writing partner and two people I know for a fact are first-timers. So honestly, when I read this post, I went, "Speak for yourself, Abra!"

Everyone thinks someone else is one of the cool kids, but certainly not them--and I think if they see someone going off with one of my dinner expeditions, they file that person in the "cool kids" category and assume that their fellow new person won't have the time of day for them even if I just pulled that person in on a whim because they were standing there. And if I pull in two people, three people, four people, whatever, the ones I don't grab will not think, "Well, she can't take everybody," they'll just think, "Nobody grabbed me." Did any of these people approach the concom to thank them and ask them to dinner? I don't know about the rest of the concom, but they sure didn't say word one to the programming chair. alecaustin was pointed out at least three times, and there weren't any other Asian dudes at this Fourth Street--you cannot miss him--but no one who didn't already know him said a word to him about programming, much less, "hey, great job, really appreciate it, do you want to do dinner." And it's not like Alec is sitting here weeping for that random monkeys have not patted his back, but--it's not for nothing that people's parents tell them, "If you want to have a friend, be a friend."

chinders has agreed to take point on organizing some newcomer stuff. If you're interested in helping, she's the one to contact, and you've said before that you're one of our rare extroverts, so you're a good candidate to do it, because it will be less draining for you than for some of the rest of us who have been doing it on a less organized basis.

[cloudscudding]

Okay. Ahem. "Some people that I hang out with a lot who early on complained about other groups being in-groups have now formed ones of their own, while other naturally forming groups appear to be intact." Notthatthere'sanythingwrongwiththat. I can see that it would be an easy pattern to fall into for me. So, yes, I am kind of speaking for myself.

Qualifiers, I will add them.

I did think Alec did a great job doing programming but never really wound up in conversation with him to mention it. Sorry to hear that nobody else did either, because, yes, he deserves pats on the back for it.

Extrovert, yes. Social skills, no. Helping, maybe.

[cloudscudding]

I'd emailed Janet the suggestion before you commented here and she passed it along. I didn't realize this came up at the con postmortem (skipped out to go paint Adoring Ants on a baby onesie)--I'd be curious to know if it was brought up by actual newcomers or by attendees who may have an emotional hangover from past years.