Dear convention committee member:
When you suggest at the beginning of March that you MIGHT be able to get me a program-participant membership for a major Memorial Day convention - MIGHT, mind you - and that person doesn't hear from you after that, that person might naturally assume that it fell through. So when you call 2 weeks before the con to say "Oh, by the way, did anyone ever contact you and tell you we've got your membership?" you shouldn't sound so disappointed that that other person has already made plans.
I'm working the Saturday and Sunday of the convention - and no way in hell am I getting off my shifts, hopping in the car, and driving an hour to spend a long night performing and trying to stay awake - before hopping back in the car and driving an hour home so I can attend to the next day's work shift. That's the exact opposite of what a holiday weekend is supposed to entail.
And frankly, with that "Plan B" attitude about my importance to the programming, AND the technical glitches implied in the communication - "Whaddya mean all our emails are going into peoples' Spam filters?" - I could have planned to spend the weekend washing my hair and reading comic books and I'd still not want to disrupt it for a last-minute convention, run by people that are clearly not communicating well with the necessary participants.
I learned at the age of 9 (when I made myself go to a birthday party even though I wasn't feeling well) that it's no fun to force yourself to attend something if you really, really shouldn't, or it'd be too much work.
I'm working the Saturday and Sunday of the convention - and no way in hell am I getting off my shifts, hopping in the car, and driving an hour to spend a long night performing and trying to stay awake - before hopping back in the car and driving an hour home so I can attend to the next day's work shift. That's the exact opposite of what a holiday weekend is supposed to entail.
And frankly, with that "Plan B" attitude about my importance to the programming, AND the technical glitches implied in the communication - "Whaddya mean all our emails are going into peoples' Spam filters?" - I could have planned to spend the weekend washing my hair and reading comic books and I'd still not want to disrupt it for a last-minute convention, run by people that are clearly not communicating well with the necessary participants.
I learned at the age of 9 (when I made myself go to a birthday party even though I wasn't feeling well) that it's no fun to force yourself to attend something if you really, really shouldn't, or it'd be too much work.