Comments | pecunium: My Arisia

pecunium

My Arisia

Jan 22, 2014 14:20

Was busy.

Last year londo asked me to help/be Quartermaster. This year I was Quartermaster. This means keeping four venues, on different floors; in supply, for four days, so they can feed 3,600 of my most intimate friends ( Read more... )

code of conduct, fandom, self-reflection, conventions

Comments 12

ckd January 22 2014, 21:36:22 UTC

I'm sorry I didn't get to see you at Arisia -- sounds like we had simultaneous but non-overlapping busy con weekends.

Even though I'm not particularly SMOFfy, I heard about the fail area (just that there was fail, no details).

mneme January 22 2014, 22:49:14 UTC

Oh, wow; I did -not- hear about that particular aspect of O's manipulations and drama. Hopefully, we can shake off this particular leech before he digs himself in too deeply. (drcpunk was not wrong when she referred to him as a psychic vampire (social is probably more accurate, but whatev), but it seems incomplete).

It occurs to me that it would be useful to have some staff that nominally had the quartermaster role in Contata rather than it semi-randomly going to a combination of admin/consuite staff pre-con and whoever can be randomly grabbed during the con [and isn't needed for some other purpose].

pecunium January 22 2014, 23:19:13 UTC

Talk to me. I think I have some idea of the requirements of the job.

pecunium January 22 2014, 23:20:54 UTC

I called him an emotional vampire on Sunday morning. I have to say I wasn't surprised to hear there were some who found him creepy. What I am glad to see that Arisia took it seriously enough to talk to him; even though it it seems he was being careful to stay inside the exact rules.

roadnotes January 22 2014, 22:50:17 UTC

I'm glad you had fun, and glad O didn't manage to spoil things for you.

sethg_prime January 23 2014, 04:31:29 UTC

This was my eleven-year-old son’s second Arisia, and I asked him to think seriously about volunteering for the con the next time we come, because he should learn what a well-run volunteer organization looks like. Thanks for being one of the people who ran it well.

cynara_linnaea January 23 2014, 15:58:42 UTC

I'm glad that you were able to have a good time, in spite of the crises and the O stuff. I know I was very happy to get a bit of your time, as I know it is at premium during the con. Conversation with you is always fascinating.

Speaking of which, thank you for this writeup of your O saga. It has been very helpful in my own processing of it. On my first meeting with him, my alert klaxons went off, but I wasn't positive they were danger signals as opposed to socially-awkward-but-guileless signals. Since discerning one from the other has been an issue for me in the past, I was debating whether to ask ladymondegreen to talk with me about this some more to help me process, but I didn't want to ask her to give any more headspace to the issue. Now I don't have to.

I'm curious as to what you mean about Arisia's CoC enforcement being "both definite and circumspect." Would you be willing to say more about it, either here or in an email?

pecunium January 23 2014, 16:52:37 UTC

I think I can talk about it here. What follows are my personal impressions, and has no official imprimatur of Arisia, nor of Arisia Corp. It is comment from my observations as a tangential (and accidental) witness to some applications of the Code(s) of Conduct Arisia has.

1: It seems they take all complaints into consideration.
2: A single plaintiff is enough to initiate a significant inquiry.
3: They work to make sure the correct person has been identified.
4: They listen to the plaintiff, and treat the complaint as valid on its face.
5: They work (so far as I could see) to bring about a resolution which mitigates future harm (so far as is possible)
6: They work to see that the offense is redressed, if possible (this may require active participation on the part of the person giving the offense).

7: Things which don't (quite) rise to the level of sanction are also addressed: with the offending party told there have been complaints. The general nature of the complaints is related to them, but no specifics, e.g. O knew that ( ... )

cynara_linnaea January 23 2014, 16:59:59 UTC

That is indeed heartening. I know they talk a good game, if nothing else based on the panels and the fact that they have had a CoC for as long as I have been attending (admittedly not long). But the CoC is somewhat vague, and could give a lot of wiggle room to back out. I am very, very glad to hear that this is not the case. Sounds to me like those are all the right steps.