I saw two things at this Minicon which I feel need serious attention. They are quite different from each other, except in having repercussions everywhere.

First, in my own experience, one problem with this Minicon overshadowed all others. Communication stank. Just about everyone I came into contact with did good or wonderful work. This is very emphaticly not a criticism of any of the workers at any level. But lower level workers weren't giving each other information about their jobs, and neither they nor their superiors were giving information to the next shift. I had to repeat everything I needed or wanted to each person individually, over again each shift-change.

It was maddening, since, in addition, people were making things up left and right, since they were left completely in the dark as to existing systems, practices or ideas.

Similarly, heroic work was done by the Programming people, but there were a number of grevious errors which could have been prevented by a few minutes of oversight from the Exec (or whoever it is who oversees the Department Heads). There wouldn't have been panels during dinner, for instance, and the pocket program would have been useable. And poor unappreciated Janet could have gotten a sliver more sleep.

And I assume you have heard already (or will!) from people who had trouble with the simplest, most essential transactions with the convention in advance, like registration and room reservation.

At a minimum, when many people will be doing a job, there ought to be a page or two of basic instructions.

My other observation is that Minicon seems to have become an entire cluster of cons with varying degrees of relation or connection to each other, which are in the same place at the same time. Personally, I don't like this, but it is not my personal opinion which is the point here. My point is that Minicon 33 will work better if the people involved are realistic about what they are doing and dealing with.

Thank you,

Neil Rest