During and after MiniCon XXV, many members of the aforementioned convention's executive committee expressed their desire to bring about a change in the way future MiniCons are organized. As a collective of scientists, engineers, and computer professionals, we are pleased to respond to the request for a proposal tendered by Ms. Lynn Litterer on behalf of the newly appointed MiniCon XXVI executive committee.
In order to address some of the problems facing Minn-STF and other organizers of MiniCon, we respectfully submit following observations and suggestions.
We need to come up with a scheme (or "racket" if you prefer) to whittle down the number of people that attend this thing. Some the ideas that came to us (sometimes unbidden) are:
A MiniCon registration, even at the door, is far less than your basic die-hard, party-animal's Saturday night bar tab. Suggestions for dealing with this:
Fen just wanna have fun. Most of us don't work as hard for our paychecks as we do for MiniCon. How about:
Being the ardent capitalists that we are, we thought we'd start here. EcoSanc (new phrase -- you heard it here first) seems to be a popular way of dealing with undesirables (e. g. the policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations). Michigan Gold Card Fandom (a. k. a. The South-East Michigan Gluttony Society (SEMGS) (a. k. a Captain Bartholomy and the Crew of the Bellwether (hell, here we go again (^C)))) like this idea. Money has never been an issue with us snobs in the first place. You name it, we'll pay it.
If preregistration was doubled ($30) and at-the-door raised to $100 (U.S.), you should find far fewer people in attendance. If 50% of last year's attendees decided that this was outrageous and decided to stay away, the Con would still end up with last year's budget and half the people to spend it on. (We like this prospect. )
The "worst case" would be everybody deciding that the higher rates were acceptable and MiniCon XXVI ends up with a huge budget. That is a risk that can be dealt with as the situation arises. There seems to be no way to gauge what people are willing to pay. (A mysterious male fan, who we will call Mr. E, says he'll pay more than $100, but expects to get laid.)
The downside to this approach is that neo-fen and those of us not working for the auto-industry would be at a severe economic disadvantage (i.e. broke). New fans are the life's blood (grunt labor) of future fandom. To force them to bear this burden may leave the tree of fandom barren of future fruit. (Forgive me; I wax poetic. ) We'll talk about ways to counter this problem later.
Due to the personalities of the people writing this proposal, our greatest area of expertise is in the Con Suite. At the last MiniCon, we used around 576 hours of labor to staff the Con Suite from Thursday night through Monday night (see Appendix A). If we could get 300 people who would work two hours apiece, that would more than cover what was needed to keep the Con Suite running smoothly. Requiring every attendee to work some small number of hours during the Con (two, for instance) should cover the labor needs while relieving the workload that currently oppresses the Minn-STF masses and other miscellaneous masses (such as PFRC, PFRC-ASAKCA, PFRC-SEMGS, Winnipeg fandom, etc. ). It also would make sure that those attending are people who really want to be there (i. e. the more enthusiastic fen).
On the other hand, people who pay to attend an event rarely do so with the intent to go there and work. When was that last time you helped clean up after watching a movie? Or washed dishes after eating in a restaurant? We may end up losing some people who just go to relax, party, see friends, sing filk, attend panels, etc. This would break our hearts.
Part of the problem MiniCon experienced with the influx of the local party crowd may be related to the success of past MiniCons and the reputation MiniCon enjoys. Think about it: where would you rather be Easter week-end?
If MiniCon were to limit its marketing in some way, it may be possible reduce the number of people showing up solely for the all-you-can-eat/drink buffet in the Con Suite. Some suggestions for limiting the scope of MiniCon's marketing effort (sound like big business, huh?!) include:
This is the fun time. Minn-STF gets to thumb their noses at people and say "Y'all don't come back now, ya hear!" The first thing will be to set a limit on the number of people allowed to attend. Take all the preregistrations in the order they get there. Move the registrations for those people that you really WANT to attend to the front of the list. Anyone who doesn't make the cut tough! (just so long as we make the list (i.e. we are some of those that you want to attend (hint, hint)))
Another possible suggestion, allocate each person in Minn-STF 10-15 tickets to give to people that they want to come. If a Minn-STF member runs out of tickets, he can buy, beg, borrow, steal, or forge more tickets. The drawback to this is that you won't get the number of neos to keep things going. (We've talked about this before, remember? Grunt labor? Thought so. )
Other possibilities for active exclusion include:
Changing the location is one of the silliest ideas we could come up with, but some of us are very good at that sort of thing. It is also the most difficult. Not many other cities could get the kind of organization that Minn-STF puts out (i.e. fanatical, dedicated, unpaid, exhausted . . .). It would be very difficult for Minn-STF to run a convention for another city (although I wouldn't put it past 'em). As for moving it to another hotel in Minneapolis - St. Paul, it would be tough to find one as well suited for space or with as easy going a staff (not to mention well broken in).
On the plus side, nobody would know where to find us. Pick some Ghod forsaken place with no possible means of transportation to get there, (say inner Outer Mongolia or worse, Houghton) and very few people would show up. Minneapolis is just too easy to find! It has interstate highways running through it for Ghod sake!
No, we're not talking about making it start Friday at 10 a.m. instead of 5 p.m.; make it another time of year. Why not use natural deterrents? Have MiniCon during blizzard season. There will be some people who won't want to come to Minneapolis in that kind of weather (though to people from Houghton, it won't be a problem. It will seem like spring.) This probably won't affect the number of weirdos from Minneapolis that show up (we hope they are used to it), but it will cut down on some of the out-of-staters or "exostaters. " (Yes, we love making up new words and contractions. We hope to make other people talk gooder, like us. )
Now to assault the most offensive, not to mention difficult problem. In this vein we have come up with some possible themes for the NEW Minicon:
Other suggestions came to mind to reduce the party animal attendance. Eliminate all convention-supplied alcohol. This should reduce the costs of running the convention, reduce number of man hours needed in con suite, reduce some of the problems with the hotel, reduce crowding in the con suite and elevators, and would discourage those people who just come to party from attending. More people would have room parties (controlling those attending) and spread the general chaos to a greater portion of the hotel.
On the down side, this would drastically change the atmosphere and ambiance that MiniCon has been striving for 25 years to produce.
Another suggestion is to shift the cost of the alcohol to the people doing the drinking. This can be done in three ways.
Put a little spot on the badge for trouble makers. If security has to talk to you, they put a punch through your badge. If you have a punched badge and they have to talk to you, then your badge is taken away. This would leave it up to security to determine how much trouble you can cause before getting marked or thrown out.
If this approach is pursued, a lot of effort is going to have to be put into letting people know that MiniCon has changed. We don't want a lot of people showing up on the doorstep with pitchforks and torches screaming for their money back.
We really can't say enough about this idea. We tried, but it crept in when our backs were turned. This option involves nothing. Simple, eh? Your average Relaxacon goes somethin' like this:
A Relaxacon doesn't necessarily mean that people are going to be sitting around watching the mildew mature in the bath tub; it's a chance for people to do what they want to do without having to make their plans around a convention schedule.
Since we like to take both sides on each issue (some call it playing devil's advocate or being wishy-washy), we ought to look at the down side to the Relaxacon. Let's face it: many people are sheep. If you don't grab some folks by the shoulders and tell them what they're supposed to do for a weekend, they'll just stand there and stare at you all the time as if they were . . . well . . . sheep. People are used to being programmed and may not know what to do with themselves. But then again, if they're all standing in the lobby waiting for something to happen and the rest of us are at a party somewhere, who's gonna know?
By this we mean aside from the usual hotel staff or the boils you get on your bottom. The number of ways to use this approach include:
Frankly, we don't think much of this idea, but felt compelled to bring it up. There ought to be enough people available for a volunteer effort to make the Con work. Especially if the Con isn't as big as MiniCon XXV.
What ever happened to free or reduced registration for volunteers? Let the people who don't want to work subsidize the people who do. This can be accomplished by:
Giving a refund at the end (or after) the Con is a hassle. It involves a lot of extra book keeping and some people will invariably fall through the cracks. This tends to result in severely hurt feelings to say the least. Death threats to say the most. No, make that murder attempts. (Remember who you're dealing with. )
If nothing else, some sort of formal recognition should be given to the volunteers. Neat buttons are nice, but . . .
This was provided as a humorous aside. You really didn't expect us to discuss it, did you?
After careful consideration and several large drinks, we agreed to suggest the following actions:
Being the conservative individuals that we are, we are only suggesting a mild form of drastic change. If MiniConConComm wishes to change things more drastically, they are, of course, in charge. However, we appreciate the opportunity to offer opinions on any topic you care to bring to our attention.