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Postmortem Comments from the Group of the Silver Stars

facilitated by Lynne Litterer

 

 

Sybil Pocket program was awful.

There was a wrong room number on a program participant's badge.

The dealer's room was too small, and had the wrong mix of merchandise.

 

Claudia Volunteered to help before the convention, and was never contacted. Volunteered at the convention, had a hard time getting any one to take her seriously.

M32 more laid back, more subdued.

 

Shannon F. Liked that there was no smoking by verandahs, made Programming Ops more habitable.

Crowds more dispersed, this is a good thing.

Pocket program sucked.

Programming controlled fires well.

 

Shannon L. Liked being bored at the front desk on Friday because Hotel was quiet.

Would like more check in on Thursday.

Con felt less crowded, could move without banging into someone

 

Jody Programming should have called people sooner.

Lack of communication with programming

Started too late on programming

Programming had great volunteers.

 

DDB Had a fine time.

Programming: The badge labels and the tent cards were handwritten, which is not only a lot of work but seems like a frightening amount of handwork, rather than computer work.

The names on the tent cards were mostly spelled correctly.

The tent cards were there on time.

 

Lydia The Thursday night full registration was non-traditional, and does not seem to have been discussed with anyone. This could have serious repercussions, both for the people this year, and next.

Programming ops was less responsive and less conciliatory this year than last, which is interesting because this year's Programming heads were not lying psychotic bitches, unlike last year.

Consuite worked better this year.

There were televisions on in the consuite, often tuned to nonsense. I would like it if they simply removed the televisions all together.

Jeff's new space allocation worked wonderfully, and probably contributed to the feeling of things being less crowded.

Dealer's room was completely acceptable.

 

Geri Good personal Minicon

More mellow, more fun.

Consuite was mellow, there were no bar brawls and no zombies. I saw more and did more picking up. Consuite looked better staffed this year.

I have serious concerns re: committee and community. This convention appears to have eaten up individuals, and caused problems with trust.

There were serious problems in each department. This is scary.

 

Lisa Pocket Program was a disaster.

Kay M. not happy with the lateness of the confirmations, hotel and registration. Also, tried to get hold of Stef in programming for a month and a half, but she didn't return phone calls.

Drum Jam worked in its new location, even though Tod was not pleased.

 

Dave Had a great time.

Enjoyed consuite

Parties hosts wonderful

Good to have a TV in the consuite, don't remove, just reprogram. I think it is a good thing to have a TV or two to kick back and relax in front or even watch the game in the consuite.

People did a good job, things went well.

Drum jam good in its new location, it does not belong poolside. However, it does belong at an SF convention, since it is part of alien cultures and ties into fantasy as well.

 

Lynn Good con from a genera perspective.

Communications were really bad.

People attending had more fun than the concom. How can it be more fun to volunteer?

 

Lydia Do more work ahead of time.

 

Sybil Better communication.

Do more pre-con work. Registration on Thursdays is a move in that direction.

More pre-con volunteers for a variety of time slots, a year before, 6 months before, 3 months before, 1-2 weeks before....

 

Claudia There's a lot of stress not knowing if you're registered. If it's in the computer, how can it not be on the printouts?

There are inconsistencies in registration/policies.

There needs to be better damage control in registration.

 

Dave Nobody's having fun if they're overworked.

Trying to do the work of several people at once is no fun.

Stuff needed to b set out. More on site volunteers.

Perhaps try mandatory volunteering? (Works for a New Age festival in New York which I attend).

Make rates lower at Minicon

 

Shannon F. Mobile trouble shooting is more fun, more interactive.

Doing more work pre-con would make work at the con more fun.

 

Shannon L. Be more willing to ask for help and learn to delegate.

Ask others if they need help.

 

Jody Wiscon will reimburse if you volunteer.

Project Brainsuck will help. Having information to go on, rather than making it up ever year.

Keep better track of volunteers, so you can find them when you need them.

 

DDB Better management of volunteers. Better management skills overall.

We need to be better at contacting people

Lydy We need to focus on promises and keeping them. We need to be more cognizant of the promises we make, and be sure we know how to meet them. This involves coordination. Promises should be specific. It will eliminate stress if we know a) when we're making a promise and b) how we're going to keep it.

There is a mythology of older fen vs. younger fen which leads to stress and prejudice and drives good volunteers away.

 

Geri There has been a breakdown of trust, partially fueled by not knowing the people with whom we volunteer.

If you registered at the door, there was no record, and if you lost your badge, you had to pay the at the door rate again, because there was no record. This is really unfriendly.

There have been problems with lying. Things have become fragmented enough that you can lie and get away with it. This fuels the loss of trust.

We are great fire fighters, but lousy fire preventers.

Again because we don't know each other as well as once we did, there is a perception that making a mistake makes one an idiot.

Decisions are no longer being made by the full concom, which feeds into the lack of communication.

Martin has pointed out that one of the reasons to volunteer is that those who work get to make the decisions. This can lead to disaster. What is best for particular people or for a particular area is not necessarily best for the convention.

We should take good ideas, but watch them.

There were bad effects which hurt only 1 or 2 people at a time, but this is still not acceptable.

Hotel worked well.

Programming had problems. We were not careful enough of our authors. Milk and Cookies is not a metaphor, and Jane Yolen was very unhappy that there were no milk and cookies at her traditional bed time story time.

When things go wrong, people assume that it was planned that way. This is disturbing meme.

 

Perrin Many of the panels had no shows, presumably because Programming was disorganized.

I really enjoyed the masquerade

It would be nice if room parties could have a place to post scheduled events so that I don't miss things I really want to see.

I worked really hard on commercials that were never aired, or were aired too late to be useful.

 

Lisa Would like a filking consuite.

Lydy There was a lack of beer Saturday night.

Lisa Room allocation was good.

Smoking lounge location bad (smoke from Atrium 6 pours into elevator lobby)