> year, but on the whole, everyone seemed to have a good time.
A rather broad statment there son, care to think about this a
sec. There are at least 2 users on Fido that have complained
that the con did not live up to expectations & was over priced.
A small percentage to be sure, but vocal.
> I also showed up around noon Saturday expecting to do setup,
> and get a few things prepped before launching the convention.
> I also was surprised to find that the convention began that
> morning.
Well If the con-com can't even get it straight where does that
leave us? Information needs to be gotten out to the Fen that you
expect to pay your expenses. When there is a failier of this
type it does not bode well with those on the outside looking in.
> Advertising was poor. I am responsible for that. Advertising
> was not allotted much money, and through pure luck, I was able
> to swing a deal with a local radio station that got us some
> extra publicity. Any fault with advertising is PURELY
> MY FAULT!
It is good to see that someone is willing to belly up to the bar
and admit to the problems of a convention, it earns you a bit
more respect in my book at least.
Advertising doesn't always have to cost a lot of money. Here
on the Fido you could have run a string of messages on the
convention that would have brought about an awareness to the
local users that read this echo on a daily basis. The SF lit
echo and Filk Echo could be used to gain further awarness and
distribute information about the convention at very little cost
to the con-com. Outside of Fido there are the Inter-net SF
fourms/News groups, Web pages and other resources. In the New
Orleans Region there is the Fandom Is A way Of Life Networked
Discussion Sub (Available on the Gulf Coast From Atrocity
Exhibition BBS (601-533-6064). Most of these resources are
ignored by the regional conventions and it is a pity as they
could promote con awarness and goodwill before, during and after
the event. The really bad thing about using them is that you
have to USE THEM. Get yourself someone that knows HOW to use all
the nets on the con-com, you might get much more information out
to the fen than you ever dreamed possible.
> The hospitallity room, on the other hand I take note with. It was
> sponsored by a new Fan Club in the area called "Creative Destruction."
> We, as a club put up $150.00 of our own money for food. Coast Con put
> up $100.00 for drinks. Sure, we didn't come close to Cresent City Con,
> but we as a club also didn't have several hundred dollars to put behind
> the effort. My roomate, and founder of Creative Destruction, John
> Kelly, put HIS OWN money out of his final paycheck before being laid off
> from work to make this thing work, and we are sorry that people were not
> satisfied with the results.
I did not mean to disparage the efforts of "CD" and was only
commenting on the room in general compared to other conventions
in the region. Hospitallity is the most Thankless job at a con
and is singled out unfairly many times (as might have been the
case here as I was unaware that the Club rather than the con was
running the room). From what I saw it was run as well an most
of the other suites I had been to this past year with a lot less
trouble. (you didn't have the Con-Com person in charge of the
room quit within hours of the opening of the con as happened at
both the NOSFFF and CCC here in New Orleans this summer)
> We had hoped to find more people at the
> convention interested in participating IN A LOCAL SCI FI BASED FAN
> CLUB. Unfortunately, little intertest was found. Such a shame since fan
> clubs are the backbone of fandom. It seems that all anybody wants to do
> anymore is game and complain. I'm not getting on to you about this.
> Your comments are welcomed. It's just that nobody want's to get involved
> in putting these cons on, and doing things through the year. Just at
> con time.
Amen and Amen. Truth be told. I have experenced the same thing
here in the New Orleans area. The Social foundation of Fandom
had cracked and there are very few people willing try to do
anything to repair the damage. When a fan social is announced
it is ignored and goes unsupported to the extent that many of
the few willing to try to do something wash their hands of
Fandom and seek out the mundane side of life. A pity but it was
rather strongly shown to me that the mundanes can be much more
fannish at times than the heartiest of the tru-fen during Coast
Con jr.
> Coast Con Jr was origionally intended to be a reason for the
> membership to come to a midyear general membership meeting. Before Jr,
> the largest one I attended since '83 had about 10 people in attendance
> other than the con committee. Things have not changed very much, this
> committe meeting we had at JR had about 8-10 people there who were not
> committe.
This is information to me. It wasn't born out by the
advertising nor was it made clear that the Coast-Con General
Membership meeting was important. Being stuck at the end of the
con as it was at Coast Con 18 in April and again at jr is not
the place to put a featured event. We can discuss this later in
more detail and touch on some other programing foo-pahs as well.
> COMPLAIN, SCREAM, HOLLER, RANT, RAVE, ECT, but please take
> the time to realize that the only way for things to improve with Coast
> Con or any con is or the members to get involved throughout the year. We
> love the volunteers we get at con time. But you have to realize that
> we do this 12 months out of the year with little compensation (ie:
> repayment for stamps and phone charges). It really stinks thinking what
> kind of mileage I've put on my car in the past 6 months in dealing with
> Coast Con activities. BUT IT'S WORTH EVERY CENT!!!!!! It thrills me to
> no end to hear somebody say that despite a few complaints they got a
> charge out of one or two things we worked to bring them.
Hey THAT is what Fandom is all about, The pink fuzzies from the
shared joys, and yes it is worth all the work and efforts that
you expend.
> What this all boils down to is this: Complaints we welcome. Advice we
> really appreciate. Help we LOVE! But indifference, or no input upsets
> all of those of us that work real hard to bring you a convention.
Ain't that the truth. The problem is that few feel that their
input is welcomed by the Con-coms and have given up on finding
ways that they can express themselves. Use of The FIAWOL Sub
here in New Orleans is mostly by those few that have yet to have
gotten into the active side of Fandom other than attending a
convention or two from time to time and don't know the other
joys that the purely social side of fandom can foster. If you
are with-in the free call area of Atrocity Give Jeff a call and
see about getting on to FIAWOL so that we don't have to
broadcast this discussion to the world. If you are not in the
free calling area then check and see if there is as board
inbetween that would be interested in carrying the sub to allow
you access. Your input there would be welcomed and The
information about convention planning meetings would be of
interest to all of us.
> You
> mentioned Robert Neagle. Sure Robert can be a little over powering at
> times, but you have to realize something. Fandom is his life. It's
> mine too. I gave up a marriage because my mundane wife couldn't cope
> with my second love, fan life.
Been There, Done Than, got a divorce after 23 years of marrage
to a non fan that forced a 18 year term of Fafia upon me. She
got tired of trying to reform my fannish ways.
As to Robert ... What can I say, Yes he is a tru-fan, Is he the
black sheep that the stories would have you believe? I don't
know but I do see a lot of his and the Porno-Patrol's hand in the
region which to some people means that they are not interested
in supporting the events. I have no problem working with Robert
or anyone else in the promotion of Fandom and the Fannish
lifestyle and am a loose cannon and will proudly remain so.
I'll work with anyone than can show me that they are interested
in the return of Active and Social Fandom a region that has
become stagnet with the Fandom Is Just A G/D Hobby mentality.
> That may not have been the right answer,
> but it's in my blood, as I see it's in yours. So, I'm charging you to
> help give everybody a transfusion. Keep the comments comming, we welcome
> it. But get involved! The next committee meeting is this Sunday in New
> Orleans. I'll try and post details. If for some reason I can't, I'll
> post what happens.
I'd be interested in seeing what is going on and look forward to
getting more information as to when and where. If my megar
efforts help get the blood flowing then I am happy.
> The next meeting in December will be at our new host
> hotel, The Broadwater Tower. That's right, a larger hotel for even more
> activities including what goes on at the convention center! We're
> growing again at Coast Con, but we're getting anemic with little help
> from the membership. This is your convention too. Not mine, not Frank's,
> not Robert's, not the kid that plays AD&D for 72 hours strait at con.
> It's all of ours!
> Now in closing, I would invite anybody out there to write me or
> another one of our committe members online and ask them what you can
> do to help out. We desperately need you to give us a hand in any way you
> can. It's not the toughest job in the world, and the pay is low. But
> come next con when you see everything come together, it's payment
> enough.
> Thanks for listening.
> John Kinberg
> Coast Con 19 5th Member at Large
> Dealer's Room Director
> PS: Creative Destruction is a new Gulf Coast Fan Club open to
> everyone.
> Membership is free, and we want to advance fandom in the area. Look
> for more info online at a BBS near you. It will be posted by me or
> by my infamous alter ego "Beach Bum."
>
> ! Origin: The Galactic Gobbler - OH My (1:3604/28.0)
>
I will be cross posting this reply and anything else of interest
that I find into the Fiawol Sub for further distribution.
Contact Jeff if you can and join in the fun as we would like to
have someone else in the group with the FIAWOL spirit. Thanks
for writting.
Fiawol
... Kent Allard in his continuing & relentless quest toward Fugheadedness.
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR]
--- FMail/386 1.02
* Origin: The Black Boar Inn BBS NOLA (504)-482-6583 28.8 V.34 (1:396/89)
Д [21] SFFAN (2:463/2.5) ДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДД SFFAN Д
Msg : 33 of 300
From : Earl Green 1:3822/1 .уб 11 Hоя 95 14:48
To : All
Subj : THE NEWS
ДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДД
This message was from ROBERT PARSON to EARL GREEN,
and was forwarded to you by EARL GREEN.
-------------------------
Confirmation came a bit quicker than I thought it might:
---
Second Science Fiction and Fan
Category 18, Topic 1
Message 789 Fri Nov 10, 1995
STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:07 EST
Peter and Andreas trade off who gets the last actor card, by contract.
Yes, TNT has acquired the rerun rights to B5. What that means is that
when the show is over, they then pay the agreed upon fee for x-amount of time,
per episode. So they don't *own* them yet; that'll happen when the show is
over, which triggers the contracted fee.
It's good in some ways, but for me as a writer, any cable sale is a huge
loss, because of the way our wonderful Writers Guild handles cable vs.
