[Board] Fwd: Re: Would you like to be a Guest of Honor at Penguicon 5?

[Tracy Worcester]

On 7/28/06, Rob Landley <rob.landley at timesys.com> wrote:
>
> On Friday 28 July 2006 15:43, Matt Arnold wrote:
> > Anne Murphy.
>
> I've apparently been out of the loop.  I was unaware that we were grooming
> next year's con chair this early, nor had I heard of this candidate before
> I
> got Matt's objections to a potential guest.


Not so much grooming; we just have one person who has indicated that odds
are good she would not run screaming if it turns out we need her.  I hadn't
mentioned it to anyone, because, well, it's, what, 20 months until PCon 6.0?
I figured I could bring the general topic up (possible chairs for the
future) at the August Board meeting.

Wasn't this the person who was Neil Gaiman's handler, a guy who made his
> name
> writing comic books, but she doesn't want a "youth author".  Because
> somebody
> like J.K. Rowling would shame our con by her very presence.  (And
> Pratchett
> was on a book tour for "Wee Free Men", which has a nine year old
> protagonist
> fighting elves with the help of pictsies, and followed that up with "The
> Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents" which was officially positioned
> as
> a children's book.)


*throat clearing*  Perhaps, before we attribute too much of a position to
her in absentia, we should hold off on making a decision until a) she gets a
chance to speak for herself, and b) we get a little farther down the road in
terms of deciding next year's chair?

This does bring up an interesting issue that we need to consider at the
Board level, though; should we, in the future, have the luxury of appointing
a chair early, do we want to?  I think we may want to hold on the meeting to
discuss this, though, since it will be in just a couple of weeks, though I'm
not sure about that.

*shrug*  If she's con chair obviously she gets to say who the guests are.  I
> was unaware this decision had already been made...


Gets *a* say, but perhaps not *the* say...

Actually, this is another interesting question:  if the Board is going to
try to help acquire excellent guests in advance, which is one of the better
ways to get the most shiny ones, occasionally a chair is going to get handed
guests in advance.  Personally, I still think advanced guest acquisition is
a good plan, but it is obvious this is not always going to be the case.  I
think it's worth discussing, either online or at the meeting.


...Tracy
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