[Penguicon-Concom] Good bye

[Tracy Worcester]

On 7/26/06, Francinehibiscus at aol.com <Francinehibiscus at aol.com> wrote:
>
>  Well, Ron, I totally agree with you that we can't expect to do the same
> jobs year after year.
>

Nope, you can't, and probably shouldn't.  As a former chair, I can assure
you that encouraging people to keep the same job for multiple years is a
prescription for either burnout or stagnation.

I was, at first, actually somewhat puzzled by the confusion and pain over
all this.

Then I realized that part of the reason why I take this for granted is that
I've been a conchair before, and know *just* how complicated the job of
staffing one of them can be.  The job of staffing a convention is one of the
hardest ones a conchair has to do, even more so if you're trying to take a
longer view than just your year.  Some of the reasons are obvious, and some
of them aren't.

One of the primary jobs of the conchair, which may not be entirely obvious
from the outside, is Chief Morale Officer for their year.  There are, as
everyone knows, few or no tangible rewards for being on con comm.  As much
as possible, the chair needs to pick a model for their year that is either
a) fun (this model chosen by myself, Bill, and Aaron) or b) at least smooth
and painless (the model chosen by Steve).

The chair also needs to vet and incorporate new people as much as possible.
You need new people to make sure to avoid "we've always done it this way"
syndrome, and also to get things to the point where you can let some of your
good people lie fallow for a year or two, here or there, so they don't
totally burn out.  That sometimes means moving people around.

Oh, and incidentally, you've actually got to put together a group of people
with all the necessary skills to actually make the convention happen.  And
the right mix of personality types to make sure that no one is actually
going to kill anyone else in the process.

As chair, you also have to be relentlessly honest with yourself about
*yourself*.  How much time do you *really* have to put to the convention?
What management style do you  want to use, and, more importantly, what style
*do you revert to under stress*?  Of your pool of potential volunteers,
which ones, at the end, will actually be happy to have worked with you, and
which ones will be cursing your name?

And, no matter how useful any volunteer could be to you...if you, as a
chair, will make them crazy, don't recruit them.  Save them for the next
chair.  I personally had to do this with several people who volunteered for
PCon 1.0, and several of them have done really well by chairs from the
following years.  It was a good choice.  I don't know most of what John's
having to juggle this year, since I'm buried in classwork, but I'm sure his
choices aren't a whole lot easier.

 What can we, as volunteers, expect?  We can expect to be told *in
person*that after YEARS of doing excellent work, we are being
replaced.
>

That's not unreasonable, where feasible.

We can expect to be offered a reason, I think.
>

 I just checked in with John about this, and he tells me that he actually
gave a couple of different reasons.

And yes, I think we can expect a thank you, after being led to believe that
> we were working on staff for P5, and after doing work that would improve the
> con for the next year.
>

I am also assured that sincere thanks were offered by John.  And I know
extensive thanks have been offered both Ron and Kimba, by every chair since
2.0, repeatedly and sincerely.  I've watched them do it.

 What's the point of this mini rant?  That we're all expendable, I guess.
> Obviously, we're not anything resembling a team, so why shouldn't we be?
>

There are wildly different models for how con comms run.  I know of one
local convention which doesn't have con comm meetings at all.  Everyone
reports directly to the chairs.  Each department does their jobs.  It seems
to work for them, and has for quite some time.  My con comm was a little bit
like a roving room party where a lot of SMOFing happened.  Steve created a
smoothly oiled machine.  Conclave and ConFusion both handle things
differently.

Each chair, and each convention, are slightly different.  This is why chairs
need to have a completely free hand in who they put on their committees, and
why volunteers should pick and choose which convention they will be happiest
working with, and which chairs they're best suited to having fun working
with.

...Tracy
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