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Anthony,
You don't know me from Adam, I lurk more than anything. But I had to
respond to this post.
First off, I have zero knowledge of how the event was organized. I went
in '04 and that was it. I don't know if anyone got paid or not.
But I have been involved in organizing and running conventions from 30
to 3000 people. I've run small local game cons and been part of
national genre conventions similar to Brickfest. It's pretty obvious
that you haven't. The amount of background work that goes into a
convention is staggering. I suspect that the contract negotiations for
the hotel took months, and probably won't be sorted out for another 3-4
weeks. Finding, recruiting and keeping all those volunteers is a
full-time job in itself. Publications and mailings are insanely
expensive (and don't kid yourself if you think that all it takes is a
copy of Publisher or Quark and a laser printer), and most people who
volunteer for that job only ever do it once. For a 300 person sf con
you could expect to spend well over $1000 just on mailings. Program
books are another animal altogether. And then someone has to actually
schedule all those seminars and contests and whatnot that appear in the
program guide, they don't organize themselves.
And this doesn't even begin to compare to the petty politics and
disagreements that come with any organized event of more than 2 people.
And then there's the strain on personal finances and relationships.
To say the least, burnout is very common among event organizers.
As someone who has been attending various types of conventions for the
last 25+ years, I would be THRILLED to go to a convention that has grown
to the point that it could afford to compensate it's planners for the
time they spend working on it. You know why? Because it will make the
organizers happier. And if they're happy, the event will run smoother.
And more importantly, it's more likely that there will be *another*
event the following year. It would be very easy for Christina or
whoever to just say "screw it" and there wouldn't be another Brickfest.
You seem to have confused "the right to attend a hobby event" with the
privilege of attending said event. By definition it's a hobby, and not
an unalienable right.
I don't think anyone's pockets are getting filled by running Brickfest
and I don't think they're in it for the money (and no one has
established as fact that anyone is getting paid for this). If they
wanted money, they'd be better off working at McDonalds because the pay
would be better, the work would be easier, and they'd have less
pettiness to deal with.
I suggest you volunteer to work on a con. It's a great way to meet
people, you get to learn a lot about how an event works, and you get to
help mold it into something bigger, better and more fun than it was
before. It's a lot of work, but you come away from it with a better
appreciation of the event and a great sense of satisfaction.
Jon Gilchrist
Running Cons for longer than is healthy, and I still haven't learned to
say "no".
Anthony Sava wrote:
[snip a bunch of stuff]
> No, I refuse to go to Brickfest if it's no longer a passion of the heart alone.
> Flame me if you'd like, but its just the way I feel. Christina has worked very
> hard, as Joe has too, I'm sure (I wasn't there but I know Joe and he's a good
> guy). But hard work or not, I'm not going to be part and parcel to paying them
> for me to have a place to put up my work. I'm willing to reimburse them for the
> cost of the space, but that's as far as I'll go - I'm not going to fill anyone's
> pocket just for the right to attend a hobby event.
>
> --Anthony
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