billroper, posts by tag: windycon - LiveJournal (original) (raw)

| | And we are home from Windycon and ready to pack and go to bed.For a convention in the middle of a pandemic, it went really well.There are lots and lots of thanks due, but let me list just a few that particularly affected things for a lot of people. Right at the top of the list is our Logistics crew, who not only handled the usual parts of their job with aplomb, but who went absolutely insane and spent hours late at night during the convention taking the Illinois Basset certification test so that they could keep the beer and cider flowing in the Con Suite. The Con Suite crew made sure that there were other things to eat and drink, and if they were occasionally a bit orthogonal to what was done in previous years, it was always trying to make sure that they were keeping things as safe as possible during the pandemic.Registration was hard at work all weekend to keep that vital function running. Dave Ifversen and his tech crew made sure that we could hear what the heck was going on, which is a magic that some folks might think "just happens", but I assure you that it doesn't. The Art Show and Dealers' Room appeared to run smoothly from my point of view, limited as it was, and our gang of auctioneers and runners was back and entertaining as always.There was programming! Certainly fewer tracks than usual, as we made fewer larger rooms to allow for better spacing and air flow, but lots of talks and discussions and chances to learn things. And our hotel folks managed to fight their way through a whole new set of room setups and keep things working -- it was almost like being in a whole new hotel without actually having moved.And music! So much music by so many talented musicians, up to and including Seanan's GoH concert on Saturday night. It makes me happy that music has found such a happy home at both of our big Chicago fan-run conventions.And thanks so much to Amy McNally for joining me in my concert in Tom Smith's slot on Saturday, when he couldn't make it. As I said there, one does not simply walk into Mordor, and one does not simply "replace" Tom Smith, but having the chance to play with Amy again was simply a lot of fun.There are so many people who deserve credit for making things work and I cannot name them all here, but I am thankful that they came together to make this happen -- including everyone who (whatever their personal preferences might be) wore their masks and complied with the rules not just of the convention, but of the state. My wife, Gretchen, accuses me of being Lawful Good. Maybe so, maybe not. But it was good to see so many of us decide to agree so that we could see each other again.Let's get together again next year and try this again. :)Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon A new plan is in effect. I have lost track of which letter we're on.In other news, I ordered a new recording laptop last night. I have to wait for it to be shipped here, but reputedly it will be on its way on Monday.Tags:cons, filk, home, musings, tech, windycon Gretchen will be driving the blue minivan. I will be driving the red SUV. Between us, we will be arriving at Windycon tomorrow. (Gretchen, more than once, due to needing to retrieve children from school.)If you can, come join the party!See you there!Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon Lots of convention business today. Had the first Capricon meeting since they announced earlier this week that they planned to go virtual for 2021. We finally were able to announce for Windycon that we'd reached an no-harm-no-foul agreement with the hotel to cancel this year's Windycon.I finally broke down and bought a cheap Chinese webcam. It seemed to work ok today once I rebooted the computer, which was encouraging, as I am having *way* too many online meetings.Other than that, I caught up on nearly two weeks of newspapers. And I shallow fried the remaining frozen cheese sticks for dinner tonight, which got them out of the freezer to make room for something else.Having preserved the oil for future use, I'm thinking of tater tots. :)Tags:capricon, cons, home, musings, windycon It continues warm and humid here, but it didn't rain, so I was able to grill some hamburgers for dinner tonight. I've been trying to clean up various bits of Windycon and ISFiC related work, some more successfully than others.We'll see how it goes.Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon I have a few things to do to get the dealer table ready for Windycon, but otherwise, I'm about as ready for the con as I'm going to get.I could probably stand to be *more* ready, but I think I will take what I can get. :)Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon We are home from Windycon. I had a remarkably good time, all things considered. And given that it's my job at the convention to handle some of the less pleasant things, that seems like a big win to me.Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon The Windycon Program Book is at the printer and I'm waiting to approve the proofs. I sent in the badge art this afternoon and will send in the Pocket Program tomorrow.This is not bad, given that I was at a standing start a month ago. :)Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon I am currently laying out the Windycon Program Book. Things were going well until I went to try to download the Program schedule. I cannot log into the Program database. Neither can Vlad, who is coming at it from a different angle.Vlad is kindly trying to diagnose this problem while I resume tearing my hair out.But before that, I think I will go have some dinner and see if I have a Program schedule when I get back. :)Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon I have now spoken to our printer for Windycon, checked the format that they expect to get everything in, and verified that the dates that I can deliver things are (barely) acceptable.Next week is going to be really entertaining. :)Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon So when our hero left off, he was driving through rush hour traffic from Oak Park to Lombard, heading for the Windycon meeting.Now, I haven't been going to the Windycon meetings this year, because I am Dave's number two for technical support and don't really need to be at them. But there was an ISFiC board meeting scheduled after the Windycon meeting on Friday, so I might as well be at the first meeting before the second meeting. And going to the first meeting gave me a chance to meet up for a pleasant dinner with Dave and Ange ahead of the meeting -- and there might as well be something pleasant happening on this particular Friday! :)So we got to the meeting and near the beginning of it, Gundo announced that there was a problem with the Program Book. I asked him to talk to me about it in the breakout sessions. It turns out that there was a pretty much fatal communications problem with the person who was supposed to be doing the paper publications for the convention, so I have now volunteered (it is up to the reader to decide whether this was a foolish act or a noble act) to take up the position and get the pubs done.From pretty much a standing start. As of Friday.Happily, not completely a standing start, as Rick has been getting quotes from printers. Thank God.We'll see how this goes. Mostly, however, it just needs to go. At all deliberate speed.I chatted with several of my friends during the breakout sessions while waiting for the board meeting.And then we had the board meeting, which had been called to deal with a specific situation.The specific situation has been dealt with and will continue to be dealt with, because it was just too much data to be dealt with completely in one fell swoop. Vaguebooking is still required, because there are things that I am still not able to speak about directly, but the amount of ticked off that I am at the person responsible for the problem is approximately proportional to the amount of grateful that I am to the people who have gently whacked the board with a 2x4 to draw our attention to the problem.The good news is that things are in about as good a shape as they normally are at this stage heading into the convention, so the con should be fine.Well, except for the whole program book thing which -- in common with the previous post about last Friday's festivities -- will probably try to kill me before it's done.But I won't let it. :)Positive attitude! That's the ticket!(I'm positive it's going to kill me.)Would you cut that out!Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon I went out for dinner after we loaded out of the dealers' room with Dave, David, and John. It was a lovely dinner, but by the time we finished, it was awesomely close to the time when I needed to be heading home, so I did that instead of going to the Dead Dog filk. I apologize to anyone who had expected to see me there, but getting home to Gretchen and the girls had moved up to a priority by that time.I had a good time at the con. The SpaceTime Theater show went well, I had fun at the Saturday night filk, and it was great having a chance to talk to so many people.But I have to say that the single most fun moment I had at the convention was at the beginning of Opening Ceremonies when -- as the head of Special Events -- I got to deliver the script that I had written for the introduction of our Chair.I owe Dave Ifversen big time for making sure that all of the tech elements worked. So imagine now that the lights in the main hall have been dropped down, the follow spot is describing a figure eight back and forth across the stage, the music that the Bulls use for player intros is playing, and I step up to the podium and deliver the following introduction, doing my best impersonation of a professional announcer at the United Center:"Ladies and gentlemen -- no, let me say, members, members of this great convention, as the longest-serving member of the Board, I am happy to welcome you to Windycon 44.This is a very special Windycon, as the Board has determined that we have arrived at the pinnacle of perfection for the convention, that we have, in fact, achieved a state of Utopia. All of you are very fortunate to be here on this momentous occasion.It is only through the far-sighted wisdom and leadership of a single individual that Windycon 44 has arrived in this utopian state. I am privileged beyond words to have the honor to introduce him to you now -- the man, the legend: First Member!"And then Gundo came up to the stage in his First Member costume -- a nice business suit -- accompanied by his phalanx of security guards as the slide projector cut over to the graphic that Deb had prepared for me, one that looked much like the British "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters, except that this had a fuzzy-haired outline and said "The First Member Loves You".Yeah. Because some days, the only thing you can do is to go straight over the top. :)Things stayed over the top with the able assistance of Adam English, our emergency substitute Toastmaster, who had been recruited on Wednesday when Alex Bledsoe had to bow out with a nasty case of bronchitis. Because, really, who is a better Toastmaster when dystopia is the theme than Dr. Doom?Some things do work out...Now what are we going to do next year?Tags:cons, home, musings, windycon Previous 25 EntriesTop of Page | | 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