Anticipation 2009 supporters!

[bovil]

It looks like Kansas City in 2009 really shot themselves in the feet with their botched attempt at hosting Smofcon 24.

The reports weren't good.

kevin_standlee reported on both the programming screw-up (attributing it at the time to the storm) and The Fannish Inquisition.

hazelchaz provided a bit more detail about the various problems.

There's also the things I've heard that people weren't willing to put online. It's not like Smofcon is easy to screw up; you've got a captive gang of conrunners, and most of them will help if something goes wrong.

Suffice it to say my waffling re: KC/Montreal has ended.

And then there's this week. Anticipation (Montreal) in 2009, the hoax bid that got too big for its britches, got the coveted Science Fiction/San Francisco endorsement (from editor johnnyeponymous, buried in the lettercol of Issue #37).

This inspired me to write my own passionate endorsement of Anticipation 2009 and submit it to johnnyeponymous for The Drink Tank.

I don't know if or when he's going to publish it, but it's The Drink Tank. I doubt that it would be refused.

It's a very Drink-Tankish essay.

So, if you're waffling over who to vote for in site selection this year, keep your eye on The Drink Tank. It might help you make up your mind.

Comments

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Well, as Chair, he ends up with the responsibility/blame for many things, of course.

I don't recall if he was responsible for appointing anyone below the Division Head level, though. I know I appointed all of my own Department Heads, some of whom I chose on my own, though some were offered to me by people who knew them and one or two were already on the committee doing other things, and volunteered. The problem I was faced with was that many of the qualified people (and by "qualified", I mean "people who have headed departments at Worldcons before") were already in other positions by the time the Member Services Division was created and I was named Division Head. Apart from Ben Bowring, who screwed up what was probably the simplest job there was, the people under me did pretty well under the circumstances.

That being said, yeah, there were a few Division Heads named who probably shouldn't have been, or Peter should have been stronger at dealing with problems before they got too big. But by the time they got that big - which was fairly late, as I recall - he was probably well into "the Board will handle it like they're handling everything else" mode.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

I don't recall if he was responsible for appointing anyone below the Division Head level, though.

Heh! Peter didn't acknowledge that anyone below Division Head even existed, so no, he didn't appoint them.

The problem I was faced with was that many of the qualified people (and by "qualified", I mean "people who have headed departments at Worldcons before") were already in other positions by the time the Member Services Division was created and I was named Division Head.

That can't be, considering how many experienced people there are. One just has to look outside Canada to find them.

That being said, yeah, there were a few Division Heads named who probably shouldn't have been, or Peter should have been stronger at dealing with problems before they got too big. But by the time they got that big - which was fairly late, as I recall - he was probably well into "the Board will handle it like they're handling everything else" mode.

Appointing underqualified and unqualified people, letting them flounder, and not solving obvious problems are failings of the chair.