From: rcampb@cac.washington.edu (Russ Campbell )
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom
Subject: Re: Boskone Art Show (was Re: Hello Confrancisco?)
Date: 14 Dec 92 17:25:47 GMT
Organization: UW Computing

In article <gycRVB2w165w@lunacity.com>, mwallis@lunacity.com (Michael Wallis) writes:
|> ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) writes:
|> 
|> > Unless you're willing to volunteer to serve on Boskone's art show
|> > staff, this is basically saying, "I want you to assign people to do
|> > work because *I* want it done."  (And you're not even going to be
|> > attending!)  Sorry, life (and cons) don't work that way.
|> 
|> While I've been to many Boskones, I'll admit the number is 0 since moving

I haven't been to one, yet, but from the attitude I smell in a post more
reactionary than contributory to discussion I'd have to say if I do I sure
as hell won't continue my practice of arriving at the art show hours early
to help, taking time out later to set up my own work, and then
volunteering more time when I do get to one.  At this point I may still
choose to mail in, despite the discouragement, just to take up space.  As
I said in a previous post, most artists do not make a profit on the shows
they actually attend, thus mail in is a good means to boost the bottom
line as it costs substantially less to mail than to attend.  I'll
re-iterate the statement both Michael and I have made - we're not going to
agree on the mail in topic so let's all just agree to disagree.  The
reason for my original post was fear, cause by Shawn's being asked to
leave, that a west coast convention, world con or otherwise, would lose
it's west coast flavor and suffer as a result.  The two coasts have a
different philosophy and mentality and that's not going to change.  I have
a lot of confidence in Shawn and hope she will continue her successes
running the other large shows in the bay area that she's involved wiht. 
As an artist I had every confidence she could handle running a show for a
world con.  Now I suppose I'm to have to deal with someone I've likely
never heard of nor will ever again have to deal with at a con on left coast.

|> I was not speaking to Jim in the manner of "You should change Boskone
|> because it's wrong". I (had thought) we were discussing Jim's contention
|> that mail-in art was too much of a problem to handle and should be
|> actively discouraged from worldcons and large regionals. This all grew
|> out of an artist's post re: ConFrancisco.

That was me.  One thing I'm wondering now, after pondering this discussion
over the weekend is:  what the hell are the attending artists doing?  For
Dreamcon, and indeed most of the cons I've been to in my region, a good
number of the attending artists volunteer time during the weekend to help
with setup, hanging mail in, and tear down.  Where panels are not
pre-assigned the advantage is you arrive early and pick a good space. 
Where panels are assigned you get there early enough to ask for a change
if you're not happy with the arrangement.  I've never been turned down
asking for my panel assignment to be changed.  The point here is that a
good number of the art show volunteers where I've attended the con have
been attending artists.  Perhaps this is not something that happens at
Boskone?  If not, then I suggest trying to find some incentive for
attending artists to get there early and help.  It's in their best
interests to help insure a smoothly run show.

|> I just don't see what is so all fired difficult if the rest of the country
|> can manage it just fine, nor why people have been adjatating for the
|> removal of a perfectly capable individual who CAN handle the very things
|> we're discussing.

Ditto.

|> If Boskone wants to run things their way, that's fine. When Boskone starts
|> telling everone that they have to change because there's a problem, when
|> in fact there is not, THEN I have a problem.

Yep.

-russ