From: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom
Subject: Re: Boskone Art Show (was Re: Hello Confrancisco?)
Date: 15 Dec 1992 15:34:32 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer Inc, Marlboro MA
Reply-To: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: gondolin.pubs.stratus.com

In article <gycRVB2w165w@lunacity.com> mwallis@lunacity.com (Michael  
Wallis) writes:
> Having just watched a very capable art show director be removed by  
various
> East Coast elements because she was deemed not "experienced" enough  
to
> handle a worldcon art show; and then to see Jim posting that  
because
> major East Coast cons couldn't handle mail-in art, that worldcons  
should
> discourage it, just pushed a few too many buttons. 

Woah. Back up a second.  I never said that Worldcons SHOULD
discourage mail-in art. What I said was that any convention has
a number of ways to allocate their work force, and that it was
perfectly reasonable for a worldcon to limit mail-ins (which
take more work) as part of this work allocation.  If I were
running the Art Show (which I don't: I typically work Program
or Services), I would do this. However, I'm not saying that
other worldcons can't chose to budget their fanpower differently.

Shawn has proven
> repeatedly that she CAN handle large art shows, and without this  
whining
> about lack of staff and too much extra work and suddenly appearing  
problems
> like insurance that have, from my experience, never been a problem  
at
> conventions I've been to (and I've been to well over 100).
> 
> 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.

I really wish you'd name names here.  Most of the Art Show folks
I know in this area have not been paying attention to the
ConFrancisco Art Show at all (they are still tired from having
run the Magicon show, and are busy preparing for Boskone). 

And again, I'm not denying that it can be done.  But anything that
takes extra work is a tradeoff of some sort: someone can
only work on one thing at a time.   
> 
> 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.
> 

Again, none of us are telling other folks how to run their
conventions.  I was responding to a "how dare you, for no
good reason, limit mail-in art" post.  My response was not that
others should limit mail-in art, but that there are
reasons (we may disagree as to whether they are good reasons) to
do so.  In fact, I'd say many of the post have been the other
way around: we haven't been telling people how to run their
conventions; they have been complaining about how we do it.

By the way, despite the fact that the topic has now changed to
"Boskone Art Shows," Boskone's policy on mail-in DOES change a bit
from year to year, depending upon how much space we have (and
therefore how crowded things are likely to be).  For crowded
shows, we have at least a few times limited (though not, I think,
ever prohibited) mail-in art, on the basis that if we have to
limit somebody, we'll limit those that take the most work on
our part.   I don't know WHAT the policy is this year, since
we are in a new facility (and I'm busy worrying about how to
fit Program in the new space, and am ignoring the Art Show).

--
Jim Mann            
Stratus Computer   jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com  

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom