Just Casting The Fishing Pole Out There And Seeing What Bites
This is not a post about all the things that are going right with Penguicon. They are unprecedentedly vast. This is about where I would like some help.
I have such hard-working people in Penguicon this year. Their dedication is obvious. They even have a surplus of it to start a brand-new summer relaxicon. I don't see that as the problem. I'm just trying to decide if I've failed in achieving my ambitions, or if creating the more-organized Penguicon I have always dreamed of would be one that would suck the fun out of it, and that's why it remains disorganized. I'm having one of those days. It's an annual thing.
So, Trevor contacted me today to mention that the online Penguicon schedule is "despairingly empty" compared to what we had accomplished when he joined up in November of last year. The website is far worse than it was last year, because there is a new content editor that is broken and painful to use, and in the middle of being replaced. I'm feeling very down, and there is really no one to blame. I would love to blame myself, because that would give a feeling of control. Alternately, the realities of the environment could just be what they are, and I have no solution.
When I was Minister of Communications for Penguicon 3.0, it bothered me that I was distributing inaccurate information. You remember when Melissa O. was in charge of it. She said it was normal for the program participants to not know what their schedule was until they showed up at the event. The whole thing was a mess.
I became Head of Programming for 5.0 out of frustration with the consistently disorganized Heads of Programming. But we didn't have an information organizer at the steering wheel for the program book, website, and signage. So my accurate information went out inaccurate and unattractive.
I switched back to communications for the most recent Penguicon, but did most of the information organizing for programming because it was being neglected. Trying to do both, I did them both poorly. The program book, formerly the crown jewel of my performance, was a fiasco. Programming used DabbleDB and a Google Spreadsheet, but they were in conflict with each other. The Google Spreadsheet didn't let people collaborate, and because only the Head of Programing (who was not me) could operate it, it was a bottleneck and therefore incomplete. But DabbleDB doesn't catch conflicts like a spreadsheet does! So it was complete, but full of schedule conflicts. This year we talked about putting back Aaron's online scheduler that we used for 4.0. We have far more internet-administration work with the website than we have available tech-savvy labor, so it hasn't been implemented.
The only solution, it seemed at the time, was to become Conchair for 7.0 and recruit enough people to put sufficient work into every link in the communication chain.
This year I put in place a Scheduling Wrangler, and then he agreed to be Head of Programming for ConFusion. I said, please don't do both. It can't be done. But fandom in Michigan had no one to give to ConFusion. His dedication is frankly flabbergasting, and he deserves the thanks of all of you. More importantly, he deserves our support and help.
I also have some very organized people who I tried to place in charge of putting information on the website, so that Ron wouldn't have to do it. He has too much work on the technological side, and I don't want him doing information management on top of it. Ron has been very present and available. But I never see the information managers and they are complete absentees. I've gone to people and explained precisely what I needed from them. I tried to show faith and not nag them.
I know it wasn't the fault of previous chairs for not putting manpower in place along the communication chain who would get done sufficient work. You can only recruit from those who are available. With so many conventions, super organization is too large a job for our state's labor pool, period. Either that, or I am a failure. I am open to either hypothesis.
once said I seemed to be dangerously similar to K.D. because of my high standards, and that was a very important warning for me. (When I worked with K.D. on 'Fusion she acted like I should have been born knowing all the steps that needed to be done for my job, without anyone training me.) The last thing I want to do is treat them like K.D. treated me. On the contrary, every time I see my people I'm amazed by their enthusiasm and willingness. They're doing so much. I just need to be bringing the whole convention together to communicate, and I need to do it every day.
What I realized is that I have been too private about how my year has been going. I have not asked for help publicly enough. That has been my biggest flaw-- I didn't use my biggest strength! I know there is massive support out there and everyone would love to see this work in an organized fashion. Every time I put something out there, you guys come to the rescue. So, I'm putting it out there. I have this longstanding dream of an unbroken chain of communication so that we won't have a big annual panic in March/April. There is still hope, but I am in the second act of my annual three-act play, in which I am discouraged, and it seems to me I should be open about that. I'm in charge: if you bring me a solution, I can say "let's do it that way!"
What we need right now:
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1. An online scheduling app that catches conflicts, but allows multiple contributors. It must allow fields for rooms, times, titles, presenters, and descriptive blurb.
2. A tech-savvy and highly dedicated volunteer to install and maintain the online scheduler so our overworked web guy doesn't have to.
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3. Someone organized, with excellent spelling and grammar, to be in charge of putting content on the website, who doesn't need me to hunt them down and make them do it. You need to be knowledgeable of our convention so that you know what we need up there, but you can use past websites as a reference.
Comments
stormgren on Jan. 3, 2009 6:45 PM
With so many conventions, super organization is too large a job for our state's labor pool, period. Either that, or I am a failure. I am open to either hypothesis.
I've often thought that Con Chair is the most frustrating and thankless job in the world. I don't think it's you.
The problem is in the available labor pool, specifically the skillsets of that labor pool. The people who are capable of organizing, communicating and getting things done are usually already up to their eyeballs in *other things to do* because that's the type of people they are. It takes a rare combination of talent, perfectionism, dedication and skills to be outstanding volunteer with ANYTHING, and a con is just that much more demanding, IMHO.
Just from observations of my own in situations like this one and others of a similar nature, many of the people available to you are barely capable of running their own lives, let alone being up to the tasks required of them when running a con. I think it's not unreasonable to expect not to hand hold someone through doing their job, at least when it comes to the basics.
As always, just my $0.02, take it with the appropriate salt lick.
matt-arnold on Jan. 3, 2009 7:04 PM
I am convinced that the people I picked this year have the right skill sets. Hands down, no question. It's just a very big convention.
stormgren on Jan. 3, 2009 8:49 PM
This is very good then.
And yes it is, but trying to reach at the limit of or just past your grasp is a good thing.
I look forward to attending.
temujin9 on Jan. 4, 2009 12:41 PM
http://php.brickhost.com/ looks like it might handle what you need. http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Apps/scheduling.html has a long list of other options, though you'll have to do the digging to see if they do the conflict resolution you need.
jeffreyab on Jan. 4, 2009 4:10 PM
Part of the problem is that conchairs need to adjust their convention according to the talent pool they have for a concom.
If somebody wants to organize something and it seem good and they seen competent then let them do it.
If you have an event no one wants to organize anymore then maybe you should drop it.
Can I nominate you for Fusion chair for 2011?
matt-arnold on Jan. 4, 2009 10:51 PM
I have definitely canceled all events that have no one to run them. However, I can't cancel the website. And I don't want to do without a good scheduling app anymore. I didn't become Conchair to continue Penguicon no better than before-- then I would have stayed in one of the positions I already had. I mostly became Conchair in order to make Penguicon easier to run.
I have no concern at all for how fun the convention is going to be for the attendees. That is in no danger. The worst thing that will happen is that it will be just as fun as ever. I'm trying for more. This time, I want all attendees to know about all the fun that is going on before it's over.
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