Worldcon Politics

[billroper]

shsilver tells me that my name has come up on the SMOFS list recently, apparently in connection with the horrors that might occur should Chicago win the 2008 Worldcon bid. I'm told that "we never apologized for the problems with the Chicon 2000 Art Show" and that "this is what happens when Roper manages his friends".

Well, no, actually we did apologize for the problems with the Chicon 2000 Art Show. Repeatedly. And there were problems and -- if you want to discuss them with me to my face -- I'll be happy to do so. Many of them may not be what you actually choose to believe that they were. But I suppose it is much more fun to engage in sniping than it would be to actually collect data on the subject. And, no, I do not choose to discuss them in writing, because I don't feel like having quotes selectively trimmed.

As far as "managing my friends", the Art Show was not the worst problem that I had with running the Exhibits Division for Chicon 2000, an experience which I credit, at least in part, for my developing Type II diabetes. (Being fat, of course, doesn't help either, before some wit chooses to notice that.)

I am not involved with the Chicago in 2008 Worldcon bid. I have no intention of being involved with running any prospective Chicago Worldcon, an intention that is reinforced by Steven's report on the SMOFS list exchange referenced above. So, please, if it suits your political purposes to run down the folks in Chicago, do so.

Just don't use me to do it, because it isn't my party, nor will it ever be, because I do not need the political crap.

Thank you for observing all safety precautions. No human beings (save for my blood pressure) were harmed in the writing of this post.

Comments

[alymid.livejournal.com]

at the risk of being over general, it seems to me that recently the fannish community has been excelling at this kind of behavior.

After a con this year, I had an aquaintance come and tell me some pretty inflamatory gossip about two of my close friends and their behavior at the con. Interestingly enough - one of the people who was part of this "shocking" behavior at the con, wasn't even at the con.

I am sorry you are finding yourself at the butt of this trend.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

There were any number of problems I had with Chicon2000. As far as I know, none of them were attributable to you!

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I've been taken to task because what you have in quotes above is not what the person in question actually said, which was, "Concomitantly don't let Bill Roper supervise people he calls friend. (Roper was Todd's DH and failed signally to do the sorts of things a DH should have done.)"

[billroper]

I fail to see the semantic difference between the exact quote and my interpretation of it. I believe that the implication is that bad things happened because I was managing a friend. Do I misunderstand or is this merely some interesting sophistry?

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

Happy are we who are not SMOFs and don't ever want to be and can look at a convention from the point of view of real live people attending a convention and not small-minded gossips with an agenda.

And so, it must be said:

I LOVED CHICON in 2000. I loved it. I loved every little bit of it that I saw. I hope that not being involved in the organisation and running of a possible future Chicago Worldcon will enable you to enjoy it as much as I did in 2000.

Love,
Gwen

[billroper]

By the way, you can also let them know that I am absolutely clear on the concept that I made mistakes running the Exhibits Division at Chicon 2000. I doubt that it is possible to do anything of this sort -- certainly for the first time! -- without making mistakes. However, I also believe that at least some of the people who were discussing this have absolutely no idea of what the actual mistakes were, choosing instead to invent things to promote their own agendas, whatever those may be.

[(Anonymous)]

Heh. I thought your worst problem was when your cell phone went off in the middle of your concert and you had to take the call. :-)

Yeah, people are bitching on SMOFS about Chicon. From an attendee POV, though, it was not a disaster. Many folks, including me, had a good time. The con ran. Sure, there were problems, but the con staff was good about undoing them (the biggest being my hotel room getting put in the wrong wing).

I'm sorry to hear you've got Type II Diabetes. That soooo sucks. I've been fighting it off (I have reactive hypoglycemia) since 1988.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Bill and I cleverly planned that phone call. It was probably the best planned thing of the entire convention.

[billroper]

Ah, yes. "Steven Silver wants to couple with some studs."

[greenmansgrove.livejournal.com]

This type of situation is in large part the reason that I'm not as interested in the behind the scenes running of conventions any more. The While the setting up of the convention itself can be fun and challenging, the fannish politics involved make me want to tear my hair out, use it at a noose on the worst of the gossips, and then set the hair on fire.

In fact, I've only barely gone to a convention in the last year or so, for much the same reasons. I enjoy going to see my friends, but it's way too expensive to spend a weekend at a hotel for a gossip-mongering bitch-fest.

But I'm not bitter, and that's the important part. ;)

A Little Perspective....

[jalapenoman.livejournal.com]

Bill,
As a fan of filk, I have never heard anything but good things about you, and your conduct has always been a class act from my perspective. Of course, I am not a SMOF nor am I on the SMOFS list.... Hope that helps your blood pressure.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

The thing that gets me is that it's 2005, and they haven't let go of 2000 yet. How long does it take?

I wouldn't want to be around if the SMOFs as a group had something to really hold a grudge about. They'd do it for decades.

It's all in the past. Learn from it, but let it go and move on.

Yeesh.

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

When Tim and I ran the UK 12th FilkCon Hotel liaison, the hotel managed to double book us with an extremely rowdy motocross awards ceremony whose amplified Tina Turner blasts completely drowned out our Guests of Honour concert (Poor Urban Tapestry...). Then they attempted not to feed us (they hid dinner! Honestly! They *hid* it!!!) and the hotel manager was majorly offensive.

I'll bet anything you did didn't suck *that* much!

[daisy-knotwise.livejournal.com]

And you have such lovely hair. It would make a fine strong noose.
GHR

[billroper]

*gack* I've seen lots of hotel silliness, but hiding your dinner? That -- excuse the expression -- takes the cake. (And the roast, and the potatoes...)

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

There are still people pissed off at NESFA about The Letter.

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

You were the man who sold me my first filk tape; we met at a handful of cons after that point.

Having run a couple cons myself and been helping run departments at Minicon, CONvergence, U-Con (ancient U of MN convention), Con of the North, and Genericon (also at the U of MN), I think I've seen where this kind of behavior is what happens when you get people who think they know how to behave in an organized and mature manner but, really, are just fooling themselves as they use their networks of friends/contacts to justify themselves at someone else's expense. It's like those bad business leaders you read about in the papers or maybe have worked with: they delude themselves into thinking that because they have a Business Degree, they can do no wrong and proceed to let their petty, personal goals tromp all over what's good for the company and -probably- themselves.

In fandom, I think it's similar but wider-spread as fewer volunteers running a con have actually really had any experience with diplomacy and damping down their own egos in order to make something wonderful happen. It's easier to spread nasty gossip and try to tear someone else down rather than hold themselves to a higher standard of behavior.

From what I've seen of you, you're a good man and -frankly- if you'd not shown me that cassette tape of "Carmen Miranda's Ghost..." I wouldn't have the great collection of songs (and friends) that I have now...

Take care, Bill!

Yours,
Sylvan (Dave Rust)

[singlemaltsilk.livejournal.com]

Okay. Can someone please explain to me how one goes about running a convention without supervising one's friends somewhere along the way???

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Just to throw in my $.02 here, I was at Chicon 2000, I was at the art show, and I don't remember there being anything that needed bitching about. I'm sure there were imperfections, but there was nothing that bothered me enough that I have any memory of it. Admittedly, I seem to have a lifelong history of going to cons that everyone else remembers as being horrible disasters and not noticing anything out of the ordinary; I guess I am a pretty un-picky congoer.

I don't know of anyone I have more confidence in as a con-runner, so if you'd care to point out the people who are claiming that having Bill Roper involved in running a con is a bad thing, I will note their opinions carefully; in the absence of other information I can assume that whatever choice they favor is the wrong one and act accordingly.

I don't know whether to be cheered in a perverse way that the internal politics in other arenas is possibly as vicious and stupid as it is in my own sandbox, or further disgusted by my species.

Just my two cents:

[glittercat13.livejournal.com]

Hi. Just a quick (un?)reality check here, FWIW. [I've been going to cons for over 20 years now and working them for 15+, but, until the last half-dozen years, only at staff and volunteer levels. (Yay, gophers!) I've held committee level positions only the last few years and been on the SMOFs list for less than a year. I give this background as an explanation of my perspective, YMMV.]

Almost all (with a *couple* of exceptions where you were referred to) of the ranting against 2000 had to do with the Art Show and problems which were mostly experienced by artists and people who work lots of cons. From the various things said, it sounds like there were some real-life problems going on in the background which helped to explain *some* of the on-site problems. From what I read, it sounds like it was a bit of a ground zero mess on several counts. I don't know. I wasn't there.

I have been at several other cons in the last few years that had various levels of *Oh, Sweet Jesus!* problems going on which I was aware of. What I find in those cases is that, for the people involved or impacted by the problems, they are major. They totally determine whether or not the con was any good since, to the people involved, they come to define the con: Such-and-such department really blew it, So-and-So had a complete, drooling meltdown just before *whatever* occurred and had to be lead away gibbering while someone else stepped in to save things, etc. Sadly, those things do happen.

What I've noticed, however, is that the majority of con attendees (who are happily going about in ignorance of whatever debacle has occurred), if they aren't right at ground zero, are very happy and will claim that it was a great con. It's all perspective. The artists are discomfited in the Art Show - they believe it's awful, but the attendees are happy. All the elevators seize up on Saturday night just after Masquerade has let out and when all the parties are *somewhere* upstairs - the con was a disaster (even if this was through no fault of the ConCom). *sigh*

And, since we've all got long memories for someone else's grief, those stories will be told among some people for years/decades to come. (As an aside, for quite awhile now, I've heard hilarious tales of the gaffes of "ConDigeo" (here in San Diego) some years back. I thought they were quite funny. Now that I've moved down from L.A. and am a member of the ConCom for Conzilla (San Diego Westercon in '06 - *shameless plug*), I hear the stories - and the stories behind the stories, and understand the determination that exists to have a *really great Con* to expunge the memory of the previous one (even though the people who were involved with it are not even involved with this one).

Okay. Didn't mean for this to become a rant but I'm afraid it's darned near long enough to qualify. I guess, where I'm going with this is, try to work on some emotional callouses if possible. I suspect that, to the vast majority of attendees, 2000 was a great con. Celebrate with them. Some people will bear their scars/wounds to their graves and probably not do so quietly. Once you've apologized for anything *you* feel you were involved in, step away and *try* not to take things personally. You've done what you can until someone shows up with a working Tardis. And, for the others, the ones who tell the (not-so-very) funny stories or who weren't impacted but feel it necessary to remind you of what *you did wrong*, . . . Well, my philosophy there is, "Joke 'em if they can't take a ..." ;P

When all's said and done, the sun will still shine, the earth will still turn, the birds will still sing, and the IRS will send out all those lovely little booklets every year. Life goes on. Do likewise - and enjoy it! :)