The Great Karnak

[billroper]

I have placed in an envelope, sealed in a number five mayonnaise jar underneath Funk and Wagnall's porch, the name of the person who I believe will be running filk next year at Duckon. I hope that I'm wrong. Not because he/she would do a bad job, but because he/she does not deserve the amount of bad karma and tsuris that will devolve upon the person in the position.

Check back with me later and I'll open the envelope. :)

Much later.

Comments

[ericcoleman]

Is there someone who would take the job?

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

I can think of two people. I suspect that one of them is Bill's pick as well :-)

[scarfman]

A number five mayonnaise jar.

[billroper]

Fixed. :)

[madfilkentist]

"Who do you think will be running filk?"

"Look that up in my Funk & Wagnalls!"

[sraun]

I suspect there's a story or joke that I'm missing here.

From what I heard on Sunday evening, this is ... not totally unexpected.

I agree that this is going to make life exciting for someone. I hope that whoever that someone is had already accepted the job before they told Jan she was out.

I'm hoping to be coming back - we'll have to see how the finances look.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

I hope that whoever that someone is had already accepted the job before they told Jan she was out.

If past experience is any indication, I doubt it.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

I forgot about the message from the new conchair on the front page of the duck site, soliciting volunteers for the position. So it looks like they're continuing the pattern of breaking first then trying to fix. From the comments I've seen being expressed elsewhere, it doesn't look fixable.

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

At least four people had volunteered to run filk before the end of the convention. I don't know who they were, all I know is that I wasn't one of them, and I wish whoever accepts the position well. My understanding is that the position opening was posted on the Duck FB page so that it was public and people who were interested could speak up rather than finding that an opening had been filled without it being announced and having no opportunity.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

But you'd do a fine job I'm sure *hug* .... evil grin!

Whom Gods Destroy ... they first try out running filk programming!

[hms42]

Whoever it is, is getting handed a headache they don't deserve.

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

Truly, OTOH, it is possible to maintain and even "fix" it to a certain extent. It depends on who amongst the staff is staying and who is leaving in sympathy. It's difficult to come in after a long term person leaves. But it's not impossible... you have to apologize a LOT, tho.

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

It also helps if other people aren't fanning the flames of controversy.

[dave-ifversen.livejournal.com]

It would help if concom members weren't fanning the flames of controversy, as well...

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

Aren't concom members "other people"?

[daddy-guido.livejournal.com]

It's you, isn't it Bill?

[billroper]

I understand that I've occasionally had "I'm an idiot" tattooed on my forehead, but this is not such an occasion.

[traveller42.livejournal.com]

I just found the message on the Main Page of the convention to be poor form. At least put it behind a link.

Is this the most important think that the convention wants anyone who hits their page to see first thing? If it is, I have doubts about the entire event.

[madfilkentist]

That page is just bizarre. Just what does David Kummerow mean by saying "I will not allow any member of Duckon to use derogatory terms in talking about this situation"?? What makes him think he has the authority to decide how con members discuss the situation? Even if he means concom members, "not allowing" criticism is out of bounds.

[born-to-me.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. It is even more bizarre given how badly he talks about Jan himself in that letter.

[deacondrew.livejournal.com]

He was talking about concom members and not that they cant critic but not to curse and badmouth people for there opinions as has been done to us.

[billroper]

I don't think I've seen anyone curse and badmouth the Duckon folks for their opinions. (For example, I don't recall seeing anyone saying "How dare you say that Jan was difficult to work with, you scum!")

I think what they're upset with are the actions that have been taken.

Drew, I love you dearly, but the Duckon board took actions that cost them two major department heads (and possibly contributed to the loss of a third). All three of those departments, as nearly as I can tell, had severe problems this year. I don't want to personally denigrate anyone working for Duckon, because I've chaired and worked on enough cons to know that things go wrong, especially when you're putting in new people. But there were some problems:

I got out clean relative to Registration, but there appears to have been a lot of confusion in that neighborhood. I'm sure they were working very hard to keep things together there.

When I see at least two different people who discover that they are the only scheduled participant on a panel the week before the con and they end up trolling for panelists on LiveJournal so they aren't left sitting there by themselves as a solo act, there's something wrong with Programming.

Many of the folks on the Sound Crew were working very hard and I greatly appreciate Megan's efforts keeping Katie occupied during Gretchen's and my concert. However, the plan that was executed -- if I understand it correctly! -- where a group came in, set up gear, and left it to be run by people who were not familiar with the gear was a plan that was very, very likely to fail in all of the ways that it did fail during the weekend.

I walked in at the end of Opening Ceremonies, so I didn't see more than Barb and Carol's closing song; thus, I'm not sure what all of the things were that caused Jan to call for what I'll describe as an extended sound check before Talis' concert could begin. My impression from talking to other people who were there and are experienced sound engineers is that doing so was a really, really good idea.

When a plan goes this badly awry and affects a manager's programming track for the duration of the weekend -- certainly starting out with a 90 minute delay for the first GoH concert is a bad sign -- somebody high up owes an apology to that track manager for the plan's failure, no matter how annoyed they are at the track manager personally.

You were the Chairman, I believe, so that apology should have come from you. I understand that there were probably many things that needed to be dealt with at Duckon -- I've chaired cons myself, so I know how it goes. And perhaps you did apologize to Jan and I'm simply unaware of it. (I failed my omniscience course.)

But you know, having the chairman of the con standing up on the stage before Talis started that concert and saying, "I'm really sorry about the delay. We've got a new tech crew this year and things aren't working out quite the way that I'd planned, but they're trying really hard, so if you've got problems with what's going on, please take it out on me, not them", I think that would have gone a long way toward defusing the situation.

One thing I've learned about running a convention: you take the blame, you give the credit. And if you remember to do that, you'll get the credit that you're due.

[deacondrew.livejournal.com]

Reg- our servers started dieing a couple of months before the con and Vlad did his best (all hail Vlad) to get us a working system for the con it worked but it was training under fire.

Programing - we had a new staff heads who learned how to do this on the fly this year and did a really good job for what the knew. We had a number of people drop coming to the con within a couple of months of the con. They have learned the most impotent thing is to confirm and confirm and than confirm before anything goes out.

Unfortunately the staff was called F@&kwads for Dave firing Jan even before most of the concom even new. yes i take the blame that things didn't work as well as they should this year. I thought Filk we doing fine and talking with Tech because that it what they told me once they started talking 3 months before the con. I have told Megan that she did the best she could with what was going on and i have also told Jan how much her work means.

The plan did not work for the gear the people that set it up were the people running minus one and he was the one that should have set it up. They have learned from there mistakes. I apologize to all of Filk for what happened at DucKon, the professional level was dropped in Filk by everyone who was working for the con and we will work to make it better.

[billroper]

It happens.

And, yes, all hail Vlad for pulling together a working system for Reg. :)

Sometimes the most important thing someone new in a job needs to learn is when to yell for help. Reg seems to have figured that out pretty quickly.

And I suspect everyone else involved has figured it out now. (I've had some times when I've been under water. It's no fun.)

I didn't think that most of the more inflammatory comments were directed at the staff, per se, but I'd have to go back and read them to be sure. Of course, it's never fun to be yelled at...

[deacondrew.livejournal.com]

The post that had the cursing was pulled down after it happened and apologized for today and I hope there are no hard feelings because it was all heat of the moment.

The hardest part for me as outgoing Chair is that there are all these things and complaints out there and not one has been sent to me. All of fandom needs to learn that if you see a problem talk to the person in charge so things can be fixed.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Boy, do I feel out of the loop. This is entirely news to me, and I was at Duckon. (Granted, I left in the early afternoon on Sunday.)

[scs-11.livejournal.com]

Yah, hasn't that situation turned into a clusterfuck. Yeesh.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't that be "hermetically sealed"?

[born-to-me.livejournal.com]

I have to say this thread makes me happy because it shows that there are a lot of Johnny geeks out there. :-)