Argh.

[logomancer]

When I took the e-gaming position for TCon, I had no idea I would be micromanaged to this degree. At the first meeting, nius and jdunson and anterus were basically telling me how to do inventory and check-in/check-out for the games and game systems. I found that annoying, as I was perfectly capable of the basic thought required to put something like this together. Now they're expecting me to enforce a strict "no food or drink" policy. According to them, this applies to me too. So now I'm expected to be in that room 24 hours a day (in order to run the tournaments and keep an eye on the equipment) with no caffeine and no food. Unless, of course, I can pry someone from Security to watch the room for me. Which isn't likely, given the fact that there's a half-dozen people willing to do security overnight.

I tire of being treated like an effing lackey. I am just as qualified to run a room as anyone else, and I've seen MAGFest run a gaming room with people being responsible for food and drink in the room. They should at least have enough sense to realize that I'm responsible enough with food and drink to let me have a sealable bottle of Coke while I'm on duty. Apparently not. Grr.

I look forward to the day when I am treated as an equal and not just as somebody's pawn.

Comments

grow a backbone

[pathia.livejournal.com]

My suggestion is to grow a backbone and explain your position in calm unfrantic speech.

I can vouch at least for the ddr folks, no liquids at all is outright fucking retarded. Anthrocon has nearly 3000 now and we were able to control it just fine and that was in a union facility.

-Pathia (posting from my phone it may not login right)

[rattrap.livejournal.com]

Try not to take it so personally. It may be nothing more than bringing you up to date on how it has been done previously. Assimilate their material, sythesize it and modify it as you see fit, with a bit of extra slack thrown in for bargaining room, and take it back for discussion. Then find a middle ground theat if you're not all happy with, are at least equally unhappy about.

There has to be a middle ground on the food and drink issue. On the one hand, we don't want DDR players falling over from dehydration, but on the other, I'd be pretty cheesed if someone poured a Jolt down my Playstation also.

As for being an effing lackey- try being a con chair. Then you'll really find out what being an effing lackey is all about.

[anterus.livejournal.com]

Actually, dehydration's not hard to handle. Rhythm gaming's in a hotel room, so it has its own bathroom (meh, it's Blacskburg Tap water, it's safe to drink...as much as dorm water is), and there's another bathroom just (just) down the hall from Rhythm and E-Gaming, right next to the door to the outside that's located nearest to all the restaurants and the like.

[nixve.livejournal.com]

This does give you an excellent opportunity to step and distinguish yourself from previous e-gaming managers.

You can take their recommendations for inventory systems and recognize that they're thinking of it in terms of simplfying things and not wasting time on something that has already been set up, not that you can't think up something. And if you think the existing inventory system is crap don't say "It's crap". Say that you have some ideas that'll make things easier and more efficient. Name specific things and show how your ideas will best make the existing system work best. If you can show them how your ideas will produce better results and less hassle, I'm sure they'll be pleased.

And if they feel so strongly about the strict "no food&drink" rule, respect it. But also bring up the fact that any con official stuck in a room for 24 hours needs food. Tell them politely and calmly. Either arrange so that you get food priviledges or arrange it so you have someone (already chosen ahead of time so you're not desperate on the day of the con) who can take over for you so you can go eat. Again, efficiency is key, put it in terms of getting the job done in the way that serves the con best and you'll be listened to.

[anterus.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll say it again. No, and I mean NO, outside food or drink is allowed in any function space of the hotel, and that includes Stockholder's. That's part of our contract, you can clearly see it in the staff page.

No one ever said you were supposed to stay in there all the time. You need to learn to delegate that responsibility.

Water is provided for free in all function space, but I'd like to keep that outside. I'd be very happy if we could find a solution with the hotel where they provide a watering station outside the room. Furthermore, if you really need, just hop into the bathroom in Rhythm gaming and chug a coke. Rhythm gaming is going to be in the adjacent hotel room, so it's not subject to the same restrictions. I'm very sensitive to the desire to keep consoles separated from destructive beverages or drinks, especially since my own console will be in one of those two rooms, and I want it back in as good a condition as possible, and it's reasonable to assume that others feel the same. Thus, quite simply, no food or drink in the place with all the multi-hundred-dollar pieces of equipment seems pretty reasonable to me. Step outside the room and eat, or step outside the hotel (there's a door right there). You need relief, you call volunteers/security. E-gaming is not at all required to run all night, nor is it expected to. Part of being in charge is learning what's actually reasonable to accomplish, and figuring out a schedule where E-gaming will be open is part of that.

[vt-andros.livejournal.com]

No one ever said you were supposed to stay in there all the time. You need to learn to delegate that responsibility.

Delegate to who? I don't have a staff.

if you really need, just hop into the bathroom in Rhythm gaming and chug a coke.

That would require me to leave my post, and all of the consoles, unattended. Which brings me to my next point...

You need relief, you call volunteers/security.
I can't say for certain, of course, but calling for relief every time I need to eat or drink (which, given the temperature of the room and the necessity to shout over all the ambient noise to announce tourneys and such, will be often) would most likely irritate the volunteer coordinator in short order. Plus, that assumes that 1) we have adequate volunteers for the job, and 2) that the relief assigned is trustworthy enough not to walk off with the consoles, which I would consider a much larger liability than the off chance that a stray drink killing a console would be.

E-gaming is not at all required to run all night, nor is it expected to.
You may not expect it to, but if you think that nobody else is expecting that, you're being naive. In the past, I've seen people walk into e-gaming at 5 in the morning to play Karaoke Revolution. Plus, regular gaming is open most of the night anyway, so who wouldn't expect the same of e-gaming?

no food or drink in the place with all the multi-hundred-dollar pieces of equipment seems pretty reasonable to me.

It might seem reasonable, but if you forbid gamers food and drink close at hand, they'll most likely go on regardless. I'd rather not have people collapsing from dehydration if we can avoid it. I don't believe it's unreasonable to let people have at least drinks in the room. If Anthrocon can make it work, why can't we?

[zannyvix.livejournal.com]

If Anthrocon can make it work, why can't we?

If food and drinks were in the gaming room at AC, that was in violation of the contract AC had with the convention center. No outside food or drink, aside from that served by the concession stand in the Dealer's Room and the water stations set up in the main areas, was allowed in any convention space. If you saw that the people in gaming were allowing outside food in, they were risking costing the convention thousands of dollars in fines for breech of contract. AC is not an example you can use here. They got lucky that no one reported it. Technicon does not want to find itself in that position.

[vt-andros.livejournal.com]

The key to your argument is in the word "outside". Who says it has to be outside food and drink?

[anterus.livejournal.com]

If you have anything else to say on this matter, please bring it to me privately.

[zannyvix.livejournal.com]

This means working out a catering contract with the hotel restaurant, which we have to pay for and generally includes fees for setup, service, and teardown. If we bring in any of our own food, it will be considered "outside".

[pathia.livejournal.com]

People were bringing in outside food from EVERYWHERE, to ALL panels and most rooms. It was not just us. We policed it for the first day and then gave up.

The convention center staff did not care. I watched people walk in, drinking non-convention bottles of water/soda right past the security/help staff and nothing happened.

[zannyvix.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know that it *happened*. When there is a contract concerned, though, that is beside the point. Had the convention center staff chosen to enforce it per the contract Anthrocon had with them, the con would have been subject to large fines and penalties. That they did not does not mean AC was in the right. We don't have the luxury of assuming the hotel staff here will turn a blind eye. We're at a new hotel with its own catering contract, staff we've never dealt with before, and a noted history of enforcing just this sort of infraction. We cannot use the lax behavior of the convention center staff in Pittsburgh as a model for what to expect for Technicon. They've also never dealt with a convention like us before. For the first year at least we need to follow the rules and policies they've laid out for us as closely as possible while we feel each other out. There may be wiggle room for future conventions, but for this one we've *got* to tread carefully or we won't be invited back next year.

[anterus.livejournal.com]

This is very simple, Andrew. I have a contract for the convention, and it says no outside food or drink. There will be no oustide food or drink in any of the function spaces. We will not provide it, we will not encourage it, and we will tell anyone consuming outside food or drink to please step out into the hall to finish their food, cleanly.

Whether or not we have them serve water or sodas in that room is a different matter. I'm inclined to see if we can get them to put up a water station just outside the room. This will provide convenient non-tap water, while helping to keep food and drink away from electronics. We don't need to be impolite about it, but we will be firm. Food's right out. It's pointless, if the folks can't take a ten minute break from their gaming at the con to have some food, they have larger problems.

As for the reliability of Security or Volunteers, for folks we don't know, that's an issue, but for folks we do know, who constitute a significant portion of our volunteers and security staff, that's not an issue at all. We know them, and we know we can trust them.

You say you don't have staff, but I can assure you, you'll be assigned assistants as things get closer. We are currently six months out from the convention, I'm still filling major staff slots, and I don't mind assigning non-staffers to spell you for meals, sleep, etc. Think about it for the next few months, I'm sure you can find some folks who'll be happy to do shifts with you.

The food and drink discussion is over. I'll ask James to see what the hotel can do about providing water/sodas outside the rooms, and I'll make another decision at that time, should it prove necessary. Until then, drop it.

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the Convention made a bad contract (or got forced into one).

[rbandrews]

"I look forward to the day when I am treated as an equal and not just as somebody's pawn."

And yet you are volunteering for Technicon?

Look, most of the senior staff there are either hopelessly out-of-touch with why people come to the con (they still think people go to panels, for God's sake), or neurotic control freaks, or both. They will go on and on about how hard it is to run a con (some of which we've seen in this thread) and how only they can do it and they're holding it together with both hands, and proceed to run it straight into the ground and make a lame, un-fun convention.

The only reason to go to con is to see the other people who go to con. Which is a pretty big draw, but has nothing to do with how it's run.

My point is, they're never going to just trust you and let you run something. They don't know how. The idea of "trust", particularly trusting someone who made a bad first impression several years ago, is completely foreign to most of the people who run the convention.

Go find a new convention, or start one. Forget conventions entirely and do something else. Go hang out with people who don't think you're an incompetent asshole.

It's really your only hope.

[yubbie.livejournal.com]

Oh for god's sake ross, get the tree out of your ass. You know what? People do go to panels. I do. And gosh, there's people there with me. At least, I expect they're people, not some kind of robot zombie that the technicon overlords secretly funded in order carry out the high cabals wish to maintain unneeded functions. Meanwhile, I have never set foot into the spiel area except for the time I had to get through them to unload a truck. By using the same completely fucked up logic you like to use, I can thereby assume that no one goes to those games anyway, and we can just drop them, the only people pushing them are those hopeless out of touch gamers who still think people want board games, for God's sake.

I'm sorry that technicon couldn't cater itself entirely to your interests, but unlike folk like you'd who'd rather piss and moan about how we suck because your favcrite ass didn't get seriously kissed, we try to balance it so that everyone who comes can find *something* they enjoy doing, besides just hanging out in the lobby.

[rbandrews]

Odd that you'd mention games, since I actually didn't. I do enjoy going to Technicon, which is why I'm willing to brave airport security and fly across the country to do so. Perhaps you should read what I said instead of what you wanted to bitch about...

[yubbie.livejournal.com]

because I know your pet peeve.

[rbandrews]

Again, odd. That wasn't so much a "pet peeve" as my job, since I was Spiel's Technicon Monkeyboy and all.

Anyway, I didn't mention it, and you seem to have laser-focused on one tiny aside in a comment not even directed at you.