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deirdreIn 2000, at Conolulu, a well-prepared ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mwillmoth lost a Westercon bid against an ill-prepared Los Angeles. This is how Mike and I became acquainted, actually. He did eventually win a Westercon bid in a later year.
This year, Portland -- who is overdue [1] for a Westercon (my opinion) -- was poorly prepared against what was initially a hoax bid (or, if you prefer, a non-filed bid) for Olive Country put on bybovil and kproche. However, it was clear that this new bid was far better organized in three weeks than the Portland bid had become in six months, and showed more initiative and leadership.
Thus, despite my general dislike of non-filed bids, I voted for them; since they won 42-41 over Portland, you could say it was collectively all of our faults that the issue needed to be raised at the Business Meeting.
I woke up in the middle of the night with a nightmare about the room changes I was going to have to make, never a fun thing.
When it came time for the business meeting, though, my general peevishness about party bids came out. The short form of my gripe is thus: if the Olive Country bid had filed properly (which had a couple of underlying requirements [2] that were difficult, but not impossible, to accomplish in that three weeks), three hundred and fifty SMOF hours [3] wouldn't have been spent this morning and afternoon. The longer the meeting went, the more peevish I felt about it, and I was about to raise the issue in speech against the Olive Country bid when debate was shut off. Just as well.
Said bid also stated what I felt was a personal slam against me -- which, since I was the third head of programming for Westercon and it was known before I was brought in that I was working two cons back to back and was therefore not going to be running early on these things (especially not when I was brought on very late for both conventions), didn't improve my feelings of good will.
To add to that, over the years, I'd promised that I'd help a friend (aekai) with a Westercon he had in mind for Maui, and had promised I'd be on that bid committee -- and he declared to be one of the four business meeting bids (the fourth being the Utah bid that originally had been for 2014). So, solidarity and all, I stood with my committee and not how I'd bid on paper.
Kevin and Andy will, in my opinion, run a far better convention than the bid committee I saw for Portland. [4] Were I in K&A's shoes, I'd probably run the convention in Portland since it can be held anywhere in the Westercon region. Obviously, Sacramento might be easier, but it's not local enough for me to feel a bond to the location. Portland (or, perhaps better, Eugene) brings a whole host of people who haven't made it to a Westercon in years. Sacramento doesn't offer the same rich palette of potential Westercon attendees and program participants.
Obviously, I'd prefer Hawaii (always), but I'll enjoy myself wherever it winds up.
In the future, however, after seeing the people points burned, I'm not sure that justifies voting against Portland, not with an un-filed bid and with OSFCI having put on good Westercons in the past (and good Orycons in the present).
[1] Westercons used to visit Portland once or twice a decade; there are historical reasons it hasn't happened since 2001.
[2] Letter of intent from a hotel along with a corporate sponsor for the bid committee.
[3] The meeting was over three hours long; there were approximately 110-120 SMOFs in the room on average.
[4] Note, however, that if Portland's sponsoring corporation, OSFCI, were unhappy with the bid committee, they always have the option of axing the bid committee and putting on the con with people they felt would do a better job. This is one reason why I considered voting for Portland.
mwillmoth lost a Westercon bid against an ill-prepared Los Angeles. This is how Mike and I became acquainted, actually. He did eventually win a Westercon bid in a later year.This year, Portland -- who is overdue [1] for a Westercon (my opinion) -- was poorly prepared against what was initially a hoax bid (or, if you prefer, a non-filed bid) for Olive Country put on by
bovil and kproche. However, it was clear that this new bid was far better organized in three weeks than the Portland bid had become in six months, and showed more initiative and leadership.Thus, despite my general dislike of non-filed bids, I voted for them; since they won 42-41 over Portland, you could say it was collectively all of our faults that the issue needed to be raised at the Business Meeting.
I woke up in the middle of the night with a nightmare about the room changes I was going to have to make, never a fun thing.
When it came time for the business meeting, though, my general peevishness about party bids came out. The short form of my gripe is thus: if the Olive Country bid had filed properly (which had a couple of underlying requirements [2] that were difficult, but not impossible, to accomplish in that three weeks), three hundred and fifty SMOF hours [3] wouldn't have been spent this morning and afternoon. The longer the meeting went, the more peevish I felt about it, and I was about to raise the issue in speech against the Olive Country bid when debate was shut off. Just as well.
Said bid also stated what I felt was a personal slam against me -- which, since I was the third head of programming for Westercon and it was known before I was brought in that I was working two cons back to back and was therefore not going to be running early on these things (especially not when I was brought on very late for both conventions), didn't improve my feelings of good will.
To add to that, over the years, I'd promised that I'd help a friend (
aekai) with a Westercon he had in mind for Maui, and had promised I'd be on that bid committee -- and he declared to be one of the four business meeting bids (the fourth being the Utah bid that originally had been for 2014). So, solidarity and all, I stood with my committee and not how I'd bid on paper.Kevin and Andy will, in my opinion, run a far better convention than the bid committee I saw for Portland. [4] Were I in K&A's shoes, I'd probably run the convention in Portland since it can be held anywhere in the Westercon region. Obviously, Sacramento might be easier, but it's not local enough for me to feel a bond to the location. Portland (or, perhaps better, Eugene) brings a whole host of people who haven't made it to a Westercon in years. Sacramento doesn't offer the same rich palette of potential Westercon attendees and program participants.
Obviously, I'd prefer Hawaii (always), but I'll enjoy myself wherever it winds up.
In the future, however, after seeing the people points burned, I'm not sure that justifies voting against Portland, not with an un-filed bid and with OSFCI having put on good Westercons in the past (and good Orycons in the present).
[1] Westercons used to visit Portland once or twice a decade; there are historical reasons it hasn't happened since 2001.
[2] Letter of intent from a hotel along with a corporate sponsor for the bid committee.
[3] The meeting was over three hours long; there were approximately 110-120 SMOFs in the room on average.
[4] Note, however, that if Portland's sponsoring corporation, OSFCI, were unhappy with the bid committee, they always have the option of axing the bid committee and putting on the con with people they felt would do a better job. This is one reason why I considered voting for Portland.