...The sun was spitting fire, the sky was blue as ice. I felt a little tired...

[hazelchaz]

For animelosangeles, I went to a small convention at Cal State Northridge. I wanted our postcards stuffed in the reg bags, so I drove up on Thursday night to bring them and help stuff the bags (right). They gave me a table in Artists' Alley, which was outdoors on the concrete patio in the sun and immediately to the west of the building with the Dealers Room. I looked at the lay of the land, and decided it made sense to set up after noon, when the shade would start coming our way.

I've mentioned that at our last convention, I had a few Minions. These are different from Anime Vegas's Minions: those minions work for the convention as a whole, doing various jobs, while I just have a small number who work as my personal assistants. Poor Melissa got run into the ground last year, with two off-site errands in the rain; aramina joined the Minion team, and by the end of the convention summoner_lenne9 (left) had volunteered to join the 2009 team. I've appointed Melissa as Head Minion, to organize the Minions into a little department and to work out a shift system so that being a Minion isn't a solitary 8-hour death march.

Melissa's shepherding the Proto-minions (that is, recruits who want to be a Minion but haven't minioned before) and training them up, by having them come and help me at the other conventions we go to. Sarah agreed to attend the convention and help out. Willow, a friend of Melissa, joined us for the first time as well (right). (Check out her belt with all the colorful stars.) By the end of the convention, we'd decided that Willow was a keeper, and we were ready to start thinking of Sarah as a full Minion instead of a Proto-minion because she'd shown definite improvement over the year.

Friday night, Sarah joined me and Melissa for dinner. We went to Claim Jumper. After a delicious meal, we got the Chocolate Calzone. Poor Sarah learned what it feels like to be so full you can't eat another bite but the dessert is so delicious it's hard to keep your fork at bay.

Melissa (left) had a long drive ahead of her for Friday night and on Saturday, and eventually decided it made more sense to stay overnight in Northridge. The Saturday obligation was something she really didn't want to do -- it involved driving for half of the day, and at the end of it all getting a paycheck that wouldn't cover her gas expenses.

I had a hotel room nearby. I had tried ala_mokita's futon the year before, didn't want to do that again, so instead I'd booked a room with two beds at the Howard Johnsons (the con's official hotel, about a mile away). I always book two beds, even when I'm traveling solo, just in case I need to offer someone crash space. I had hoped to lure selinawoman out of her lair to join us, but she wasn't able to get away -- the bed would go unused if Melissa didn't want it. So we picked up a fresh shirt for Melissa and a "Hello Kitty" toothbrush, and all ended well for that night.

The convention, in its third year, was reasonably well run. As it's on campus, they give free badges to any CSUN students who want to attend. Not counting dealers and artists and others of us with particular reasons to promote or publicize or sell at conventions, most of the non-student attendees come from the surrounding area. Their attendance seems to be stable, around the thousand mark. Their published attendance figure this year was 904.

We had a table, as I mentioned, where we gave away bottled water and granola bars and sold badge ribbons (to raise money for the ones we give away at our convention). We also take membership money, if people want to sign up on the spot. The rates had just gone up (to their final pre-reg rates -- $45, or $40 for student) but we didn't have the new postcards yet. That's because of a mistake on my part, way back when I announced the dates for the price increases and for the postcard art deadlines. So, our discount for people attending was to be able to sign up at the old rates, and if they had the special coupon code they could do it online for a month after the convention. (Longer, actually - I just turned it off a minute ago.)

For Anime Vegas, I printed up labels with the coupon code on them. That was kind of cumbersome, and we put them on the newsletters and postcards while sitting at the table. I had some quick and cheap self-inking rubber stamps printed up at STAPLES so we could just stamp them. Of course, it would have been nice if I'd arranged for a stamping work party beforehand, so that the ones going into the reg bags would have had the coupon code? Oops. Well, the good news is we probably won't have any more postcards go into reg bags before we get to the convention...

We collected a little money from registrations. But at this point, we are going to the conventions to "wave the flag" -- to talk to people who haven't heard about us, to tell people who have that we have a membership cap of 2700 on Saturday and they should pre-reg and the deadline is mid-December, to tell members that the hotel room block closes mid-December too -- but mostly our agenda now is to see what members want to volunteer. Why is this important? It's not just important, it's vital. Suppose you take everyone that volunteers at a convention in any capacity, including gophers, staff, department heads, division heads, random volunteers and everyone else. Expressed as a percentage of the total membership, what's a good number to have?

I've heard that a good goal to aim for is 10%. One in ten people at the convention are helping to make the convention happen. One in 12 or 13 -- 8% -- is still pretty good. Well, right now 20% of our pre-reg membership are tagged in the database as "STAFF" but we expect to quadruple our membership before the end of the convention. That means that unless we recruit another hundred staff and volunteers, we're looking at a figure of 5%.

Low percentages here are an early warning of potential staff burnout, so I take this very seriously. I think we treat our staff and volunteers well -- in addition to our Con Suite (a novely at anime cons, even though it's a staple at sci-fi cons) we now have a Staff Lounge, we give people breaks, we show them they're appreciated, etc. -- but the trick is to get the word out. More about that in my post about the October picnic, though.

Anyhow I'm always be on the lookout for steady workers. I was on my way back from washing my hands when a young lady badger (that is, she was sitting at a door checking badges) flagged me down and seemed to want to vent about how she was being treated. She'd been told by someone that "if she screwed up she'd never be able to work at another convention again" and thought that was a bit much. I agreed, because none of us has that kind of power to blacklist someone across the board! She'd been working for 6 or 8 hours and hadn't had a break, and wanted to leave and go do something else for a while.

I told her that sounded reasonable, and since it was 15 minutes until the top of the hour I told her to find her supervisor -- or anyone else who seemed to be more senior than her -- and tell them, don't ask them, tell them that she'd be going off-shift at the end of the hour and they'd be on their own for watching the door.

The chance to talk about how she felt, and my advice, seemed to cheer her immensely. I later learned that she thought I was part of the con committee! Ahhhh... no. Sorry. Actually, about the only thing I'd have done differently if I had been working for the con would have been to deliver the message myself. Either way, she was going to see the rest of the convention for the rest of the day.

I told her later (after she'd learned I was part of a completely different convention) that while I applauded her work ethic, she needs to think of herself and her needs, and if she could balance those we'd love to have her on staff at Animé Los Angeles. (A week or so later, she called me and I put her on the phone to library_lynn so she could firm up working at Registration.)

We went our separate ways for a while. I ended up making sure that she had a ride home one night, and on Saturday she was starting to panic because she'd made two conflicting promises and didn't see a way out.

She didn't put it that way, but that's my analyis. She'd made arrangements with Cessie's parents to ride with her (Cessie) on the Metrorail line back to Union Station, and then to see Cessie off on the subway line to Pasadena while she came back to Northridge. Problem was, they'd need to leave now to get Cessie home by the agreed-upon time, and she'd have to give up being in the Masquerade -- and she'd committed to being in an entry which turned out to be the first one in the show.

Okay, first order of business: petition to have Entry #1 moved to later in the show. I used up one favor here -- they're owed one favor from me now, and I don't know when they'll cash that marker in. It turned out to be for nothing, because her friends had written her out of the script before we could tell them we'd found a solution. Okay, back to the Masquerade director to put them back into spot #1.

It still meant that she'd miss the Masquerade. So would Cessie. Cessie needed to get to the Pasadena Metrorail station, somehow; they were going to take a convoluted tour of half of the L.A. subway system to get the job done, but fortunately we managed to get ahold of Cessie's parents before we absolutely had to be headed towards the Metro station. Resolution: as long as Cessie's at the train station by her curfew time, she can stay and watch the Masquerade.

So that's what we did. We all stayed and watched the Masquerade. Some minion behavior rules developed out of the experience -- if a Minion is sitting within a few seats of me in the same row, they are considered to be "on duty" and we ask that they not rush up to intercept masqueraders as they come off the stage.

We saw the whole Masquerade and some of halftime acts before it was time to go. One act worth mentioning, the first one, is "Monkeys Flying High" -- a martial arts/acrobatic group (left). All they needed was a clear space and to have their music cued up. And clearing the space wasn't hard, we just engaged in a few minutes of synchronized chair-shifting. "On the count of three, everyone move their chair back" -- do that enough times and you've moved the entire room's chairs without anyone having to get up.

Did I mention that my car Saltine has a 4-gerbilpower engine? And that ala_mokita underestimated how long it would take to get from CSUN to Pasadena? No? Well, take it as read. I should have made a note of Cessie's cell#, and we should have allowed an hour to get there. We pushed those gerbils as fast as they can go, and I'm pleased to tell you that we arrived at the train station six minutes before Cessie's curfew and three minutes before her parents got there. Success!

It's possible that I've made two fast friends that night -- the badger girl that introduced me to Cessie, and Cessie herself. Certainly I consider them valued acquaintances. And it looks like I'm bringing the lemonade to Cessie's cosplay picnic/birthday party. Cessie's called me once or twice for advice since the convention. Not a lot of teenagers ask me for my advice, so it's a bit of an honor, really.

She had one issue that she called me about in a panic: she's supposed to organize a cosplay gathering or two at Animé Los Angeles, but might not be able to attend all three days. So I suggested she recruit a second who'll step into action if she's not there; i.e. show her parents that she's mature enough to get things done. (Hysterics don't help when trying to negotiate with parents. Or children.) I told her that the important thing was to tell her parents that she'd follow the rules that they'd laid down, and that she'd figure out how to accomplish the things she'd committed to.

The things that I never knew came with this job... I jest. Chairing a convention isn't a job, it's a hobby. Certainly a very interesting hobby, though!

The Rum Party (right) was here -- they're hitting all the SoCal conventions (perhaps excepting Pacific Media Expo), with Anime Expo in the summer and "Autumn Dream" later in the fall -- and it looks at this point as if Anime Expo is the only one that hasn't figured out the advantages of incorporating them into the con as an official event. Their loss! [Edit: Sarah reminds me that they skipped AX.] I asked Mike, who's recently married Barrie, if they received the cooking wreath safely. I don't think he's twigged to the fact that I'm really saying You haven't sent us a thank-you note yet and of course I can't come left out and chide him for that or remind him that my mailing address is PO Box 17522, Anaheim CA 92817.

Speaking of other conventions, Revell Walker of Ani-Magic fame (infamy?) showed up to drop off some Autumn Dream flyers (left). On Sunday. Can someone please buy this man a clue? He's changing the convention's name and location, the publicity in the greater convention circuit has been nil, and he doesn't bring flyers until the last three or six hours of the weekend?

I'm trying to save up my thoughts on Ani-Magic/Autumn Dream for when I cover our visit, four weeks later (two weeks ago). But at this point in the narrative, I'll tell you that I'd paid for a dealers space at Autumn Dream, and Revell asked if we were basically going to do the same thing as we were doing here. (We're indoors at this point, because they had some space free up in the dealers room on Sunday and allowed us to set up inside.)

Yes, indeed. Almost exactly what he could see here -- giving away water and snacks, selling ribbons, talking up the convention. So I was glad he asked that. I'd checked the rules carefully, looking for a "no food" rule and hadn't found one, but still wasn't sure... having him see what we planned to do, and raising no objections, was a relief.

We didn't stay for all the closing ceremonies. Miles to go before we sleep -- me to the south, Melissa to the northwest. We did stick around long enough to hear a little of this lady singing (right). I'd bumped into a number of Voice Actors during the weekend, including one or two that had gone the fans-to-pros route (as opposed to a veteran actor who ended up in the anime world, like Kyle Hebert). I need to get better about hanging onto their business cards. (Minions, please take note, for when we're out at pmx. Will they have any VAs there?) Anyhow, this particular lady, whose name I've forgotten, held her own as co-emcee with Kyle on Masquerade night, and was singing the Apeture Science "Still Alive" song. I'd like to see her again, if anyone can tell me her name and where to find her next? Maybe we can lure her out to the LAX Marriott.

Comments

[sweetservitude.livejournal.com]

Hey, I thought you were going to post something about Yaoi-con today?

Mokita over at sweetservitudes abode administering postt appendicitis therapy

Y-con

[hazelchaz]

Patience, it takes me time to write it up! I started writing it and realized that I'd made quite a long post and hadn't actually left my driveway yet, so I posted it and started working on the next one.

I suppose I could serialize it... cover Friday (day) first...