Party Report

[nemorathwald]

The ConVersation pre-con party on Saturday was a blast. Much tasty food was consumed. Jokes were told. Surveys were filled out in amusing and collaborative ways. We all swam clockwise in the swimming pool until it was a giant vortex. We heard each other sing new parody songs. Bill gave a tour of the hotel. We played Navia Dratp and a huge game of Settlers in the atrium at all hours of the night to the accompaniment of Davroz on the piano-- while cosette_valjean, tired but not wanting to miss out, dozed on a sofa. Finally the remaining eight of us went to the nearby Denny's at 3 in the morning.

There was much talk in the hot tub along the lines of "this is so great, why is it that we haven't been doing this three or four times a year?" Sunday morning we looked in the donation jar, calculated the expenses, subtracted, and realized why we don't. But we got preregistrations and lots of fen now know how great our hotel is.

Comments

[elizilla]

There is a small minority in fandom who foot the bill for everything. Some can afford it and others just bankrupt themselves.

When I was conchair I had two ways to fund parties like the one you describe. One was to foot the bill almost entirely by myself, or find other "angels" to do the same. The other was to spend a lot of time kicking people's butts at concom meetings, because once the convention starts, small failures in organization take huge chunks of the con budget, leaving nothing to pay for luxuries such as parties at other times of year.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I had not realized you were paying out of pocket for parties I would have chipped in more.

I always assumed there was a party expenses line in the budget.

Genrecon was started out of my pocket though so I know what you mean.

It helps to have a budding or actual accountant on concom.

[elizilla]

There was a party expenses line item in the budget but it was always rather less than what I spent. Usually the con paid the cost of a regular hotel room. The suites in the ConClave hotel cost the price of three regular rooms, and I would sublet one room to someone else for the price of a regular room, sublet the other room to myself, and the con would pay the difference. When people would show up with food and wanted reimbursement I sometimes let the con pay that if the expenses seemed reasonable. Other times I just paid it, or the person who bought it got reimbursed from the donations jar, or using any money thrown at me by the random people who grab crash space in the suite. There are several other people who often brought food and went unreimbursed; most frequently Dennis but he was by no means the only one.

My philosophy was that I enjoyed the parties more than anyone else and that as long as I could afford it, there would be no artificial shortages. Since then I wonder if I have created a situation where people thought the con was buying the stacks of pizzas or the premium beers, thereby causing an unreasonable expectation to fall on future conchairs?

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I know I usually bring beer which I donate because I tend to drink most of it anyway.

I always thought the pizzas were directly from you and thank you by the way.

[flutterby68.livejournal.com]

Was wonderful, and I enjoyed it immensely. James had a good time too, but I won't be bringing him again.

As for finances, I wish I could have donated. On payday, I shall hopefully be able to do so either through a contribution or preregistration.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

I didn't know James came with you. Is that the only way he found out about the event, or is he familiar with fandom?

[flutterby68.livejournal.com]

He found out about it through me. I had to explain what both "fandom" and "Fen" were. He DID know a couple of people from other events, though.

We didn't arrive together, but his purpose for being there was supposed to be a date with me. Heh. We all know how THAT turned out.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't know how that turned out. Sorry for monopolizing so much of his time with games.

[flutterby68.livejournal.com]

It wasn't your fault, it was his choice.

As for how it turned out, the short version is that he's been lying to me since the night we met. The longer version is in my LJ

[(Anonymous)]

Whadya mean by "our hotel"?

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

The Doubletree in Novi is ConVersation's hotel. The possessive pronoun is used just like when I am in a theater and get up to go to the restroom I say to the person accompanying me, "watch my seat."

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I was helping a friend move so could not make it however I plan on buying a membership at Conclave from whoever is there.

[rainbowgnosis.livejournal.com]

Dan and I really wanted to be there, but I had to be up by 5am on Sunday for work, so unfortunately it just didn't work out. We are planning on going to the con, though, and if there are future parties we hope to be able to attend.

[elizilla]

I would have liked to go as well, but I was attending my 20th high school reunion.