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Westercon 74 Day 2: Into the Cruise
Jul. 2nd, 2022 11:59 pmRegrettably, Lisa found herself completely alone at the TCC at 2 AM. With nobody else in the building and no sign of anyone else coming, she decided to lock the building for the night and came back to the hotel room. My job was to hold the keys and reopen the doors at 7 AM because Programming starts there at 8 AM (the remote online program viewing room). Chris Marble, Lisa's remaining deputy (the other two having been taken out for medical reasons either for themselves or their families) came and took charge of Hospitality, while I got my computer and worked on convention social media and also printing some more signs, replacing some hand-lettered signs with printed ones.
I did not have a lot of responsibilities during the day today. I spent nearly all of my time hanging around the TCC Main Hall. The convention seems to be mostly running smoothly. There were little hiccups here and there, but people dealt with them. I spent more time sitting, which my feet and legs appreciated. I did take charge of a reporter from the local weekly newspaper and tried to fill her in about what Westercon is and how it works, and I gave her way more material than she needs, but she said that was fine.
In the mid afternoon, I got lunch from the A&W (incidentally also picking up lunch for Sharon Sbarsky, who was running Site Selection), went back to the hotel room, ate lunch, and took a 90-minute nap. Lisa had retreated to the room earlier and also got some sleep. This helped.
Around 5:30, we bestirred ourselves and I changed from my "Western Sheriff" Westercon outfit to my "Game Show host" costume, as tonight we were running Match Game SF on the Main Stage from 7-9 pm. That's a bit earlier than we usually run the show, but we needed to end before 9 in order to turn the room back into main Hospitality and parties. Everyone pitched in, including Christopher Carson and Scott Sanford, but also many others, to get everything reset for the show. Lisa made the tech work, and we proceeded to have a good time playing five games of Match Game, giving away prizes, and making people laugh.
After the show, we cleared the way for Hospitality to restart. Kevin Roche and Andy Trembley opened the bar, the Hospitality team restocked food and drink, and the evening festivities commenced.
I spent the rest of the evening after we put way the game show gear talking with people and enjoying myself. At times, that meant discussing fine points of parliamentary procedure and Westercon rules, but anyone who knows me knows that is one way that I enjoy myself. The Westercon site selection election that ended this evening, which has only one bid, a write-in for Utah in 2024, has elements that may complicate Sunday's Business Meeting. I and others including Rick Kovalcik, Sharon Sbarsky, and Martin Pyne (who is making his debut this year as Secretary of the Westercon Business Meeting) gamed out likely scenarios.
Because of last nights overnight closure, we officially said that we would close the TCC between 1-7am unless there was interest from members to stay open all night long and staff to keep it open. People have come forward to do this tonight. Therefore, Lisa and I could leave the TCC in their hands, go back to the hotel room, have some dinner, and get some sleep. They have my telephone number and they know where I'm staying. (My hotel room is just about as close to the TCC as it is possible to be and still be a hotel room.) Hopefully, I'll get a few hours of sleep tonight, and then I can come back to the TCC and relieve the overnight volunteers.
Kuma Bear couldn't help either me or Lisa, but he did his part as a member of my staff (Stuffed Members Liaison).
( Kuma's Korner )
Sunday's Westercon Business Meeting will be interesting. Not likely as interesting as the 2011 meeting with the deadlocked election, four contending bids, and a three-hour meeting, but interesting nonetheless.
The pedometer claims more than 27,000 steps today, which doesn't seem right, as I wasn't constantly running back and forth between buildings, but I was on my feet a lot. I had to keep reminding myself to sit down when not doing anything that needs me on my feet.
I did not have a lot of responsibilities during the day today. I spent nearly all of my time hanging around the TCC Main Hall. The convention seems to be mostly running smoothly. There were little hiccups here and there, but people dealt with them. I spent more time sitting, which my feet and legs appreciated. I did take charge of a reporter from the local weekly newspaper and tried to fill her in about what Westercon is and how it works, and I gave her way more material than she needs, but she said that was fine.
In the mid afternoon, I got lunch from the A&W (incidentally also picking up lunch for Sharon Sbarsky, who was running Site Selection), went back to the hotel room, ate lunch, and took a 90-minute nap. Lisa had retreated to the room earlier and also got some sleep. This helped.
Around 5:30, we bestirred ourselves and I changed from my "Western Sheriff" Westercon outfit to my "Game Show host" costume, as tonight we were running Match Game SF on the Main Stage from 7-9 pm. That's a bit earlier than we usually run the show, but we needed to end before 9 in order to turn the room back into main Hospitality and parties. Everyone pitched in, including Christopher Carson and Scott Sanford, but also many others, to get everything reset for the show. Lisa made the tech work, and we proceeded to have a good time playing five games of Match Game, giving away prizes, and making people laugh.
After the show, we cleared the way for Hospitality to restart. Kevin Roche and Andy Trembley opened the bar, the Hospitality team restocked food and drink, and the evening festivities commenced.
I spent the rest of the evening after we put way the game show gear talking with people and enjoying myself. At times, that meant discussing fine points of parliamentary procedure and Westercon rules, but anyone who knows me knows that is one way that I enjoy myself. The Westercon site selection election that ended this evening, which has only one bid, a write-in for Utah in 2024, has elements that may complicate Sunday's Business Meeting. I and others including Rick Kovalcik, Sharon Sbarsky, and Martin Pyne (who is making his debut this year as Secretary of the Westercon Business Meeting) gamed out likely scenarios.
Because of last nights overnight closure, we officially said that we would close the TCC between 1-7am unless there was interest from members to stay open all night long and staff to keep it open. People have come forward to do this tonight. Therefore, Lisa and I could leave the TCC in their hands, go back to the hotel room, have some dinner, and get some sleep. They have my telephone number and they know where I'm staying. (My hotel room is just about as close to the TCC as it is possible to be and still be a hotel room.) Hopefully, I'll get a few hours of sleep tonight, and then I can come back to the TCC and relieve the overnight volunteers.
Kuma Bear couldn't help either me or Lisa, but he did his part as a member of my staff (Stuffed Members Liaison).
( Kuma's Korner )
Sunday's Westercon Business Meeting will be interesting. Not likely as interesting as the 2011 meeting with the deadlocked election, four contending bids, and a three-hour meeting, but interesting nonetheless.
The pedometer claims more than 27,000 steps today, which doesn't seem right, as I wasn't constantly running back and forth between buildings, but I was on my feet a lot. I had to keep reminding myself to sit down when not doing anything that needs me on my feet.
