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Because John Hertz volunteered to do the "graveyard" shift in the Tonopah Convention Center, we did not have to close overnight; however, I did need to be there by 7 AM to let him leave and get some sleep. Chris Marble, who has had to step in as the remaining deputy Hospitality manager with a tripled workload, arrived a little while later while I was still struggling to figure out how to make the coffee pot work, rescued me from my incompetence.
I stuck around in the TCC dealing with overnight messages, sending information to the newsletter, answering questions, posting updates to the convention's social media, and having a light breakfast of instant oatmeal and coffee.
Mid-morning, I went back to the hotel and changed back out of my "Sheriff of Westercon" outfit to my business suit. No, it's not another game show, but in this case being Chair of the Westercon Business Meeting. This is the first time in many years that the convention chair also chaired the Business Meeting. (Indeed, I don't recall it ever happening, but I'm pretty sure it has happened historically.)
Annoyingly, I forgot to have anyone take pictures. Lisa did record the meeting, but I will not have time to clip the video out of a much longer recording and upload it until we get home.
( It's the Business Meeting Again! )
We turned the Main Hall back into Hospitality and I spent much of the next hour talking with people about what had just happened. But soon it was time for Kuma Bear's big moment: The Kuma's Korner Gathering.
( Kuma's Korner )
After a very successful event at Kuma's Korner, Lisa and I retired to our hotel room for a few hours. I got us lunch from A&W (the food truck being closed today). Kuma did not initially come back with us, as he was having his portrait drawn by Mo Starkey. After I brought lunch back to our hotel room, I trotted down to the TCC and retrieved Kuma. We had lunch and slept for a few hours, leaving the convention safely in the hands of the many other members of the committee and staff that have been working to make Westercon 74 happen.
Around 7 PM, I changed back into my Sheriff of Westercon outfit and we returned to the TCC for the evening festivities. I took up station at a table in the TCC and did some website maintenance (posting the latest newsletter to the site) and social media work (posting notices of the newsletter to Twitter and Facebook. I also composed messages to various people and groups about the Westercon Site Selection. I made dinner for myself from some of the material in Hospitality and talked with lots of people. It was fun.
Attendance here is lighter than I had hoped. I knew we would have no-shows. Some of our attending members have died in the past three years and others have scratched due to COVID and due to BayCon having moved to the same weekend as Westercon, and others, even those who had purchased attending memberships, balked when they realized just how far away Tonopah is from a major airport. However, my 20% no-show projection seems to have been overly optimistic. As of the end of the day on Sunday, only 58% of the 303 attending members had collected their membership badges. That's too bad. Those people who didn't attend have missed a great convention, with strong programming and a Con Suite that most conventions could only dream of having.
I stuck around in the TCC dealing with overnight messages, sending information to the newsletter, answering questions, posting updates to the convention's social media, and having a light breakfast of instant oatmeal and coffee.
Mid-morning, I went back to the hotel and changed back out of my "Sheriff of Westercon" outfit to my business suit. No, it's not another game show, but in this case being Chair of the Westercon Business Meeting. This is the first time in many years that the convention chair also chaired the Business Meeting. (Indeed, I don't recall it ever happening, but I'm pretty sure it has happened historically.)
Annoyingly, I forgot to have anyone take pictures. Lisa did record the meeting, but I will not have time to clip the video out of a much longer recording and upload it until we get home.
( It's the Business Meeting Again! )
We turned the Main Hall back into Hospitality and I spent much of the next hour talking with people about what had just happened. But soon it was time for Kuma Bear's big moment: The Kuma's Korner Gathering.
( Kuma's Korner )
After a very successful event at Kuma's Korner, Lisa and I retired to our hotel room for a few hours. I got us lunch from A&W (the food truck being closed today). Kuma did not initially come back with us, as he was having his portrait drawn by Mo Starkey. After I brought lunch back to our hotel room, I trotted down to the TCC and retrieved Kuma. We had lunch and slept for a few hours, leaving the convention safely in the hands of the many other members of the committee and staff that have been working to make Westercon 74 happen.
Around 7 PM, I changed back into my Sheriff of Westercon outfit and we returned to the TCC for the evening festivities. I took up station at a table in the TCC and did some website maintenance (posting the latest newsletter to the site) and social media work (posting notices of the newsletter to Twitter and Facebook. I also composed messages to various people and groups about the Westercon Site Selection. I made dinner for myself from some of the material in Hospitality and talked with lots of people. It was fun.
Attendance here is lighter than I had hoped. I knew we would have no-shows. Some of our attending members have died in the past three years and others have scratched due to COVID and due to BayCon having moved to the same weekend as Westercon, and others, even those who had purchased attending memberships, balked when they realized just how far away Tonopah is from a major airport. However, my 20% no-show projection seems to have been overly optimistic. As of the end of the day on Sunday, only 58% of the 303 attending members had collected their membership badges. That's too bad. Those people who didn't attend have missed a great convention, with strong programming and a Con Suite that most conventions could only dream of having.
