It sounds to me that the TorCon mistake is vastly different from what I'm proposing. I'd like to see new conrunners get mentors. Even announce them: Con X will be chaired by Robin Newbie, Con Chair mentor Alex Oldguy. A mentor should be around for all those questions and sidestepping the big problems, something it seems like TorCon actively avoided listening to. However, it seems to me that even a mentorship is something the Old Guard would protest, because if 'Alex Oldguy' was being involved why shouldn't he just run things so they go perfectly? I'd also venture that it seems a lot of people would hesitate to be 'Alex Oldguy' because it seems all the blame would fall on him even if the proteges decided to completely disregard his good advice. Even without this it seems that there are a lot of people in fandom who think that it's easier to do it themselves rather than teach someone new to do it. This is damaging to everyone, and not helping cons to grow in the future.