Things that make you go hmmmm....

[kitanzi]

I just heard from someone who attended a panel at Boskone about disasters concoms had faced at various cons. He related, minus the names of the guilty, a little tale he heard there about a con which was suddenly forced to find a replacement treasurer, for reasons I won't repeat here in spite of them apparently having been given there.

That's not what caught my attention, though - the story teller's punchline was apparently "We had to find someone stupid enough to be Treasurer". Ahem.

*sigh* (Yes, I do expect it was said that way to make it a punchline. Nonetheless.... hmmmmm.)

Comments

[surrdave.livejournal.com]

Nice userpic. New one?

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Yep, cropped out of one of the pictures ACat took when we went sightseeing from the top of the revolving hotel.

[bedlamhouse]

Only the first replacement treasurer can ever fit that description. The second replacement treasurer is better known as "a lifesaver"

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

*G* Nice save.

Re:

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I do hope you know, but I should make it clear - I wasn't pissed, just being snarky. :)

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[bedlamhouse]

I figured as much - but it was still a good answer :D *returnhugs*

And are all snarks boojums?

[bardling.livejournal.com]

I suppose many people highly dislike the type of accounting work that being a treasurer entails & hence view it as volunteering for an unloved job with much responsibility. Still, they should be grateful, not derogatory.
*hug*

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[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

No offense was truly taken - I was just being snarky. :) *hug*

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

That's a great userpic :)

I think they were trying to make the same kind of joke I made when I called myself the "Filk Slave" rather than the "Filk Czar". It's funnier coming from the person doing the job than it is from others, though.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I'm quite sure it was meant as a joke, really - I was just pointing out what sort of joke it actually was. Glad you like the pic. :)

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[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Bill pointed out that it actually WAS coming from the first replacement, which I hadn't considered. I wasn't actually being pissed, more just pointing out what sort of joke it was - but perhaps I should have just let it lie.

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[bedlamhouse]

For the record, the person who shared that tale (and everyone on the panel, in fact) had acted as treasurer of a convention before (or even still), so in context there wasn't a problem with it.

[gingicat]

The main reason I never volunteered to be Treasurer for a con (though, I knew I *could*, I always told them I didn't have the skills... given my current job, I can't say that any more) is that it's utterly terrifying to be responsible for all the money. So maybe you have to have a certain... lack of sensitivity to treat it as Just Another Con Volunteering Job.

Of course, there's also the fact that you end up in a secluded room most of the time counting receipts and hardly get to see the con, except when you're running around giving reimbursements to people. :)

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[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Personally, it makes me very nervous, especially since I did not have effective duties last year due to the abrupt and irregular nature of the change - other people effectively incorporated most of that into their bailiwick, but this year it's going back to the more standard division of responsibility. (And yeah, being responsible for all that is very nervousmaking!)

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[gingicat]

I didn't realize that you had been a Treasurer for a con. It's one of those necessary things that's really scary to do.

Don't ever volunteer to do it for a con that wants you to stay up all night with it, though (*cough*Arisia*cough*).

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[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I haven't before - Gafilk is the first. Arisia is MUCH larger, and I'm sure correspondingly more complicated and time consuming.

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[bedlamhouse]

GAFilk actually follows the "easy convention model" of:

- take money from members
- give money to airlines
- give money to hotel
- give money to grocery stores
- marvel at shiny new penny still in cash bag at end of giving money away

Which is much better than the "oopsie convention model" for a con I ran many years ago, which was:

- take money from members
- give money to airlines
- realize airlines needed a lot more money than you expected, take money from concom
- give money to hotel
- give money to grocery stores
- realize people were really, really hungry, take more money from concom
- breathe sigh of relief that no one lynched you for leaving the convention in the red

That model only works for conventions with high-maintenance guests, ravenous hordes of members, and by-laws that allow concom assessments. None of which apply to GAFilk. We hope.

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[gingicat]

Sounds like a good model to me. :) (The first, that is.)

It was good to see you and ladyat at Boskone!

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[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I like the first method much better, myself - is it safe to ask which con you were running that had the second model?

Con treasury..

[(Anonymous)]

I think a lot depends on the size of the con. I'd think twice about treasury for something the size of Arisia :). Concertino '03 on the other hand, wasn't terribly intimidating- heck- the at-con duties consisted of collecting the reg money from the (extremely competent) registration volunteers, paying the hotel Monday morning and running by the bank on my way home. Of course the dollars involved for the entire convention budget was less than I typically deal with for a single order in my day job..

I can see that changing people in the middle would be awkward, however! And we were greatly blessed to have had a cash reserve going in, a bunch of experienced people on concom, and very strong advance registration, so treasury-wise there wasn't a lot to do besides keep track of what was going where and firmly remind the profligate element on the concom not to count their memberships before they hatched..

Robin H.

Re: Con treasury..

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

We do have all those - we're in a good cash position, have strong continuity of the concom back to the very beginning, and our advance registration was great last year and looks to be outrageously good this year. On top of it, we have a very fiscally conservative head of the concom. I'm just nervous 'cause I'm like that. :)