I am not quite sure how it happened other than I had promised Sheyne I would put down my capstone and go to San Jose with her to the Fanime General Staff Meeting in order to help promote her movie and see about getting it shown at the con. Camilla seemed a bit weary, but at least she was open minded and took the DVD. What DVD? Why the DVD for Masks and Daggers of course! Anyway, so we arrive at the tail end of the meeting, having driven an hour and a half to attend, and still arriving with more than enough time to spare since the meeting started almost an hour late. Within moments of sitting down, Brian asked me what shirt I wanted for staff and if I needed crash space. I was somewhat confused until it dawned on me I was going to be on his staff this year. Right, so this potentially makes for 4/4 conventions I am working in some degree this year. First RECCA, now Fanime, possibly AX, and I promised Rey Rey that I would help out at this year's Ani-Magic. Thankfully, at Fanime and AX I won't be in a thinking position and at Ani-Magic I may not have much to do their either depending on who heads what things and what is expected of me. Even with RECCA, I have focused only on giving 110% to my exact position, ensuring that whatever it is I am supposed to do gets done with a level of professionalism and effort that would be expected. I guess I hope that if I take my position seriously, that a professional work ethic will wind its way up the con power trees. History though says that will never be the case; nerds hold the longest recorded grudges. Nerds are also notorious for clinging to shredded self-importance and a feeling they can do things better than anyone else. I'm sure if you have worked a convention or tried to volunteer any information or ideas you have seen this phenomenon. For the record, we will label it "Otaku Running Things Disease" or ORTD for short.
Since we are already so far into this tangent, let's just keep going. ORTD rears its ugly head the worst when you offer help, money, resources, your soul, etc and get turned down flat by someone at a convention. Normally a few weeks later, the person who turned you down is complaining about the lack of the exact same thing you had offered to supply. ORTD also occurs when you offer professional services for free and are turned down because of a belief that an in-house hobbyist can do a better job. ORTD is the bane of success at a convention, the result of close-mindedness, and is a one-way ticket to communication breakdown and functions as a primary staff deterrent. There is an illusion of fandom that convention staffs consist of a bunch of buddies and their close friends, and even now I find myself believing that more often than not. You get on staff by being recommended by a friend, you get into an inner circle by being friends with the others in the inner circle, and you never once were interviewed or fill out an application. (I think AX now has an application for staff positions...)
So where is this all going? Well, for one it makes it very hard to work at a convention where the culture has shifted away from trying to provide the best possible show for the fans. I know it's in the mission statements, I've seen the anime board's web sites, but that doesn't explain why you can walk into a general staff meeting and see people playing computer games and game boys instead of focusing on the topics at hand. In the end, the best I can do is absorb all of it, record all of it, and work to insure that it doesn't happen at cons I am senior staff at.
After all, we all started staffing because we thought conventions were fun. It would be a shame if there was no fun left; it would be then unpaid work.
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