Welcome to your life (Arisia edition)
Jan. 10th, 2018 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexhttps://www.facebook.com/arisiainc/posts/10154910402771580
I'm only on one Arisia panel this year, but I'll be turning in timesheets for pre-con work exceeding 750 hours. And that's really only a ballpark. I can't even begin to reconstruct it.
A lot of that went into the Web site (https://www.arisia.org now with SSL everywhere) and I'll have more to say about that after Con. But lately it's been publications, for which I am titular Assistant Division Head and effectively acting Divhead.
I had a very ambitious plan going into this, which largely consisted of "get people to work on these jobs, in part by splitting them up so they're more sane for one person to do." Like a lot of my plans, it didn't exactly work out. On the other hand:
- we had a new person doing Souvenir Book this time and I think she did a brilliant job. She enjoyed it enough that she might do it again.
- we had a new person doing Pocket Program for the first time in modern Arisia history (*)
- we managed to deprecate a bunch of old, clunky, hard-to-navigate static HTML schedule information in favor of a ... well, clunky, hard-to-navigate but at least real-time queryable online schedule tool.
- we got a new Restaurant Guide written, which hopefully will cut down on the complaints about outdated info we got last year. In the age of Yelp and such you'd think the Guide didn't see as much use but apparently people use it at least as a starter.
- we got a new person to do Family Friendly Guide. I suspect she won't be back, but she did a good job this time. (The FFG wasn't the job she came to do - she just threw herself on the live grenade like so many people in this organization do.)
Communications touches a lot of other things at the con. I've been involved in several projects, peripherally, that have made me prouder of this community than I thought I'd be. The response to The Westin renovation showed people will step up when it's needed. The rollout of the Safer Space for Arisians of Color shows we're making progress living up to our diversity ideals. This year we'll also have the first Black-identified fan publication covering the con in our history. Sometimes people are why we get to have nice things.
I have plans for what to do next, and they don't involve doing this job again next year. I need to put in fewer hours and more focus on a couple specific things that Absolutely Need To Get Fixed. I think there are people in my division who can move up and take on this gig, if they're willing. If all goes well I'll be back doing something different for 2020 and, yes, I have plans past that, too. Stay tuned, it's going to be a hell of a fun ride.
(*) Arisia turns 30 next year. Sit a while and feel old with me.
I'm only on one Arisia panel this year, but I'll be turning in timesheets for pre-con work exceeding 750 hours. And that's really only a ballpark. I can't even begin to reconstruct it.
A lot of that went into the Web site (https://www.arisia.org now with SSL everywhere) and I'll have more to say about that after Con. But lately it's been publications, for which I am titular Assistant Division Head and effectively acting Divhead.
I had a very ambitious plan going into this, which largely consisted of "get people to work on these jobs, in part by splitting them up so they're more sane for one person to do." Like a lot of my plans, it didn't exactly work out. On the other hand:
- we had a new person doing Souvenir Book this time and I think she did a brilliant job. She enjoyed it enough that she might do it again.
- we had a new person doing Pocket Program for the first time in modern Arisia history (*)
- we managed to deprecate a bunch of old, clunky, hard-to-navigate static HTML schedule information in favor of a ... well, clunky, hard-to-navigate but at least real-time queryable online schedule tool.
- we got a new Restaurant Guide written, which hopefully will cut down on the complaints about outdated info we got last year. In the age of Yelp and such you'd think the Guide didn't see as much use but apparently people use it at least as a starter.
- we got a new person to do Family Friendly Guide. I suspect she won't be back, but she did a good job this time. (The FFG wasn't the job she came to do - she just threw herself on the live grenade like so many people in this organization do.)
Communications touches a lot of other things at the con. I've been involved in several projects, peripherally, that have made me prouder of this community than I thought I'd be. The response to The Westin renovation showed people will step up when it's needed. The rollout of the Safer Space for Arisians of Color shows we're making progress living up to our diversity ideals. This year we'll also have the first Black-identified fan publication covering the con in our history. Sometimes people are why we get to have nice things.
I have plans for what to do next, and they don't involve doing this job again next year. I need to put in fewer hours and more focus on a couple specific things that Absolutely Need To Get Fixed. I think there are people in my division who can move up and take on this gig, if they're willing. If all goes well I'll be back doing something different for 2020 and, yes, I have plans past that, too. Stay tuned, it's going to be a hell of a fun ride.
(*) Arisia turns 30 next year. Sit a while and feel old with me.
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Date: 2018-01-11 05:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-11 12:47 pm (UTC)