IDK IDK IDK...
Nov. 12th, 2024 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetRight, so, I've kept contact with some of my old AnimeIowa friends after the whole Mask Fiasco of 2022, right? Did some art for Accessibility Passes, maybe made a suggestion here or there, sold some stuff in the art show this past year. One of my AI friends commissioned a crocheted plush Minion from me this year to give to a family member for Xmas, so I pulled one together (that actually turned out pretty fantastic, NGL) and delivered it to her when she was in town for a convention meeting last Saturday.
I've been planning to rejoin AnimeIowa staff for the 2025 convention pretty much since I quit in 2022. I've gone back and forth a couple of times, but I do genuinely miss hanging out with my AI friends and helping make the convention work. The 2024 election results (and knowing some of what RFK Jr wants to do with US health stuff, as well as what Trump may let him get away with) have made me a little bit shaky about that, because I quit over disease transmission concerns in 2022; I was still leaning towards rejoining, except, well.
I saw one of the biggest anti-mask people when I went to drop off the minion; one of the people who made the decision (without telling staff at large, let alone announcing to attendees, vendors, or even guests of honor) that the con should go masks-optional in 2022, and one who I generally found a little intimidating even before everything that went down. I already knew that the Health Officer who helped push the decision was probably still on staff somewhere, if not necessarily as a Con Exec/ConCom/Con CEO/what-have-you; I know I can at least be civil with her in person and pretend that nothing has happened.
I don't know if I can do that with this other guy. I also don't know what sort of position he holds in staff at the moment; if he's in a position of particular power... IDK.
I'd love to shift focus and switch to Wiscon, but I tried that and I failed. One of the key points about AnimeIowa staff for me was that I would actually leave the house and go to in-person meetings and hang out with people there, and if I have to deal with too many of the people who made me feel like absolute dog shit for trying to make sure that the 2022 con didn't turn into a superspreader event, let alone for not being told before they rolled out the decision, I just...
Yeah. I dunno.
I've been planning to rejoin AnimeIowa staff for the 2025 convention pretty much since I quit in 2022. I've gone back and forth a couple of times, but I do genuinely miss hanging out with my AI friends and helping make the convention work. The 2024 election results (and knowing some of what RFK Jr wants to do with US health stuff, as well as what Trump may let him get away with) have made me a little bit shaky about that, because I quit over disease transmission concerns in 2022; I was still leaning towards rejoining, except, well.
I saw one of the biggest anti-mask people when I went to drop off the minion; one of the people who made the decision (without telling staff at large, let alone announcing to attendees, vendors, or even guests of honor) that the con should go masks-optional in 2022, and one who I generally found a little intimidating even before everything that went down. I already knew that the Health Officer who helped push the decision was probably still on staff somewhere, if not necessarily as a Con Exec/ConCom/Con CEO/what-have-you; I know I can at least be civil with her in person and pretend that nothing has happened.
I don't know if I can do that with this other guy. I also don't know what sort of position he holds in staff at the moment; if he's in a position of particular power... IDK.
I'd love to shift focus and switch to Wiscon, but I tried that and I failed. One of the key points about AnimeIowa staff for me was that I would actually leave the house and go to in-person meetings and hang out with people there, and if I have to deal with too many of the people who made me feel like absolute dog shit for trying to make sure that the 2022 con didn't turn into a superspreader event, let alone for not being told before they rolled out the decision, I just...
Yeah. I dunno.
I'm sorry that your once-happy place
Date: 2024-11-13 10:20 pm (UTC)...is getting covered in coyote feces.
Wiscon is definitely needing staff, and I don't think having to bail due to illness is failing.
Re: I'm sorry that your once-happy place
Date: 2024-11-14 01:04 am (UTC)Oh, shoot, that's not how I failed there! I wouldn't count me probably getting Covid and staying home to keep everyone safe a failure, especially since I ended up helping out in an online panel, as well. No, I dropped the ball after that. Once everything went down with AnimeIowa 2022, I asked to stay on with Wiscon; unfortunately, I never actually managed to make it to a meeting after that, and eventually just. Kinda ghosted. With Wiscon being much farther away than AnimeIowa ever was from me, and having never actually attended in person (not to mention it's much more expensive to me personally than AI has been in many years), I just really wasn't attached to the con enough for it to keep my attention, much though I hate to admit it. If Wiscon were closer, or had meetings with a hybrid in-person option, or if I had gone even once before joining and trying to help out, it might have been different, but as it was? It just didn't work for me.
I'd love to go eventually (my SIL has assured me that my crocheted stuff and so forth would do numbers in the Dealer's Room, if nothing else), but I don't know if I can realistically commit to being on staff for Wiscon without attending in person at least once, and unfortunately my financial situation recently has also made that less then tenable 😩
Anyway, Wiscon is definitely in the "Someday..." pile, and if I do manage to go, I'd make sure to at least volunteer a little bit! But other than that, I don't know that I'd be up to trying for staff again, for all the reasons above.
Re: I'm sorry that your once-happy place
Date: 2024-11-14 10:34 pm (UTC)Ahh, thanks for more context re Wiscon. As I've nattered on at length, I've got a push-pull relationship with the concom: when it was good, it was cosmic. When it was bad, it just fucking sucked. My Swiss-cheese memory doesn’t help: I would forget that, no, I don't want to work with that person or do that task again. For too long I wanted to be that cool person who could do it, more than I wanted to do it.
(For a while MyGuy would attempt to remind me, but he gave up after a decade.)
Bah, enough about me.
I would echo your SIL that members would be all over your crochet wonders!
Are the other Iowa-adjacent anime cons a possibility?
Re: I'm sorry that your once-happy place
Date: 2024-11-17 04:45 am (UTC)Argh, I really wanna do more cons and shows and stuff! Buuuut I should actually get a formal business set up first probably. Luckily, Iowa has a handy webpage that seems like it will walk one through the process! Less luckily, ADHD 😅 I've had it open in a tab for probably a few months now. Still, I'll get to it eventually!
Hmm, I'd have to look into what other cons there even are around here. I wouldn't be opposed to working a non-anime con, since there's usually at least some crossover appeal, but most of the other cons I'm aware of in the area have the same parent organization as AnimeIowa. Which isn't a bad thing as far as sharing resources go! It's pretty smart, allows the con to share storage space and various structural bits and bobs; but one of the resources they also share is the same Health Officer, so... Still, it won't hurt me to look around a bit! I might find one that piques my interest.