Joseph Stockman (aka “Uncle Vlad”) has cancelled this year’s DucKon but he has resolved to bring the con back to its Westin Chicago Northshore venue in June 2016, aided by a transition team that’s already in place.
Stockman’s narrative on the DucKon website tells about the financial pressures behind the decision, and the committee’s willingness to be accountable.
On the corporate side, there were a lot of dropped balls that compounded the problems. Money was going out faster than it was coming in. Records were missing or incomplete. And some bad decisions were made – and, yes, I was party to some of them.
As we approached a deadline with our hotel, I decided it had to stop. We had run out of options and there were no pending miracles. I made the best decision I could for the convention, the attendees, and our hotel. I released the space in the hopes the hotel could resell it, and they have been extremely co-operative.
As soon as that decision was made, I notified the rest of the Board of Directors, then the staff, then the public in general.
Over the next four days, sadly over Capricon, we received a deluge of support from our guests, our attendees, and our vendors. Several of us also were repeatedly treated like the person who shot Bambi’s mother. And we except that. We were parts of the problem. And we are sorry to all those who have been hurt or inconvenienced by this.
We also stand ready to make it right. Baring another set of catastrophes, Duckon 24 will occur in June 2016 on our original dates and at our current venue.
Those of you reading this may have noticed that I switched from ‘I’ to ‘we’ over the last few paragraphs. That is because I am not doing this alone. To borrow from the wisdom of Tom Smith, “Vlad slow, not dumb.” There is a transition team in place to handle these issues and get us back on track. More about them later.
For now, I want everyone reading this to understand that we have listened to each and every comment made, every rock slung at us, every piece of advice and support offered, and every tearful good-bye. We will earn back your trust, and we hope to see you all at Duckon 24. It will not be easy, and it will not be fast. But we will put in the effort and allow each of you to judge for yourselves.
[Via SF Site News.]
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>>>>”Several of us also were repeatedly treated like the person who shot Bambi’s mother. ”
Isn’t that sad? People seem to forget that cons are organized by people with real-world lives, jobs, concerns, needs, and issues who do this as volunteers. The only thing possibly worse, in my experience, is con organizers who treat their volunteer workers like dogmeat when the “power” goes to their head, and they turn into little Napoleans with delusions of grandeur. People who love SF, and the comraderie possible from it, and try to express it by trying to help out organizing or working at a con, wind up gafiating because no matter what you do, somebody will bitch……
Well said, KBK.