SMOF News, volume 2, issue 7

Wiscon has urgent high-level openings, SDCC has virtual line problems, and news in brief.

Wiscon Needs Chairs

Wiscon, a feminist science fiction convention which has been around since 1977, has experienced the same pandemic problems many fan-run cons are familiar with. It went online in 2020, skipped 2021, and was only able to continue past that with the help of a huge fundraising campaign. Now it’s grappling with the shortage of volunteers many cons are seeing, caused by the sickness, death, and general rise in stress of the last couple years. In Wiscon’s case, though, the openings are at the highest levels:

Last week Stephanie [Sarac] announced she would be stepping down as co-chair for WisCon 46 in 2023. …

In order for WisCon 46 to move forward the SF3 Board will be starting recruitment for the open Co-Chair position (who must be able to attend in person). In addition, for online or hybrid programming to happen next year we need at least one, ideally two, Online Con Department Co-Leads (either one person at-con; or two people, one at-con and the other either at-con or remote).

Ira Alexandre, co-chair in 2020 and 2022, is filling in as an interim co-chair, but the post warns:

In the interest of transparency, we want to let you all know that if the open Co-Chair position isn’t filled by end of November, the in-person con will be cancelled.

Wiscon is holding off signing a contract with its usual hotel for 2023 until the position is filled.

Long acquaintance with the convention isn’t necessarily a requirement. The post notes that Sarac became a co-chair after having attended for the first time in 2022.

San Diego Comic-Con Virtual Line Problems

After Comic-Con International was cancelled in 2020 and 2021, admissions for 2020 were honored in 2022. So few people chose to cancel that there were no sales for the 2022 convention. So it has been three years since it needed to handle new registrations, software changes have been made in that time, and things did not go smoothly.

SDCC Unofficial Blog has the full walkthrough of the problems, starting with a crash right when the virtual queue was supposed to open:

At 8am, everyone who entered the Member ID portal began refreshing to try to enter the QueueIt waiting room. At first, nothing much happened — but it didn’t take long before users started to get error messages, “service unavailable”, and other glitches.

The system was put into maintenance mode after about 20 minutes of that, and after fixes were made behind the scenes, the waiting room finally opened at 9:30 and registration commenced at 10:00. Attendance caps took longer to hit than in previous years, which SDCC Unofficial Blog speculates may be because the system was set up to have the line move more slowly.

This follows similar problems with signups for New York Comic Con a few weeks ago. Unlike NYCC, though, SDCC has a recent record of entirely smooth registration days.

In Brief

• Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (Columbus, Ohio, this past October 6-9) presented its 2022 awards, as selected by a committee of volunteers: Transformative Work Award to Trina Robbins and Lee Marrs, Master Cartoonist Award to Keith Knight, and the Tom Spurgeon Award (for services to the field by non-cartoonists) to Frederik L. Schodt. More about the awards here.

• Portsmouth Comic Con (Portsmouth, UK) has been rescheduled from May 6-7 to June 3-4 to avoid conflicting with the coronation of King Charles III.

• CanSMOF’s scholarships to Smofcon 38, announced last month, have been awarded to Alex Stornel of Kenora, Ontario, and Meg Macdonald of Glasgow, Scotland.

Event Calendar

Weekend of October 21-23

• DeepSouthCon 60, Huntsville, Alabama, USA

• MileHiCon 54, Denver, Colorado, USA

• BuchmesseCon, Dreieich, Germany

• Sirens (gender and fantasy), Denver, Colorado, USA

• Corflu 39 Pangloss (fanzines), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

• Bantucky Con (steampunk), Bandera, Texas, USA

• The Surrey Steampunk Convivial, Epsom, UK

• Confuror 2022: Día de Muertos (anthropomorphic), Guadalajara, Mexico

• Bewhiskered 2022: A Furry Murder Mystery, Durham, North Carolina, USA

• TsunamiCon (gaming), Wichita, Kansas, USA

• Wellycon (gaming), Wellington, New Zealand

• Congress of Gamers Fall Session, Rockville, Maryland, USA

• AVL Scarefest 6 (RPGs), Montreat, North Carolina, USA

• Retro Palooza (retro video games), Arlington, Texas, USA

• MEX (anime), Berlin, Germany

• Anime Fusion Remastered, Plymouth, Minnesota, USA

• Iberanime, Matosinhos, Portugal

• Anime Nebraskon 2022: Year of Magical Transformation, Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA

• NW Idolfest (anime idols), Seattle, Washington, USA

• FACTS (media), Flanders, Belgium

• Grit City Comic Show, Tacoma, Washington, USA

• TFcon Chicago (Transformers), Chicago, Illinois, USA

Weekend of October 28-30

• Les Utopiales, Nantes, France

• SpoCon: Revamped, Spokane, Washington, USA

• BristolCon, Bristol, UK

• Hallowcon 2022 (fantasy/horror), Dalton, Georgia, USA

• Cabbagecon 6 (Discworld), De Rijp, Netherlands

• MorgulCón 2022 (J. R. R. Tolkien), Salamanca, Spain

• Ohio Valley Filk Festival 38: Year of the Cat (music), Worthington, Ohio, USA

• Golden Leaves Con 12: Cead Mile Faílte (anthropomorphic), Hasliberg, Switzerland

• Furry Blacklight 10: Steam Ages, Tremblay-en-France, France

• Furpocalypse 2022: Horror in Paradise (anthropomorphic), Stamford, Connecticut, USA

• GaelCon (gaming), Dublin, Ireland

• Big Bad Con 2022 (gaming), Burlingame, California, USA

• LAN All Night VI: BatLAN (video games), Grapevine, Texas, USA

• Anime Weekend Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• UwUCon (anime), Mesa, Arizona, USA

• Anime Halloween, Rosemont, Illinois, USA

• Anime Texas, The Woodlands, Texas, USA

• YumeCon USA (anime), Palo Alto, California, USA

• DerpyCon 2022 (anime), New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

• Yunicon 2022 (anime), Schwechat, Austria

• 31st Festival of Fantastic Films, Manchester, UK

• Lucca Comics & Games, Lucca, Italy

• Music City Multi Con (media/video games), Lebanon, Tennessee, USA

• Hal-Con (media), Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

• Baltimore Comic-Con, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

• Winnipeg Comiccon, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

• 15th Starbase 24 Starfleet/Klingon Banquet (Star Trek) Peterborough, UK

Weekend of November 4-6

• Astronomicon 13, Rochester, New York, USA

• Or-E-Con 2, virtual

• GeekGirlCon, Seattle, Washington, USA

• ArmadaCon 2022, Plymouth, UK

• World Fantasy Convention 2022, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

• ZodiaCon 2022 (anthropomorphic), Horní Bradlo, Czechia

• PAWCon 2022: Visit Pawston Paradise (anthropomorphic), San Jose, California, USA

• Carnage XXV: Silver Anniversary (gaming), Dover, Vermont, USA

• Spellen Spektakel (gaming), Utrecht, Netherlands

• Rock-Con (gaming), Rockford, Illinois, USA

• AcadeCon (gaming), Dayton, Ohio, USA

• BottosCon 2022 (gaming), New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada

• Phantasm 32nd (RPGs), Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

• AmberCon NW (diceless RPGs), Troutdale, Oregon, USA

• Good Game Fest (video games), Westminster, Maryland, USA

• Warfaire Weekend (wargaming), St. Louis, Missouri, USA

• Fall In! (miniatures gaming), King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA

• NekoCon 24 (anime), Hampton, Virginia, USA

• Destination Tokyo (anime), Monthey, Switzerland

• HotaruCon (anime), Milton Keynes, UK

• Nishi Fest (anime), Arlington, Texas, USA

• Youmacon 2022 (anime), Detroit, Michigan, USA

• Tiger Con 2022 (anime), Valdosta, Georgia, USA

• Unicon (media), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

• Coosacon! (media), Rome, Georgia, USA

• Comic Con Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

• Akron Comiccon, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA

• CONjuration (Harry Potter), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• Pony Friends Forever (My Little Pony), San Antonio, Texas, USA

Weekend of November 11-13

• Novacon 51, Nottingham, UK

• TusCon 49, Tucson, Arizona, USA

• Windycon 48, Lombard, Illinois, USA

• SFW XIII, Great Yarmouth, UK

• OmegaFall 2022, Siren, Wisconsin, USA

• New England Crime Bake 2022: History is Mystery (mysteries), Dedham, Massachusetts, USA

• Dragonsteel 2022 (Brandon Sanderson works), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

• Flüüfff: Tropical Trouble (anthropomorphic), Brussels, Belgium

• TeslaCon (steampunk), Middleton, Wisconsin, USA

• Steampunk November, Mansfield, Texas, USA

• Kee Con V (gaming), Cherokee, Iowa, USA

• JeffCon: The Final MACE (gaming), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

• MEPACon (gaming), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

• Hexcon (gaming), Trondheim, Norway

• BGG.CON (gaming), Dallas, Texas, USA

• Tampa Nerd Con (gaming), Clearwater, Florida, USA

• Compass Games Expo 2022, Meridien, Connecticut, USA

• Gridcon 3 (boardgames), Taunton, UK

• Spielewelt in Bielefeld (boardgames), Bielefeld, Germany

• EuroQuest 2022 (Eurogames), Pikesville, Maryland, USA

• The Long Con (RPGs), Longview, Texas, USA

• MillenniumCon (miniatures gaming), Round Rock, Texas, USA

• Arcade Expo, Houston, Texas, USA

• KeyForge Celebration (KeyForge CCG), Roseville, Minnesota, USA

• Oni-Con XIX (anime), Galveston, Texas, USA

• Kumoricon (anime), Portland, Oregon, USA

• anime expo chibi, Ontario, California, USA

• Anime Destiny 2022, Berkeley, California, USA

• Animaine 2022 (anime), South Portland, Maine, USA

• Thought Bubble (comics), Harrogate, UK

• Grand Rapids Comic Con, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

• Fanboy Expo Indianapolis (media), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

• Twin Cities Con (media), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

• Fanboy Expo Indianapolis (media), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

• FanQuest 2022 (media), Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

• Monster-Mania 52 (horror media), Oaks, Pennsylvania, USA

• Philip K. Dick Film Festival, New York City, New York, USA

• The Great Con-Junction (The Dark Crystal), Los Angeles, California, USA

Weekend of November 18-20

• Philcon 2022, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA

• Consequences O: Otherworldly Consequences (gaming), Christchurch, UK

• Free Play Florida (video games), Orlando, Florida, USA

• DreamHack Atlanta 2022 (video games), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• Colossalcon North (anime), Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, USA

• Kaiga Anime Convention, Perth, Australia

• Anime NYC, New York City, New York, USA

• Anime Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

• Anime Pasadena, Pasadena, California, USA

• Sin City Anime, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

• Con Nichiwa 2022 (anime), Tucson, Arizona, USA

• Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention #12, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

• Heroes Dutch Comic Con, Utrecht, Netherlands

• Comic Con Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

• CharlestonCon (media), North Charleston, South Carolina, USA

• Meglos 2022 (Doctor Who), Holtsville, New York, USA

• Nakamacon (One Piece), Panama City Beach, Florida, USA

• Pokécon Memphis (Pokémon), Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Coda

• Job misconceptions (The Atlantic)

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