hmmm, strange, but my memory is somewhat different. I definelty remember walking into the MSFC kitchen and convincing Alan Stewart that the MSFC should run a natcon, and seeing as the MSFC was full of both Media and Lit fans we probably should try and combine the 2 cons.
I had done some work with the Lit natcon constitution, so went to work on the media constitution which at the time all were completely over as it was several pages long and contradictory and hard to work with for the organising committee. Once we had a working constitution that matched and was workable with the lit constitution we got it passed by the media fen and then was able to run the combined natcon as Constantinople.
At the time there was enough politics to ensure that there were insufficient people around wanting to stick their heads up to run multiple natcons, it was decided that the best way forward was to concentrate the effort.
Now there may have been some discussion at the media end that I was not aware of, but that was the reasoning behind it.
As to the gradual decline of media content in natcons, whose fault? I loved and was greatly amused when at the end of constantinople I had people from both sides coming up to me and complaining that they weren't well represented with panels at the con. it was amusing because when you counted the panels we carefully managed about 1 panel more for one side. over 4 days we were properly satisfied that we did our best to cater for both sides.
Having worked on programming I know that a lot depends on the availability and willingness to participate in a programme to actually get it off the ground. No use saying we are going to have 20 media panels if you only have 5 people willing to run 2 - 3 panels. You have what people will volunteer for. Something that the politics of the day was carefully ensuring we had very little of.
So yes, media fandom may have died out but I suspect that the combining was a symptom and not the cause.
memory may be dimming, I remember a few Brissy cons, Always Swancons, Sydney ran a couple of cons, but was dissappearring at a great rate. SA ran 1 con, Tassie ran a couple. Melbourne was busy as, too many cons, not enough long weekends.
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Date: 2009-06-01 01:30 am (UTC)I had done some work with the Lit natcon constitution, so went to work on the media constitution which at the time all were completely over as it was several pages long and contradictory and hard to work with for the organising committee. Once we had a working constitution that matched and was workable with the lit constitution we got it passed by the media fen and then was able to run the combined natcon as Constantinople.
At the time there was enough politics to ensure that there were insufficient people around wanting to stick their heads up to run multiple natcons, it was decided that the best way forward was to concentrate the effort.
Now there may have been some discussion at the media end that I was not aware of, but that was the reasoning behind it.
As to the gradual decline of media content in natcons, whose fault? I loved and was greatly amused when at the end of constantinople I had people from both sides coming up to me and complaining that they weren't well represented with panels at the con. it was amusing because when you counted the panels we carefully managed about 1 panel more for one side. over 4 days we were properly satisfied that we did our best to cater for both sides.
Having worked on programming I know that a lot depends on the availability and willingness to participate in a programme to actually get it off the ground. No use saying we are going to have 20 media panels if you only have 5 people willing to run 2 - 3 panels. You have what people will volunteer for. Something that the politics of the day was carefully ensuring we had very little of.
So yes, media fandom may have died out but I suspect that the combining was a symptom and not the cause.
memory may be dimming, I remember a few Brissy cons, Always Swancons, Sydney ran a couple of cons, but was dissappearring at a great rate. SA ran 1 con, Tassie ran a couple. Melbourne was busy as, too many cons, not enough long weekends.