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MidFanZine1-Fall2002-cover
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Contents
Artist Credits
Cover - Glenn Tenhoff
p. 1, 15 - Charles Urbach
p. 9 - Ray vanTilburg
First Steps
MidFanzine #1
Fall, 2002; Vol. 1 No. 1
MidFanzine is edited by Anne K. G. Murphy — editor@midfan.org, 509 Dartmoor Rd,
Ann Arbor, MI 48103. Send submissions or LOC by email in text or .rtf, or by mail to the
above address. Art also welcome! Copies available for The Usual or Trade, or $3.
Layout of this edition was done by Eloise Beltz-Decker, of Chicago.
MidFanzine is produced biannually by MidWest Fannish Conventions Inc. (Midfan) (©
2002). All rights return to the authors and artists upon publication. The Fall edition will
focus on convention running topics, while the Spring edition welcomes general fanzine
submissions on all topics of interest to midwestern fandom. For more information, see
http://www.midfan.org/.
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First Steps: MidFanZine #1 - Fall 2002
Presidential Thoughts
The successful completion of any complex task is usually both an art and a science, a mixture of
learned skills and natural talents. Running a good convention is a prime example of what I mean. The
depth of legal knowledge and attention to detail of a methodical contract writer matches well with
the finesse and bartering skills of a hotel liaison. The pedantic and overly-organized logistics and
operations staff support the charismatic figure who has you agreeing to a staff position well before
she or he has even finished recruiting you. The dreamers and the builders, ideas and follow-through,
as different as you can imagine, and as necessary as can be.
My hope for Midfan in general, and this fanzine in specific, is that the exchange of ideas and the
cultivation of talent I saw at the first Midwest Construction continues, and grows, and that we pass
on our wealth of knowledge and experience to the next generation of convention organizers, many of
whom are already waiting for their chance to shine. On the other hand, the one thing I hope this does
not become is some definitive statement on how conventions are run. I hope for a reference text, not
a religious work. I do not believe that there is One True Way(tm) of doing or not doing anything, and
even if there were, the spirit of innovation driving much of fandom would ignore it anyway.
So, on behalf of the dreamers and builders who have con-
tributed to this work, I hope you enjoy it, gain something from
it, and will think about contributing in the future.
Sincerely,
Joseph “Uncle Vlad” Stockman
President, Midwest Fannish Conventions, Inc.
http://www.midfan.org/
From Our Minds to Your Hands
Comments from the Editor
Publishing is one of the things I enjoy most in life - whether on the
web or on paper, it has a sense of magic about it that few other things can
match. Alex writes down his thoughts on how to get and keep volunteers,
and next thing you know, we have our first article. I contact Glen Tenhoff
about a possible cover and title concept, and in less time than I would have
thought possible, we have this fabulous cover. It's like magic!
I want to thank everyone who helped out with this edition, and I also
extend my appreciation in advance to anyone who feels inspired to give
me stuff for the Spring 2003 edition. It's a buzz, it really is, to write or draw
something out and share your mind with a hundred other fen. Try it! (You
know you want to!)
-- Anne KG Murphy
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First Steps: MidFanZine #1 - Fall 2002
Getting the People to Get the Job Done
By Alex von Thorn
At some point in the planning of every convention, a conrunner realizes that they can’t do all the
work. Some of the tasks will have to be performed by other people. This is where many conventions
run into trouble. Lots of people don’t have experience in organizing people, so it’s easy to make
mistakes. But fandom is about people, and people are the most important resource for any conven-
tion. Conrunning is a management task, and one definition of management is “getting work done
through other people.” Fortunately, the time frame is short and the number of variables is small,
compared to a business environment; you only have to survive the weekend. I have a simple ap-
proach in organizing fannish volunteers:
- Find them.
- Keep them happy.
- Don’t piss them off.
Finding People
This article is not about how to bring people into fandom. We’ll just assume that future volun-
teers are current fans, the people you meet at your con or other conventions. The first point in getting
people to work for you is to ask them. Some have trouble with this. One might assume that people
will come forward, and a few will, but fans may be shy, or not sure they’re welcome, or not sure the
con needs more people. Others are reluctant to talk to people, thinking somehow it will just happen.
It doesn’t just happen. You have to get into the habit of asking people to volunteer. It helps to travel
to nearby or related cons. After you’ve talked to a dozen people, it gets easier.
Another key is to answer email. Have a prominent page on your web site asking people to
volunteer. If you respond within a week, people will think you’re on the ball. If you respond within
a month, they’ll think you’re a bit disorganized, but they’ll still be happy to help. If it takes a year to
respond (and this has happened with more than one Worldcon), people will be surprised when you
contact them, likely committed elsewhere, and if they do volunteer, they’ll feel like an afterthought,
not part of the team, so if a crisis hits, they will have a “not my problem” attitude. The first email can
be a “thanks for writing, we’ll get back to you,” though you should give people a time frame when to
expect your next message.
The last key to bringing people onto the team is, when they offer to help, give them something to
do. Don’t leave people in limbo, don’t make them “staff” without a more specific title. Once you give
someone a title, they start to own it; the responsibility for success becomes theirs, and they start
thinking of creative solutions.
Make People Happy
Here’s a trick that I use: “This department is an elite team. We are specially chosen to complete
this task, and the entire convention would fail without us. The work we do has been set up in such an
optimized way that even if people watch us, they can’t understand what we are getting done, or how
much.” Make it clear to the team that the department and task is important, and that the work they
are doing will make a difference in the success or failure of the entire convention.
It’s actually easy to make this true. There are a lot of critical teams within a convention, any one
of which is necessary to the success of the event. Think of registration, programming, tech, facilities,
everyone has a role to play. So all you have to do is explain how important the job they are doing is,
and as much as you can, share any techniques or methods that can make your team more effective.
But once you get this across, people will move with a lift in their step, they’ll smile a bit more to
external parties, they’ll hustle when speed is important. Get them in the habit, and you can sustain an
adrenaline level throughout the weekend. Not only will this help get a lot done, if your staff works
twice as hard, it’s as good as having twice as many people, and they’ll also have more fun. That’s
essential. Because in the long run, the people who will end up working your con are not so much the
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First Steps: MidFanZine #1 - Fall 2002
people that you talk to, it is the people that your team talks to.
You might be thinking that the con chair can’t say that no department is more special than any
other. But they can -every department has something special that it does.. It goes something like this:
“This convention is a unique event in the history of our organization. We are going to have <some
special event> <some new tradition> <some special outside attention> <something we’ve never done
before>...” After all, if you’re running a convention, it should be something special. Give it something
that hasn’t been done before. Not only will the special event probably be worthwhile, but the extra
mileage you will get out of the committee will definitely make the convention memorable.
The next point in organizing people is to delegate work to them. Sounds obvious, but again this
is something so many conrunners miss. Delegation has four components: trust, monitor, advise, and
help. Trusting people may seem hard, but without it, they are just reluctant puppets, and it is as much
work to supervise them as it is to do the work yourself. You have to set them to a task, and then let
them do it. It may seem contradictory, but monitoring people is also key. That doesn’t mean watching
them work. It means that you give them a specified task, and then when they are supposed to be
done, check on them and see how it went. For volunteers who need a lot of guidance, you would have
a very short cycle of delegation and monitoring, but the basic principle applies. If someone does good
work, you thank them and praise them; if they have a problem, you redirect them. Which brings up
the next point. If someone doesn’t know how to proceed, or if they aren’t performing according to
your expectations, give them suggestions as to how they might get things done more effectively.
Finally, if someone is unable to complete a task you’ve given them, you help them. Maybe they need
a computer, or someone to lift and carry, or transportation somewhere. You can assign extra people to
the job, especially if the job actually does need more hands. If you have to, you can assign a person to
a different task, or you can give them a break, or you can just show them how to do what you want.
There is almost always a positive way to do this, and almost never a need or an advantage to having
a negative approach to volunteers. In the end, remember, the con will be over soon, and while maybe
you can fix problems that arise (and problems will always arise), you can’t change the past. Even the
most incompetent volunteer may have friends and contacts; if you let them exit while saving face,
they’ll at least talk about how nice you were, or how cool you were. Whereas if you fire someone at-
con, they may go back to whatever club they’re involved with and turn a lot of other people off your
next con.
Another thing that is very important is communication, not just with the volunteers, but be-
tween them. The elements of communication are: listening, explaining, and maintaining open chan-
nels. Listening is a basic technique in any leadership, service, counseling, or sales job, so maybe
you’ve had some training. An important point about listening is to try to talk for less than 20% of the
conversation. Also, you need to be able to repeat what the other person is saying; summarize it back
to them to make sure you’ve really heard and understood. The next technique is to explain things
clearly. As best you can, outline in detail what you want them to do. Also, if there is doubt about the
reason for an objective, one method of explanation that I use is something called “reverse empathy”.
All this means is that I explain my reasoning process for coming to a conclusion, leading them to the
same result that I came to. Once they understand and agree that I have chosen the best option from
what I have available, they are more likely to align their actions to my goals. The last element of
communication is to have an open forum, where people can feel they have the opportunity to partici-
pate and contribute their ideas. Use a mailing list, a club meeting, whatever works. Don’t try to domi-
nate the discussion; the best ideas are the ones you haven’t thought of yet.
Everyone remembers that knowledge is power. Some people use this to maintain a position
within an organization, but in truth one of the worst approaches to leadership is to not share informa-
tion you have. Some of the most effective leaders act like they know very little, that they rely com-
pletely on their team to know how to resolve a problem. That’s a technique that can work well.
Expertise can be a benefit, but this is a completely different thing from mere knowledge. Expertise is
the ability to answer a hundred questions on a topic, to show people new skills and solutions over
and over, and still be known to have more to offer. This does lend a person credibility and authority,
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