Issues with Vividcon/Brainstorming

[thuviaptarth]

Links

• laurashapiro, Vividcon 2009: Some observations about race, gender, and accessibility (DW | LJ)
  
• obsessive24, Loaded thinkies from vividcon (race, criticism)
  
• bitter_crimson, A N00B in Vividcon 2009 (also incl. accessibility & trans & genderqueer issues)
  
• bradcpu, Home, a few more VVC thoughts (incl. newbie[?] issues -- not clear yet, I hope Brad will have time and energy to expand on this)
  
• bop_radar, On inclusion and exclusion in vidding fandom: personal reflections (authority, nation, race, gender, other issues)
  

[ETA: Have corrected some references to genderqueerness to refer to transsexuality and/or genderqueerness depending on the particulars.]

The past year has included a lot of fighting with my friends and communities about issues of access, representation, and social justice. I don't actually like fighting with my friends. I don't even like fighting with people who aren't my friends. I am tired of being frustrated and alienated, and I am tired of frustrating and alienating people. So I copped out of a lot of discussion at the con, and would probably be copping out right now, if it weren't for Deepa's example at the con and Laura's example online.

I'm going to throw out some criticisms and some suggestions here. I'm not convinced the suggestions are the best way to fix the problems, but I figure it's better to get brainstorming started, and sometimes knowing what's a bad idea can lead you to a good one.

[ETA: I'm posting these as suggestions for community feedback, not as demands to be acted upon.]

So, first, I recognize that the Vividcon Concom works extremely hard and has been attempting to deal with some of these issues. In general, I think it's a beautifully run con, and I'm grateful to the people who put the hours in. I'm going to talk about issues of racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, discrimination against genderqueer people, and some general institutional failures to guard against hierarchy or to incorporate or welcome the contributions of newer fans not because I think that people have been malicious or intentionally prejudicial, but because we exist in a sexist, racist, ableist, authoritarian society that does not encourage us to question how our own privileges adversely affect our understanding of our power. If I thought the majority of people at VVC intended to harm those with less privilege than themselves on some axis, I would not bother talking about this at all. But I am not talking about individual intent; I'm talking about systemic effects.

Second, while I'm going to talk about a bunch of these issues together and I think all of them need to be addressed for the health of the con and the vidding community, I don't think they operate identically or are of equal importance. I'm talking about them together because I think they intersect and reinforce each other, but I do not think issues of status within the fan community have the same weight as institutionalized oppression based on race, sex, sexuality, gender identity, and ability, although the former can be affected by the latter. I would also like to acknowledge that sexism plays out very differently in the vidding/transformative works community than it does in society in general, because vidding/transformative works is a predominantly female community, and white, middle-class, able-bodied, straight, cis-gendered women are in a position of even greater relative power there than they are in society in general. Nevertheless, we do not walk away from the effects and internalizations of sexism when we walk into a predominantly female space, and sexism is still very much in operation.

Second, while I'm making suggestions based on my experience elsewhere, I realize that these suggestions may not work in the particular context of Vividcon.

These are some of the problems I see:

I don't run cons. I have, however, worked at a bunch of different tech start-ups during booms and busts, and in my experience 100 and 150 are big thresholds for companies, because they're points at which previously successful ad hoc internal communications and work arrangements break down; smart, driven, introverted workaholics can no longer handle the workload by devoting more hours to it and have to delegate or bust (lots of them bust); and institutional experience can become insularity and exclusion. I don't think these are the only things driving the perception of newer vidders that VVC is elitist and insular, but I don't think they help, either.

Some suggestions:

• Make the incorporation of new attendees into the con an explicit priority, possibly with a Concom member assigned as newbie liaison.
  
  
• vidderkidder suggested buddy arrangements for established VVC goers/newcomers
  
  
• Have a vidding/betaing workshop either concurrently with the con or the Thursday before, breaking out into sessions of 1-2 vid in progress, 1 experienced vidder or beta, and 3-4 newer vidders/betas. This would probably need to be at least 2 hours long, with a break in the middle; it should follow the model of writing workshops where the person whose work is being workshopped is silent during the critique.
  
  
• Have a randomized meal sign-up for one or more meals, where people get randomly assigned to a small group of 3-4 people outside their usual fannish affinity group.
  
  
• Have an officially organized newbie dinner the night before the con or breakfast the first day of the con.
  
  
• The Vid Review and the In-Depth Vid Review were both co-moderated by mixed-generation/mixed-affinity-group pairs of fans. This is great! Please keep this up.
  
  
• Be more proactive in addressing [trans and] genderqueer issues. At Wiscon, there are suites on one of the main con floors open for small programming and overflow programming, and the bathroom for one of them is marked as unisex, as is the bathroom in the Con suite. I'm not sure it's possible to do the same at VVC given the different hotel setup, but it's worth investigating. For both genderqueer [sexual and gender identity] and accessibility issues, I am disturbed by how the onus is put on the people without privilege to complain, rather than on the rest of us to educate ourselves and make accomodation.
  
  
• Be more proactive in addressing disability/accessibility issues. U.S. culture in particular is so biased towards extreme individualism and against interdependence or sensible accomodation of disability that it puts the onus for accomodating disabilities on the individuals with disabilities rather than on society at large. This can make it painful or humiliating for people with disabilities to have to ask for specific accomodation, especially when it ought to be a default arrangement. I know the Concom has worked with people with disabilities to make sure they have accomodation, but I think there is still room for improvement. Here are some things that I have seen other cons--okay, here are some things I have seen Wiscon--do:
  
  
  
  
  • Include a checkbox and text field in registration for "I am a person with a disability/traveling with a person with a disability and may require additional accomodation" and have a dedicated Concom liason for following up with everyone who checks this and makes sure that the needs are met. [ETA: Response from mobility aide.]
    
    
  • Reserve seats for people with hearing, visual, neurotypical or mobility impairments [disabilities] at the front of the room and near exits, usually just by putting stripes of blue masking tape on the seats.
    
    
  • Mark off wheelchair spaces at the front of the room and/or near the exit for people with mobility impairments.
    
    
  • I was happy to see the large text programs in the Con Suite this year. I think people generally realize this is something that is too expensive to make the default, but I'd love to see this offered as an individual option in Registration next year so people can preorder large text programs if they need them.
    
    
  • In crowded or frequently traveled hallways, tape off sections to keep some part of the hallway clear for people to move. For most of us, the crush of people is just inconvenient. For people with mobility issues, it can be exhausting and debilitating.
    
    
  • [ETA: Concerns raised about my disability/accessibility suggestions in general] [ETA2: Please also see Morgan Dawn's post.]
    
  
  
  
• Use the Con Suite and Overflow Room for post-Premieres small discussion groups.
  
  
• There's been a lot of discussion from newbies--and, on my part, honestly, not so newbies--about how difficult it can be to find people after official programming ends. Is it possible to keep the Con Suite and Comet Room open 24/7, or later than programming? (No, I do not think Melina should take speed for the duration of the con. I think other people also need to be responsible.) During the con, elyn suggested a message board outside the Con Suite for when it's closed, which I also second.
  
  
• A lot of people are hugely stressed out by Premieres, but newer vidders are even more stressed out than experienced ones. Do Premieres need to be on Saturday? What do we lose and what do we gain if we swap the nights for Premieres and Club Vivid?
  
  
• The Concom is all white and with a sole exception drawn from a circle of acquaintances with a similar fannish background. This is understandable. But given the con's growth, requests for changes that the existing Concom doesn't have the time to accomodate, and ongoing issues with exclusions of people of color and newer vidders, and, not least, the possibility of burnout on Concom staff, I would strongly recommend the active recruitment of new Concom members, particularly aimed at newer vidders and people of color. For people of color, you need multiple people on the Concom; just adding one person is tokenizing, frustrating, and generally unhelpful. It is probably also worth it for me to make explicit that the responsibility for addressing racial issues is not the sole responsibility of people of color and that you should be inviting people to take on particular tasks or projects and not to be your Colored Person Advisor.
  
  
• Decide whether the Vidding Town Hall is going to be the state of vidding discussion or a progress report from the OTW. I was startled that this focused entirely on the issues of outsider visibility and not on any of the controversies that injured many people in our community this year, particularly the neverending RaceFail. Great, we're the scrappy underdog fighting the power who fits neatly into a tradition of white middle-class feminist protest about white middle-class feminist issues. When are we going to talk about the divisions and fractures among us? The IDIC challenge theme, unfortunately, fits all too well into this comfortable approach to power issues: it doesn't require anyone to confront anything that's uncomfortable, and when it fails to produce much that addresses racial or sexual diversity, conveniently the responsibility cannot be placed on any individual; it just happened.
  
  
• At the con, at least one person was mistaken for another of the same ethnicity/race, even though she was wearing a name tag. Other people of color noted visible and sometimes audible reactions because they weren't white and yet hadn't notified people of this ahead of time.
  
  Dear my fellow white people, I do not think you're evil for making these mistakes. The people you offended probably don't think you're evil. I do think you're rude, thoughtless, and privileged by your race in ways you ought to take more notice of. And it really pains me to say this, because I am saying it to people I like and respect.
  
  Read the name tags. If you make a mistake, apologize.
  
  
• [ETA: This point is not addressed to the Concom or white attendees. I'm throwing out for the consideration of people of color, as something I've seen work elsewhere. I'm not interested in forcing people of color into this or even arguing more strenuously for it if you're not interested. If you are interested and/or want to talk to people who've tried it, I can point you at online discussions and/or set up introductions with people of color who made use of the setup. But seriously, throwing this out for your consideration and now dropping the subject. Not interested in talking you into something you don't want to do!]
  
  Something that worked really well at Wiscon was (a) people-of-color-only meetups at a meal at the beginning of the con and at the end of the con, for people of color who wanted to network with each other, deal with particular concerns of racism and white privilege, talk fannishly without fearing racefail, and decompress at the end of the con; and (b) dedicated people-of-color space for people who wanted a break from the overwhelming whiteness of the con. I hesitated to suggest this before VVC, and I'm hesitant to suggest it now, because it doesn't do much good for a white person to make an outside suggestion. Absolutely I am NOT suggesting this as a mandatory thing for people who aren't interested. But I would strongly urge people to consider implementing this/asking the Concom to make accomodation for this, because, honestly, the difference in energy and enthusiasm I saw among my friends afterward was amazing. (I don't have time to look up individual links right now, but K. Tempest Bradford posted about it a lot.)
  
  
• Honestly, I am a little reluctant to suggest the same thing for men. I feel that a lot of the discussion of men in vidding looks at men as a numeric minority without considering the effects of sexism and male privilege, which do not disappear when men enter a predominantly female space. A lot of the reactions I see to Laura's comments and other discussions of men in live-action vidding fandom or the history of vidding as a predominantly female art form do not acknowledge sexism as an institution or the erasure of female contributions to culture, society, and art as an ongoing and centuries-old problem; they treat sexism as a matter of individual prejudice. The problem is not that the men who vid or attend Vividcon are not nice guys, anymore than the racial problems with Vividcon are due to the white people in charge not being nice people. I have personally benefited from the willingness of several men in the community to share knowledge and advice, and enjoyed the work of many more. The problem is the way men are socialized to take up space and women are trained not to; the problem is who gets paid attention to, and who gets forgotten. The problem is that women are really, really, REALLY used to the masculine supposedly being inclusive of the feminine, and neither men nor women are at all used to the converse.
  
  So while men are even more of a numerical minority at the con than people of color (and I know it's extra fun for people who are both), the fact is that outside the con is a world where men have substantial power and privilege by virtue of their sex, and people of color have the reverse. (Yes, even in countries that are not white or Western. Colonialism: Bringing the global effects of racism to a continent near you since 1492.)
  
  That said, yeah, men are a numerical minority at the con, they're really visible as a numerical minority at the con, and that can suck. So I would support a men's meetup/men's space at the con for them to talk about the issues that come out of that if they're interested in that.
  
  

Comments

[saraht]

the Vidding Town Hall is going to be the state of vidding discussion or a progress report from the OTW

If I'm not mistaken, this was, and has been, pitched as "vidding and visibility." I'm not saying that there wouldn't be value to the other discussion, just that I think the purpose of this particular panel isn't to host that other discussion.

I do think it would be good to get a non-OTW person as a co-mod, but right now OTW has absorbed most of the people working on this issue in a big way, at least in the vidding world that I know.

[thuviaptarth]

That's true. I was surprised because last year's visibility issues included some discussions of internal community stresses.

[avendya]

Include a checkbox and text field in registration for "I am a person with a disability/traveling with a person with a disability and may require additional accomodation" and have a dedicated Concom liason for following up with everyone who checks this and makes sure that the needs are met. [ETA: Response from mobility aide.]

THIS. As a person with a disability, this would make me feel much better - that VVC is aware & cares about disability issues.

[thuviaptarth]

From a lot of the attendee responses, it seems like the Concom has been very responsive to requests, but that new or first-time attendees may not be aware of this. So if this could be implemented in a way that doesn't strike people as infantalizing/patronizing as my initial wording did, that would probably work.

[kass]

Have an officially organized newbie dinner the night before the con or breakfast the first day of the con.

That is a very cool idea. I know there was an unofficial newbie room party this year and it seemed like people really enjoyed that -- it definitely strikes me as something to repeat.

The Vid Review and the In-Depth Vid Review were both co-moderated by mixed-generation/mixed-affinity-group pairs of fans. This is great! Please keep this up.

I had not consciously noted that but I agree that it is awesome. \o/

Re: bathrooms and gender issues -- I know that at least one member of the concom was interested in gender-neutral bathroom signage this year but for reasons I don't fully understand, it didn't pan out. But it's interesting to hear you raise that same issue, because that suggests to me that different people are independently thinking along these same lines.

Re: swapping Premieres and Club Vivid -- that is a really interesting idea, and I am not sure how I feel about it, though I'm not sure how much of my inchoate reluctance has to do with the fact that I'm just accustomed to it being this way. *g* It might be that those of us who habitually get a bit tipsy at CV would prefer to keep the party on Friday night, so that they're not faced with a situation of drinking/dancing and then the next day having to face travel? Though maybe that's not enough of a concern to prevent this kind of change from happening.

I guess my real question is: how would the arc of the con change if Premieres happened on the first day? As things stand now I think the shape of the con programming contributes to the sense that Premieres is the culmination of the weekend, and if Premieres were on Friday night I don't think that would be true anymore. Though maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing; I dunno. I also think it might make sense to think about ways of making Premieres itself less stressful, even if it stays on Saturday night -- which is mostly an internal thing, having to do with how we talk about and how we conceptualize Premieres. I spoke with one vidder on Saturday morning who said "are you nervous about premieres yet?" and another who said, "eh, I never get nervous -- I know I love my vid, and I think other people will too, even if it isn't perfect," and the disparity between those two approaches was really striking to me.

[thuviaptarth]

I should also note that I think the In-Depth Vid Review moderators consistently try not to repeat vidders in the selections from year to year and try to emphasize work from newer vidders, which is also great.

Changing some of our ideas/the culture around Premieres is also a good idea. And I include myself in this.

[amber]

Hi, I've only found this while browsing the vividcon community even though I'm not a vidder or on the right continent to attend the con, but I find discussions of privilege in various spaces really interesting and eye-opening and I'm trying to educate myself both because I want to and because I attend a few cons in my area and never know how to express my dissatisfaction with a few exclusionary things.

Long explanation because I sort of feel like I'm invading your space just making this comment, but wouldn't having a men's space seem a little exclusionary towards non-cisgendered or transexual people? I know you're merely theorizing, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Otherwise, I just wanted to thank you for making posts like these. You may not think it, but it is helpful and eye-opening to people who aren't, you know, the people running the cons.

[thuviaptarth]

I was thinking of men as including everyone who identified as "male," regardless of biological gender, but sure, if it would be helpful for non-cisgendered people, or for GLBIT people, to have a meetup, then I would support that. I am in general a big proponent of either minority or oppressed groups having their own space away from the majority/dominant gaze, if that's what they want. Again, I'm not trying to talk anyone from any of these groups into doing a meetup if they think it's not the right idea for this situation.

Usually I would not favor a male-only group because usually men are in power. At VVC, there are something like 130-140 women and 5-10 men (including transgendered men that I know of). I'm not sure how many people who don't identify with the gender binary, period, attend, although I've seen a few people talking in the post-con discussion.

Anyway, I didn't mention LGBIT in the initial discussion because it's my impression that VVC is pretty welcoming for lesbian and bisexual women and that there are a large number of out lesbian and bisexual women among the attendees, and that this is one of the cases where lesbian and bisexual women have substantially more visibility and institutional power than genderqueer or trans* people.

But I'm not a member of any of these groups, so my perspective on this is not reliable. And a few women have mentioned in Laura's comments that they wished there were more vids about lesbian desire or with women as the object of the sexual gaze at VVC. Searching around to see what people have to say for themselves is always better than seeing what other people have to say for them. :)

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

What do we lose and what do we gain if we swap the nights for Premieres and Club Vivid?

I've always assumed--and this is not backed by having actually talked about this with anyone responsible for scheduling--that at least part of the intent of having Club Vivid first is to prioritize "bouncy fun get sloshed (if you want) and meet people" in the weekend's schedule. It also thus sets up Premieres as something of a climax for the con, and lets people have a couple of days' worth of programming to find their feet before being chucked into The Big Show and expected to be able to follow it. And theoretically this would allow discussions from earlier panels to be at the top of people's minds when discussing the Premieres vids.

I defer to actual vidders on the subject of vidder stress, though. If people with vids in Premieres think that they will be less stressed out by getting the vids shown and hearing opinions Saturday morning, with a day and a half of con to go, rather than having to anticipate until Saturday night, as an attendee switching Club Vivid and Premieres wouldn't bother me. (Friday or Saturday afternoon also seem fine to me; asking people to do Premieres first thing in the morning just seems kind of evil, and people are leaving throughout Sunday.)

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I, for one, could've seen Club Vivid going one of three ways if it had followed Vid Review (given that the response to my own vid was negative-to-lukewarm):

A) OMG booze. This will salve the hurt I am experiencing because I had no effing idea the sheer weight of the expectations being placed on my vid. Yay happyfuntime!

B) OMG booze. I am now liberated enough to try to confront the people who took issue with my vid in a conversation that will begin politely but lord knows how it could go from there.

C) OMG my own booze. *hides in room*

[lizbetann]

Just jumping in on the differently-abled part of the con... up until this year, I was an aide to someone who needed significant help. Every single year, VividCon concom were extremely attentive and pro-active about making sure Abby had what she needed -- seats in front, access to con suite and other areas as needed, etc. (The only thing they couldn't do -- and this was out of their purview, IMHO -- was get the $%#! hotel to fix the $%&#*@! handicapped shuttle.)

When the con was ~100 people, I don't think an official disability liaison would have been needed. Perhaps that needs to be revisited with the slight increase in the con's membership, but even last year with about the same numbers, I don't recall ever feeling left in the lurch.

Just 2 cents from someone who has been there.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for chiming in. I've added a link to your comment.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I don't feel strongly about this, but the one time I did go to Vividcon I would have been less of a nervous wreck if Premieres and Club Vivid had been flipped, and this would probably remain the case. I can't have booze, so I defer to jetpack_monkey's predictions about that aspect of it. *g*

I am looking forward to reading brainstorming in comments to this post, and sorry I have no substantive thoughts to offer; for boring reasons my brain is offline at the moment.

[mresundance.livejournal.com]

If you do a men's meetup/space, you might feed several birds with one stone by allowing the men who have been part of VVC and vidding fandom for awhile to educate and "train" the newbies in some way - ie - teaching them the ground rules. (Like: "dudes, we dance at Club Vivid, we don't have to, but we do and it's awesome so don't feel silly for dancing!" Or: "dudes, don't hog the floor at panels. It's ok not to talk all the time, right?")

Just my 2 cents. I think women need to feel safe to call men on behavior which makes them feel uneasy or which unintetionally blocks women out (hogging conversation at panels type of things). But I think, given the nature of sexism in the world, men sometimes actually *get* that some aspects of their behavior need work when they are called out by other men. Because yeah, sexism says that men listen to and often - consciously or unconsciously - respect the options of other men more readily than they do women.

The accessibility ideas sound amazing and much needed.

As for genderqueer stuff - one thing I would request as a person who is trans-identified and sometimes genderqueer indentified - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not use "genderqueer" as a term for all people who are trans/not cisgender (cisgender means you are comfortable with and identify with your birth sex). I think you need to make the con transgender AND genderqueer accessible. Genderqueer and trans are NOT the same thing and I really think it might make some folks who are "simply" trans feel uncomfortable if it's assumed they are genderqueer when they are not.

In short, genderqueer =/= automatically trans. They are just not the same. And it makes a part of me squirm when to see the term genderqueer used to imply "visibily gender-variant/trans" in some ways.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

I apologize. Thank you for the correction. I think I've caught everything in this post. I'm leaving the description of Go Baby (Cherry Lips) (http://thuviaptarth.livejournal.com/118236.html) as "genderqueer" because it seems to me to be about that rather than about transsexuality per se, but if I'm mistaken, please let me know.

Again, thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it.

[annaalamode.livejournal.com]

Reserve seats for people with hearing, visual, neurotypical or mobility impairments at the front of the room and near exits, usually just by putting stripes of blue masking tape on the seats.

On behalf of my neurotypical impaired self, maybe I don't want to sit in the masking tape seats. Maybe I want to sit with my friends. Maybe I want my accommodations to be privately arranged between myself and the concomm or the mod at the panel I am attending. Maybe I don't want to answer nosy questions about what is "wrong" with me.

In addition, as someone with a history of mobility issues, please stop infantilizing me. I do not need you to speak for me, I am capable of speaking for myself.

I do not speak for the disability community as a whole or the experiences of anyone else who has a disability of any kind.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why having seats set aside means you can't sit where you want?

As somebody with permanent vision issues, I usually sit up front, but intermitant mobility and migraine issues mean sometimes I need to sit near a door so I can get out. Maybe when all of those seats are full they're full of people who need them for their own reasons. But right now I just don't know.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

As I should have said first, I'm sorry for not including enough disclaimers and infantalizing you.

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

Maybe I don't want to answer nosy questions about what is "wrong" with me.

People asking such questions are rude, to put it mildly. My ability-status is no one's business but my own.

I appreciate your bolded disclaimer. It often saddens me that anytime anyone speaks up about something, they become the de facto spokesperson for All People With Disabilities Everywhere. I speak for me, and occasionally on behalf of my husband, never for anyone else.

[diannelamerc.livejournal.com]

Other people of color noted visible and sometimes audible reactions because they weren't white and yet hadn't notified people of this ahead of time.

O.K., I have to ask: what do you mean by this comment?

Because it sounds like you're talking about doing a double-take at meeting someone you've only known on-line because they don't look the way you expect--in which case, what's wrong with that? It's a part of moving from online to offline connections. I do it all the time--often because I tend to assume (unconsciously) that everyone looks like their default icon until I know better. To find out they're black, or male, or disabled, or bizarrely tall (high-fives jetpack_monkey), or have blue hair, or an accent, or don't look at all like Buffy or the woman in their favorite museum gallery oil paining... pretty much everyone I meet in person for the first time makes me do a doubletake as I finally get a RL image of them to go with the username.

And i do generally tend to assume that people going to VVC are white, 30-something women, likely with some not-visible disability--because in my experience the majority of them are. If I meet them and find out different: cool, now I know. What's the big deal?

Be more proactive in addressing [trans and] genderqueer issues.

What problems do you see? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense--especially in a small con with an all-volunteer com--to try to make accommodation for every possible permutation of issue. The ConCom has always been very good about recognizing and addressing issues that come or are brought to their attention.

(Frankly, I can't see anyone at VVC caring if someone biologically male wants to use the women's restroom. Use whichever you want.)

For both genderqueer [sexual and gender identity] and accessibility issues, I am disturbed by how the onus is put on the people without privilege to complain, rather than on the rest of us to educate ourselves and make accomodation.

As someone who is very (personally) familiar with both genderqueer and accessibility issues, I find that attitude incredibly patronizing. If someone has a problem, speaks up (either out-loud or privately to the concom) and nothing is done about it, then there's a problem. If someone has a problem, they are fully capable of taking responsibility for themselves and their own lives and and speaking up without someone trying to bubblewrap the world on their behalf (without being asked).

[Pulled from your earlier post]: I am a white, cisgendered woman. I don't speak as a person of color or a genderqueer person;

And yet you are doing just that. You are speaking out on behalf of groups and situations with which you have no personal experience--which I see as pretty offensive just on its face. I think that--barring a nervous/shy friend asking you to post on their behalf (and saying so)--complaining on behalf of others, who have not asked for your help, in terms of the stereotyped groups you happen to see, is out of line.

I realize that you are trying to be proactive and your intents are noble, but I think you're overstepping the very boundaries you seem to espouse. Why should a white, cis-gendered, non-genderqueer woman be dominating issues of racial minority, trans-gender, genderqueer, and men?

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

To riff on the disability issue - I am an outspoken extrovert. And yet I struggled with asking for help. The first time I did ask for an accommodation at a vid show I was told that if they did it for me, they'd be flooded with requests. I cried. The next convention I attended Laura pushed me towards Ellen and the VVC handled it wonderfully and never made me feel bad.

I believe that I need to speak up for myself and I do not expect someone to bubble wrap the world or anticipate my needs without my input. In fact they usually get it wrong when they don’t ask me and/or I don’t tell them. But I also realize that it is hard to ask for help particularly when you're not born with a medical condition (and think you should be able to handle it now that you’ve developed one).

My solution: be open and friendly to people asking for help (VVC is). periodically remind people that it is OK to ask for help (something VVC may do more next year), remember that the onus *is* on you to communicate your needs, even if it hard or unfair, and don’t yell at people for not providing the help that you could not or would not ask for (something we need to remember throughout the year).

In short - have some compassion and understanding at both ends of the conversation. Start with this as your base assumption: Assume fellow fans are willing to help and that they’re not the problem or the enemy. And then respond accordingly if you find out otherwise.

Again this is a riff wandering off into bigger issues of disability and appropriation and accommodation. I like some of your suggestions for improving the disability ‘experience.’ Some are already being implemented (or have been offered in the past). Some are new and/or give me thinky thoughts of what I need and what I might want to suggest for next year.

[elz.livejournal.com]

Have a randomized meal sign-up for one or more meals, where people get randomly assigned to a small group of 3-4 people outside their usual fannish affinity group.

Have an officially organized newbie dinner the night before the con or breakfast the first day of the con.

Those sound like great ideas to me. I think a big part of the challenge is just connecting people to one another so that nobody feels like they're stuck on the periphery all alone if they don't already have a big group of friends at the con - a lot of people do seem to be happy to mingle and meet new folks, so I don't think that part of it's a problem. The proposed online message board (in whatever form it might take) also sounded like it could be really helpful with that - I've found that if you're out of the loop, your only option is to sort of park yourself in a public place and hope people wander by. An easier way to make impromptu plans would be awesome.

Decide whether the Vidding Town Hall is going to be the state of vidding discussion or a progress report from the OTW.

It was billed as "vidding and visibility" both this year and last year, so those were mostly the topics I was expecting. Maybe in the future people might like to do an hour on legal/technical/visibility issues and an hour on social/community issues?

[loligo.livejournal.com]

I'm less qualified to comment on some of the other issues you raised, but as far as the newbie/mentoring issue, I love your and Vid Kid's suggestions. I'm glad people are paying attention and thinking creatively about how to welcome new people!

I'm also totally in favor of using the con suite and overflow room for more after-hours (and in-between hours) hanging out and impromptu programming. Despite being like the LEAST after-hours person in the world (I tend to turn into a pumpkin at midnight), I would be willing to help with whatever's necessary to make this happen, because I really do think it would make a difference.

[merryish.livejournal.com]

Being that I'm in the most privileged group at VVC (though I wasn't there this year), I'm not sure if my comments here will be valuable. But at least from my own perspective, some of the suggestions you make regarding race issues seem, um, fairly offensive to me.

For instance -- this is just me, but I find it hard to believe that women of color want a group of white women organizing time for them at the con where they can go be women of color together...alone...away from the white people. That sounds really patronizing and othering to me.

Likewise, a bunch of white women arranging a special place for women of color to be away from white people together sounds a lot like segregation to me, and likewise patronizing and othering.

It just doesn't seem likely to me that people of color want a group of white women deciding what is best for them, and managing their social calendars and their access to social spaces for them. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, god knows I don't know everything, especially about privilege issues. But to me, assuming that people of color need the admittedly white concom to manage their otherness for them seems really condescending and racist on its own.

I understand, believe me, that this isn't the intention behind your suggestions. And I do think white/privileged people have a responsibility to be open to and engaged in changes that will help people of color feel more engaged/embraced/at home in communal fannish spaces like VVC.

But I think that this is something that has to be brainstormed in frank and open consultation with people of color, and then implemented in partnership with people of color, rather than something the kind white ladies do for the sad people of color because they think they know best -- which is how a lot of this is sounding to me right now.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I understand your concerns, but in rereading the section of [Bad username or site: thuviaptarth's @ livejournal.com] post about this, I don't see where she's advocating that white people organize this. She suggests that, if people of color are interested in having a people-of-color-only space, they ask the concom to make accommodation for it, which to me reads quite differently than what you're suggesting.

[therienne.livejournal.com]

What do we lose and what do we gain if we swap the nights for Premieres and Club Vivid?

We lose time, and we lose money.

The dance floor costs a boatload. It's rented by the day, and I suspect if you put the show on a Saturday, it will still have to be installed on Thursday (to avoid them having to install it during programming time) and it will probably have to be removed on Monday, a day when most of the Con organizers are catching flights out of the State.

I know from experience that it's tricky enough to arrange for the removal of that floor -- I lost half my vidshow one year when they showed up late to remove it on a Saturday morning.

Moreover, not everyone makes it to Friday -- much as they might want to, not everyone can take the necessary vacation days. Or, occasionally, flights are just delayed. Putting the primary piece of programming on this night could be seriously frustrating for more than one group of people.

I personally like the dance on Friday as an icebreaker for meeting new people, but there are more practical issues involved in the timing. This is a small con run on a tiny budget, and the efforts of volunteers -- I'm guessing that Saturday would really be a logistical nightmare.

[thuviaptarth.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Those are all good reasons to keep the dance on Saturday, as well as that only a few people have argued for a shift actually helping with nerves and stage fright. In DW version of the post, Kass suggested changing some of our ideas and expectations around Premieres (http://thuviaptarth.dreamwidth.org/112743.html?thread=1173607#ljcmt1173607), and I think that's probably a more helpful approach.