Twenty Articles I Haven't Written (But Could, Yet Probably Shouldn't)

[drewkitty]

These might also make good panels at con-running conventions, suitably re-worded.



The Sex Drive Of The Hotel-Based Affinity Convention
Taking Over Conventions For Fun & Profit
Vice, Pandering & Other Sex Charges As Applied To Convention Events
Convention Security & The Private Security Services Act (or other local law)
Drunken Staff Parties and The Morning After

Strange Bedfellows: Anthropomorphic Arts & Sexual Deviance
The Venereal Transmission Of Power and Applicable Countermeasures
How To Lie To Your Liability Insurance Carrier (Because You Must)
Happy Hunting Grounds, Or Pedophiles and Family Friendly Events
Engineering Moral Panics: How To Take A Subculture Apart At The Seams

Volunteers, Background Checks (or lack thereof) and Vicarious Liability
Sexual Harassment In Fandom: A Gentleman's Illustrated Primer
Ten Regulatory Agencies Every Con Exec Should Fear and Why
- SBoE ABC DOJ PD FD DoPH CPS DHS FBI DoL
Temporary Communities and Megan's Law: Any Right To Know?
How To Write Off Convention Losses On Personal Income Taxes (with examples)

Critical Incident Management: "A Good Answer Now, Not A Great Answer Too Late"
California Privacy Laws, Convention Databases and Subpoenas
Herding Cats: Keeping Control Of The Convention Between Chairs
"It's Worse Than That, They're Not Just Furry, Jim!" or Repelling Unlawful Deviance
Intellectual Property: Locking The Horse After The Barn Is Stolen

Comments

[lironess.livejournal.com]

LOL.

[edgreen86.livejournal.com]

That would be a hell of a slate for programs at a SMOFCon. Never happen, but it would be wild.

Possible productive outlet for these ideas?

[polymathwannabe.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should write a novel about a fictitious con that goes to hell. HellCon or AbyssCon or HadesCon - something like that. Your protagonist could be the poor unwitting gofur who sold his soul for the price of registration, assuming he would get it back when he worked off his hours - he just didn't know that there would be so many obstacles and the plot could center on his attempt to escape and run for his life. During this adventure, gofur-boy has but one ally - a con staffer fighting an uphill battle to try and change things for the better from the inside of the organization. If you are feeling really ambitious, make it a trilogy - cliffhanger to volume 2: just when he is about to break free, they make him a staff member - cliffhanger to volume 3: just when he is about to escape staff, they make him a board member.

Another idea is to *actually* write a how-to book. You could change all the negatives of your 'how not to' list to positives. Or you could just title the book something like "Roles You DON'T Want to Play: 25 Potential Con Disasters and How to Avoid Them".

Re: Possible productive outlet for these ideas?

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

I have too much to do to write fiction with such a limited potential audience.

The how-to books and briefs have mostly already been written, but are circulated privately for a plethora of reasons.

[rue-gingertabby.livejournal.com]

mew...wow...ummm....wow!

Because I Can't Take a Joke

[yresim.livejournal.com]

IHNJH,IJLS "Happy Hunting Grounds, Or Pedophiles and Family Friendly Events."

I'm not sure how many people would go to that. It could go one of two ways: lots of attendees or none. People might look at it as a preventative, in which case they might show up in droves. Or they might hide under a rock because they don't want to know. Or they might look at it as "only pedophiles would attend that" and avoid it like the plague.

Then again, I think that is true for a lot of these, if turned into panels.

Re: Because I Can't Take a Joke

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

It is a very nasty problem. I am aware that a number of registered sex offenders attend conventions, and are not prohibited from doing so unless they are still under specific terms of probation or parole. I will draw a merciful veil over what can happen if they are buddies with staff.

Volunteers who supervise children should be background checked. Full stop. A two person rule should also be followed.