jms- Megacon

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: Gary Farber <gfarber at panix.com>
Date: 18 Jan 1999 23:19:58 -0700
Lines: 26

In <77lv0e$kud$1 at samsara0.mindspring.com> 
pkb <deannakatt at mindspring.com> wrote:
[. . .]

: I have heard in the past, that MegaCon is not friendy to local
: dealers.  They seem to be in the business for the money.

Duh.  

Fan-run cons are well-known, are non-profit 501(3)(c) organizations, are
run by long running organizations, etc.  JMS should know this, but for
some reason he asserts that his test of their legitimacy is whether they
are organized enough to pay him a large fee.  He says, as I recall, that
the test of gathering a large sum of money tests their organization.  Or
somesuch.  I hope I have that wrong.  Testing for being a 501(c)(3)
organization of twenty year's standing is a lot easier, or at least, a
better test of being an actually provably responsible science fiction fan
organization.  I mean, those that last a decade or three earn a
reputation, after all.  

I don't speak to comics cons, which are another order of business.  

-- 
Copyright 1999 by Gary Farber; Web Researcher; Nonfiction Writer, 
Fiction and Nonfiction Editor; gfarber at panix.com; B'klyn, NYC, US


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 19 Jan 1999 20:33:32 -0700
Lines: 52

>Fan-run cons are well-known, are non-profit 501(3)(c) organizations, are
>run by long running organizations, etc.  JMS should know this, but for
>some reason he asserts that his test of their legitimacy is whether they
>are organized enough to pay him a large fee.  He says, as I recall, that
>the test of gathering a large sum of money tests their organization.  Or
>somesuch.  I hope I have that wrong.

Yes, you have that wrong.  You have that MASSIVELY wrong, on just about every
conceivable level.  I never said what you represent above.  

Further, the majority of the conventions I do each year ARE fan run
conventions.  From Marcon to LosCon to Stellar Occasion to WishCon to a small
fan-run con in Calgary last year...from big ones to small ones, they are nearly
ALL fan-run cons.  

As for fees...there are usually fees because I'm being asked to take away a
weekend, the only time I have a chance to rest up, and fly somewhere to,
essentially, perform.  It's a very strenuous thing for me...I often lose as
much as 5-10 pounds over a weekend convention because I'm running my brains
out, sometimes from early morning to late evening with maybe a half-hour for a
fast bite at lunch and often going straight through dinner.

Even so, even with all that...it's a token fee, maybe one third what folks like
Bruce get (or even less), and it's a function of distance traveled.  For
LosCon, and Gallifrey, and other local cons...there's no fee at all, because I
can go and come back.  If it's cross country, then yeah, the fee goes up with
distance, because if I'm going to travel that far, I need to make sure that
there are going to be a reasonable number of people there.  So that mitigates
toward cons that can afford a speaker's fee.

And again, I deliberately keep my fees to a fraction of what is generally
required by cast members for the very reason that it puts me in reach of
smaller conventions.  I do this as an act of respect toward the fan run cons
across the country and elsewhere...so I take your comments here as a personal
slap in the face.

I never, ever, at any time said that a given fee somehow legitimizes a
convention.  It's a stupid thing to say, and I never said it, never implied it.
 

Please refrain from attributing to me things I never said.  I have a hard
enough time handling what I DO say to worry about all the ones I didn't say.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com




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