Famous last words...

[wendyzski]

Remember when I said "Friends don't let friends run Worldcons"?

I lied.

Chicon 7, this year's edition of the World Science Fiction Convention, opens a week from today.

The head of Ops dropped dead last weekend.

I only vaguely knew him, so my first reaction was a general "Wow, that's too bad".

Then I heard a shriek from the general direction of Lawrence and Sheridan.....

It seems that the woman who is my Second at Windycon has received a battlefield promotion to head of Ops less than 2 weeks before a major international event.  In the space of a few days, she went from "Sure, I'll help drive a truck and load-in and out" to department head, and a blizzard of paperwork and scribbled notes has descended upon her.

Well, friends may not let friends run Wiorldcons, but friends also don't let friends get hit by a train, and while I suck at dealing with people I'm hell on wheels when it comes to sorting out paperwork.  So with the assistance of my boss who is letting me fiddle with my schedule next week and with an offer from her to front part of my membership (staff rate) until reimbursement time, I'm playing 'Ride of the Valkyries' on a very small kazoo and coming in to help her out.  I'm headed over tonight after work, laptop in hand, to help finish sorting through the work orders and start making up grids and checklists. I've cleared my decks for the weekend as well, and after tonight we'll have a better idea of what still needs to be done and how much help we're going to need to do it.

As she put it this morning "Suddenly the phrase 'Who died and made YOU boss?" takes on a whole new meaning.....'

Comments

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

I'm getting an image of a Valkyrie on a Iceland pony, her feet close to the ground, helmet askew, charging into the fray to the accompaniment of kazoo. It made me smile. You will kick butt.

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

*LIKES*

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

*bows*

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

As a member of the concom who will be on the receiving end of some of this work let me say thank you thank you THANK YOU! I found out last night that Lisa had taken on this Herculean task and I'm glad you've got her back. While it's no picnic finding enough strong folks to help with the actual schlepping of stuff, organizational skills - pulling order and scheduling charts out of chaos, are harder to find. You are both made of awesomeness.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

One of my best skills is taking piles of paper and turning them into smaller piles, then checklists, and finally making them go away.

If she can pull all the info from the logistics mailing list by tonight, we can get it into some semblance of order and get an idea of what exactly will be needed - and hopefully people will step up to fill those places once we know what they are. That's what she's working on - there are pretty much no actual work orders for a lot of the offsite pickups, so she's having to pull the info from 3 months of emails.

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

I can't think of anybody I personally know who would be better at pitching in and saving the day here (except maybe my friend Jeannie who died last month. *sniffsob*) You are an organizational whiz and a good friend to do this. Exactly what I would expect of you, my dear. And awesome that your boss is so helpful, cooperative and proactive.

Just don't make yourself sick through overwork. Yes, I know...that's like saying, "don't stay up too late trying to finish that costume" but me being me, I just have to say it anyway 'cause it makes me feel better just to say it.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Part of my job on this is to make sure she eats and rests. She does it for me at Windy - just shows up with a plate and pretty much stands guard at the door while I eat.

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

That is a very sound principle.