Arisia needs an attitude adjustment.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

I am sure this will offend many people, and if it does I apologize, but I feel it has to be said.

I am disgusted and appalled at the rudeness and sense of entitlement I encountered from many of this year's staff members. And I am not the only person who noticed this.


An example...
I got up early on Sunday and went down to the staff den, I was there about 15 minutes before it was supposed to open, but the lovely staff den ladies let me in anyway. I told them I needed food so I could take some meds, but I could see they weren't quite ready yet and asked what I could do to help them get stuff put out. They gave me a couple things to do (and a danish so I could take my meds) and I went off to help. At 8:02AM a person walked in, I was just plugging in the kettle to heat water, sie wanted tea so I told hir it would be a few minutes while the water heated that I had just plugged it in. Hir response was very snobbishly "What do you mean the water is not hot yet?" I looked at hir and said well, you weren't here 10 minutes ago to plug it in. You want it faster, then feel free to come in early and help. These ladies were up just as late as the rest of us, they are doing their best." and I walked away.
Sure sie hadn't had hir morning caffiene yet, but that was no excuse to jump all over me because the kettle isn't hot. Sie had a coffee maker in hir room, there was nothing preventing hir from using it. This is just one instance I personally encountered in the den, I witnessed many more acts of rudeness directed at the ladies running the den and other staff members in the den, during my visits there. (I was not den staff, I was just helping out while waiting for the food to be ready.)

In general many staff members were surly, rude, and just basically snappish, many came across with the "I'm staff, I'm better than you" or the I'm staff therefore I'm entitled to [...] ahead of you" attitude.

In my opinion, If you want to be involved in Arisia, and deal with hundreds of fans and random people all weekend and can't keep a pleasant attitude, no matter how stressed you get, or how tired or overworked you are, perhaps you shouldn't be doing that job. It's like any job that involves dealing with the customer, you have to keep it all to yourself so as to not take it out on the unsuspecting and not offend. I was personally offended by many of the attitudes I encountered during the weekend by staff members I did not know and who didn't know me. There are places to let it all out, you shouldn't be snapping and rude to the attendees or they will stop coming and we cant have an Arisia without them.

I have a whole essay/rant about Arisia and it's changing dynamic as of late, How I feel it's strayed from it's original mission to be all inclusive and such, how it's more of a fannish lifestyle and polyamory based con now instead of Science Fiction and Fantasy based as originally intended, and how it really needs to be able to encompass all things equally*, but I will likely not subject people to it.

Personally with the next Arisia being the 20th, I would love to see the theme be "Back to Basics" or "Back to our Roots." But since I am just a lowly staff member, costumer and artist (who BTW has worked at every Arisia in some capacity to the point of never having to purchase a membership to Arisia yet) and really do not want any other responsibility right now, who am I to say what should happen?


*Of the panels offered pre-con, 47 "fannish lifestyle" panels this year and only 12 art, 12 filk, and 8 costume panels is not treating all things equally.

Comments

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Well, isn't this interesting, back to the original topic of this post. The rudeness and sense of entitlement found at Arisia this year.

The post took on a life of it's own for a while there and just got so far off topic I just stopped reading the responses.

[miekec]

... not if someone is trying to use the numbers as a point. Then , I think, it's all the more important to check the figures.
Oh, and ashkes_muse - thanks for doing just that. I agree 200%.

[miekec]

Yes, pretty please? We may actually even make it then. Was sad to have missed it this time.

[cos]

The Hyatt isn't in "metro Boston," either

Umm, what?!?

[dda.livejournal.com]

I believe it is called the Cambridge Hyatt because it isn't in Boston, it is in Cambridge. And while many folks consider "Boston" to encompass Cambridge and other towns, it ain't so.

[cos]

"metro Boston", silly. I live in Cambridge and worked for a city council candidate in 2005, so I'm well aware of the fact that it is a separate municipality. I'm equally aware of the fact that Arisia and its attendees don't care what municipality we're in when talking about geographical location, but we *do* care about being in metro Boston, an area which encompasses quite a number of cities and towns. And although the Waltham Westin that hosted Arisia 1998 was also in metro Boston, we'd prefer to be centrally located in the city and near the T. By those considerations, there are many areas of the city of Boston that are less well located than any random spot you pick in Cambridge. Saying that Cambridge isn't in metro Boston is 100% ridiculous. Or maybe you get extra credit on that one.

[ron_newman]

"metro" means "metropolitan area", and Cambridge is certainly part of Boston's metro area. Providence is not, by most reasonable definitions.

[cos]

Yeah, it is a very insider jargon sort of term. When Arisia programming puts together the schedule, they categorize panels, and "fannish lifestyle" is a catch-all for all the "other" panels that don't fit into any of the core categories (costuming, gaming, filk, literature, comics, etc.). However, because it's such a catch-all, people who aren't involved in Arisia programming understandably don't see it as one "kind" of panel.

Examples of "fannish lifestyle" programming include:
- relationships (polyamory, monogamy, flirting)
- the LiveJournal track I spurred into existence last year, that returned this year
- drum circles, dancing, etc.
- dealing with disability; keeping kids off the grid; dealing with your first con; ...

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

Again, I was directly by someone on con staff (not the person making the decision) told that there was no interest in a traditional filk guest this year.

[recombatant.livejournal.com]

Okay then. I appreciate your tone with me. I'll try to talk with some people I know and see if we can offer any worthwhile info that you can use that might improve things as far as the art end of stuff. It's probably going to be a lot of the same ol' stuff and meet with resistance or ready answers that you have probably come to expect.

As far as the rest of the con... it may be alienating some folks because programming is reading a more like a Jerry Springer show every year.

[dda.livejournal.com]

It's probably going to be a lot of the same ol' stuff and meet with resistance or ready answers that you have probably come to expect.

I am not sure I'll be running the Art Show next year but I'll certainly make sure to pass it along to whomever is; I don't want the feedback to get lost. But in any case, thank you for taking the time to come up with the suggestions!

Of course, I also cannot promise that all the suggestions will be immediately implemented. Some folks have suggested having the Art Show on the main floor; that might only be possible in a different hotel which is gonna take a while to accomplish. :-(

it may be alienating some folks because programming is reading a more like a Jerry Springer show every year.

This is useful feedback to Programming, I'd think. Programming is always a balancing act and some may decide they get more attendees with Jerry Springer programming than they lose. But knowing that they are, in fact, losing people is important.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

The convention center hotel quoted a $189/night room rate for 2007, and would not budge on it.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

So what is the name of the brainstorming LJ group for next year? I'm not having any luck finding such a thing.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I was unaware it was being used as a catch-all term, and was looking at it as just the relationship topics mentioned above. Now I just need to find this database everyone else mentioned that listed the potential panels. I've only gone to every Arisia so far, about time I get more involved with it besides occassionally volunteering :-)

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

Let me see...if we were in a larger hotel with more space for functions, Arisia could drop back to being a 3-day con. So:

$109 x 3 = 327 (plus tax)
$149 x 2 = 298 (ditto)

That doesn't sound bad to me! Of course, I'm a Rhode Islander (for all that I work in Boston), so Providence wouldn't be as tough for me as it would be for someone from, say, New Hampshire.

That said, I will always love the Park Plaza, seediness, tiny rooms, rude staff, and all. My dream is that there's a complete change of management (and probably ownership) at the PP, a major revamp of the physical plant, and they come crawling to Arisia begging us to come back...at $149 a night.

[lensman.livejournal.com]

attempted no, Considered and rejected due to a number of factors yes. (Cost of rooms as pointed out by QuietAnn, and other "how do we fit our functions into these spaces" [larger != better in lots of cases])

[cos]

Email programming@arisia.org and tell them you're interested in being a panelist next year, and I think they'll make an account for you on Zambia when they're starting to plan panels.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

See also this page (http://2008.arisia.org/08PanelListings).

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

The hotel attached to the convention center has been contacted (long ago) and it was too expensive. It has gotten even more expensive.

Also, Boskone is at that hotel. Having both cons at the same hotel would be problematic.

But, AFAICT, no one has contacted the convention center itself because it is pointless without the hotel.

Does this answer the question?

[awfief.livejournal.com]

quietann gave this answer a while ago. Thanx. The question has been suitably answered (I say this as I hope to let further helpers know that no more answers are needed). A simple "yes" was all I was looking for, and I've received that.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I didn't make it to the art show because I assumed, even if some of the artists had to leave, the art show would be open while the con was open. So when I went up on Sunday *morning*, I was turned away because it was closed. Better signage of the hours, more notice if it's closing a full day earlier than the rest of the con, etc.

You've no doubt heard this already, but not in this thread ;-)