Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 10:23:22 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: WFC
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

> kfl at KeithLynch.net 11/04/03 10:26PM
>>"Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu> wrote:
>> Of course the reason for the ID was to make sure that X was X when
>> they rolled up to get their registration material and claimed to
>> be X.
>
>My concern is about people without ID.  Sure, lots of people would
>have vouched that I was me, if the person working reg hadn't accepted
>my "United Individualist" plastic magstripe card.  But what about neos?
>
>At the gripe session at the end of the last Disclave, everyone for
>whom this was their first Disclave was asked to raise their hand.
>Nobody did.
>
>Fandom needs fresh blood, and fresh brains.  Brains!  BRAINS!!
>(Sorry, I keep forgetting Halloween is over.)
>
>Why not only ask for ID from the *second* person claiming to be X?
>If he can prove he's X,

How should the second person prove he/she is who they claim to be?

Boskone asks that when you come to con reg that you bring the last =
mailing, which has your address on it.  A good system, for those who =
remember to bring it.

>then staff members will be instructed to keep
>an eye out for the fake X.
>
>> Reigstration knows not everyone by face.  & with non-staff
>> memberships starting at $100 . . .
>
>Appropriate for Halloween, there were plenty of ghosts at the con.

 . . . & even a ghostly party . . .

>
>One even just wrote me to complain to me that he was escorted off
>the property by hotel security after entering the banquet without a
>banquet ticket or con membership,

So he wasn't a member of the convention?

> wearing an eyecatching cheerleader's
>uniform.  (He also said he lost his camera.  Has anyone found one?)

I'll ask our registrar if anyone turned such in; tho he might want to =
contact the hotel, perhaps it was turned in to their lost & found.

>
>On Thursday I wrote:
>
>> After getting a quick bite to eat in the con suite, I started out
>> bagging books in the Yosemite room on the second floor.  I had
>> thought I was good at packing books tightly into bags, but some
>> people were better -- and had to be, since with one item from each
>> pile, the bags were full to near-overflowing.
>
>My skills as a packer are redeemed:  At home, after the con, I unpacked
>my bag, which was full to the top, and then repacked it, in less
>space.  In the Yosemite room I must have been packing more books per
>bag than the others were.  I wonder whether it was they or I who
>misunderstood how much was to go into each bag.

There were comments by some folks during the con about being unable to =
repack their bags as received.

There were also these comments upon being presented with the overly =
stuffed bags:
"Where's my sherpa?"
"I'm going to need a truss."
"I'm going to sue you for dislocating my shoulder."

>
>In retrospect, less should have gone into all of Thursday's bags,
>since by late Friday bags were only half as full.

True.  I suspect the packers were getting . . . exurberant.  Attack of the =
Killer Bags!

mjw