Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 01:10:23 -0500
To: Capclave 2006 <capclave at yahoogroups.com>,
 WSFA List - older <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>,
 WSFA forum -- Yahoo list <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com>
From: Elspeth Kovar <ekovar at panix.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Capclave report
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Something of a Capclave report:

We have the basic numbers, I think -- I'm writing this on Tuesday -- and
should have the full set when various people get back from business
trips.  (I'm not exactly on one, but am off to WFC along with several other
of the committee members.)

As with every convention we had our glitches.  A couple of things got
dropped along the way, or we got the timing wrong, or various other
goofs.  There was also a full advertising push I'd planned, branching out
into some new methods, we had to let go by the wayside.

But the most noticeable of them was that because of an error Capclave and a
team just before their Homecoming Game were booked into the hotel
together.  The weekend of the Homecoming Game is determined by ESPAN so our
contract is written so that we can move one week in either direction to
avoid them.  This year that system failed.  The Hilton acknowledged that
they had made a mistake and both parties, we and they, were quite
professional in handling the situation.  The result was that we only lost
one significant space, the ballroom where we'd planned to have the Town
Square.

I'll add that we considered their apology acceptable; as a result of it
there's a chance that this Capclave will have money left over.  People are
going to want to discuss what to do with it at this meeting but let's wait
until everyone is back.

Some odds and ends, with a warning that this is thrown together because I
thought that I was flying out on Thursday, not Wednesday  -

Elaine's programming has won high praise from everyone.  As for me, I can't
praise it enough: it was innovative, creative, and very far from the
same-old, same-old.  All of which are the reasons I'd asked her to take the
job.  One of the things we did worry about was that because of lack of
advertising the workshops would be their not having enough people to reach
critical mass.  All of them did and while some of the people running them
did mention the lower attendance they also said that things were more
productive because of it.  They worked well and is something we should do
better.  But it's the programming that was so amazing.  The we-think-final
version, since programs always change as they go into action, is now up on
the Capclave website.  It's well worth a look.

$800 raised for the silent auction benefiting the John M. Ford Book
Endowment Fund; they'd only expected to make $500.  I don't have space to
go into who John Ford was, or why he's so important, but the endowment fund
is set up so that the revenue from it supplies X number of new books per
year to the library district where John lived.  $800 is a book and a
half.  Per year.

Somewhat to my surprise the fancy dress reception on Saturday night,
co-hosted by SFWA, was a major success.  And who could have imagined that
so many people *would* attend in fancy dress!  It brought in an unknown
number of people who hadn't attended before but, more usefully, has added
to Capclave's reputation as a place for lit'ry folk to gather.  And, it
seems, everyone enjoyed the fun having a place to dress up.  That also
brought in the SFWA connection, which will probably be useful.  Getting
that started was one of the things that I wanted to give to Capclave.  I'm
glad that it worked.

The other thing I wanted to do, as people know from my being stubborn about
it, was poetry magnets; boxes of words, each on its own magnet.  Dump a
bunch of words to play with on lit'ry folks an they're going to have
fun.  Okay, that's a very, very little thing but I'm glad we got to do
it.  Although I'd like to get the large magnetic board out of my apartment
sometime.

The poker game, a reviving of the bi-monthly WSFA poker games of old, was
started this year.  The prospect had been floating around last year but
this year we did it.  Okay, on that I cheated: I chose a Fan Guest of Honor
who enjoys poker and, while he couldn't bring his own chips because of
traveling carry-on, he took his responsibility seriously.  (Sam: next year
we're going to have to put this on the party floor.)  While we can't bring
Tom in again just for that purpose there are people who were very happy to
have another standing poker game who are now "On Notice" that someone has
to take over.

A handful of quotes.  There are a lot more out there, these are just the
ones I have on tap:

"We did still manage to pull in 104 non-local members from 19 distant
states plus the province of Ontario.  And they all seemed to be having a
good time."
- Barry

"Good convention -- great people, well-attended panels, interesting
conversations, and if the hotel was somewhat less than par, we barely
noticed. I will definitely be adding it to the rotation of conventions I
attend."  "Great to see people (and take their money at poker), and
introduce new folk to single malt (and find a few new bottles myself), and
sign many copies of things, and I will hold those memories as I dive into
the rather busy week to come...."
- Laura Anne Gilman
(We've since discussed the somewhat shabby but less expensive and a great
location vs. better grade of hotel but more expensive, and probably less
good food around.  I'll try to pull it up when back in town.)

Just went to my first Capclave, and it's perhaps the first convention where
I felt really comfortable.
- paraphrase of a blog

Another about mainly going to media cons and didn't know that cons like
this existed.

I'd never been to Capclave before but I'm definitely coming back.
- Paraphrase of Michael Capobianco, at con

Various people about how accessible Stan was.

Quotes From Stan.  There are a number of these but the long and short of it
is that he loved it and enjoyed Capclave -- I'm pulling this from memory
rather than email -- more than he has a convention.
- Stan

As for my committee, take a look at the 'message from the chair' at the
front of the convention guide.  It's the shortest form of saying it all;
the long form would take quite a long time.

Elspeth