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Profits? Profits, anyone?

UPDATE: And ticket prices have spiked this year as well: $100 for walkup tickets. Keep in mind, the biggest Con in the US, Comic-Con, has tickets for $75. And it’s 10x better. Heh, yah, no money grabbing here…

After all the shit I’ve taken from DragonCon “volunteers” over the years, the lawsuit coming from Ed Kramer for HIS PROPER CUT OF THE PROFITS from that Con is very validating.

Kramer wants his share and he asserts that DragonCon has been underreporting its attendance numbers for years to avoid the Fire Marshal and to avoid having to pay him (Kramer) what his shares are actually worth. Well, that explains the Con’s refusal to admit to how many people attend, now, doesn’t it?

“Pat Henry initiated an aggressive, coercive, and nepotistic campaign,” the suit states, “to wrest control of the company away from its shareholders.” – Ed Kramer quote from AJC article

Henry says, “[…] he [Kramer] no longer has control over management decisions. That loss of control may be what motivated him to bring these baseless allegations.

“DragonCon has enjoyed great success since Mr. Kramer left, and we do not think a court will second guess the way that current management has run it.” from AJC 2/27/09

Oh, this Convention is not about money – nooooooo. Why pay anyone when you have a multimillion dollar business run by FREE labour? Why pay shareholders their fair share if you can KEEP IT? ::cackle::

I’ve been yelled at, stalked on LJ, called a cunt and generally maligned by DragonCon volunteers for my assertions that DragonCon is a FOR PROFIT convention and therefore should not use a 100% volunteer workforce. It should use the PROFITS from its convention to have a real staff that runs the thing properly.

Comic-Con International IS non-profit (notice the mission statement at the bottom) and pays a huge staff to run its three successful, smoothly efficient conventions, so, what does that say about Henry? He wants the Benjamins, DUH. The man is greedy, not stupid. I wish I had a multimillion dollar privately held business with no labour costs, no admin costs, no infrastructure costs (NO, big binders are NOT infrastructure!), no con staff costs, etc. Yes, it takes money to run the Con, but that’s what the dealer room should be paying for. Bad management aside, I still think there is plenty of cash coming in from this convention and Henry has no problem taking HIS share. Since no one is allowed to see the books (unlike a non-profit), we can only speculate about how much money is being “paid” to Henry. In any case,

the cultlike belief that DragonCon is NOT for profit can now DIE.

So, Con Slaves: Suck it long, suck it hard!

NOTE: we found out several years ago that Pat Henry bought a MOUNTAIN. A WHOLE MOUNTAIN with all the money he rakes in from DragonCon. Sickening. -A Feb 2016

You were wrong about this Convention and I was right all along. I shall be smug now.  ::giggle::

I decided to leave comments open in case there is more info about the lawsuit, not for the inevitable deluge of LJ Con Slaves telling me how much I suck and what a cunt I am.  I’ll delete all of the “OMG U R such a cunt! DragonCon is PERFECT!” comments. They are obviously irrelevant and I don’t want them clogging up my blog. Unless you have documented proof of something I’ve missed or other relevant info to the lawsuit, don’t bother. I get to be smug in exchange for all the shit I’ve taken over the years. Deal with it.

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Goddam Hippies!

Did the Russ/Janel babies shower yesterday. Turned out very well. Met some great folks with the exception of one rather unstable chick who I’ll refer to as The Martyr. The Martyr appears to be a broke ass  hippy who volunteers all over the place but apparently doesn’t have the time to earn money. You know you’re in trouble when they start off  “I do lots of service volunteering like NPR, DragonCon and…”  DragonCon? DragonCon is NOT a service!! It’s a stupid convention!! And it just gets worse from there.

I, of course, can’t resist harassing a hippy, so I point out that DragonCon is NOT a service and furthermore the volunteers are rude and ineffectual. I thought she was gonna throw a temper tantrum! She hops up and says “Well, those are my friends you are talking about!!” and stomps into the house. I look over to Caroline and we both mouth “martyr” to each other.  She came back out with Janel and tried to sound logical but she had already shown her hand (and ass, I might add) so I didn’t listen to anything else she said.

Here’s the ranty part:
Gods, I hate hippies who feel so self righteous about the fact that they spend all their time volunteering for us unenlightened employed folk. Who do they think supports NPR, anyway? Broke ass hippies? I think not. Try white collar folks with jobs and discretionary income who DONATE MONEY to keep NPR running so the hippies can have a volunteer position to make themselves feel important. I think it’s a psychological problem when people need so much to feel important that they’ll do volunteer work as a full time job just to feel gratified and or validated. This psychological need to feel important is illustrated perfectly by the legion of Con Slaves who work 20+ hours for a $80 badge just to get to carry a Con radio and shout at attendees. Ooo, the power!! These people need to find their own passion, get a job and find satisfaction in themselves and their little corner of the universe. No amount of outside validation will ever ever feel as good as knowing you are doing what you should be doing, paying your bills and are contributing to society. Couch surfing and being un/underemployed is not really contributing, it’s depending on the success of others to pay your way. Paying your own way is extremely rewarding aside from just money in your pocket. It’s also rewarding  that you can support the arts, your favourite charities, etc. and make a discernible difference.  I know because that’s precisely what I do.  END RANT

Yes, volunteer, but more importantly donate $$ to your favourite causes. That is what will help the most. Ask anyone at NPR. As for DragonCon, your badge payment is a donation – but only to their bank account. DragonCon is a FOR profit event, not NON profit. Apparently some people don’t understand the difference.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked everyone at the party other than The Martyr. Janel is surrounded by hippies fer sure, but they are mostly the funny laid back hippies not the I’m gonna beat you with my holier than thou hippiedom hippies.  I know I’ll never fit in with the hippy set completely and that’s fine with me. I think the hippy to non-hippy ratio is about equal and I’m certain we can take them in a fair fight. Heh! :-D

Once the party cleared out and it was just the core group we had a ton of fun and conversation about real stuff.  It was awesome to have Caroline out with the adults. Welcome back! :-)

Today is about cleaning up around here and getting some of the clutter organised. This place gets cluttery faster than a speeding bullet. ::sigh::

On another note, we have decided to build a studio. My brother is actually stepping up and helping with this project, too. Miracle! The current plan is a 12×14 studio with attic storage. It will have climate control, phone, ethernet for internet access and many outlets. We’re so excited – we just can’t hide it. We’re about to lose control and we think we like it… 

Uh. Well, on that tangent, I’ll sign off before another bad 80s song pops into this post!