Dance Suggestion

I'm not sure AC is in a position to pay for any staff, union or otherwise. That's why all of the board members are volunteers.

Also, it doesn't seem like you could employ a proper union staff as casual workers (read: not year-round), and AC really only needs them for a week or so. Even if we could, the hotel may also have a contract that says that their union workers get the work, so that those union folks can't get stiffed by every wandering group that comes through. After all, the hotel has probably guaranteed all full-time workers that they'll get enough work hours to secure a proper full-time paycheck, which they can't easily do if they can't at least partially predict the amount of work they'll have to do.

I know it seems like a big pain in the butt, but really, it's good. A lot of it is just there to protect against some of the shadier practices that were used in the early 20th century to avoid paying for all those little luxuries--sick leave, pensions/401-k, medical benefits, a 40-hour work week... *grin*

Because Anthrocon, Inc. is 100% volunteer-run. We have no employees. If we did, we would have to pay wage taxes, social security taxes, workman's compensation taxes, pay a payroll firm to do our accounting for us, and deal with management-vs-labor issues like work stoppages and grievances and contract negotiations and such.

We'd have to raise your membership fee quite a bit to cover all that.

Look at it this way: any convention has a limited set of resources: people, space, time. The object is to deploy those resources to benefit the maximum number of attendees. For instance: What percentage of attendees like polka music? What percentage of attendees like house music? So, of these two groups, whom do you cater to?

I am sure that Anthrocon wishes that it could accommodate people who like to go to bed early. It would probably also like to accommodate people who like Celtic music or people who want panels on ballet dance of the 1940's. In the end there's only so much space, so many people, and so much time to work with and you just can't fit it all in.

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Tom Brady/Duncan da Husky
Artists Alley and Con Store Manager
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*chuckles and nods* Some folks tolerate sleep deprivation a lot better than others.

In college, i had a friend who discovered very quickly that she needed to be very careful about her sleep schedule. Even a small temporary variation in the amount of sleep she got--the kind we do at cons all the time--would leave her confused, jittery, and unable to think clearly. A few short nights could leave her weeping on the floor over some little worry.

But then i've also had friends who could pull a couple of all nighters without much effect. *shrugs*

Gonna take another shot in the dark and say that you've never been to a nightclub/party of this sort?

For whatever reason, most people want to go out to dance at night. That's sorta how it works. Dancing for hours on end is an exhausting and day-ending activity, doing it too early would wear people out, not to mention that you feel like an alcoholic taking part in beveraging and dancing around earlier on in the day.

Not that anyone shows up to the dance intoxicated, of course. Srsly.

I'm sure that the people running AC would love to cater to your needs, but the bottom line is I don't think many people would show up for a dance around 5-6pm. That's sorta a grade school feel.

Just my two cents.

For what it's worth, the con's generally a time to get out there and do stuff you normally don't do. I'd say nix the bedtime and come out at night, it's a lot of fun.

Try this: Wake up late, stay up later than usual.

Caffeine might help too lol. By the time you're there, you'll probably be having fun enough that you'll stay up for the dancing. Think of it like new years or something. Practically everyone else will be awake, even those with somewhat early bedtimes, because, heck, Anthrocon is fun.

Then again, I'm also used to staying up sorta late (2am usually), and getting up for class (8 - 9am usually), so maybe that won't work for you or whatever.

You're still in high school, aren't you?

This seems to be a good place and time to mention
Doc Passovoy's 5/2/1 Law of Conventions,

Get at least 5 hours of sleep per night,
Eat at least 2 balanced meals per day.
Take 1 shower per day.

I'd like to think I wasn't too much of a slacker in high school.

In high school I was in something called the "IB program" during my junior and senior year. This stands for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. This is the highest level of classes that you can take there. Think of it as taking an AP class, but more difficult. I had a 9 period day, with an alternating odd/even day schedule that amounted to something like 8 classes or so, since some classes met for two periods, and some also alternated. I could only take 4 Higher level IB classes a year, so the rest were Standard Level IB, AP, or regular high school electives (plus gym and lunch - which oddly enough alternated for me). Also I stayed after school nearly every day for a couple of hours doing extra curricular activities, such as the school's newspaper, sci-fi magazine, computer club, technology honor society... and the list goes on.

Basically this schedule spelled out pain for me in high school, since I usually had a ton of homework, projects in every class all the time, tests to worry about, and the clubs I was in. I usually was at school from 7am to about 4pm, and then arrived home around 4:30. After that, I usually chilled out for a while before dinner at 5 or 6, and then did homework generally for the rest of the night, and if I had projects or just a lot of work, it wouldn't be strange for me to stay up to sometime around 3am or later.

I finally finished that insane schedule and made it to college, where I have about 4 classes a semester, and they're in subjects I actually like (mostly computer science and art), and are not forced on me. Classes here generally only meet 2 or 3 days a week for me, so I get 2 classes a day usually. Sure, it's lots of projects and work, but it's all due on a weekly cycle usually instead of a daily one. Food is prepared, people are friendly, and it's overall more fun to be here. I slack a bit more here in college, but I have the time to generally.

So there you have it, a short history of the past four years of my school experiences.

What about all the homework and reading? You do get more reading in college you know.

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My name is pronounced like this: GOO-show-SEH-kiye.