Well, the hammer's finally dropped. I'm done with this convention monstrosity called RainFurrest. Sadly ironic that I'm the one who named it, and I'm one of the few who really pushed to get it started. I'd been reluctant to do much work on the convention considering it's instability and shakiness that it's exhibited from the get-go. The biggest issue I've had was with Gene Armstrong, the person who I sadly believed might be able to chair this thing to get it off the ground - boy was I wrong.
See, Gene has a penchant for being a crotchety old lecher. As chair, he's appointed countless numbers of people to "important" staff positions based on their willingness to perform various sexual feats with him, or at the very least made lofty promises of such appointments. Beyond that, Gene is intolerably difficult to work with, completely lacks initiative and direction, and is a shining example of bad leadership. He's also brought a fair number of people from his sci-fi background into a furry con, and these people have NO idea what furries want or expect from a convention experience. Gene himself has only attended one, maybe two furry cons. So how do these people expect to run a good furry con, again? And how is it "for the furries, by the furries" as their tagline has been?
When I confronted Gene about these things IN PRIVATE, he absolutely fucking LOST IT and started calling people telling them he was going to do me bodily harm. He and his first mate Ari kicked me off of the board of directors for bringing it up IN PRIVATE, and told me that if they had their way I wouldn't be on staff at all. That setup a pretty serious sore point and contention between us, and it was only Trapa who was able to stymie that whole explosion.
I've been watching for months now as person after person has cycled into and out of this staff time and again. Numerous people have been badgered into "volunteering" for staff, then cutting and running for whatever reason - be it drama, issues with other staffers, lack of responsibility, lack of time, whatever. It's been severely demoralizing, and I'm truly under the impression that furries around here really don't want a con anymore. I myself have turned completely apathetic to the plight of this con, I cannot and will not support the people running it and the direction it's taking. Gene's going to run it into the ground just like he ran RustyCon into the ground. I'll honestly be amazed if there's a second year, and would strongly advise to ANYONE who intends to make money here to consider things carefully.
The con has a very bad reputation, has not been getting much PR, and I'm really believing that all of the apprehension and fear of attending is justified. It might do alright, by some miracle, but I doubt that will be the case. And dealers/artists might even make decent money, but again I'd be astonished. You can't run a decent con when half or more of your staff doesn't want to be staffing the con, and especially when you're severely understaffed on top of that.
Anyway, I've been replaced on staff unceremoniously and Gene's gotten his way such that I will not be allowed on staff for next year either, apparently. So, good riddance and hope you guys break a leg. I wash my hands of the horrible abomination I helped create.
