Okay, I’m slightly breaking my own rules with this one.  Usually, I say that any stuff I see/hear involving staffers, unless it’s out on the con floor where everyone can see, it off the record… but I don’t really think that applies when it’s something I’ve been hearing complaints about for DECADES at this point.  It’s hardly privileged information when absolutely everybody already knows it.

But to catch up anybody who isn’t getting what I’m talking about: a convention is rarely if ever JUST run by the staff of that convention itself.  There’s also the people working at the location where the event is being held, and the bigger the location is, the more of THEIR people will be running around doing stuff mixed in with the CON’S people.  And, well, communication between the two isn’t always the best.  That goes TRIPLE for when the venue is big enough that they hire out some third party service to provide people for all the grunt work.  Seriously, I was making comics about this issue back in TWO THOUSAND AND FRICKIN’ NINE.  It’s been a common complaint for THAT long.  But yeah, all that to say, at no point over the course of this weekend did I ever feel like the RCC people in charge of doing badge checks every have any clear understanding of who was supposed to be let in when to set things up, despite the con staff APPARENTLY writing it all out for them.  Obviously, I can’t verify any of that part, but it sure tracks with my own experiences.

(Granted, an especially cynical person might ask at what point “shame on you” becomes “shame on ME” regarding con staff being shocked and frustrated that RCC staff isn’t listening to them, and just stop making plans that depend on that at all.  But I’m on record as thinking that events like Animazement are too big for their own good in the first place, so it’s not really appropriate for me to pretend like I know how to go about running them.)