Today's Topic: Tipping at-con

We're grown-ups now. Instead of bouncing around at the whim of our parents, we can and do take ourselves to cool places to do fun things.

Yes, I'm talking about sf conventions.

There are two big ones this month, WorldCon in Reno, and Dragon*Con in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend.

You're ready to go.

You've preregistered for the con.

You have a hotel room.

You have your travel plans.

You have books or other items that you want autographed.

You've looked at the convention website and are getting an idea of panels you want to attend.

You have comfortable shoes.

You know the 6-2-1 rule: 6 hours of sleep, 2 meals, 1 shower/bath for every 24 hours at the con.

Now here's the thing you may not have planned for but you need to do anyway: TIP THE HOTEL STAFF.

The person who unloads your car and takes your bags to your room should get $1-2 per bag.

The person who cleans your room should get $2-5/night.

This website is a good guide.

Yes, if you have a lot of bags and are staying several nights, this is not an insignificant amount of cash.

Budget for it just as you budget for how much you're going to spend in the art show or dealers' room.

Because really, not tipping is a jerky thing to do. And please, no excuses of "I don't have cash on me, I'll make it up to the person later." You know you need to tip the bellman and the maid; show up at con with small bills in the appropriate amounts.

Don't even start with "I can't afford it." Grown-ups leave tips. Remember that bit about how we're not children anymore? Yes, you have more Star Trek figurines than your 12-year-old nephew, but you know what? That still makes you the grown-up. And odds are that the cost of one or two of those figurines is about what the total hotel maid tip is going to be for your next con.

So maybe skip getting the Khan figure so you can go to the con, and do it the way it should be done.

As a grown-up.

Just doing my @#^% job

Every club and convention on the planet needs to read and memorize this:

HARASSMENT IS NOT NEGOTIABLE.

To wit:

When you get a valid harassment complaint--and while investigation is always a good idea, so is starting with the assumption that said complaint is valid--you go to the person responsible, who I will hereafter call Gray Icky Thing...

You say: "Icky Thing, we've received reports that you're harassing people," or whatever. You say "We want you to stay away from Bob/Jane/freshman girls in the future."

Some of you, I hear, consider the following alternative: "Hey, Gray, what will make you stop harassing people?"

To you I say: NO. DO NOT SAY THIS. NEVER SAY THIS. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH CAPSLOCK IN THE WORLD FOR ME TO TELL YOU HOW WRONG YOU ARE. SWEET GOD ON BUTTERED TOAST, THIS IS NOT OKAY.

Just go, read the whole thing. I'll wait.

Done? OK.

I've been in the position of having to be the club's bad guy and kick out someone who was holding the club (and club's mailing list) hostage with her Borderline Personality Disorder antics--she was gaslighting, and making a couple of people into her personal villains--her very own "black hats."

But some people thought that I was being "mean" for excluding this horrid person, who'd been sabotaging the club for several years. Finally, I'd had enough, and as one of the club's officers, I put my foot down. I wanted to get a printout of the Five Geek Social Fallacies and smack these people with it.

Because in actuality, the people we were being unfair to were the ones who'd felt too uncomfortable to participate in any of the group's activities as long as this one person was still in the group. So one person had been ruining it for a lot of others, and I'd eventually had enough.

So yeah. I'm an Evil Ostracizer. Whatever. Shut up.

Congrats to Raleigh

Congratulations are in order to Raleigh, NC for winning the NASFiC bid. So, congratulations, Raleigh!

Check out their website for details:

http://www.reconstructionsf.org/