Duckon

Convention
Name:	Duckon
Dates:	1992, 1993, 1994, others?
Frequency:	at least twice
Location:	Illinois, US
Type:	fan-run
Focus:	science fiction
Organization:	Du Page County Science Fiction and Fantasy Society?
Founder:
Founding Date:
URL:	website
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Duckon is a science fiction con.

There is much about this con in Sci-fi's A Smash: From A Klingon Wedding To A Visit From Quark, Droves Of Fans Get Together And Play Along, a 1993 press piece.

Duckon I

Oakbrook, Illinois in May 1992.

I'm [going to be] the Artist GOH there, as well as helping to run the art show. Most all the folks working on Duckon are experienced Worldcon veterans so I am of the belief that the problems will be minimal if not non-existent. I've run many, many art shows in my day, and I'm sure I can get them through most of the snags they might encounter. They ran into a snag when they first started advertising. Someone from the Conamazoo bunch was spreading rumors that Duckon was a hoax. This was done because they feltthat Dukon wasgoing to steal some of their membership, even though Duckon was formed first. They have since offered an apology, but many artist I know are boycotting the show at Conamazoo as a result of their nasty tactics. Also, they guy running the art show has a reputation for not having any experience running an art show or handling money. This alone would scare me off.

Duckon 1: Con Reports

[Regarding experiences at Duckon, where the writer of this letter (Mary Lynn) was the fan guest of honor]: One thing I would like to address while I'm of a mind to write about it is the matter of the artist-couple who ignored the bold wording in the art show rules about no payments being made at the convention {She included in the letter a copy of the rules, and it was plain and simple, with no complex wording. No payment at the con}. They claimed that they had not received copies of the rules and felt that gave them a right to make such a scene in the art show that the room doors had to be closed! There were plenty of copies available within the art show, but neither one of them thought to ask to see them just in case Duckon might be handling things differently than any other con. During the course of their harangue of the art show staff, they claimed that all the cons THEY went to paid on the spot and there was no excuse for Duckon being unable to do so. I really wish that I had been there for this performance since I've been doing con art shows in the midwest since 1975 and have found that the vast majority of art shows prefer to do their bookkeeping in the calm after a con when mistakes are less likely to happen. I'd sure like to know just what cons they were referring to. To back up my assumptions, I checked with all the sets of rules I have on file (yeah, I keep them for just such occasions...) Conclave does not specify in it's rules about when payment would be made and Capricon currently pays on the spot, but ALL others I have clearly state that they were making payments to artists by check within three weeks after the con. I would like to ask all the other artists who get EA what their experience has been with this. I know we'd all like to get our money sooner than later, but if anyone has horror stories they'd like to relate on this subject (from both sides of the fence), I'd really like to hear about it.

Since some of Capricon's ConCom were on hand at Duckon, I asked them if they'd had any experience with this couple before. The response I got was startling. Not only was that couple known for causing nothing but trouble, but there might be a lawsuit pending against them for selling video tapes of masquerade, a right that had been given to another video crew who were therefore cheated out of their rightful earnings. The Capricon person I talked to admitted that Capricon was very likely to drop the paying of artists on the spot because the paper shuffling during the panic of a con is just too likely for problems to occur. I get the clear impression that this couple is not only likely to be banned from Duckon, but several other midwest cons have had just about enough out of them and were also considering such actions. In summation, I'd like to remind all artists to read the rules CAREFULLY. They aren't there for your convenience, they're there for your PROTECTION. Be informed so you can avoid situations like this one. Making an ass out of yourself like these two did can only make like incredibly difficult, and to be honest, who needs it? Brow-beating the poor volunteers who man the shows is not going to get you anywhere. If you feel you have a LEGITIMATE beef, take it directly to the art show director and let that person decide how to handle it. And most importantly, if that person's decision doesn't happen to match up with what you'd LIKE for them to do, shut up and go along with it. Remember, most rules state that the art show reserves the right to be arbitrary in their decisions. The folks that run those shows can be far more valuable allies than enemies.

[by Mary Lynn, the fan guest of honor]:

Here at last is the distillation of just how well this year's DucKon went. For a first year convention, I think it did very well. What follows are the final facts.

Number of attendees at the con: 301

Artists entered in the show: 16

Pieces entered: 154

Not for sale pieces: 9

Pieces sold: 66

Average earnings per piece sold: SI 1.34

Average amount spent per attendee: $5.80

I entered 13 pieces (3 were NFS) and sold 7. Not bad.

DucKon had a Print Shop, but the figures are skewed since one person entered over half the prints exhibited.

The con itself was pretty much a blur for me since I was doing so many panels. Paul MacNerland might be able to tel you haw wel the con itself went. Although his vision might be a little blurry lately since the DucKon folks called him up and named him as their Artist Guest of Honour. I hear he was pretty thrilled with the idea. Congratulations Paul!

DucKon I is already in the works and as of my latest information, they wil be accepting mail in art again. I will try to make sure that up-to-date info is posted here for all those interested.

As for the artist couple the Art Show staff had so much trouble with, I really appreciate al the folks who responded so readily with their own experiences in regard to getting paid later as opposed to at the con. Thank you all for your valuable input! Currently, EVERYONE I've spoken to agrees that geting paid at the con is extremely RARE and should NOT be expected. Again, I wish that I had been there when this couple chose to make such colossal asses out of themselves. I would've been glad to give them a very bad day for their trouble.

Duckon 2

June 4–6, 1993

Duckon 2: Con Reports

I wanted to write you about Duckon. Unfortunately, Mary Lynn didn't show, so I thought you might like a report. The con had twice as many people as the year before, although parts of it were much more disorganized than the previous year. But from an artist's point of view, it wasn't too bad. Not nearly enough art panels, though being a small con in it's fledgling years! there wasn't the money flowing that you'd expect from a larger con. But all in all, it wasn't bad. Paul showed more pieces than usual, but he was the AGoH. He also sold more pieces than usual, too. He showed 18, one of which was NFS, and sold 12. He made enough to pay rent that month and got several commissions to boot. LA Williams showed 13/sold 3 - low $. He sent mostly originals.

Duckon 3

June 3–5, 1994

Duckon 4

June 2–4

Duckon 4: Con Reports

A terrible show. I sold nothing and even those who seem to sell good regularly seemed to sell poorly. Security was lax, and the auction dragged, at least what I saw. There was space provided for an artist's alley, I liked that, but the arrangement of it was bad. People tended to block others from being able to see all the artists. The art show staff was friendly and helpful, however. There is also good suspicion that one of the art show staff went thru after final closing to bid on pieces.

What follows is a review of Duckcon IV's Art Show which took place this weekend past, June 2–4.

Some have called It "The Rape of the Artists", I would have called it a total disaster if I hadn't made a decent amount of money on the prints I had in the print shop.

Duckcon had someone new running the art show this year because Trudi Puda, who had valiantly built the show into something to be reckoned with decided to hand it odd and take a break from it this year. I got the first inklings that things felt wrong when I got the rules package in the mail and the entire rules structure that had worked well the previous three years (and was based loosely on the tried and true methods of The Team, Eh's techniques) had been thrown out and a new, less structured set put in its place. I had misgivings but I was willing to be a sport and give the new guy a chance at it. Little did I know that was a mere omen to what I was going to find once I got to the con.

I arrived early Friday and wanted to get the entry process taken care of so we took everything down there right away. The room is a small one, (smaller than most art shows) and most of the panels had not yet arrived. Some were installed, but they were thin and flimsy looking and had splayed legs that very easily created a trip hazard, not to mention taking up far more space than the normal upright/zig-zag panels in common use here in the midwest. The sturdier Capricon panels (on loan) arrived later and had to be squeezed in making the aisles very narrow and hazardous. The flimsy panels looked dangerous and certainly did not look able to hold larger framed- with-glass pieces. Thankfully, mostly matted pieces were hung there. The paperwork represented another bad omen. When I was commenting off handedly to someone about it, the art show chairman made a point of coming over and explaining that he had really "simplified" things and made things "less complicated". Ahem. If anything, the control sheets were MORE complicated, since the print shop and the art show were to use the same form. People tended to fil out the wrong columns (I did, and I've been doing this for 15 years!!) and misread the abbreviations. The bid sheets were actually larger and told the buyer less than the previous ones. (Yet another example of space consumption at work... Small, but significant given how things get crowded.) There were other paperwork debacles, but I will deal with them later.

The piece limit per artist was also removed. Now, in a teensy art show like this, that can severely overbalance the number of artists represented to a paltry few. And, that makes the art show easily fall victim to those who produce much but earn little. Variety in a constricted space is extremely desirable and it sure didn't happen here. Speaking of constricted space, I don't know the square footage of the room the art show was in, but it was SMALL. Now add to that: an artist's ghetto that sucked up an enormous amount of space; created a security hazard, created congested traffic around several art panels; and, worst of all, the few artists represented used that space as their own free personal huckster space. That REALLY burned me up! Let'em go out and huckster honestly in the huckster's room or hall rather than stealing display space that is so sorely needed. The rules said that using the space to huck would be discouraged, but during all the times I was in the room, the art show staff paid no attention whatsoever to what was going on in that section and I observed commission work going on constantly. In addition, one furry artist was said to have made $800.00 at Duckcon's art show, but I know damn well she didn't make it on the pieces displayed there. I'm not against artist ghettos per se, as long as it does not interfere with the regular functioning of the art show itself, and, is not treated like free hucksters tables.

Windycon had had an artist ghetto in several previous years but the situation was abused to such a degree and created such a traffic problem that the practice was discontinued. The next space sucker to rant about were the enormous speakers placed on the display tables to provide 'ambient music'. Again, table space was sorely needed and needlessly taken up. The print shop pieces were badly scrambled several times, and I was very concerned about damage to some of the more expensive items because of the overcrowding. Those speakers would have done their job as well had thev been placed UNDER the tables.

Next, I'd like to go ballistic about a practice I did not detect until it was way to late to shriek about it. In the rules it states that this year, they were adding Sunday/Quick sales prices. This was defined as being the price that the art show could sell the piece for on Sunday. Well, Saturday afternoon, a stroll through the art show revealed many, many pieces with "SOLD" in great big black letters scrawled across the bid sheets. They were selling the art all through the weekend at he Sunday sale prices, totally raping he artists of potential auction earnings and depriving many buyers of the opportunity to even get a chance at the piece. This also deprived the convention of potential earnings since one could just buy the piece outright by meeting the quick sale price even though there were other lower bids present. (I saw this occurring on several pieces!)

I was not present at the auction, but some buyers I know if who are 'power' buyers at other shows, came back early from this one saying that there were very few pieces going to auction and that it was a waste of time and a dud. Who's surprised? With half the art anyone wanted sold off early, it's a wonder they had an auction at all.

Sunday saw long frustrated check out lines, rampant confusion as to who was a buyer an who was an artist, and more paperwork headaches. Rather than wade through that mess, I just went in, collected up the unsold art and then arranged the bid sheets in numbered order corresponding to the order on the control sheets (I had to number them myself, there was no space for that). When my turn came up, things checked quickly. Then, the art show chairman just waved me away, saying I was done. What? No signatures? No verifications? No copies of control sheets? The more I thought about this, the more horrified I became. Especially when the guy behind me checked out and (despite the fact that the person doing the check-out did not know this artist at al) and was able to leave the art show with an armload of art without having to sign for it, or verify who he was. When I went to checkout of the print shop, I was told "Be warned, some of the transactions were not recorded and we're finding some problems." It was then that I realized the full implications of not signing for what I picked up. For example, I could later claim that the art show sold a piece that I had in fact, picked up and they would be liable for the amount. Conversely, they could claim that I picked up a piece that I did not and deny me the piece and/or its value. So, to protect my backside, I surprised the guy and 'insisted* that I sign and note how many I had received so that there would be no questions of impropriety. Much later, I noticed that he had changed tactics and was having everyone sign their control sheets. But he was still leaving off the number of pieces picked up.

Apparently the chairman forth is year's art show had attempted to reinvent the wheel and all he did was very nearly destroy all the work of previous years. His attempts to streamline things only made it dramatically more difficult and confusing and this is why; Those of us who have been doing this for a very long time have gotten used to the paperwork thing. It's considered to be part of our job as artists. And, there are certain elements that we expect to see on nearly ever kind of bid sheet and control sheet since long experience has shown that these things are necessary. That leaves art show staffs free to let the old hands come in and slip easily through the paperwork mill because they already know how, leaving them free to have more time to coach the newbies and take care of other problems. But, when someone changes ALL the paperwork and ALL the rules, then we ALL become newbies and have to ask a lot of stupid, unnecessary questions just to get checked in and out of the show. That's what happened here and it sure made for frustrated show workers and even more frustrated artists.

When I confronted the guy about all the changes, he dissembled, saying that he had gotten his advice from so-and-so and such-and-such about how to go about making the changes. But, evidently, that advice was way off base. But, evidently, that advice was way off base. So much so that a lot of artists growled about not doing Duckcon next year if this guy did the show. I don't think I could go, that's for sure. Could he perhaps learn to do it right? I don't know. Once someone has gotten it into his head that he can do it better than techniques developed from years of experience and advice, I m not sure that he'd be willing to listen to the voices of those of us who've been doing it for so long.

I did have a long chat after the con with some of the concom and they listened intently to everything I had to say and mentioned that they'd heard the wildfire rumors about the art show. They were totally horrified by what happened and vowed vehemently to fix the situation for next year. They also revealed that they would be moving into a much bigger hotel in two years that would give them twice as much function space. They promised to fix the art show problems totally, and knowing most of them as well as I do, I believe them. I will certainly be listening in on who they select to take over the job and how the particulars develop next year.

This could be a flash in the pan, but it did teach some very valuable lessons about being careful about covering the legal bases when filing out the paperwork. If you don't find it on the control sheet, then write it in! As to the matter of selling art all through the weekend at the Sunday sale prices, well, I daresay there are more than a few infuriated artists who would love to let him know just what they think of the whole mess.

I'm not giving up on Duckcon yet, simply because one guy goofed up big time. The concom truly care about their con and want everything to go well, and they invite anyone to write them with their concerns/gripes.

Well, I think that's enough for now... Ciao. Mary Lynn

PS - One other thing I did not mention was the explicitly sexual art that was in evidence this year. I have no problems with this form of art, but, I do strongly feel that it should be segregated in a special section of the art show and signs put up as to the content of that section. That way, parents can let their children view the show without subjecting them to the wide variety of fannish sexual tastes well before they are old enough to handle it.

I also have qualms about the graphically violent stuff but will admit that such material has been a part of the SF and F art since the genre began and is therefore to be expected In a con art show. Dramatically sexual content ebbs and flows and is a much more recent addition (In the last 30 years). "Debbie does Five Horny Centaurs" might very wel be a bit overwhelming to a five year-old. You don't even see that kind of stuff on regular TV, though it may come to that.

Midwest cons tend to be a bit more staid and less interested in the sexual material for the most part, though there is a niche market for homo-erotica that seems to do reasonably well.