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Volunteers, Former Senior Staff Boycott Ohayocon Convention


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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18191
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 12:22 pm Reply with quote
Wow, what a mess. I attended this convention a couple of times in the 2000s and might have gone this year if I had remembered that it was this weekend. Now I'm glad I forgot.
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SinisterOracle



Joined: 13 May 2023
Posts: 189
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 12:33 pm Reply with quote
It sounds to me like Melissa Phelps messed up repeatedly, as did plenty of others who were in positions of authority. This whole thing should be shut down until an independent investigation can be conducted, including financial audits of all previous years. If someone has been accused of financial malfeasance, then that’s the only way to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Kind of surprising the state would grant a non-profit status without these things. Hopefully sponsors and donors will ask the crucial questions and decide for themselves if it’s worth the risk. I hope the volunteers will ask this as well. No point working for someone who will abuse you mentally, emotionally or physically. Life is too short for that bs.
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The_Outsider



Joined: 09 Sep 2021
Posts: 35
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 2:27 pm Reply with quote
Why was their original logo a red cross anyway? And why was one of the concepts for the new logo an ECG line, like what is the connection here?
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PatrickD



Joined: 03 Dec 2003
Posts: 93
Location: California
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 2:44 pm Reply with quote
The_Outsider wrote:
Why was their original logo a red cross anyway? And why was one of the concepts for the new logo an ECG line, like what is the connection here?

Yeah, I really don't understand why they insist on having some sort of medical connection to their branding. Is it because someone decided the mascot should be dressed as a nurse and they don't want to dress her differently?
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2346
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 3:43 pm Reply with quote
........soooooo as someone who has worked as a vendor at this con, and is familiar with clique toxic behind the scenes enviroment......

WTF happened here. can we get a tldr please, because is longer then all the vic articles when his (do not derail this please and just leave it at this) highly likely bad behavior came to light.
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PseudoFiction



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 94
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 3:56 pm Reply with quote
PatrickD wrote:
The_Outsider wrote:
Why was their original logo a red cross anyway? And why was one of the concepts for the new logo an ECG line, like what is the connection here?

Yeah, I really don't understand why they insist on having some sort of medical connection to their branding. Is it because someone decided the mascot should be dressed as a nurse and they don't want to dress her differently?


I'd guess it is due to Ohio being roughly shaped like a heart. And a state slogan is "Ohio - the heart of it all".
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1208
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Tanteikingdomkey wrote:
........soooooo as someone who has worked as a vendor at this con, and is familiar with clique toxic behind the scenes enviroment......

WTF happened here. can we get a tldr please, because is longer then all the vic articles when his (do not derail this please and just leave it at this) highly likely bad behavior came to light.


"Please don't derail this" followed by "Highly likely bad behavior". Good bait. Rolling Eyes

But yeah, a tldr might be good. I was reading for like 10 minutes while at work and didn't even realize I was only 1/5 of the way through.
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1501
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 5:14 pm Reply with quote
I was planning on going this year with my sister, but she notified me months ahead of time about the boycott, which she was partaking in, so I nixed those plans. Guess Matsuricon '24 will have to do...
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Tenbyakugon



Joined: 11 Jan 2012
Posts: 791
Location: Ohio, United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 5:42 pm Reply with quote
Can I get a TL;DR? Because it really is and especially when the headline is just that people are protesting.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 02 May 2011
Posts: 2945
Location: Email for assistance only
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 5:56 pm Reply with quote
Can everyone take a moment and consider how much work went into this only for comments to be along the lines of "digest this for me." If this is a topic you care about, set aside time to read what happened and the necessary context to understand it. Bookmark for later. Or don't read it.
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SanguineSeagull



Joined: 19 Jan 2024
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 6:34 pm Reply with quote
Unfortunately I'm with the others on tldr.

Not only because it is long but because it is written more like gossip than a (anime) news article. The discord screenshots and the "he said she said" make for a very confusing read, and sentences like "...or, after a process that was exactly that—a process..." feel like editorializing, at best.
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 2261
Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 7:24 pm Reply with quote
PatrickD wrote:
The_Outsider wrote:
Why was their original logo a red cross anyway? And why was one of the concepts for the new logo an ECG line, like what is the connection here?

Yeah, I really don't understand why they insist on having some sort of medical connection to their branding. Is it because someone decided the mascot should be dressed as a nurse and they don't want to dress her differently?

IIRC, Ohaycon's tagline had been something along the lines of "the cure for the anime winter blues" so that's the identity they built and they didn't want to lose all of their brand identity at once.

Quote:
This whole thing should be shut down until an independent investigation can be conducted, including financial audits of all previous years. If someone has been accused of financial malfeasance, then that’s the only way to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Kind of surprising the state would grant a non-profit status without these things. Hopefully sponsors and donors will ask the crucial questions and decide for themselves if it’s worth the risk.

It's lovely that you think fancons are run similarly to more conventional types of businesses and organizations when in reality, only a couple of them are truly have something resembling a business-based culture.

And I think that's the heart of the matter: a bunch of non-professional people got put in positions where professionals normally would be, lacked the skills or mental acumen to succeed in those positions, and the fallout would be funny if it wasn't so enraging. While I'm usually for being anti-management just on principle, COVEN was formed either in bad faith or on misguided principles. The convention isn't going to bring them back, there's no legal options, and just the act of leaving was going to cripple them anyway (the number of conventions with too much staff is 0). Columbus is notorious for shows created by ex-staffers and disgruntled attendees; why couldn't they do that? All this is going to do is kill the local scene and end up hurting other shows throughout the industry who get affected by the stupid.
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Zimmer



Joined: 08 Jul 2015
Posts: 178
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 8:06 pm Reply with quote
ANN_Lynzee wrote:
Can everyone take a moment and consider how much work went into this only for comments to be along the lines of "digest this for me." If this is a topic you care about, set aside time to read what happened and the necessary context to understand it. Bookmark for later. Or don't read it.
Understanding the gist makes it easier to digest the whole.
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psipsy



Joined: 01 Jul 2005
Posts: 53
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 8:11 pm Reply with quote
Back in my day when we didn't like how a convention was run, we just didn't go to it and would start another one out of spite.
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redlegsfan21



Joined: 20 Dec 2006
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 9:10 pm Reply with quote
The TLDR is that the senior leadership amongst the volunteers didn't like the fact that a "non-profit" (quotes because it's not a registered non-profit) was created to take control of Ohayocon. The owners are mad because the volunteers changed the logo without permission. What follows are a bunch of accusations about lack of communication.
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