Last year I volunteered to format the program book for DucKon... silly me. I told the ConChair that I needed stuff in a reasonable amount of time to turn the book (50-ish pages) around, 3-4 days including passing back and forth to people to proof-read. It wasn't much to ask for, I thought. Well... I'm sure you can guess where this story is going. I finally got the bulk of the info and called ConChair and asked when the drop-dead date for the printer was. She said she didn't know and I should call the printer. So, I called the printer, and they said the next morning. <sigh> Being best-friends with the ConChair has its down-points, and this was one of them. About 9pm that night I got to work, and worked through the night and into the next morning and got the program book done and off to the printer. And swore I wouldn't do that again.

Well, I'm sure you can again guess where this is going. I said I'd do the program book again this year, but no way was I staying up late to do it, so they'd better get stuff to me in a reasonable time-frame. My date to have program book done and off to the printer was May 20th, and guess what? Today (the 24th) I got the stuff that makes up the bulk of the book (the info for the programming tracks) with a note saying the stuff wasn't totally set and updates would be coming. Which would have been a start, except it's missing vital stuff that I was pretty sure I told ProgramChair I wanted (at least I thought I told him) which isn't hard to pull off his database, after he gets back from work tonight...

This wouldn't be a huge deal, except I'm going to be gone Friday thru Monday, and I have a ton of stuff to do between now and then.

But this year I'm standing by my guns. I emailed the ConChair, ProgramChair, and other poor schmuck who's proof-reading and told them to pick the word-processor they wanted me to use because they were going to end up doing the final edits. I'll start on it, get done what I can, and the rest is their problem until I get back... maybe they'll learn. <snort> Yeah, right... I think maybe they'll end up finding a printer with a shorter lead-time. Ahhh... the joys of an all-volunteer organization.