panel report: Community panel. Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

[sinensis]

Sunday afternoon panels at the con tend to be (understandably) more low-key than the Friday and Saturday panels, but! This panel was small but mighty; I have rarely laughed that hard in any panel on any day at Escapade. It was exactly the Community panel that Aral and I hoped to have, I think, and I'm so glad that people came and talked and laughed and loved this amazing show.

We didn't take notes, because the discussion was pretty free-form, but some of the topics we hit were: main character arcs across the first three seasons, and how much we love the characters; the Dean; our Chang feels; the role of Pierce; whither the fourth season; and our favorite scenes and episodes (SO AWESOME).

I said I'd post something so that we'd have a central place where we could link to the things that were mentioned, so here it is--if you had a story, a piece of fanart or media that you talked about (or forgot to mention), please put it in a comment here.

Things I remember mentioning:

The characters cosplay when they go see the Avengers movie (fanart)
Troy x Abed Kiss (fanart) (click for high-res)
the Inspector Spacetime Confessions tumblr Fan macros about Inspector Spacetime--hilariously meta about fandom, must be seen to be appreciated.

I'm not sure if this got mentioned (or if it is already well-known to everyone), but this story, Advanced Ambulatory Ichthyology, has become my personal head canon for the "movie" part of "six seasons and a movie". If you read one Community story in your life, make it this one.

Your turn!

Pre-Post-Con Report

[adonnchaid]

The official Escapade pre-post-con report: initial charities and generosity

Escapade supplies remain unpacked and scattered throughout our living room, but we have accomplished the major feat of attending to the financial and artist-related details already. So here is a pre-post-con report to share the news and thank everyone for their kindness and generosity.

The Charities
Escapade charities include the Ventura County Food Bank, a breast cancer awareness foundation, and the Escapade scholarship fund. Over the last five days, attendees have humbled us with their generosity.

Food Bank and Breast Cancer Awareness
From the slash swap meet, the raffle drive, and the art auction, Escapades’ charities will receive an amazing ONE THOUSAND, SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN dollars. That’s $1,727, which is worth shouting about, isn’t it? Special thanks to NakedBee for knowing what people want to buy in a public place surrounded by their giggling friends. (May the buyer of the ZPM enjoy his lovely, er, art.)

The Sandy Herrold Memorial Scholarship Fund
The scholarship fund raised $140 from the swap table, and $90 was contributed to the scholarship funds by members on site. Wow. Just—wow.

The Projector
We received contributions to fund the projector purchase in the amount of $177, from people on site who just handed over twenties to people who remembered even after the con was over. The most recent gift was received through PayPal, with this note: “for the projector. which was cool.” We LOVE that the projector was cool, we’re thrilled about what the show(s) will look like next year in 16x9. Thanks to everyone for their contributions.

The Volunteers
Every year, we say that the con couldn’t happen without attendees who volunteer their time. Every year, we totally mean it.

Before the con, people like Dail store the ’zine library and make sure your emails get answered, while Misti goes to the bulk supermarkets, Ellie revises the web site on demand, Jo creates the vid show master, and De bakes cookies. On site, people volunteered to run the art show, staff the dealer’s room, chair panels, put on the vid show, help Misti cut vegetables, keep the con suite open, and make the new party that is the Escapade genius lounge. They also brought slow cookers and delicious food like chili, pulled pork, edamame salad, and meatballs. Those additions to the con suite offerings make it easier for attendees on tight schedules—or tight budgets. Also? TASTY.

Thank you, sincerely. All of our attendees rock, and the volunteers rock extra-hard.

The New Members
A show of hands at the Escapade closing panel revealed NINE first-time attendees, and that was just inside the room. Seeing all those new faces enjoying themselves and contributing to the overall fun of the con was phenomenal for us. They inspired us. Those attendees who brought new people brought wonderful gifts to the con: new people, new friends, new energy, and the kind of continuity that’s imperative to keep Escapade going.

Official actual post-con report
We will follow up this post with a more definitive post-con report, hopefully including specifics about panels (panelists, did you photograph your flip chart pages? If so, type them up or send them in!), volunteers, vids, plans for the future, and tentative dates for next year that we’d like your opinions on.

And oh, yeah—THANK YOU FOR COMING.

Charlotte and Megan