Authors and Others: Con or Bust Needs Auction Items
Posted on February 4, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 15 Comments
My pal Kate Nepveu reminds me that it’s time again for the Con or Bust auctions, which serve to help folks of color attend SFF conventions. The auctions are the main (and I think, only) source of funds for Con or Bust, so it’s good to have good stuff in them. Here’s a blurb Kate gave me about it:
Con or Bust helps fans of color/non-white fans attend SFF cons. It’s administered by the Carl Brandon Society, a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction. Con or Bust isn’t a scholarship and isn’t limited by geography, type of con-goer, or con; its goal is simply to help fans of color go to SFF cons and be their own awesome selves. And with the money from last year’s annual online fundraising auction, plus some donations from cons, over the last twelve months Con or Bust was able to help 25 different people of color attend cons 28 times (three people received assistance twice), which I am very proud of.
So: If you’re an author, or someone who is crafty/creative and/or happy to offer your talents and services, and you want to donate something to the auctions, now is an excellent time to do that. Here’s the page that tells you what you need to know about offering up something for auction. The auctions themselves will go live this Saturday, February 9.
(And yes, I’ll be donating something myself, namely, a signed ARC of The Human Division. So if you wanted one of those, here’s your chance. But this post is really more about other people submitting stuff for auction.)
So authors and creative types, if you’ve got something to donate, you know what to do. Thanks.
You can also join the Carl Brandon Society, which is the organization overseeing Con or Bust, but having scored an AMAZING passel of loot from Small Beer Press in a past Con or Bust auction I really can’t recommend this enough. Good cause + awesome stuffs = win/win.
Sounds like a cool concept, especially when funded by auctions! Everyone wins. I am curious as to their selection methods for who recieves assistance. Out of the entire US 3 people received two rounds of assistance and 22 received 1 round. Did only 25 people apply for help? If that is the case then having Mr. Scalzi point it out I bet you will have more applicants.
Ozzie, three things!
(1) Not limited to the U.S. Last year we helped folks from Australia & Canada, IIRC.
(2) I take requests for assistance on a quarterly basis, so that I can spread funds over the entire year–as John said, the auction is by far the largest fundraiser, and so I can’t just spend whatever I have on hand at the moment, or I’d run out before I started.
(3) If there’s not enough money in a quarter to meet all the requests, then I give priority to those who’ve been to cons less often and who’ve received monetary assistance from Con or Bust less often. There was only one quarter last year when I had more requests than I could fulfill, the April-June quarter when I had fifteen requests and was able to fund seven (five of which were for first-time-ever con-goers). That’s the quarter WisCon is in, for the curious, because Con or Bust originally started to send folks to WisCon. All the other quarters I was able to help everyone who asked.
I would be thrilled to get more requests! The period to request assistance for April-June cons is Feb. 15-25, and details are here.
Thanks for asking–I know that transparency is important and I’m glad to answer questions.
Kate-
Thanks for the response. That sounds like a fantastic charity and I appreciate the candid answers. I like charities that fulfill a specific need. It is also cool that you can help almost everybody who requests help. I look forward to the auction.
How do you plan on getting the word out? I ask because some areas, such as Indian reservations, are somewhat insular.
2 ounces (oz) butter or equivalent
4 oz light brown sugar
4 oz molasses
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1.5 tsp ginger powder
0.25 tsp cloves powder
4 oz water
2.25 cups cheap white flour
1 oz fake egg
1 tsp potassium bicarbonate or equivalent
0.50 cups chopped up crystallized ginger
–
Bake as for cupcakes.
–
–
This gives a butterscotch ginger bread cupcake that I’m certain
would be better with lemon ginger icing on.
(Burp, I haven’t gotten as far as the icing).
Do note that the mouth feel of the product mostly is from how the
“butter or equivalent” behaves after the cake is no longer to hot to scarf
down.
–
Uhm, 325 for fifteen minutes?
No.
12 minutes, here.
Your bake ware and oven may vary.
Jason Day, Con or Bust is on various online social media type things–Twitter, Tumblr, LJ (there are links to all those in the sidebar of the main webpage, I don’t want to overwhelm this post with links). I’m also contacting some cons to ask if they’ll donate information or spread the word, hopefully in their mailings as well as online. If you have other suggestions for outreach, I would be delighted to hear it.
Shawn T, that sounds delicious; are you offering a batch for auction, or did you perhaps mix up your browser tabs? =>
Additional notes. Use a liquid grease, or liquefy the non liquid oil.
Be prepared for how that will mess with the leavening’s behaviour.
Baking soda and potassium B. are 1 for 1 subs.
IIRC, baking powder is about a 2.25 sub for 1 of baking soda in
white flour without egg recipes, but do not trust my memory.
Is it possible to donate $$ to the cause, if you don’t have anything to donate to the auction?
Kay, absolutely, with either a credit card or a PayPal account, through PayPal. (Or you can buy a T-shirt! Or donate a con membership, if you have one you’re not using or you’re with a con.) Here is the page with the link to donate.
I am in the process of downsizing my physical book collection. I’d really like to donate it to a convention, fan group, etc., who could sell it to give money to such a cause…so if any such fan group in the New Jersey area would like to work with me to rid me of many books, please let me know.
[Troll is obviously trollish — JS]
The generosity of the SF/F community never ceases to amaze. Love this. I just put up a signed galley copy of my debut up for auction. Thanks for promoting this, John.
Kate Nepveu:
Uh, I, erh, the, uhh, re uhh cipe?
I uh Oh yeah! That’s the ticket! I meant the recipe! Really,
I did. Sell the recipe!
That is BTW, a recipe for no added sodium low fat no*
cholesterol gingerbread.
A recipe that works, and tastes good to me, who may have
some burnt out tastes buds from eating to many jalapenos.
Oh, crud.
Now I’m not sure whether I’m being serious.
SDT
*no ch. if the oil you choose has none, which does not, duhh,
refer to cholesterolgenic stuff in the oil.
Actually, woodworkers and such are aware that most people
don’t have fifty thousand to spare for a rose burl veneer bed-
room set, and so make very pretty five and ten dollar things.
At a show, they tend to sell quite a few of the twenty buck
things and no made to order black walnut dining room sets.
–
A few prints of a muffin recipe priced at a buck or two could
well allow several thousand somebodies to pay a buck or two
for proof that they wuz there.
–
Kristi (sp) approved and burped of by J. would be good.
Okay? And?
Please tell me to fuck off because I really don’t want to do
do anything.