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Phoenix Comicon's Matthew Solberg Resigns From Blue Ribbon Army, Announces Public Meetings Over Volunteer Controversy - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News
Phoenix Comicon's Matthew Solberg Resigns From Blue Ribbon Army, Announces Public Meetings Over Volunteer Controversy - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News
Bleeding Cool has covered recent events at the upcoming Phoenix Comicon regarding the definition and treatment of volunteer staff at the show. Namely that they'll be required to pay for the privilege. On one hand this will sort the devoted from the scammers, on the other, by going through a volunteer organisation, the show will be indemnified against dealing with taxes and the like.
The backstory: Authorities in the US have recently stepped up enforcement of regulations intended to keep for-profit companies from exploiting unpaid labor. Phoenix Comicon tried to find a way around this by "partnering" with a fan organization and only using staff from it. Unfortunately, the effect on volunteers was that they now had to pay $20 to volunteer, and it's still not clear how legal the arrangement was.
As the letter explains, the for-profit comic con model is becoming untenable in the US. They can't afford to pay staff properly and still afford the big celebrities and keep their prices at current levels.
This isn't the death knell for fan conventions, though! Lots of them, including the big comic con in San Diego, are run by nonprofits.




Looks good. But it's "Look but don't touch."