Hey all. I wrote this piece about The AZBrowncoats time at LepreCon 36 back in May, and am now just posting it. Happy reading!

5/1:

At the AZ Browncoats shindig prior to LepreCon 36, I acquired the fan table supply box and display board from one of our members, Jenn. She had already posted the online Browncoats volunteer sign-up sheet for our fan table at LepreCon. 5/13, Thursday night: Prepare the fan table box. I emptied its varied contents onto my bed to see what would be needed and what would not as to make the box lighter. A while ago a thought had popped into my mind to purchase an understated yet sturdy stand with which to properly display (show off, That’s right, we got an award, Nah nah nah!) our group’s New Times award for “Best Geeks With A Cause” plaque.

I gleefully headed over to my local Aaron Brothers and found the perfect stand. I had also wanted to label several of the items in the box as property of the AZ Browncoats. With the help from my dad and his trusty label maker we did just that. I also thought it would be a good idea to place the several table-sized exotic fabrics we have into bags for protection (and being the label freak that I am, the bags are labeled, albeit with a Sharpie), as well as our New Times award. Friday morning/day: I had planned to arrive at the hotel early enough to have had the fan table chosen and set up by 10am.

Ah, the best laid plans. I live in Phoenix and LepreCon 36 was taking place at the Phoenix Mesa Marriott in Mesa, about 20 miles from my house. I knew there were weekend freeway closures but I failed to realize the closures were during the day. For some reason, I thought they were only at night. I learned the frustrating way they were all weekend, all day. I arrived at about 10:20am, and three of my fellow Browncoats were already there, David, Lisa, & Raymond, looking for me. We found each other, walked into the hotel/general con area and choose to set up our fan table right outside of the Dealer’s room. There were only two other groups there that day besides us, so we decided to set up using two tables.

Eh, why not? Lisa, our newly elected treasurer, thought of and smartly set up on a noticeable corner of one of our tables an enticing coin drop game to attract passersby. Each denomination of coin, from penny to dollar coin, had its own prize, from candy to small toys. All monies earned go to AZ Browncoats fund for our Sept. CSTS 2010 charity event. The coin drop was set up each day and over the weekend it earned us just over $24. Lisa also brought along with her a Firefly/Serenity themed word search she had created about three years ago. She was in the process of editing it and gave me a copy to work on.

Towards the end of the day, Jenn came by to round out the end of our table time. We had our table set up until about 6ish. The con traffic was fairly light being that it was a work day. All those who came by had indeed heard of ‘Firefly’. They had either been lucky enough to have seen the original broadcast or have since watched the DVD. Most had seen ‘Serenity’. Some had heard of and/or seen ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’. Saturday: Browncoats Jenn and Liz started out our fan table for the day. They choose the same location right outside of the Dealer’s room, but decided to have only one table instead of two set up. Saturday proved to be a good people traffic day. Lots of folks stopped by our table.

I came by to start my table time at 1pm. I brought along Lisa’s word search from the day before. I was working diligently on that thing. One of LepreCon’s main guests was author George R. R. Martin, and a few of our Browncoats are big fans. Raymond and Tisha got a chance to have a few choice books signed. They were also kind enough to log in some table time. While I was working on Lisa’s most challenging word search, a young kid who was attending the con with his dad came up to the table peddling his pencil drawn artistic abilities for $.25 a picture. How could I resist? I asked him to draw the two Wash dinos, T-Rex and Stegosaurus, we have on our table. Within minutes I had fantastic hand drawn pic of a stegosaurus and a T-rex, signed and dated. Throughout the day other various Browncoats stopped by the table to say Hi; Marg, Kevin, Randall, and David Ramirez.

We packed up the table between 5-6pm. Before the con day had ended, I managed to finish Lisa’s word search with some help towards the end ;) Sunday: I got to the con around 10am and set up our table. Not long after Lisa and Raymond arrived to help staff for the day. Lisa was kind enough to fill in for Lori who had unfortunately fallen ill (she’s feeling better now :).

Over the course of the weekend, several of us were able to take a gander at the Dealer’s room and as a result, many of us ended up chatting with and purchasing items from the Little Vampires booth. This booth was run by artist Rebecca Hicks and her husband James. They came out from San Diego and were pretty much awesome. Sunday’s foot traffic was understandably lighter, but everyone who took the time to stop by our table was fully aware of and seemed to be fans of ‘Firefly’. Most of them expressed strong disappointment in its cancellation.

A LepreCon official was kind enough to stop by the table to ask us how things had been for us over the weekend, which of course was good. All in all it was a successful weekend for the AZBrowncoats. Got the word out about our group, our monthly shindigs, our September CSTS event, and got to meet some marvelous new folks. Looking forward to some fan table time at our next con :)