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In short: ECCC uses unpaid volunteers to run their convention (just as SDCC does). But the group suing claims that this violates Washington State Labor Laws. If this case wins, look for it to change the landscape for paying volunteers (or not) at other cons as well. And if volunteers must be paid, look for ticket prices to increase.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
Interesting. I wonder if labor law is the same in California, and if Comic-Con would fall under the same rules since they are a non-profit.Also, childish, but the typo of ReedPop to ReedPOOP in the second paragraph made me chuckle.
If I had to guess:* maybe in CA non-profits/volunteers are different than WA* is ECCC run as a non-profit by non-profit or is it like other conventions where it's run as a for-profit? That would be a HUGE difference from CCI & Comic-Con; in CA for-profit businesses are prohibited from 'employing' volunteers, while non-profit are able to 'employ' volunteers legally. This could be all the "argument" needed in this case* it's possible CCI can claim that a Comic-Con badge = payment for volunteering and thus no $$ compensation is needed (and very part-time volunteer shifts would mean not enough financial compensation to even remotely mean tax paperwork is necessary)* I suspect that CCI is pretty on top of things with labor law in CA; they've been at this for a long time, and at it at a high level of exposure for a long time - they almost certainly have everything legally copacetic with the amount of money at stake
Also, childish, but the typo of ReedPop to ReedPOOP in the second paragraph made me chuckle.
Ok. This may sounds nuts but...What if this push to pay folk that were volunteers is being fostered by the major for-profit conventions to force out the smaller conventions that are loosely put together and run for the love of organizers? Many small cons that I have been to are neither officially non/not-for-profit, nor for-profit. Many don't break even or just barely. If the smaller conventions are forced to pay wages, then many will not survive.
The behemoths that are for-profit can survive --AND they may become the only conventions in the area.
I agree that most conventions don’t make a big deal out of whether or not they are a non-profit or for-profit (certainly the for-profit ones don’t, but many non-profits don’t really either). But officially, it’s more black & white--either it’s a non-profit or it isn’t.Not necessarily. Sac-Anime, a nearby anime convention, is not really a behemoth (their attendance is 20,000...but were smaller before) is a well-run, reasonably priced convention that has always paid its workers.
It might just force them to officially register as non-profits. It's a few extra steps but frankly they might as well just do it. They're already putting on a con and dealing with a ton of logistics, this is just one more thing. And it might even save them some money on insurance - some companies have special rates for non-profits.Edit: And some already are - I just checked Gallifrey One, because I know they're relatively small and fan-run, and they are already a 501(c)(3) not-profit, according to their webpage.
I went to look at their website as I wanted to reference their model. If I am looking at the correct convention website, what I see is that Sac-Anime does have unpaid volunteers, though they do get convention benefits. I couldn't figure out how to insert a pic so here is the link: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login