Follow-up to AnachroCon report

This is important enough that I feel the need to post about it here. I wish I'd known about the situation ahead of time so I could have canceled my membership to AnachroCon and not attended after all.

Apparently the convention has had a long-term, known issue with one of its co-chairs making inappropriate advances to women on staff and attendees. He has also violated the terms of the convention's weapons policy. He was instrumental in the refusal to set up a harassment policy for the con.

For a good overview of the situation, please read this article at Steampunk Chronicle.

The person in question has stepped down. It's infuriating, however, that he was allowed to act this way for years without repercussion.

The Artifice Club has renounced all participation with AnachroCon until major changes are made. (That's how I learned about this, from an Artifice Club tweet.) While from the Steampunk Chronicle article it does look like the con plans to conform to the Con Anti-Harassment Project, until and unless it does (and does so in good faith, with concrete measures in place to stop harassment before it becomes an issue and deal with complaints promptly and appropriately), I will not attend AnachroCon again or recommend it to friends.

Last year I put my name down as someone who would follow John Scalzi's Convention Harassment Policy. I wish I had remembered to check the AnachroCon site for a harassment policy--or its lack. From now on I'll remember to do so and plan my con attendances accordingly.