I have been following with some interest Ian Thal’s reports from the recent TCG conference in Boston (Part I is here, Part II here, with a Part III promised at some point), and these have been generating some dialogue lately on Facebook and Twitter. I believe that the misunderstandings he reports were largely due to miscommunications between TCG and the local committee arranging volunteer staffing, but often enough miscommunications and misunderstandings arise from organizational dysfunctions. Ian’s experience may or may not be a symptom of a deeper institutional dysfunction (and the Twitter and Facebook opinions about that differ quite wildly), but that very question makes it of note.

Diane Ragsdale’s recent Jumper post entitled “When did being pro-artist make one anti-institution?” is not directly related but also ably and evocatively discusses institutional dysfunction. Though I won’t be writing about it at any length here, having different fish to fry, I do comment briefly there.