Welcome to MNCBA SpringCon 2025: From Geek to Volunteer
by Matt Walkosz, MNCBA Volunteer Coordinator
“Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, ‘Where have I gone wrong?’ Then a voice says to me, ‘This is going to take more than one night.’” – Charles Schulz, Peanuts, July 15, 1994
Welcome to MNCBA SpringCon 2025. Last fall, we made our triumphant return to the Grandstand, and now we bring the “one day wonder” back to the Education Building.
My first comic convention was the MCBA Spring MicroCon back in 2008. At that point, I was your stereotypical awkward quiet geek; just two years out of college and not much money to spend. For hours, I wandered about the floor. I dug through the cheap bins and didn’t really strike up conversations with anyone.
Honestly though, I must have had a wonderful time, because I was back for the next show in the fall. Then every year afterwards.
Over the next decade, as I spent time waiting in lines or milling about the long boxes, I started talking to people. I found other collectors who shared my love of comics; who wanted to discuss comic history or share a friendly competition to see who got the better deals. Vendors, artists, and volunteers started to know me as a regular.
I felt like I was a small part of a large local community.
In late 2022, the announcement came that SpringCon and FallCon were ending. I was devastated. Where else would I find so many treasures or regularly see all my fellow comic nerds? Then a couple of months later, I received a surprise call from Steve, a past volunteer who I had gotten to know. The MNCBA was reforming and there was an opportunity for me to lend some expertise with the marketing efforts.
At my first planning meeting, I was unsure how much help I could be. The group of seasoned volunteers welcomed me, listened to what I had to say, and made me feel like part of the team. Several months passed with long dull meetings setting the foundations for the new organization.
MNCBA SpringCon 2023 was my first experience behind the scenes of a convention. There was no training. No way for me to truly prepare for the madness. Setup was a mess of flinging tables and trying to find tape
