Tom Schaad presiding at Gilliland's.
IN ATTENDANCE:
Kim Weston, Joe Mayhew, Rosa Oliver, Michael Harris, Bobby Baum,
Elaine Mandell, Troy Farwell, Janet Lynch, Marti Wise, Bill Mayhew,
Linda Sweeting, Alexis Gilliland, James Turner, Bob MacIntosh, Chris
Callahan, Steve Smith, Sharon Harris, Dick Roepke, Victoria Smith,
Catherine Hanno, Judith Judson, Avedon Carol, Doll Gilliland, Kent
Bloom, Bob Oliver, Linda Melnick, Bill Berg, Regina Cohen, John
Sapienza, Barry Newton, Judy Newton, Martin Wooster, Ida Simmons,
Mike Tuchman, Mike Kozlowski, Beverly Brandt, Lee Smoire, Mike Walsh,
Tom Schaad, Marianne Petrino (and others).
The meeting was called to order at 9:16 PM. The Treasurer reported a balance or $3,541.54. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved.
COMMITTEES
ENTERTAINMENT: Look for Phileas Fogg and his trip around the world. The Annual WSFA Halloween party will be on the last Saturday of October (Oct. 25, 1980) and will start at 8:30 PM. Doll also asked the club to think about what weekend in December the solstice Dinner will be held- either the 2nd or 3rd weekend.
MEMBERSHIP: At the last meeting, 2 new members were taken in: Leo Sands and Craig Stanfill.
PUBLICATIONS: The new JOURNAL for October was distributed. Joe Mayhew will do the November JOURNAL, Marianne Petrino & Beverly Brandt will edit January's JOURNAL.
DISCLAVE 1981: No News yet from Isaac Asimov. Dates for Disclave are tentative only!
OLD BUSINESS
Joe Mayhew suggested that Bylaws 2 - 7 be voted upon at once as they did not generate controversy. The club accepted this and the motion passed with 27 yeas, 1 nay, and 3 abstentions. Since article I (Membership and Dues) had the most debate, 5 minutes were spent airing different views. At the next meeting the first article will be voted upon. The secretary was charged with producing copies of the new proposed 1st Bylaw and the old one for comparison. Also she was charged to find amendments made by the dissolved constitution committee.
NEW BUSINESS: Zip
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Meeting adjourned at 10:00 PM.
Alexis Gilliland, V.P. presiding at Berg's.
IN ATTENDANCE:
Joe Mayhew, Beverly Brandt Michael Walsh, Michael Harris, Sharon
Harris, Rosa Oliver, Bob Oliver, Alexis Gilliland, Victoria Smith,
Avedon Carol, Bill Tourville, Jack Heneghan, Bob MacIntosh, Lisa
Peoples, Bill Berg, Bianca Sanchez, Steve Stiles. Jeff Schalles, Mimi
Newcastle, Steve Smith, Elaine Mandell, Beth Goetz, Linda Sweeting,
Dave Hastie, Craig Stanfill, Troy Farwell, Janet Lynch, Newton Ewell,
Chris Callahan, Dick Roepke, Ralph Roland, Alan Huff, Ellen Caswell,
Tim Fedak, Doug Lewis, Lee Smoire, Walter Miles, Jane Wagner, Jack
Chalker, Eva Whitley, Somtow Sucharitkul, Linda Melnick, Pat Kelly,
Gary Oleson (and others)
The meeting was called to order at 9:17 PM. The minutes were not read due to the secretary's absence, Joe Mayhew took the minutes. The Treasury stood at $3,505.44.
COMMITTEES
ENTERTAINMENT: Remember the Halloween party, please bring "stuff" do not arrive before 8:00.
DISCLAVE: Beverly Brandt, registrar, is taking registrations = $3.00 for WSFA members until 2nd Friday in February when it goes up to $7.00 and again at May 1st, when it goes up to $10.00. Asimov has not yet replied.
OLD BUSINESS
The reading and discussion of proposed Bylaw Article I (Membership and
dues).
Action:
Section B=Passed 17 to 4
Section C=Passed 17 to 1
Section D=Passed 12 to 1.
Section A=Defeated 15 to 11.
NEW BUSINESS
The following proposed amendments to the Bylaws were made:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Beverly Brandt announces that she is: 1) Now taking Disclave memberships (WSFA $3.00, others $7.00); selling Avon Products, 3) Starting a Fanzine accepting Con-reports, movie & Book reviews, Short Stories, art work, any news that won't fit into the JOURNAL. It will be distributed at First Friday Meetings.
Adjourned at 10:24.
Naturally, from my point of view, the 6th World Fantasy Convention was an art show with rumors of other things going on elsewhere. Like the Noreascon II show, 6WFS's art show was a WSFA/BSFS production. Tom Schaad ran the Noreascon show - much larger but not a whit better! - and I, Joe Mayhew ran the Fantasy World Con, and with many of the same people pitching in. Bob Oliver and Walter Miles were my assistant directors. What that meant was that they did a heap of the actual running of the show. Bob handled the sales and registration and Walter was in charge of the setting up, dismantling and assignment of space to the artists. Some of the artists were surprised that they were actually dealing with them rather than me - surprised at first but I think it works out better when the people who have to do the work make the decisions which affect the work they do. So Bob and Walter were actually running their areas. Walter did the layout for the hangings and supervised their use. Bob, who has gotten to be better at such things than I ever was, did the bookkeeping and handled the money. They were helped, fortunately by a lot of generous people: Rosa Oliver, Larry Gelfand (who runs the Philadelphia Con art show very well indeed!) Cecilia Cosentini (who has run the Lunacon art show and is running the Hexacon show again) Janny Wurts, Kim Hutchinson, Sally Bensusan, Lydia Moon, Alex Stevens, Michael and Sharon Harris, Tom Miller and his wife Barb, Wilma Fisher, and a hoard of others who either volunteered or were pressed into service.
The Guest of Honor may have been Jack Vance upstairs, but down in the art show it was Boris Vallejo. Boris is a soft spoken Peruvian who looks like the rightful heir to the Inca Emperors. He brought 10 of his originals, which are rarely, it ever for sale. His sketches have gone for more than $1,000.00 each, so the fact that his pictures were NFS was only a formality. Rowena Morrill was the surprise of the convention. It was the first time she had ever exhibited at a Convention and the attendees were wowed by her delicate technique. Tom Canty was hanging next to Michael Whelan, which created a small bottleneck of fans. But Don Maitz (who won the Best Fantasy Artist Award) Carl Lundgren, Alicia Austin, O.Berry, and so many other of the top people in Fantasy illustration were there that I overheard quite a few people say that the 6WFS art show was the best show they had ever seen. Boris was one. He was genuinely impressed. I wish I could take the credit. All I did was crowd the best artists in the field into a very small and less than ideally lighted space. Most were remarkably patient. Some few groused. I tried to make them all work for their space.
My system is to get them there early and suggest that they all pitch in so that their stuff can get up that much sooner. It works fairly well, particularly since I give space out to those who help first. Then, when it comes to breaking down the hangings, I don't allow the art work to be given out until the hangings are down. That helps get it done very quickly. It seems a bit harsh, but we need the labor. O.Berry is a very fine artist. His work is often more than illustration and is just as much at home in Beaux Art shows as in Cons. He pitched in and worked like an immigrant for us. "O" it turns out is a name he earned as a squash player. It stands for "Orange" which is a reasonable description of his hair. He is so wholesome, handsome, and talented I would want to kill him except that he is so good natured and willing to pitch in and work that I'll have to take out my envy elsewhere. Like crushing Carl Lundgren's hand. Carl was generous enough to help us when we discovered that the rolling coat rack on which we were piling the pegboard (which seems to weigh tons), was held together by masking tape and broke while Bob and Rosa were loading it. Carl reached out to stop the pegboard from falling and was pinned in the wreckage. Fortunately it was his left hand - it wasn't cut or mangled, just bruised. That'll teach him to help!
Working Cons is the fannish equivalent of bowling, disco, or evangelical canvassing. We do it for fun, obsessive subconscious drive or guilt expiation. Walter, Bob and I put in a lot of hours planning the show before it took place. Some of it paid off. Some didn't. For example. I registered in the Hunt Valley Inn in advance. When I got there my room was cancelled. It seems that I was supposed to show up on Thursday and when I didn't they cancelled my room. I thought I had made registration for Friday and so ... but it has happened to you too...AHA! but I was one of the blokes who were running the show and like magic a (sorry we are sold out) room appeared. So Thank you Chuck Miller and the Hunt Valley Inn for straightening that out. I ALSO had to scream and throw tantrums to get a key to the art show. They change staff so often that they don't know what to do about what they solved easily the previous year. ANYWAY I curled up on the floor pounded my fists, screamed, held my breath, said naughty words and threatened to pee myself. In the long run, it worked, I got the key. When I was behaving respectable and adult they refused me the key, when I behaved like an irresponsible child, they gave it to me. Makes sense.
Facts and Figures: 94 artists exhibited a total of 663 pieces, but only 472 of them were for sale. The thrust of the Con and the art show was not the usual sales, but rather meeting and exhibiting for the publishers and editors who were there in droves. Still 38 of the artists made sales. 110 pieces were sold for a total of $6,533.00 or so. The most costly piece was Alicia Austin's "THOMAS RHYMER MEETS THE QUEEN OF FAERIE" which went for $575.00. O.Berry topped sales at $630.00 total. There wasn't much voice bidding and so most of the sales were for minimum. Jack Chalker told me to expect as much. The Saturday night auction lasted about 1 hour and 40 minutes, the Sunday morning one went on for about 15 minutes to sell (mostly for minimum) 29 bids which had been made during the hour and half the show was open that morning before the second auction. The piece which saw the most increase from its minimum bid was Tom Canty (Edward Tudor lookalike)'s Detail #5 from ATHEUM. It went from $20.00 to $125.00. It was a smaller show than I had expected, but it was mostly very fine work. I had advertised it, at Chuck Miller's request, as a professional only show. But when a few of the less-than-professionals showed up, and I had the space, I let them in. It is very embarrassing to be in a position to judge others work. I'll never do it again. Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller were very good people to work for. They were most supportive.
If you want to know about the rest of the con, you'll have to ask someone else. That would be easy for most WSFans. Lee Smoire ran registration, Charlie Ellis ran programming, Mark Owings ran the Film Program, and a bunch of others worked on the con or attended it. Mike Walsh ran the Dealer's room- I heard that there was 1 huxter for every 9 attendees.
Exactly when is Easter? Same weekend as Balticon. Oh. Thanks to the wild and wonderful calculations of the Pope, Balticon will be from Friday April 17 through Sunday April 19, 1981. Balticon is the only con I know of whose date is set in the Vatican. Fortunately, nothing else about it is. This year's Guest of Honor is JOHN VARLEY, who writes books for people who want more than pulp-T.V. or something to read themselves to sleep with. Robert Sheckley will show. So will Jack Chalker, Nancy Springer, Somtow Sucharitkul, and others.
Mike Walsh is the Chairman. He is also Chair of the Baltimore in 83 World S.F. Convention bid. Mike promises to let his Balticon be the kind which will clinch the bid tor Baltimore. There will be some changes this year in the con. The Art Show will be in the Hunt Room, and parlors A,B,C and D will be special program rooms, They along with the Valley Room, which will be the main program room, and the King's Pleasure - and other spaces, will allow for a more diversified program than was ever possible before. Clam Chowder, Linda Melnick, and others will be performing in the King's Pleasure (the King assures me he is pleased) and Balticon will have more than a few surprises in store even for the old, long-time fans.
Joe Mayhew is running the art show. It will have a much larger, better lit space than before. A lot of the artists who exhibited at the 6th World Fantasy Con Art Show have promised to show up for Balticon - including Alicia Austin (and perhaps George Barr!) The commission to the artists will be reduced to 10% and with the increased space that ought to provide for a tremendous show. In order to make the auction more manageable, there is a new system of qualifying for the voice auction. Items which receive only one bid on Friday or Saturday and then do not receive a second bid by the Sunday auction, will be available to the first bidder at the the beginning of the Sunday Auction. Those which receive their first written bid on Sunday will go into the auction as usual. This system will help shorten the 5 or 6 hours of auction which seem likely without it. The artists will benefit because the pieces which are actually competitive will have a fresher audience, the audience won't have to sit through so much dead air to get to their pieces. Jack Chalker and Joe Mayhew will be the principal auctioneers. There will be a special petite auction for items smaller than 5"x5". It will be held in the art show room in front of the special section set aside for 2D small items (Con badges, etc.) It is hard to see such items at the general auction and so we'll try to make it easier on those interested. The petite auction will be scheduled for Sunday Morning.
Cecilia Cosentini will be the featured artist in the art show. The Convention will also have a Guest Artist: Darrell Sweet. There will also be some art related programming. Ron Miller is working on a presentation by slides of how he works. He will photograph a piece he has been commissioned to do from start to finish.
Kathy Sands is doing the dealer's room. Tables cost $30.00 for the first and $50.00 for a second and only two tables to any person or organization. A membership is included with each table. Persons interested in the Dealer's room should send their checks, payable to BSFS, Inc. to: BSFS,Inc., Balticon Dealer's Room. Box 686 Baltimore, Md. 21203. Attn. Kathy Sands. Those who request specific space will be accomodated, based upon the date and time the request is received.
The room rate is a flat $32.00. Where (else) are the bargains of yesteryear? The Hunt Valley Inn would be a bargain at twice that. The Brunch served in the Cinnamon Tree is GOOD. GOOOOOOOOD. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
Marty Gear is coordinating a Masquerade for Friday night. It will be a competitive exhibition instead of a costume party. The entries will be judged and will require advance registration and preview. Entrants will have to register by 7:00 PM Friday.
You ask, what price glory? $10.00 in advance, only. Register early for the Con so that you can get a room in the Hunt Valley Inn. BSFS will send you hotel card and you should not let it cool off before mailing it. The rooms are a bargain, but there will be many souls left out like beggars in the rain because they dawdled.
Pat Kelly is in charge of the Science program, the Baltibus service, and a bunch of other things. Mark Owings, Edie Williams, and other WSFans are working on the Con. Bob Oliver and Walter Miles will be helping run the art show. It will be more good practice for Bob, who will be doing the Disclave show.
NEWTON EWELL OCTOBER 23
MICHAEL HARRIS NOVEMBER 5
JOANNA DIONNE NOVEMBER 5
CRAIG STANFILL NOVEMBER 7
BOB OLIVER NOVEMBER 19
JANE WOODWARD NOVEMBER 24
FORREST J. ACKERMAN NOVEMBER 24
ROSELYN ARCHAMBAULT NOVEMBER 29
MARTIN WOOSTER NOVEMBER 30
BARBARA JACKSON NOVEMBER 30
JANET PRATO DECEMBER 5
WAYNE DIONNE DECEMBER 5
MICHAEL KOZLOWSKI DECEMBER 12
JACK CHALKER DECEMBER 17
CHARLES GILLILAND DECEMBER 27
AVEDON CAROL DECEMBER 30
SOMTOW PAPINIAN SUCHARITKUL DECEMBER 30
JESHUE BEN JOSEF DECEMBER 25 (Trad.)
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
THE WSFA JOURNAL is the official publication of WSFA, THE WASHINGTON SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: WSFA SECRETARY, Marianne G. Petrino. EDITOR OF THIS ISSUE: Joe Mayhew. Correspondence to: [censored] Arlington, Virginia, 22204.
The following is reprinted from QUANTA, Vol 1, No. 2. QUANTA was WSFA's first publication. This issue is from March 1949.
It all began at the Philcon. Before the Philcon, I had never met any local fans except Mr. & Mrs. Dillard Stokes. I had no idea that others even existed. However, among all the other shady dealings that transpired at the Philcon, Russell Swanson, Bob Briggs, & I were introduced and decided that there should be a Science-Fiction club of some kind in Washington.
A couple of weeks later, (don't ask me for dates; I rarely remember them and they are not recorded) we three met on Ninth Street and conspired. We planned a meeting to be held in my basement room of the local fans whose names and addresses we had. The meeting was held the following Saturday evening. Those present included Mr. & Mrs. Ray Courtis, Bob Pavlat, and Chick Derry, in addition to us three. I must confess that there were fewer than seven at several of our subsequent meetings. Willy Ley, Groff Conklin, and the Stokeses expressed their regrets at not being able to attend. We seven decided a few things, such as time and place of meetings and a name for the organization. We were to meet every other Sunday at our present meeting place, and were to be known as the Washington Science-Fiction Society.
We progressed fairly well; we attracted some new and valuable members: Willy Ley attended a couple of meetings and once we had both Mr. Ley and Seabury Quinn. Then disaster threatened. Russell Swanson, who had been acting president, was discharged from the Army and left Ft. Myer for his home in Haddam, Connecticut sometime in December 1947. I found myself acting president, secretary, treasurer, publicity director, et. al. I won't say that I did my very best to keep things going--I won't say that the rest of us did. But school boys must go to school and study at nights; we working men must work eight hours a day, get our rest, conform to social obligations, etc.
In short, not enough of us had enough time to keep everything going as it should. Perhaps the inclemency of the weather contributed to our difficulties.
Perhaps we needed organization. Sometime in the spring, Russell made a return visit and asked Willy Ley over for an interview. We had a better meeting that time than we had been having. Among those present was a bespectacled gentleman from Alexandria. He seemed to be quite interested in WSFS, but little did I suspect the extent of his interest.
At the next meeting, Louis E. Garner, Jr. returned bright and early, full of plans and with a rough draft Łor a constitution drawn up. Before the evening was over, and before we quite realized it, lo, we were organized! Garner was president, Briggs was vice president, and I was secretary-treasurer. Legally!
There are some who think over-organization is staring us in the face, but I doubt it. Garner may be a bit too ambitious, but we can compensate for that. Just look what we have done. By the time you read this we will have put out the second issue of QUANTA. Our publicity is working nicely. We have made active fans out of many adamant Washingtonians.
And now what? How about conventions? Washington would be nifty for nineteen-fifty; and if not, how about Washington in 'fifty-one?
NOTE: A Parallel "History" was written by Bob Pavlat. Time and space have prevented its inclusion in this issue. F.K.
(From such roots... QUANTA folded, WSFS became WSFA.)