Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 02:01:04 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>, WSFAList at KeithLynch.net
From: Elspeth Kovar <ekovar at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Capclave Still Happening
Cc: mike.nelson at seahunt.org, leeandalexis at hotmail.com,
    macbuccfo at msn.com, ccah at earthlink.net, jtsapien at bellatlantic.net,
    jekindell at aol.com, Bungalow at radix.net,
    Michael Walsh <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>, scpierce at alum.mit.edu,
    elizceleste at mindspring.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

At 11:39 PM 10/13/02 -0400, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>Once again I'm CCing WSFAlist.  Is there any particular reason others
>aren't doing so?  Is any of this supposed to be secret from most WSFA
>members?

Not that I'm aware of.  As far as I know Mike Nelson, the Chair of Capclave
2002, asked that you as the web master to post a notice on the WSFA and
Capclave pages saying that we're still holding the convention and that
people should keep an eye on the web site for any last minute changes in
plans.  He cc'd the officers of WSFA and the rest of the committee as a
matter of course.

At a guess Michael was being careful and allowing for all
contingencies.  As he is, to the best of my knowledge, out of town and only
has sporadic email contact I haven't had a chance to ask him directly to
verify that but he is a conscientious chair and posting such a notice is in
keeping with that.

>I'm puzzled by the implication that P.G. County asked Lee Gilliland
>to cancel Capclave.  Lee is not a contact person for this year's
>Capclave.  Where would they have gotten her name?  It's not on
>our website or flyers.  And, as Elspeth points out, the con is in
>Montgomery county anyhow.  If Lee has received such a request from
>either county, has she forwarded it to Michael Nelson?

I believe that Lee was speaking in general terms about the fact that
various officials in both PG and Montgomery county have told people to be
careful.  Her wording, which I won't quote here as she didn't post it
generally, could have been more clear and so I asked her for further
information and, in case there was something that I wasn't aware of,
discussed some of the ramifications.

I doubt that she has received direct communication from any of the
municipalities.  Not only is she not, as you said, a contact person but she
would have mentioned it.  My uncertainty was primarily based on the
possibility that she was aware of a news report that I wasn't, although
there is some chance that she had received such a communication and hadn't
stated so directly.  So I asked her and cc'd the others on the list of
recipients.

I didn't post any of this to the list because, quite simply, it didn't
occur to me.  And if it had I quite possibly wouldn't have done
so.  Certainly I wouldn't have done so without talking with the others
involved in a private email discussion first.  As you said in your earlier
post:

>IS there any possibility that Capclave, which is now less than a week
>away, will be canceled?  Or that anyone anywhere would think that it
>might be?  If not, I don't think we should make any mention of the
>possibility.  It would be like an airline pilot spontaneously telling
>his passengers to remain calm and that everything is under control.

To the best of my knowledge and everyone else's everything *is* under
control and there's no reason to be anything other than calm.  People not
from this area might think, as they did after September 11 and the tornados
of last year, that we were considering cancelling and thus it is the
responsible thing to do to say something on the website to the effect that
we aren't.  In short -- although I'm tired and thus being far more wordy
than I'd like, for which I apologize to all:

There was a message to the committee and to WSFA officers about an addition
to the website stating that we are holding Capclave next weekend and that
people should check the website this week in case of any change in
plans.  Such change in plans could be anything from the hotel flooding to
Patrick Stewart making a last minute appearance.  I don't think that this
is making "any mention of the
possibility" that Capclave might be cancelled nor is it "supposed to be
secret from most WSFA members".

If people are concerned about things being kept secret can we talk about it
after Capclave, not now?  I don't know about other folks but I've had a
really rough couple of weeks -- I'll make an announcement at First Friday
-- and besides, I'd prefer to focus on getting flyers to bookstores and
last minute details with the hotel.

>In the unlikely event that the sniper shoots a Capclave member, I
>can't imagine that they or their survivors would sue *us*.  Has anyone
>been suing gas stations, Michael's stores, schools, etc.?

The first statement about liability was about the county governments making
certain that they couldn't be sued.  I replied parenthetically and, I
thought, humorously, that it was something that we didn't need to worry
about: if someone sued us either we would lose and be bankrupt or we'd
defend ourselves and be bankrupt.  It hadn't occurred to me that anyone
might take such a comment seriously.

FYI: I have my mail from the WSFA list sent directly to my WSFA folder and
since there are a couple of messages there that I hadn't read yet wasn't
aware that there was new mail, planning instead to get to it when I had
time.  While I do try to check the list regularly if I hadn't been asked
off list about your posts it might have been Tuesday or later before I was
aware of them.  I have re-added Michael Walsh, Sam Pierce, and Elizabeth to
those addresses deleted since I don't know their mail reading habits either.