Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 17:56:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: WSFA & money
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

"Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu> wrote:

> Ah, when I cut & pasted from the WSFA page into Novell GroupWise
> they were rendered as black vertical bars, which I replaced with
> the hyphens.  My bad for not double checking the original source.

No, my bad for using wonky quote marks.  I don't want to make the
online WSFA Journal look 1% better to some people if it means making
it look 90% worse to others.

> Do we wish to continue to support Capclave in this way, or should we
> try to grow it,

I'd like to see it grow to the same size as Balticon and the largest
Disclaves.

> or cut back on expenses (which might be a little difficult since I
> suspect the expenses are pretty bare to the bone).

Where *does* the money go?  My first Disclave, 24 years ago, cost
me $4.  And that Capclave made a profit, despite serving free beer.
Prices of most things have roughly tripled since then.  So why isn't
it possible to put on Capclave for $12 a head?

> If asked, I would have thought that Capclave 04 was comping the
> worker bees of last year.

I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one who didn't get the word.

> As a club, I think it is a good thing for the membership to pay
> annual dues.  They're not that onerous.

Certainly.  I wasn't suggesting that I, or anyone, be exempted from
dues.  Or even that we be comped for Capclave or SMOFcon.  Merely that
we not have to pay more than we would have paid on day one had we
known we weren't being comped.

(Of course if someone else wants to make a motion that we be fully
comped, I won't object *too* loudly.)

See you in a few hours.