From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: rehash of mundanes VS fans
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 18:46:42 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:21 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: rehash of mundanes VS fans

[...]
>
> A more rational measure might be what percentage of SF fans actually go
to
> cons and become part of "fandom"?  Those are folks we might potentially
> manage to include.  We aren't likely to attract those who aren't
interested
> in reading SF to start with.  What things might fans who aren't currently
> in fandom find interesting at a con?

Historically, this puts the cart before the horse.  SF fandom began as
*correspondence* -- for the most part; in-person fandom could be found only
in the largest cities, primarily NYC and LA -- and quickly became dominated
by fanzines.  There were only a couple hundred fans, spread over the entire
English-speaking world, so they maintained contact by mail, and a fanzine
reached more fellow fans than single letters could.

We got to know each other that way.  The first conventions were set up in
order for fans who "knew" each other to meet, face to face, for the first
time.   And then to get together again, annually.   (I was an active fan
for three years before I sought out WSFA.)   Our conventions were like
family reunions.  (Some still are.)   They didn't exist to attract new
fans; they existed for the benefit of existing fans.

This is of course no longer true.  Worldcons are big circuses, which
typically cost between $100 and $200 to join and will then cost each
attendee another $1,000 or more in transportation, lodging and meals, and
their members perforce know only a tiny fraction of the other attendees.
The pros no longer come as fellow fans of SF; they are there to be lionized
and to do deals with each other and with editors (their conventions are
tax-deductable business expenses).

There are no "fans who aren't currently in fandom" (unless you mean those
gafiates who have left us).  Being in fandom is the definition of "a fan."
The only definition, in fact.   Perhaps you are talking about incipient
fans.

--Ted White