Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 12:01:53 -0400
From: Ted White <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Beyond a Great Con...
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Michael Nelson wrote:

>  --- Ernest Lilley <elilley at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> > Dear WSFAns...especially those that helped put on the Con...and
> > most especially Mike Walsh and Elspeth.
> >
> > <parts snipped>
> >
> > Job well done. I'm looking forward to next year.
>
>  Thank you, Ernest. I also enjoyed this year's Capclave, except when
>  the fool who was doing the program guides screwed up [that was me,
>  for the joke-impaired].
>
>  I'm really looking forward to next year's Capclave, which will be
>  even better than this year's Capclave if we can all work together and
>  help each other.
>
>  Which brings me to a plea I wish to make. Please, please, please!
>  This WSFA family feud is tearing us apart. Some very harsh things
>  have been said. People are staying away from meetings due to the
>  ugliness of the whole situation. Please step back and consider how
>  much you are hurting WSFA. Try to raise above common mundane
>  pettiness and acknowledge that a silly little e-mail joke got
>  seriously out of hand.
>
>  THE MEMBERS OF WSFA DO NOT WANT TO BE FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THE
>  TWO COMBATANTS! Please settle your differences and make WSFA whole
>  again.

It was more than a joke getting out of hand.  The joke simply revealed
the tip of a large iceberg.  And that iceberg is the behavior and
attitude of one person -- WSFA's loose cannon.  Either this attitude and
behavior is curbed (which seems unlikely) or WSFA needs a new Virginia
meeting place.  She cannot be allowed to dictate, on her own personal
whims, who is and who is not welcome at WSFA.   As an anciliary, she has
been spreading false and malicious stories about other WSFAns for a
period of *years* now, and this latest episode is apparently the final
straw for some of us.

--Ted White