Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 22:47:35 -0500
To: WSFA List <wsfalist at wsfa.org>
From: Elspeth Kovar <ekovar at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Correction
Cc: lee gilliland <leeandalexis at hotmail.com>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

[To follow the policy of Full Disclosure that newspapers follow, yes, Keith
is a friend of mine.  I am trusted to be objective enough that since I got
involved in Worldcons I've usually had the responsibility of handing out
suites at there, and that I'd do so honorably despite any biases that I
might have personally.  Believe me, suites are in short supply and there
are good ones and ones that aren't as good, plus people wanting rooms
nearby.  Pulling this off well requires absolute trust in my ability to be
objective.  I apply the same objectivity to this matter.]

Folks, and I include Alexis and Lee as I'll send them this as a cc.

I just received a copy of the memo that Alexis handed out at the first
Friday meeting (I hadn't seen it because, like the rest of the Capclave
chairs, I was at the World Fantasy Convention and, not having heard
anything about the meeting despite several requests to officers, finally
asked around).

The correction is that I was the person who offered to cover Ted's
membership in WSFA and asked Keith if he'd be willing to ask Ted as he sees
him every day.  I wanted Ted to be a member solely to simplify matters;
there seemed to be some confusion about WSFA's unwritten policy of always
welcoming guests.  Since Ted hasn't bothered to be a member in some years,
not liking business meetings but regularly coming for the conversation with
folks, including Alexis, his status was in limbo.  It was certainly *not*
an attempt by me to force Ted to return to the Gillilands; his attending or
not was entirely his own choice and I had no idea.

Keith asked him, without mentioning who the offer came from.  What I didn't
know was that Keith planned to pay for it himself in thanks for Ted getting
him a job.  Ted agreed, at which point Keith told him who was paying for
the membership (and later told me).  I have no idea which trustee would
sign off on it but assumed that it could be any one of them (and Bob
accepted the membership as he would have anyone's who met the criteria,
which Ted did).  Barry also had no idea of any of this; he was simply the
person handed the membership to sign off on and, to the best of my
knowledge, has no love for Keith or Ted.

And to the best of anyone's knowledge the prospective ban had already been
dropped anyway, so that wasn't an issue; it was done because it was simpler
than amending the constitution again, this time to address the many
visitors we have.

To reiterate:

It wasn't done by Keith; Keith had no thought of it until I asked him if
Ted might be willing to become a member to simplify things; Ted had no idea
of any of it until asked if he'd be willing to be a member to which he
readily agreed without knowing the issues; Barry had no idea of that Ted
might become a member until asked to do his job of trustee; Bob accepted
his membership as a valid one.  There was no plot: If anyone wants to be
annoyed at anyone they should be at me since it was entirely my idea.

I'm sorry that it upset things but it just never occurred to me that the
hosts needed to be notified that an attendee was becoming a member.

It also didn't have anything to do with the WSFA list: that, like WSFA
meetings themselves, is designed to be open to anyone.  I mean, for Pete's
sake, what would our biweekly gatherings be like if there was always a
censor reviewing everything that was said before it could be heard?  The
only difference between the list and the meetings is that everyone hears
all the conversations.

And yeah, the "outcry" at the Third Friday meeting wasn't an outcry, it was
simply a discussion.  It certainly wasn't calculated: several members of
WSFA, not including Keith who'd resigned from WSFA entirely, had decided
for their own reasons to no longer attend meetings at the Gillilands.  For
that matter, none of them were even at Third Friday.  (And, of course, for
obvious reasons, none of them were at the meeting where this memo was
handed out.)  That matter was raised at the Third Friday meeting but as a
discussion of options.

As an aside, yes, Erica 'banned' someone from WSFA meetings because the
people involved were unwilling to oversee their child or to arrange for
someone else to do so.  Dan and I didn't have to deal with them because the
child was still quite small then: the only problem we ran into was a used
diaper in the trash can reserved for recycling.  (According to the person
in question Alexis also called her and said that she was no longer welcome
until she or her husband took responsibility for her child: unfortunately
the Gillilands are the people she holds responsible but for the most part
she's gotten over things, just sniping now and then.)  Had we still been
hosting WSFA meeting when the child was older we'd have had issues over
what to do.

They weren't banned.  They were, however, told that they wouldn't be
welcome at WSFA meetings unless they worked out a way to keep their child
from destroying the property.

So this part of things is indeed a tempest in a teapot.  Obviously Lee and
Alexis weren't aware of why and how Ted became a member.  That was only due
to the lack of knowledge, the same state that everyone else was in.  Ted
finally joining WSFA appeared to be a minor enough matter that it never
occurred to me that it might be taken this way.

As I said if there's any fault it's mine.  I'm not defending anyone else:
I'm taking responsibility for something that I did.  If there's any blame,
it's to be laid on me.

----------------------------------------

An update on Fribble, my cat, which is what I started to write about: after
spending the time that I was at WFC at the hospital, with many phone calls
from me and between me and a friend who dotes on her, they've put her onto
a different regime that requires shots rather than pills.  It's amazing:
not only is she doing so much better as to be back to her demanding self,
she's no longer running away from me every time I approach her.  It seems
that shots are much more acceptable than pills.

You can't imagine how this has changed my life.  Having one's cat so sick,
and running away even if you were just coming up to pet her, is *not* a fun
place to be.

Elspeth