From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Bob Madle (1920-2022)
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2022 16:38:48 -0400 (EDT)

Ted White <twhite8 at cox.net> wrote:
> The current "First Fandom" organization is a sham, comprising as it
> does no actual members.

"Anyone who has engaged in correspondence, collecting, conventions,
fanzine publishing or reading, writing or participated in a science
fiction club for at least 30 years may be eligible for Associate
Membership."  So says http://firstfandom.org/, which also confirms
that Bob Madle was the last full member.

Keep in mind that when First Fandom was founded, the cutoff was just
20 years earlier.  Equivalent to someone being eligible today if
they were active in fandom in 2001 or earlier, e.g. if they attended
MilPhil, any Disclave, or the first Capclave.

But I'll agree that "First Fandom" should forever refer only to the
founders of fandom, just as the FCC's ham radio "grandfather clause"
(getting a license without passing a test) only applies to those who
were active in ham radio before 1918.  Ham radio's best-known old-
timer's organization is the Quarter Century Wireless Association, for
which, as its name implies, you only need to have first been licensed
more than 25 years ago.  In a few months I will have first been
licensed twice that long ago.  (I'm not currently licensed, so I'm
not eligible for QCWA membership.)

mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
> So, we should start a Fandom, the Next Generation?

For a while there were lots of numbered fandoms.  They seem to have
fizzled out with 8th or 9th fandom sometime in the late '50s or early
'60s.  I don't think any of them were formal organizations with bylaws
and dues.

Some pessimist could found "Last Fandom."  That would be in keeping
with the alleged inspiration for "First Fandom," Olaf Stapledon's 1931
novel _Last and First Men_.

That's one of my favorite novels.  It's only a slight exaggeration to
say that it goes from Socrates and Jesus to the present on the first
page, and then it picks up the pace.  But it remains the only novel
I've ever read that really gives a feel for just how long a billion
years really is, though lots of other SF novels have tried and failed.
It predicted nuclear power, space travel, and that a beloved British
princess would die at the hands of the French at about the time the
last WWI veterans were dying out.