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The WSFA Journal October 2007
Adrienne Ertman, Editor Official newsletter of the Washington Science Fiction Association Comments? Contributions? Contact !
Contents September First Friday Minutes (Adrienne Ertman, Secretary) The New Office of the WSFA Journal (Adrienne Ertman and Lee Strong) September Third Friday Minutes (Adrienne Ertman, Secretary) Library of Congress Dinner (Colleen Cahill and Ernest Lilley)
WSFA September 1st Friday Minutes (Sept 7, 2007) Meeting called to order at 9:18 PM. Minutes read and approved by the club.
Treasurer's report: $12,445.14 in checking.
Capclave Present discussed the concom's hotel walkthrough; the biggest concern is the availability of the restaurant by con time (October). Con chair Colleen Cahill talked about plans for using the rooms now and in future. What CapClave really needs now are: 1.) Volunteers to oversee the silent auction on site, and 2.) MEMBERS. So tell all your friends to come!
Colleen also announced that Jeffrey Ford has given permission for CapClave to put his short story "A Night in the Tropics" on the con website. Sam Scheiner also needs volunteers for the con, including for Friday morning dealer's move-in. Setup will start at 9:30 or 10:00 AM, so please contact Sam if you're interested. Sam was asked about volunteer positions that need to be filled (gophers, con suite, dealer's room, con security?); Lee Strong said he will volunteer to be one of the "strong men". Cathy Green reports that programming is moving along; seminars are getting organized, and about a third of the programming spots have been filled. Catherine Valente will not be able to attend, but about 50 people are signed up for the workshops. Cathy is excited about panel assembly; the "Harry Potter autopsy" was a very popular on panel participant responses. Colleen adds that the Guests of Honor will interview each other Friday night; on Saturday night there will be a "formal dress optional" reception honoring the GoHs and celebrating WSFA's 60th anniversary. The Small Press Award winners will also be announced at the reception. Bill Lawhorn reports rooms still available in the room block for Thursday through Sunday. We can count members who are not in the block, if they get a better deal outside the block. Bill is also looking for people who plan to hold parties, and people willing to buffer for parties. Several people asked about parking; it should be possible to park at the metro for free on the weekend, but commuters may need to pay for Friday parking. Barry Newton reported 154 members as of First Friday. Webmaster Paul Haggerty asked Cathy about workshop information; that's still a work in progress, so the webmasters were off the hook for posting it to the CapClave website.
Capclave Future had no report.
Capclave Far Future also had no report.
Datclave posted a trip report to the WSFA-forum group on Yahoogroups; the major point discussed at the business meeting was hotel arrangements. Quoting from that report:
Our number one choice is the Eisenhower Hotel, Conference Center and Resort. (www.eisenhower.com) It is located on Business Rt. 15, about half way from the nearest exit off of US 15 to the Maryland border and the center of Gettysburg. The lobby is impressive and opens to into cabana area with a pool & jacuzzi that is year-round because of a retractable roof. All rooms on the first floor have sliding doors that lead directly into the pool area. Free parking. Quoted cost are $80 per room and $110 for the suite, but they also stated that deals will be made if we are booking 8 to 10 rooms, such as the suite being free of cost. They are willing to negotiate with us. The staff we met on Saturday were nice, even though the entire Gettysburg area was plagued with tourist and a soccer tournament, the latter impeding the committee's ability to see all suites and rooms at all the properties. The lone negative to the Eisenhower is that the only restaurants nearby (mile or so) are those on the property.
Our second choice is the Hotel Gettysburg. It is part of the Best Western chain, but owned by Gettysburg College. (www.hotelgettysburg.com) It lacks a pool but has a jacuzzi in most of its rooms. The suite we saw was quite comfortable. It is located in the center of town, with shopping and eating steps away. It is a bit more pricey than the Eisenhower with quoted room rates of $109 and the suite at $139. However, if we get 8 to 10 rooms, we might be able to negotiate the rates downward a bit. The one negative is that parking is at a garage at $8 a night.
The cheap choice is Comfort Inn. (no specific web site but can be accessed through choicehotels.com) This property is located on US 30 about half way from downtown and US 15. It has a pool and suites, but lacks anything distinctive. It looks like any of the other Comfort Inns built in the last decade. Quoted rates are $65 for the rooms and $80 for the suite. Other than a Perkins, restaurants are a car ride away. The Comfort Inn offers continental breakfasts to its quests.
Sam Scheiner moved that DatClave II be held in the Eisenhower hotel for February 29 – March 1. This was seconded, and passed with may "ayes" and no "nays". Colleen Cahill asked we can start booking rooms, and how many room nights we can expect to fill. A show of hands suggests that a room block of 10 room nights would easily be filled.
Entertivities reported fantasy writer Medeleine L'Engle's passing; reminded members that the Maryland Renaissance Festival season is on us, and recommended the pub sings; and reported on the fall television series. NBC will be showing The Bionic Woman. New shows Journeyman, Reaper and Pushing Daisies were also mentioned.
Publications reported a delay in the August / September WSFA Journal. The Awards committee stats: 35 stories submitted from 11 magazines and four books. 13 people were nominated by 12 editors and one author. Of the submitted works, 15 stories were nominated by one or more judges; seven stories got two or more nominations. The eight finalists were chosen from this pool. The winners will be announced at CapClave, but the committee remarked that Mike Swanwick, Jeffrey Ford, and K.W. Jeter did not make the cut, possibly showing the effects of blind voting. Twenty votes were counted, plus two invalid voting attempts; a clear winner was evident. Twenty-two is not sixty percent, so our fearless club president did not make cheesecake for the club. It was noted that 54% participation is better than some Presidential elections, so go WSFAns who did read and vote.
The Committee to Actually Discuss Science Fiction planned to review parts of the September Asimov's.
Trustees had no report.
New people: WSFA welcomes Christopher Gildenmeister and Sandra Marshall to their second meetings.
In old business, Cathy Green is still trying to contact John Pomerantz about the club incorporation status. Colleen Cahill reminded WSFA about the dinner with SF/F authors Holly Black, Terry Pratchett and Harry Turtledove following the Library of Congress book fair. Dinner will be at 6 PM at Tony Cheng's Mongolian Barbecue in Chinatown. Contact Colleen to get in on the dinner reservation. Colleen also wants to remind attendees that this is a dinner, NOT a signing, so don't bring a stack of books for their signatures. This is our thank-you event, so please make it as pleasant for the authors as possible.
No new business.
Announcements:
Bill Lawhorn read a list of the top ten reasons to vote for Peggy Rae's House to hold the 2010 Worldcon: 10.) Peggy Rae's 2010 potential for exponential fun. 9.) There is no way it will win, so you can vote for it! 8.) Why not? 7.) No bid should be uncontested. 6.) No kangaroos crashing the Consuite. 5.) If anyone could host it in their home, it would be Peggy Rae. 4.) The Aussies aren't throwing enough bid parties. 3.) The look on John and Peggy Rae's faces when they win. 2.) The look on the Aussie's face when they lose. 1.) The Sapienza's were planning to add on anyhow.
Will Frank suggested WSFAns would be interested in catching the premiere of Beauty and the Geek Season Four, airing on the CW at 8 PM on September 18th.
Madeleine Yeh announced a bookshelf free to good home; Mike B. called dibs.
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Gayle Dixon presented WSFA with six bottles of bottled WSFA wine, and suggested club members would be interested in Right Outside Your Door: "$9 for the movie, $40 for the duct tape."
Gayle Dixon's wine with WSFA logo and dodo. Picture taken by Sam Scheiner. |
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Sam Scheiner quotes S.I. Hayakawa: "Only the psychotic and the gravely neurotic act out their irrationalities and their compensatory fantasies," Hayakawa wrote. "The trouble with selling symbolic gratification via such expensive items ... is the competition offered by much cheaper forms of symbolic gratification, such as 'Playboy' (fifty cents a copy), 'Astounding Science Fiction' (thirty-five cents a copy), and television (free)." [Full quote dug out of http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/09/the_quality_of_products_matter.html after the meeting.)
Matt Appleton announced the 12th issue of his fanzine Some Fantastic (http://somefantastic.us/).
Meeting unanimously adjourned at 10:05 PM. Attendance: Matthew Appleton, Mike Bartman, Drew Bittner, Colleen Cahill, Gayle Dixon, Adrienne Ertman, Will Frank, Cathy Green, Christopher Gildenmeister, Paul Haggerty, Bill Lawhorn, Bob MacIntosh, Sandra Mashall, Sarah Mitchell, Kathi Overton, Barry Newton, Judy Newton, Judy Scheiner, Sam Scheiner, Steve Smith, Lee Strong, Gayle Surrette, Michael Walsh, Ivy Yap, Madeleine Yeh
The New Office of the WSFA Journal Pictures and text Lee Strong, text Adrienne Ertman |
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From: Lee Strong
Clockwise from left: the latest in desk accessories; new Freon-free mini-fridge model; developments in ergonomic desk chairs. |
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On left: authors and organizer. Left to right: Holly Black, Colleen Cahill, Harry Turtledove, Terry Pratchett. On the right: WSFAns Cat and Drew Bittner with Holly Black. Pictures courtesy Ernest Lilley (www.sfrevu.com)
Links of interest: Capclave 2007: http://www.capclave.org/ Discworld Convention 2009: http://www.nadwcon.org/ National Book Festival: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/ WSFA www.wsfa.org Holly Black's webpage: http://www.blackholly.com/ Terry Pratchett's webpage: http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/ Harry Turtledove's webpage: http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/turtledove.html |