MINUTES OF APRIL 3, 1981 WSFA MEETING
Tom Schaad Presiding (at Gilliland's)
The meeting was called to order at 9:25 PM. The minutes were approved as read and the treasury stood at $2,730.05
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Membership: Tom Sweeting joined at the previous meeting.
Entertainment: GilliStout was in the refrigerator and Doll is
checking out a theater party for the movie EXCALIBUR.
Disclave 81: 63 Dealer's tables have been sold. Films include:
THE JUNGLE BOOK, PLAY IT AGAIN SAM, SINBAD, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER
MITTY, BELL BOOK AND CANDLE, and mebbe CAVES OF STEEL.
Disclave 82: Elizabeth Lynn has been asked to be G.O.H.
Publications: The April Journal was out.
OLD BUSINESS:
The Trustees proposed the following slate:
President: Alexis Gilliland
Vice President: Bill Berg
Secretary: Beverly Brandt
Treasurer: Bob Oliver
Trustees: Rosa Oliver, Regina Cohen, Bob Lovell. (other nominees will
be accepted from the floor)
The Treasurer read the list of those who were not current in their dues.
NEW BUSINESS: none
ANNOUNCEMENTS: 1) Lee Smoire will be throwing a Baltimore in 83
party in Australia. 2. Joe Mayhew noted that Empirecon's room rates
were too high ($50.00 single) and that MINICON's Art Show Flier was
the silliest he's seen. 3) Pat Kelley says that LAUNCHCON is GO for
April 10. 4.) Martin Wooster reports that Isaac Asimov will lecture at
Md U on April 16, 1981, Tickets were $3.00. 5) Bob Lovell was surprised
to discover that he was listed as Guest at World's Beyond Con in October.
6. Sharon Harris is now a Free-lance artist.
7. Jack Chalker's latest is: FOUR LORDS OF THE DIAMOND 8. Mike Walsh
announced that the Hunt Valley Inn was sold out for Balticon.
9) Jane Woodward will be home for Disclave!
10) The Next meeting will be at BALTICON.
Adjourned at 9:55 PM.
MINUTES OF APRIL 17, 1981 at BALTICON
Tom Schaad Presiding.
The meeting was called to order at 9:07 PM. The Treasurer was slaving in the Art Show and arrived late - hence no report. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved.
COMMITTEES
Membership: Michael G. Thompson, Mary Louise Engel and Heather
Bryden joined at the previous meeting.
Entertainment: No party for EXCALIBUR so far, Doll will check
out the K-B Crystal.
Publications: The voting rules for the May election were
distributed. Copies of the new Constitution and Bylaws will be
available at the 1st meeting in May.
Disclave 81: 67 tables sold to huxters, 281 memberships.
Paramount will preview DRAGONSLAYER and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
Disclave 82: zip
OLD/NEW BUSINESS: zip
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1) The DC Theater has a Nuclear Mutant Film Festival this weekend. 2)
Jack Heneghan says there is a con this weekend! 3) Baltimore in 83 is
throwing simultaneous parties around the world: AUSTRALIA (Lee Smoire)
ENGLAND (Judy Newton) CALIFORNIA (Ron Bounds) and MINNESOTA (Bob
Lovell) 4) There was a Baltimore in 83 party downstairs.
And so, the meeting adjourned suddenly at 9:19.
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THE WSFA JOURNAL is the official publication of the Washington Science Fiction Association. Editor in Chief: Marianne G. Petrino. This issue was done by Joe Mayhew, club scoundrel and power-behind-the-throne, emeritus. Address all correspondence to: Marianne G. Petrino-Schaad, [censored], Arlington, Va; 22204 Phone (703) 979-9478
The names listed on this page are those still on the WSFA roster who owe back dues. Before they can vote, they must pay the amount of back dues listed after their names. Those who owe for the entire previous dues year who do not pay for this quarter will be dropped from the register. Once dropped, an ex-member no longer can simply pay back dues to be re-instated, but must re-join WSFA under the rules of the new constitution. Those who are not presently current in their dues, nor exempted from dues, and who are not listed here are no longer members of WSFA.
Fred Bauer $4.00 Mark Owings 1.00 Andy Beekin 4.00 Don Pauley 4.00 Judith Blinn 2.00 Lisa Peoples 1.00 Steve Brown 4.00 Jan Peugh 4.00 Dennis Carroll 4.00 Janet Prato 1.00 Avery Davis 2.00 Dick Preston 4.00 Philip Davis 4.00 Janice Preston 4.00 Rich Deglin 2.00 Bill Quick 1.00 Joanna Dionne 1.00 Irene Reddick 4.00 Wayne Dionne 1.00 Scottie Robinson 4.00 Bruce Dixon 4.00 Ralph Roland 4.00 Newton Ewell 2.00 Ken Roseman 4.00 Troy Farwell 2.00 C. Sheffield 4.00 Carol Fowler 4.00 Lee Smoire 1.00 Eric Hamill 2.00 Carole Stoddard 1.00 Robert Harrison 4.00 Paavo St. Denis 4.00 R. Higinbotham 4.00 Peter Theron 3.00 John Huff 4.00 Edie Williams 4.00 James Jenkins 1.00 Morgan Woodward 1.00 Tom Joll 4.00 Susan Santo 3.00 Dick Jones 4.00 Tom Davy 3.00 David Kaplin 4.00 Ray Ridenour 3.00 Mike Kurman 2.00 Erwin Strauss 3.00 Jack Lechner 2.00 R. Archambault 3.00 Kevin Lockwood 4.00 Jeff Scott 3.00 Nick Loter 4.00 Barbara Jackson 3.00 Walter Miles 1.00 Katherine Hanna 2.00 Bruce Miller 4.00 John Rubins 3.00 George Nyhan 4.00 Dan Joy 2.00 John Epperson 4.00 Lisa Wahl 1.00
The dues for the 1980-81 year's membership is $4.00, for the 1981-82 club year it has been raised to $5.00 if paid in one payment, or $6.00 if paid by quarter. Under the new constitution, a member is liable for all back dues and is automatically dropped from membership after the lapse of a full year's dues.
by Joe Mayhew
EXCALIBUR has received mixed reviews, partly because the reviewers have not been ready for its peculiar combination of fantasy and absurd humor. If the viewer is willing to relax and simply laugh when something is funny, instead of demanding that everything be dead serious and heroic, the viewer will find EXCALIBUR to be a first rate film.
Visually, it is a sort of moving Frazetta, with the same wonderfully over-blown imagery and color. There is no attempt whatsoever for "historical accuracy". I heartily agree with the film's concept - that it is a myth and therefore outside time. The armor is heavy plate, which came in about the same time as gunpowder, and went out about the same time as the invention of rifling. The costumes are a wondrous mish-mash of periods and cultures - who cares, the result was a thoroughly intriguing vision.
Nicol Williamson's Merlin is at first disconcerting. His lines are not delivered with great pomp and dignity. Instead, they are tossed off, said obliquely, spoken in a deliberately foolish tone of voice. The concept seems to be that magic is absurd and mad, but powerful.
Just when the film should get sappy and sententious, Merlin drops in and screws it loose again. He is not a cheap comic character, instead, he is a holy madman, quite aware of his own absurdity and the hopeless nature of the world. He did not sigh with despair, he found victory and plucked it from the rubble of madness.
The film seems a bit heavy in its theme of mythical earth cycle symbolism. But it doesn't get in the way of what is a wonderful romp through the mythopoeic. Mallory's Mort D'Arthur was a high romance with no awareness of nature myth in Arthur at all. This film has more in common with the Golden Bough than with the Medieval Romance. Even Sir Percival is taken from his prissy Christian Saint role to became a sort of avatar of Odin, the hanged man, who gains wisdom.
When you go to see this film, do not let your pre-conceptions push you around, leave them outside and let EXCALIBUR take you away with it.
The Balticon 15 art show was not officially a WSFA project, but it could well have been ( Just like the Noreascon II show!) An awful lot of WSFAns were involved. Joe Mayhew was Director, Bob Oliver was Manager, and Walter Miles was registrar, and Bill Quick, Sally Bensusan, Kim Hutchinson, Tom Schaad, Jack Chalker, Michael and Sharon Harris, and lots of others pitched in. That was typical of the con, which had a lot of other WSFAns running it: Mike Walsh was chairman,- read the latest WSFA address list for the others. Somewhere around 2200 attended. Did anyone miss it?
While there were some problems with the hotel management, the front line staff were very patient and cooperative. Balticon probably should move from the Hunt Valley Inn, as it has clearly out-grown it.
The art show was given new quarters for the 1981 con: the 50x75 Hunt room was the perfect size and location for the show, well lighted, secure, and right next to the program room (shades of old Disclaves). There was a ramp leading directly into the room from the outside, and so Bob Oliver could drive the hangings directly into the room. Continuing the long tradition of cooperation between BSFS and WSFA, the WSFA hangings were used together with those of BSFS. Bob Oliver was in charge of putting then up, and starting very near to 12:00, he had the show ready to put in art by 2:45 - I hadn't expected it to be open until 4:00!
I had brought with me some 156 pieces mailed to me by 16 different artists - the usual is no more than 30 pieces. It was at first frightening: would we run out of space before 9:00? Actually, every artist who brought pieces got them up.
163 artists entered the show bringing the total of exhibited pieces to 1275. 118 artists made sales at the show: 427 pieces (about 2/5ths of the show) sold, bringing in a total of $15,917.50. Balticon's cut was $1,355.55, as a 10% commission was charged to all but the Guest Artists. 128 pieces were Not For Sale, so the number of pieces available for bidding was actually only 1147.
Vickie Wyman made the most sales at $996.00, but 12 other artists made more than $300.00. Thirty items said for more than one hundred dollars, but Vincent DiFate's WORLD IN THE CLOUDS topped sales at $602.00. The largest bid increase was my chess set CON GAME, which went from a minimum bid of $1.00 to $275.00.
Even with the requirement of 2 bids to get into the Saturday night auction, there were 3½ hours of pieces which qualified, Jack Chalker and I struggled valiantly with the help of Phil Foglio to do it in the 2 hours alloted, but it didn't happen. Sunday morning we still had 1½ hours to do before we could get to the new bids. Tom Schaad did the Sunday morning 11:00 "petite" auction, and Walter Miles did the bookkeeping for the whole shebang. His crew of volunteers did a magnificent job. Sunday's Auction lasted a numbing 3 hours. There is a limit to human bottoms. As the green paper padding is gradually removed from their pockets, the chairs seem to become much harder and harder.
Presently I do not p]an to run any more art shows, but I'll be glad to help anyone who wants to do it. Bob Oliver will be doing the 1981 Disclave show and I can't think of a better choice.
George H. Scithers (past president of WSFA), Dave Hartwell (Pocket Books), Ellen Datlow (OMNI) and Hal Clement judged the show and the following awards were given: Best Fantasy Scene: Journey to Aprilioth by Steve Hickman, (Hon.) Asgard by Mark Rogers; Best Fantasy Creature: THE ICE DRAGON, Alicia Austin (Hon) THE CONAI #2 by Michael Whenal, Best Published Work: CAMELOT, Carl Lundgren, (Hon) THE ORPHAN by Don Maitz; Best Unpublished Work: The 1st Highwayman and Gaffer Gamgee by Steve Hickman, (Hon) Elf Encounter by Harold Jig, Best 3-D work: HOMO OVIS DALLI by Roger Pollak, (Hon) Come on, Spot, we don't have all day! by Paul Yurek (I cleverly exempted ny chess set so I could give that as an excuse for not winning!) Best Astronomical Art: NITROGEN SEA ON TITAN: by Ron Miller, (hon) VOYAGER'S SATURN: by Joe Bergeron.