February 1990 ISSN 0894-5411
President Erica Van Dommelen called the meeting to order at 9:14 pm at Kent and Mary's house.
Secretary passed a journal out.
Treasurer said dues are due: $25 with Disclave
There is $4722.52.
Trustees: Steve Smith got a new member to submit: Larry Baker is our new victim.
Disclave Present: Eva not here. Joe Mayhew is doing the Disclave program book. He wants memories of Disclave con suites from past Disclave attendees. He plans these memories to take up 1 to 2 pages in the book. Covert Beach said we have 260 Disclave memberships as of now.
Disclave Future: Peggy Rae sent letters to her first choices for Writer and Artist Guests of Honor. Peggy Rae also has a timeline of events, which will be printed in a future journal, if anyone is interested.
The committee to spend large amounts of money on something incredibly expensive and extremely controversial didn't report! This may be controversial!
Entertainment: Air and Space Museum has free Friday SF movies.
MEETING PLACE CHANGES!!!!!
1st Friday--Gilliland's (VA)
3rd Friday--Gilliland's (VA)
1st Friday--Gilliland's (VA)
3rd Friday--Heneghan's (MD)
5th Friday--Still Open
1st Friday--Gilliland's (VA)
3rd Friday--OPEN!!!
1st Friday--Kent and Mary (MD) ELECTIONS
3rd Friday--Kent and Mary (MD)
Discussion Committee: Mary Morman, the chairfan, reminded everyone of the 10 pm meeting, with a report by George Shaner. At some point, he'll give a typed copy of his report to the secretary and it will be in the Journal.
New Biz: Nothing
Old Biz: Nothing
Announcements: Erica has a new car, a burgundy Horizon. Dolly Gilliland is recovering well from outpatient cataract surgery. Lee Strong and Susan Cohen recommend "Glory." We all recommend "Henry V."
Meeting adjourned at 9:39 pm
ATTENDANCE: Dale Sharrick, Peggy Rae Pavlat, George Shaner, Barry Newton, Meridel Newton, Judy Newton, Larry Baker, Shawn French, Steve Smith, Dick Roepke, Matt G. Leger, Winton E. Matthews, Jr., Keith W. Marshall*, Joe Mayhew, Covert Beach, Paul Parsons, John T. Madigan, Irv Koch, Alexis Gilliland, Dan Hoey, Dick Lynch, Michael J. Walsh, Lee Strong, Pam Smith, Jim Edwards-Hewitt, Terilee Edwards-Hewitt, Sheryl Birkhead, D. B. Mongo, Nancy Loomis, Matt Lawrence, Jack Heneghan, Kate Terrell, Andromeda Huff, Adrianna Terrell, Alan Huff, Jonathan Clark, Mary Morman, Linda Melnick, Jim Tracy, Robyn Rissell, D. B. Burgess, Kent Bloom, Bob MacIntosh, Susan Cohen, John Randolph, Erica Van Dommelen, Rachel Russell.
*New phone number: (301)261-0354
Just when you thought you'd heard everything about global warming, here's some more news that may surprise you: exposure to ozone at levels found in urban areas can cause damage to condoms. As the study stresses, proper handling of condoms to protect them from exposure is crucial to avoiding breakage during use. Although ozone protective treatments are used in some rubber products, this is apparently not the case in condoms. In general, though, most condom packages provide adequate protection against ozone damage, which ironically is due in large part to over-population.
Outlook, March 1989
Tom Schaad presiding.
The meeting was called to order at 9:18.
Report from the Treasurer: We have $4667.52. 1990 Dues are Due!
Disclave past: not here.
Disclave present: The hotel had signed the contract for Disclave by December 8, 1989. There will be fannish origami (folding Disclave flyers) at the first Friday meeting in February.
Disclave future: They have talked with the hotel. The hotel's sign says Sheraton, but they answer the phone as Howard Johnson's. The con met with them in November. Peggy Rae Pavlat says there is a possibility of using a new hotel. The con would like a hotel contract by April.
Worldcon in Chicago in 1991 has raised their rates.
Rebecca Prather has her one-owner '68 Dodge Dart for sale. It has a 318 cu. in. V-8 engine, and 90,000 miles. Call (703) 534-2274. Near 7 Corners.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:36 p.m.
Terilee Edwards-Hewitt, Jim Edwards-Hewitt, Joe Mayhew, Dick Roepke, Daniel B. Burgess, Matt G. Leger, George Koelsch, Dick Lynch, Bill Jensen, Mel Scharadin, John T. Sapienza, Steve Smith, Peggy Rae Pavlat, Dan Hoey, Vicki Lynch, Sheryl Birkhead, Rebecca C. Prather, George Shaner, Bob MacIntosh, Covert Beach, Kathi Overton, John Pomeranz, Michael Enoch, Tom Schaad
The Wonderful Terilee Edwards-Hewitt took these notes and wrote this episode of the Journal, while I was at Hexacon! Thank you Terilee!!!
Minutes for the Committee to Discuss Science Fiction, third Friday in January.
Participants: Mary Morman (chair), George Shaner (secretary), Paul Parsons, Lee Strong, Dick Roepke, Irv Koch, Mat Leger, Larry Baker, Shawn French, Dan Hoey, Mat Winton, Walt Miles.
The subject for the initial session of the Committee to Discuss Science Fiction was alternate histories, the previous session to discuss Mike Resnick having not gotten off the ground and will instead be held in May just in time for Disclave.
If there was any matter that the meeting revolved around in particular it was the notion of how much one can actually alter history and have something recognizable or whether the "momentum" behind any movement in history can be altered by changes in personalities. The problem is that most alternative histories are concerned with personalities and that history tends to get driven by economic, technological and, to a lesser extent, ideological/religious developments. This is ironic if Irv Koch's point is true that we're "deluged with fantasy people who don't buy progress" (and who write most of these books in his view) and don't accept science as the wave of the future.
It was also generally accepted that the way most of these details get dealt with is by the mechanism of having history split-off leaving you with a timeline where, say, Jesus Christ is crucified and one where he is pardoned and so on and so forth. Mary Mormon observed in relation to a Gwynneth Jones novel(?) called Witch Week there was a tendency for things to go "back to the norm" though it really wasn't discussed what was the mechanism that could account for this.
There was also discussion about how valid these fictions were when there were anachronistic aspects to them. Lee Strong pointed out that in David Brin's "Thor Meets Captain America" that there is a reference to "beatniks" but that could not be as the word was a take-off on Sputnik and that in this story of a World War II dragging into the 1960s there was no Soviet space program. There was also a brisk argument between Lee and Irv over the value of S.M. Stirling's "Drakia" books about an alternative South Africa that goes on a binge of conquest that Irv defended as good alternate history and that Lee felt suffered from bad characters, bad economics (the U.S.S.R should be stronger), and bad social-psychology (people don't enjoy being slaves).
Related to this is the notion of books based on no longer accepted historical interpretations. George Shaner observed that few historians took seriously a threat of Japanese victory as occurred in Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle and Mat Winton observed that 1984 was an "alternate history" that never came to pass but this line of discussion never really got off the ground.
Apart from some questions of what it takes to make a good alternative history and whether the market forces one to deal with "crises points" such as the American Civil War the meeting ended with a brief consideration of what were three must books to read and three to avoid. We didn't get it down to three but Lest Darkness Fall (L. Sprague de Camp), The Man in the High Castle, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (H. Beam Piper), The Dragon Waiting (John M. Ford), and Bring the Jubilee (?) came up as picks. Grey Victory (?), The Aquiliad (Somtow Sucharitkul), and Marching through Georgia (S.M. Stirling) came up as misses (the misses all courtesy of Lee Strong).