Is it High School All Over Again?

Ah... High School. I'm sure the majority of fen remember those so-called glory days very differently than the former cheerleaders and jocks. It was during those years that many fen found themselves gravitating towards one another out of common interest and survival instinct. Most young fen weren't invited to the “cool” parties and found being bullied to be the normal experience. Those fen who weren't bullied and/or were popular were the exceptions, not the rule. High school was not a pleasant time for most fen.

We've created the exact same, painful, hierarchy within fandom. We call our cheerleaders and jocks, SMOFs. I'm not talking about the local organizers of small events and conventions. For this discussion, we will call them smofs. All caps will be reserved for our problem children.

I have spent many years involved in the local general fandom scene and in national genre specific fandom. The more I stick my nose into the national and global general fandom scene, the less I like it. From my fellow fans I've heard horrible phrases like, “We have to pick the obnoxious guy with money to represent us, because the SMOFs like their egos stroked in person.” or “If you offend the SMOFs, you tank your chances.” This should sound all too familiar to many fen, bringing back horrible adolescent memories.

What this has caused is stagnant and repetitive general fandom. If you want to find anything truly exciting or attractive to the young people, you have to go to that other evil... corporate America. Unlike the SMOFs, corporate America realizes that the fen are customers with money in their pockets. Those customers want stuff and if you give them their stuff, they will come and spend their money. This is why cons like DragonCon, SDCC, and NDSK succeed.

Hello SMOFs, I'm ready to offend you in the name of saving non-commercial general fandom. Get off your collective asses and stop lording your gray haired “traditions” over fandom. If you don't want to host the last generation of non-commercial general sf cons, you need to open up. You need to let the young people in and sweep the dust bunnies out. Make your identities and decisions known to the public. The reasons for those decisions also should be known. I don't ask that you let the peanut gallery make the decisions. That's disastrous. Just be transparent.

When making your decisions, don't base them completely on your own desires and interests. Take a good look at the whole body of fen out there. Think seriously about what the majority of them want. The fen ARE NOT here for your amusement. You are here for OUR amusement.

My Week's Fannish Schedule

Throughout all of this I will be handling the email, telephone and in person correspondence needed for CONduit. I read a lot, serious too much probably. I'm always looking for book recommendations.

July 11th-17th
Monday: Watching Alphas
Tuesday: Nothing specific planned
Wednesday: Watching A Game of Thrones
Thursday: Watching A Game of Thrones
Friday: Tabletop gaming group (Vampire: The Masquerade)
Saturday: Tabletop gaming group (Scion)
Sunday: Oh Mundania, must you rear your ugly head? I suppose I should do stuff like mow and wash laundry. Sneak in some Harry Potter screen time.

Books: A Game of Thrones 1-4, The Sword (comic) 1-24


July 18th-24th
Monday: Wacthing Alphas
Tuesday: Salt Lake Astronomical Society meeting
Wednesday: Watching A Game of Thrones
Thursday: Nothing specific planned
Friday: U.S.S. Retributor karaoke night
Saturday: Tabletop gaming group (Scion)
Sunday: Oh Mundania, must you rear your ugly head? I suppose I should do stuff like mow and wash laundry. Sneak in some Captain America screen time.

Books: A Game of Thrones 5, Dr. Who NSA 1-5

My Week's Fannish Schedule

I will post my weekly fannish plans, so that folks have an idea of where to corner me with their ideas for CONduit. My goal is to make one club event at least every two weeks, if not every week.

July 4th-10th
Monday: Filk songs for 50/90
Tuesday: SLC Camarilla Domain Meeting
Wednesday: Filk songs for 50/90
Thursday: ERT Ghostbusters Dinner
Friday: Filk songs for 50/90 and Utah Filk Organization's Housefilk
Saturday: CONduit ConCom and my tabletop gaming group
Sunday: Oh Mundania, must you rear your ugly head? I suppose I should do stuff like mow and wash laundry...

Letter From the Trustees on CONduit Offices

Hi all,

We wanted to thank absolutely everyone who applied for one of the new department head positions with CONduit. We deeply appreciate everyone's willingness to offer their help. We had a lot of great applications, and in many cases had to make hard choices between several qualified candidates.

After some long discussions and a long meeting today we decided on who is going to fill nearly all the different Dept Head positions for this first year under the new structure. We will be sending out acceptance and rejection e-mails to people soon, and announcing the new Dept Heads at the July meeting.

Please don't take any rejection e-mail you may receive personally, we had more applicants than we expected and we could only give the job to one person. We feel that everyone who volunteered had good skills and/or perspectives to offer, and we hope that everyone can find somewhere they would like to help because our new Dept Heads will need lots of volunteers to help them.

We did want to announce one new Dept Head so she can hit the ground running as it were. Erin Ruston will be the Chairbeing for CONduit 22. We have every confidence that Erin will do a great job leading CONduit back to it's roots while preserving all of the good things we still do.

-- The Doctor is dead... Long live The Doctor!
_
|_|_| Brad Hawks
|_| | brad@hawks5.net

Applications for CONduit Admin Committee Due TODAY!

If you think that you can make a difference on the committee, please apply! The individual Department Heads will have a lot of freedom in how to run their department.

Business: Oversees Hotel Liaison, Art Show, Dealers Room, and Procurement.

Chair: Chair of the Administrative Committee and the general CONduit Convention Committee (ConCom). The department includes Co-chair (if there is one), Secretary, Treasurer, and Fan Club Liaison

Computer Services: Head of the Computer Services department and in charge of the website, mailing lists, preregistration, and membership database.

Events/Contests: Head of the Events and Contests department is in charge of major events during the con (masquerade, ice cream social, signings, filking, etc.) and all contests (before or during the con).

Gaming: Head of the Gaming department which handles all roleplaying, LARPing, boardgaming, card games, wargaming, etc.

Hospitality: Head of the Hospitality department which handles the consuite, guests (guests of honor liaison(s), participating guests (local guest liaison)), and green room.

Marketing/Publications: Head of the Marketing and Publications department which handles publicity, working with outside companies (for sponsorship), the program book, and pocket program. Coordinates with procurement.

Operations: Head of the Operations department which handles all at-con operations and organization (registration, programming ops, security, volunteers, and gophers).

Scheduling: Head of the Scheduling department which handles programming, anime and media rooms, and overall space assignment at the con.

Apply Here!

The discussion is very active on the CONduit chat email list, as well as the CONduit Facebook page. Please give the Trustees your two pennies. Pennies can add up to something really cool. To joint the chat list email conduit-chat-request@sfcon.org

Facebook Group

The change that has been so desperately desired by myself and so many of you that have contributed to this blog can only happen if we DO something about it. The Trustees are putting this thing into the hands of the fen. This is our chance to take back that which once was ours. If enough people who want a more vibrant and inclusive convention volunteer and push forward, those who refuse to accept the change will be forced to accept it or step out of our way.

The next ConCom meeting will be July 9th, 10am, at the West Valley City Library, 2880 W. 3650 S. Not only will this be where the new Administrative Committee will be announced, this is where the shaping of CONduit 22 will begin.