Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

If you have no interest in the political workings of the Worldcon and the World Science Fiction Society, you can skip this message, I think.

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For the past several years, elections to the WSFS Mark Protection Committee have been of almost no interest to the Business Meeting, with several cases of the incumbents being re-elected without opposition or debate. This has apparently led some people to grumble that the Committee has not been properly engaged, and that it is somehow not representative of the policies of WSFS as expressed through the Business Meeting. I intend to change that this year, as one election, at least, will be a specific policy statement.

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Policy Referendum

I'm saying that if you think that the actions with which I was associated were the right ones, then vote for me, because if you do, you can expect more of the same, and if not, support other candidates who will take WSFS in the direction you consider more appropriate. I'm freely willing to admit that I might be wrong and that the only appropriate method of promoting the Hugo Awards is through the individual uncoordinated actions of specific Worldcon committees, and if the democratically-expressed will of the membership is against me on this issue, then so be it.

If you are attending Aussiecon 4, I hope you will take the opportunity to attend the WSFS Business Meetings and participate in the society's open "town meeting" democracy. The whole thing may seem a little esoteric or boring, but policy decisions established here can have major effects upon Worldcon, so I think it is important than the members actively represent themselves here.

This morning when I went to start the van, it wouldn't start. I noticed the dome light was on. Oops. Hm, I didn't have the light manually turned on. The forward doors were closed. Oh, my goodness, I left the rear door partially open last night when unloading stuff. The door was closed but not latched, and the dome light had stayed on all night. (Nothing was removed from the van, fortunately.)

I got out the booster battery for this purpose. The last time I tried to use it, it did not work, but that was because I'd neglected to read the instructions that say "recharge monthly." Since then, I've set a recurring reminder to do the recharge job. I plugged the booster into the AC adapter, pushed the buttons, waited ten minutes, and when the box said OK, I gave it a whirl.

With a bit of a struggle, the engine turned over and started. Whew!

The booster is now sitting on my desk at the office recharging again. Thanks to Cheryl who gave it to me as a present a few years ago after I had two left-the-lights-on events in two months.

Reviewing receipts and records and recounting the cash showed that I'd neglected to enter two pre-supporting memberships into the database and a couple of $20 bills had stuck together initially, so the final revenue count for the Tonopah bid is $415. That covers all of the bid's out-of-pocket expenses, much to my amazement.

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In the end, we ended up only out our time and some money for gas and wear on the vehicles running back and forth to Salem and Portland. Thank you again to everyone who bought memberships to let us do so. I was flabbergasted at the support y'all gave us. Considering that I financed most of the out-of-pocket expenses on my credit card, I'm also very grateful.