Noreascon Four Report-Back
By Grant Kruger

Here is the story of my annual Worldcon experience at Noreascon Four, the 62nd World Science Fiction Convention held in Boston, Massachusetts USA, from the 2nd through the 6th of September 2004. The Pro Guests of Honour were Terry Pratchett and William Tenn, and the fan Guests of Honour were Jack Speer and Peter Weston.

What a difference a year makes

Last year was the first time my Worldcon report-back started with a negative twist. This year I came away from Noreascon Four believing that this was probably, pound for pound, the best Worldcon of the six I've been to so far. Programming was massive (but still high quality), organization was very sound, innovations were everywhere and complaints were few. At last count there were around 5600 members, and the vast majority had a wonderful time.

This year Worldcon also followed the Democratic National Convention in Boston as we were in the midst of the US political season. Their web URL and one of ours were being confused there for a while (Boston04 vs Boston2004) and shopkeepers were bitching about how their convention killed trade. Ours would prove to be far more profitable for all in the area, while also giving off less hot air.

Same Old Story

The more things change the more they stay the same. Despite intending to minimise volunteering, this turned into yet another over-volunteered Worldcon for this stupid wally. I limited myself to pre-con work and the plan was, apart from a couple of parties and some Interaction table time, that I'd be done after the first day, leaving the rest of the weekend to wander through the wonder. Unfortunately my Thursday task ballooned into Saturday, but more on that later, when I recall First Night and its one-off fanzine.

In my own defence I'll add that I did try very hard not to over commit, even saying, "No!" on several occasions when asked to help. No is the hardest word to say when it's a friend asking for help, but is best said with emphasis, and wearing garlic and holding up a silver cross helps too. I even avoided going to pick up any kind of staff ribbon just in case a friend was there whose persuasiveness was greater than my powers of refusal. Note to all at Interaction: I'll do all this PR work and continue to work hard at it, but come Worldcon time, you're on your own. No really, I mean it this time.

On the other hand, to those who regularly over-volunteer; you have my thanks.

Problemas - lets get them out the way quickly

So, what were the problems, and do we really care in such a well run Worldcon? Well, Worldcon-hosts who sweat the small stuff put on the best Worldcons. Anyone wanting to host a Worldcon should be aware of past problems, but regardless, problems are interesting.

Noreascon Four kept a running journal on their website and it included a report-back from the final gripe session, a regular Worldcon panel and the last chance for members to make suggestions on how to improve things at future Worldcons, or rant about problems. If you are interested then check out http://noreascon4.blogs.com/live/2004/09/the_gripe_sessi.html for panel minutes. It is interesting to note that problems were some of the usual, like hotel issues (out of their control), lateness of items like the masquerade and ceremonies (any other kind in fandom?), panel room size issues (we really do need statistics for this recurring problem) and other small items.

There were only two sizable issues.

The first was the smallness of the Internet lounge: only 6 PCs. To many conrunners this is a frivolous extra, but many Worldcon-regulars have come to expect Internet access, and this was the complaint I heard most. To prevent people hogging machines they made it standing room only, except for one "special needs" PC, leading to complaints about discomfort. To offset this they had a Worldcon-first: wireless Internet access in the main halls. Both endured slow response times due to the network being somewhat overloaded, but I'm sure there are lessons there for future Worldcons. Either way it is quite a thing when the biggest complaint is about a nice-to-have.

The biggest issue seemed to be the pocket program, or lack thereof. It turns out that this was all because programming was so massive this year (I think it was about 20% bigger than usual) that they could not reasonably fit it onto a grid. This was revised to a daily grid in planning, but there were still too many programming items for even this option (text gets too small or descriptions are too short to be meaningful). Fiona (my wife) liked this year's guide better, but most of us really missed the easy to read and carry pocket program and it's easy to read grid reference. It led to many of us getting lost regularly because we were not carrying the big guide with us. This may result in a programme this size never being repeated, but I'd prefer that a solution to the grid issue is found, should future programming heads be this ambitious (and capable) again. Programming really was awesome.

On the flipside, I did hear a few complaints from people who they felt that program panellist selections had not been as inclusive as Torcon 3, with some arguing that it was all fannish politics. At least two people complained to me that a Hugo winner and a nominee or two were not on any panels. I could not argue with that one, and I still cannot explain it. Despite this, most people felt that programming was a major triumph for Noreascon Four (even those complaining). Conversely, I recall last year many felt Torcon 3 was overly inclusive, becoming unbalanced with more under-qualified panellists, with some panels later in the weekend feeling repetitive. There always seems to be this balancing game.

On a personal note I'm sorry that there were no writers groups this year. Only a Worldcon can have writers groups with three or four writers/editors/agents doing a single writers group with two or three amateurs. Every Worldcon writers group I've been to saw amateurs outnumbered by pros, and that is an incredibly helpful and marvellous thing -- far better than any/all panels. Apparently there is a view that writers group are anti-social -- which I think can only be true in extreme cases and extreme cases can happen in any part of Worldcon -- but I'll concede that any event that is three hours long does present programme-scheduling headaches and does take a sizable chunk of the day. Still, I believe any problems are minor and easily fixable, and hope to see Worldcon writers groups return.

Other complaints I heard were that the convention was so spread out that folks did not always find their way to events and exhibits. I was not the only one to not find the art show for example, and there seemed to be signage problems. I got lost several times while looking for certain offices and rooms. On the other hand I've been to more confusing and more spread out Worldcons before.

Also, as with last year, the party rooms were far too small for regular parties. With some foresight Noreascon Four handled the big parties extremely well by putting major parties -- future Worldcons, bids, etc -- into large function space rooms at N4's expense. While the latter was a triumph, the former was a major problem for smaller parties and bid parties that were late in their bookings. A good example was the spur-of-the moment Montreal in 2009 bid party, which proved impossible to get into at all for me. The NASFiC (North American Science Fiction Convention) bid party for St. Louis had a bigger room with a band but was far too small for that level of decibels (though the music was good).

My final complaint concerns the "short" walk from the Marriot hotel to the Sheraton hotel (home to some programming, the con suite, gaming, several offices, and all the parties) and the convention centre. The walk, which cut through the mall, did not feel short when narrow walkways where crammed with the weekend and lunchtime crowds. Carrying heavy party boxes from the Marriot to the Sheraton through the Saturday hordes was literally a painful experience. It felt like anything but a short walk. I like walks and have been much further away from convention centres on occasion, but walking through a thick crowd is very irritating to one who walks as fast as many people run. Also, I'm cursed by being old-fashioned and on a couple of occasions I helped other fans with their heavy loads; I even carried a TV for a tiny little gal, that was not terribly heavy but was very awkward for her. Turned out she was using it for a Farscape table, and I loved that show -- so maybe it was my destiny. Good hotel though, and given the problems with the Sheraton, we were still probably in just the right place.

So I've covered all the main problems that I know of, and you can tell that it's all small fry. Contrast this to the gripe session at Torcon III, where the long-time girlfriend of the Guest of Honour (George R. R. Martin) felt strongly enough to be there and complain about the con's shoddy treatment of him. You only get to be a Worldcon GOH once so it is considered a duty to make the honour memorable, but T3 dropped the ball, badly. Added to that at T3 there were comments on the program guide being eligible for a Hugo nomination as a work of fiction, alongside numerous substantial organisational problems and a lot more of the "usual" complaints than normal. The contrast really puts things into perspective, and there are lessons here for future Worldcons, if they will but pay attention. There is no substitute for experience -- national flavour, fun ideas and the like should all come after your structure has been made sound.

And T3s problems continue. This year we found out that T3 had asked their chairman to step down and they had frozen their finances because they had no idea what their status was. A year later and little seems resolved. Philadelphia passed additional funds on and, despite being over, T3 kept these funds (prudently under the circumstances) in case they need them. Compare that to ConJosé who immediately passed late funds on to standing Worldcons, though admittedly ConJosé were raising the bar. I guarantee you that none of these post-con problems will be repeated by N4.

Ah, I almost sneaked off without mentioning First Night Times. This one-off fanzine that I helped produce was intended for release on the Friday, maybe the Saturday. It ended up being presented at the dead dog party, the final party of Worldcon -- on the Monday night. Fortunately this failure was caused by a positive -- too many contributions, about five times more than expected. I'll expand on this in a later section.

Okay, so that is all out of the way, thank goodness. Not much was there? Plus I couldn't help but assert the positives within this section -- N4 was that good. Remember that Worldcons are a five-day event run completely by some hundreds of volunteers. I have been to professionally run conventions that did not run as smoothly as N4, even with a far simpler structure. In fact this was by far the best-run con I've ever been to--local cons included--with the fewest hitches. This is a tribute to a Worldcon staff with plenty of experienced managers of a high calibre and... oh wait, that all comes in the next section!

Things I liked - my favourite part of the review

Hooray, I get to the part of the review I love most. Firstly, like Toronto and Philadelphia, Boston was an incredible host city. My city-sense had me feeling happy as soon as we arrived in Boston, and that always gets me off on the right foot (my city-sense is always spot-on). We had even become lost on the way in -- Boston is rated the worst city in the USA for driving in -- yet we did not mind at all. All the things that a Worldcon host city needs were there: a reasonably safe city geared towards tourists and steeped in history, great and diverse restaurants (hordes near to the con), great city to walk in, loads of sights and attractions, plenty of great shopping, wonderful museums (we visited a fabulous LOTR exhibit), bay tours, whale watching and so on. This was a city well worth spending a couple of weeks in.

Most importantly Boston has a massively powerful fan base with two very large local cons and several other notables in the region. This was the fourth Boston Worldcon, which led me to the obvious question: why only four? With a horde of local fans that regularly help run Worldcons everywhere and anywhere, they are steeped in Worldcon-pedigree and could easily be hosting a Worldcon at least every ten years or so. Some of these fans (smofs) are amongst the most respected and accomplished fans anywhere, and it showed. This was the most organized of the six Worldcons I've been to and many who have been to more Worldcons than I feel the same way. Anyone competing a future bid against Boston will have to do an awful lot to convince me not to vote for N5.

The convention centre was well situated and appended to a nice mall, as were the two con hotels. It was perhaps too spread out and a little confusing, but there was ample space. The selection of restaurants and stores nearby was awesome, and I visited my first Trader Joes (imagine a heath food chain with excellent food and decent prices). One of the Marriott concierge staff was outstanding and Fiona found herself using the Restaurant guide merely for confirmations, or not at all.

To be fair, with differing amounts of Worldcon volunteer commitments, I really cannot comment on which Worldcon was the best ever. I loved Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia - my three Worldcons where I was mostly or entirely, merely a fan. Since then, at ConJosé, Torcon 3 and Noreascon Four, I have been too involved in the behind-the-scenes part of Worldcon to properly judge the enjoyment factor. But I am very social and neo friendly, and complaints at N4 were rare indeed. I will also say that there was a buzz to the con, a great vibe and feeling that started magnificently with First Night and hummed along in tune all weekend. It was like swimming in joy. Egad, I really am turning into a Worldcon evangelist.

While there were plenty of times at Torcon 3 when conversations turned to grumbling, and where my programming staff ribbon drew comments and odd looks, this time I mostly heard gosh-wow comments, even when there was a (rare) complaint. Every complaint was usually accompanied by several compliments. I thought that the programming at ConJosé would be hard to beat, but Noreascon Four can, at least in part, lay a solid claim to that achievement. It may well be that this was the largest program ever attempted at a Worldcon. While the failure to produce a program grid was an unfortunate side effect of this, it made for a program that even some of the more critical fans I know referred to with phrases like, "a bit of everything," or simply "Wow!!"

Programming was led by a talented organiser with a powerful support staff. Few knew that Priscilla had some serious health problems right in the thick of things, the kind that leave you a pile of nerves hovering by the phone. It did not seem to make a whit of difference, and the back-end process powered on relentlessly.

Priscilla set the tone for her reign by inviting the head of programming for Torcon 3 to be on her staff. After programming at Torcon 3 had been so fraught with problems and Terry had admitted that he had been in over his head, some had muttered that he should never be given another chance. Terry had shown some courage by taking all the blame and avoiding passing the buck or making excuses (even though he had some strong excuses to use), and also by arriving at Smofcon (conrunners con) ready to answer any and all questions. Priscilla recognised that such energy, determination and courage were valuable to fandom and invited him onto her team of experienced Worldcon-runners. Terry accepted, again to his credit, and I hope that he learned a lot and will one day return better prepared to the Worldcon-running scene at a future Worldcon.

My final comment on programming was the consistent compliment that the panellists were almost always entertaining. This is an extremely tough thing to do as some people appear to be wonderful choices, but then they turn out to be too shy, too domineering, too longwinded and so on. Every Worldcon has its share of oops-type panels, but this year there seemed to be fewer than usual, despite the vastness of it all. Having seen some of this from behind the scenes I am sure that this was no accident, and it also speaks volumes for how well run things were. It was wonderful to see, and I'm proud to have been a small part of it -- quite a change from last year for me personally, being on programming both times.

Using big function space rooms for the large parties worked out wonderfully well. Parties could literally have hundreds of guests present at any time. There was far more space for chairs and couches, making for a far more hospitable environment. So big were the rooms in fact that there was only one shared party for future Worldcons, so Interaction and L.A.con IV shared a room with great success. LA brought fun and ideas and Interaction brought liquor-filled chocolates and a large team of organised volunteers. Together they made a great party.

I should mention that most of the big parties were alcohol free because the con was unable to negotiate (with the hotel) to have booze allowed (unless they served it). Now I know that many fans would see this as a negative, but not being much of a drinker I quite liked this. It certainly ensured that fewer on-the-spot bids cropped up :), although one did, but more on that later. In a related story, as a compromise N4 negotiated free sodas from the hotel. I doubt the hotel had any idea what hit them -- fans and sodas, it's an addiction.

The con suite was located in a massive hall and was the biggest I've seen. It was well stocked in all areas -- consumables, couches, chairs and tables -- and also with a small library (including magazines and newspapers) and some fun games. It all made for an outstanding venue for socialising and these were the biggest con suite crowds I can recall, except maybe ConJosé. I still have a particular fondness for the con suite at ConJosé, where the ambience was such a big part of it all, making it seem like a huge party. I thought that I'd never see its like again, but N4 showed me that there are many different kinds of excellence.

The Green Room is a prep and relaxation area for program participants, where you can (should) hook up with fellow panellists before your panel and chat a little about the subject and any guidelines (but not enough to spoil the discussion), while also relaxing in a quiet area. Of course this was only the third Worldcon I've been a panellist at, and I barely understood the GR's purpose at ConJosé, but I have never really felt comfortable in a GR before, though I have dutifully arrived there before my panels to see if any fellow panellist were there (and none ever were). This year I found myself using the Green Room regularly for the first time. Maybe it was the windows and the sunlight, or the peaceful feel of the room, or the welcoming volunteers manning a table right at the door, or the well-tended snack table; I cannot be sure. Perhaps as a side effect of this, for the first time I even met fellow panellists there, twice! That's a 50% record! There was even a help-wanted board where panellists were needed because of cancellations and the like, alongside a rack of light reading material. Congratulations to the GR staff for this helpful island of tranquillity.

The dealers room was extensive and also quite fun. I wandered through it a couple of enjoyable times and bought fabulous t-shits. It was one of the biggest I've seen and it was yet another sign of the overall healthiness of the con. I understand that business was not as good as hoped, and the dealers blamed this in part on the quality of the programming keeping fans away. Note to self: if we ever host a Worldcon, try to have some boring panels clustered around a couple of time slots; it'll make the dealers happy.

Registration was also about the best registration I've ever seen. Most people were in and out without any problems and there were no lines. The layout was simple and spacious, and everything was well organised. So many cons screw this up, mostly cramming it into too little space. It was good to see, if not perfection, close to it.

The Souvenir Book really is a wonderful souvenir. I actually read it, which I rarely do. Most make their way straight onto my bookshelves. It was filled with excellent articles and artwork. I still hate seeing commercial adverts in these books, but that's the way it is.

There were many other good things, but the fun part is that I get to dedicate whole sections to them below!

Awards

To see the results of the Hugos and other awards go to http://www.noreascon.org/hugos/ or try http://www.emcit.com/emcit109.shtml#Misc for a more extensive list that includes other awards. There were many of the usual suspects: Locus, Dozois, Eggleton, Langford and the like, but I thought I'd mention some of the more unusual ones.

My fun favourite Hugo was in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, won by Gollum's LOTR Acceptance Speech at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards (see http://www.theonering.net/staticnews/1054890864.html). This foul-mouthed humorous tirade by Gollum "the actor" was just the right tone for fans, i.e. irreverent. Also fun was when the sweet Frank Wu won the Best Fan Artist Hugo, and was totally speechless. All he could manage was to yell, "I love you all!"

The Best Fanzine Hugo was won by Emerald City, edited by Cheryl Morgan. This one took me by surprise. Cheryl has a habit of being outspoken and not being afraid to go where others fear to tread. Though people willing to say uncomfortable things are needed, it does add to one's list of enemies, and usually that translates into fewer votes. Quite an achievement to overcome all that.

Overall I guess the award of the Retro Hugo (1954) Award for Best Novel was my personal favourite. Ray Bradbury won for the exceptional Fahrenheit 451. He was one of my mother's favourite authors and became the first SF&F author that I read (his short stories). The timing is also good after the sensation of the documentary Fahrenheit 911, whose clever title eluded most non-fans.

For most, I suspect that the two awards to Filthy Pierre (Erwin Strauss) were the most special. He won the Big Heart award, which is like a lifetime achievement award for fans who give back to the community, and also a N4 committee award. I'm sure he must have been dumbfounded, not only that he was being thanked for his contributions to Worldcons and fandom, but that it happened twice in one night. Worldcon regulars have seen his work, from the little party lists he gives out, through the flyer racks and voodoo boards (message boards for fans to leave messages for each other) that he invented. I was privy to and a part of some of the discussions around this award and found out more about him there. I understood why he'd not been nominated before, given that he simply does what he does without seeking recognition or status and takes on no senior roles. Well deserved.

First Night (and hopefully not the last)- a festival of fandom

I don't know which insane fool came up with this idea -- but I loved it! This concept seemed a little odd at first, but it really took off. The idea was to have fan groups from around the world each host a booth and collectively host a fannish fair on the first night of Worldcon (Thursday), generally also the quietest night of Worldcon. Each booth was allocated tickets to give away as prizes and the tickets could be exchanged for cheap fun toys (1 to 5 ticket variations). The concept was a wonderful success and huge numbers of fans attended, and it was fan and family friendly at the same time, which is rare. All this was thanks in large part to the efforts of many volunteers and worldwide fans, but particularly the driven and organized lead (Leslie Turek, a past Worldcon-chair and superherosmof).

Three SFSA members were involved. I was helping with FNT (First Night Times), the one-off fanzine produced as a part of FN. Fiona was on the prize table and Janis became involved with FNT, at first just to allow me to take a break. Later Janis and Fiona both chipped in after we all realised that it was never going to get done on time.

Fiona wanted one of the little teddy bear prizes but could not get away from the table, so in the last hour or so I managed to take a break from my own duties and quickly win the three tickets I needed to fulfil this husbandly duty.

And what were my FNT duties? In truth most of the weight fell onto editor Bob Devney (who was nominated for a fanzine Hugo for The Devniad). I was listed as the managing editor of FNT (First Night Times). I helped with preliminary editing, software, hardware installation (printer-scanner) and scanning of artwork, as well as being responsible for facilitating the whole process on the night while Bob was on panel. Janis popped by and helped later in the evening, which was fun. Many familiar faces from my "Welcome to fandom" panel were there to contribute, as well as a couple of friends.

Bob and I made our plans beforehand and, based on the advice of those who had already done similar exercises, we thought we were prepared (me as assistant only). Well, apparently not. We received about four times more contributions than expected, meaning four times the expected editorial workload, and this was our first time doing this. As a result the fanzine that was always intended for a Friday or possibly Saturday delivery, turned into a Worldcon-long affair for Bob and kept me occupied through Saturday. In the end it was barely in time for the Dead Dog party, the final party of Worldcon.

It's at times like these that you find out who your friends are and boy was I blessed. Geri fed me and Janis kept bringing me water, coffee and tea. Fiona stopped by several times too, with much of the same. Busy as we were it was wonderful to get to know Bob's family and of course all of them also got involved with Bob and his SFSA team. It is no surprise that the FNT staff list also shows Janis as Deputy Managing editor (she really did an immense amount, without ever volunteering) and Fiona as Editorial Staff (she did proof-reading). All three of us had also contributed articles during FN. Later Bob told me that he kept hearing South African accents and words in his head while doing post-N4 work on FNT.

By the Saturday there was no more superficial proofreading and formatting for us to do and it all fell to the more experienced Bob. Suffice it to say that, because FNT was never meant to go on that long we had ongoing battles to keep at least the one PC and scanner, that we were still in a public place so interruptions abounded with folks asking how things were going, asking for Internet access, asking for information or folks who were being erroneously sent to us by ops for help scanning and printing. Between the endless interruptions, battles for workstations and battles to retain a person to format the document into a printable layout (several volunteers came and went, we were lucky to get it out at all).

Bob is to be highly commended for sacrificing his entire Worldcon to FNT, despite the fact that he loves panels and it is a feature of his own fanzine to report on panels and funny sayings. He battled on and on finally getting a quiet office and a format person and finished it on the Monday. Many complained that it was late but that it came at all is a testament to Bob's willingness to sacrifice his time and his Worldcon, in order to deal with the unprecedented volume of contributions. This may well have been the most submissions that a one-off fanzine ever received.

As to the festival itself, there were many fun events. One booth was a Hugo ring toss, where fans could toss glowing rings onto real Hugo statues. This event was a metaphor for the fun irreverent nature of fandom. Can you imagine a similar event with any other kind of award, like maybe an Oscar ring toss? Other features were non-stop belly dancing, face painting, magic shows, juggling lessons, blackjack, artist demos, singing and many fair-style events. There was even an election for the "First Citizen of Fantopia" (won by Mary Shelly) with the election run with USA flag stickers, despite the international nature of the gathering. It was a wonderful evening and plenty of fun for all. I hope -- but don't expect -- to see FN become a Worldcon tradition.

I've found one picture of me working on the First Night Times fanzine (on the second night) at  http://public.fotki.com/lsanderson/sf_conventions/noreascon_4/20040901/img_7020.html  and you can see the N4 web blogs at http://noreascon4.blogs.com/live/3thursday/index.html or specifically http://noreascon4.blogs.com/live/2004/09/first_night.html.

My favourite button of the evening was my own: on military camouflage background, it read "Embedded Journalist."

Um, food again, but it is about Worldcon this time, no really

Those who have read my past reviews know that I love to mention the restaurants, as culinary-deprived as we are here in Jackson Mississippi. This year was no exception and we had some great meals, though none to match Rain in Toronto (still the best we ever had). However, business in the food court in the mall -- connected to both con hotels and the convention centre -- holds lessons for future Worldcons.

All the restaurants in the food court were told about Worldcon and the expected number of attendees. They were warned that volume was likely to go up more than with most cons, but few listened. This has to do with many conventions having only a minimal effect on business, what with per-diems and business dinners. Worldcons are different and run the full spectrum, from the best restaurants through to the cheapest, depending on budgets and convenience (both major factors at Worldcons). As a result several stores ran out of food over the weekend (evenings) and many locals and storeowners said it was as full as they had ever seen it. If only they had listened to us.

This highlights the demand and need for loads of diverse restaurants within the vicinity of a Worldcon, particularly within walking distance. Torcon 3 showed how valuable street vendors could be by supplying convenient vendor fast food right outside the convention centre. Fans like to have access to quality food that is both convenient and fairly priced, which can be grabbed up between panels or the like. It's odd, but over 5 days of Worldcon, there always seems to be too little time. At N4 there were a couple of reasonably priced restaurants right outside the convention centre (one of which served full breakfasts), and a Dunkin Donuts, with the sizable and diverse food court a few minutes walk away.

Aside from this important lesson, we did eat Persian, and Mediterranean, and Indian, and… okay I know, time to move on. One final related point though: many others in the mall loved us because their sales went way up. The woman selling cat-themed t-shirts and socks made a killing -- fans and cats, it's a bond.

The Big Ceremonies

The Opening ceremonies started quite late, which was fantastic because I was running about half an hour behind while operating on forgetful overdrive. My fannish clock working perfectly, I sat down just in time. The ceremony was a nice one with a small presentation by the recently fired Torcon 3 chair (it's all so confusing). There was a road prop in the middle of the stage and I'm guessing that nothing happening on that road was an indication of why things were late. We got to see a minutemen-style band march in and out and there was a special presentation from NASA. I enjoyed it more than most, and Deb's (N4 chair) energy, enthusiasm and humour were a feature.

As for the Hugos, well whose bloody bright idea was it to hold the Hugos on the same night as our SFSA party? I missed it and the biggest party of the night, the Hugo losers' party, which was hosted by our Interaction team. I think that in future we might want to have our party on a night other than the Hugo night.

I also missed the masquerade, which was good because apparently it should have been called the masquerdelayed (ended in the wee hours with most gone to bed). I was kept away by my promote-Worldcon duties at parties and having to help elsewhere. I did see some of it (on in-house TV in the hotel) and the costumes were awesome, and that was only the kids section. One lass I bumped into at a party, having received a special mention but no prize, called it the toughest competition she had ever seen. There is a DVD out there, and I need to get my hands on it.

Closing ceremonies were very emotional for Deb Geisler, the outgoing chair of Noreascon Four. It was sad for all of us, as the end of Worldcon always is, but sadder for her because it was such an awesome Worldcon. Many chairs are only too glad that Worldcon is over because they are so overworked and overburdened. May all future Worldcon chairs have a chance to duplicate Deb's nostalgia.

Interaction stole the show at closing ceremonies though, but not through their spiffy presentation from the mayor-equivalent of Glasgow (the combination of a muffled sound system and her Scottish brogue). Rather it was with a small bagpipe band (drums and kilts and all) that led everyone, like the pied piper, to the Interaction fan table, where a few more memberships were sold. It was fun too - especially since it was an American band.

Voting In Elections And Reviewing Future Bids

The election this year was a race between Yokohama, Japan and Columbus, Ohio USA, to decide who would host the 65th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in 2007. You might say this was a battle between the "World" in Worldcon and the cheapness of a trip to Columbus. In fact rumour has it that cheapness was what drove the Columbus bid, maybe egged on by fans who could not afford the trip to Japan, and by dealers who could not make the trip at all.

The Japanese bid was announced around 2000, though the hints were there years before that at their annual parties. Contrast that to the Columbus bid which came in late and was a long time getting started. Both bids had weaknesses.

Many feared that Nipon2007 would be a big Japanese con with a bit of Worldcon mixed in. It took a while before more and more of their people became Worldcon staff and they upped their presence at Smofcons too. In fact Japanese smofs outnumbered UK smofs at the last Smofcon (some UK smofs cancelled). People were concerned about the language barrier, both in Japan and at the Worldcon, concerns only reinforced by their earlier progress reports. Fans also worried about the expense of the trip to Japan.

For Columbus they were bidding from a city that I personally like, but which most others see as dull. They were also bidding from a con that is quite different to a Worldcon in structure, scale and content. Few members of their bid were working at existing Worldcons, though that may have changed. For Columbus they had too few people with any knowledge of running a Worldcon-sized event and with Worldcon complexity, and they perhaps did not do enough to overcome this.

On the positive side the Japanese were already handling large complex cons, including award ceremonies, with an orientation towards literature. Yokohama is close to Tokyo and the whole trip there was always going to be an adventure. The romance and appeal of a Worldcon in Asia for the first time was considerable, and culturally Japan holds many treasures. The Japanese also had an injection of international help that they finally accepted and their helpers included past and future Worldcon-chairs no less. Their bid came together very strongly in the last year or so.

For Columbus they had a large known local con (meaning experienced conrunners) and they were offering a cut-rate Worldcon, with more affordable hotel and Worldcon costs too. They would also be cheaper and easier to travel to, with many fans being able to drive if they chose.

So in the battle of the cheap and convenient versus the exotic, Nipon2007 won when they received 935 votes (including mine) out of the 1,686 cast. Columbus in 2007 received a respectable 692 votes, though many of us thought that the vote would be closer than that. "None of the above" received 12 votes and 47 went to various hoax bids and the like.

With the Worldcon outside of North America that year, a NASFiC (North American SF Con) will be held. At the time St. Louis in 2007 were the only group openly bidding for the 2007 NASFiC, though they haven't yet specified a proposed date or location (I'm guessing it will match their own con's dates which are just after Worldcon's. The bid comes from the folks running Archon, which is their large local convention. I immediately presupported this lot because I love their city, but I soon regretted this when I discovered that they have no idea what a Worldcon or NASFiC are all about and showed (to me) little/no interest in finding out (they had nobody working on a Worldcon or NASFiC and did not seem to have thought things through at all). I think that it should be a minimum requirement for any bid; that the bidders have to intend to host a Worldcon/NASFiC and not merely a bigger version of their own con. And how do you know what this is if you don't ask questions and get involved? "Oh we don't travel much," was the excuse I was given, and a more Worldcon/NASFiC-incompatible answer would be hard to find.

After Noreascon Four I saw that a new bid for Ocean City Maryland had appeared and this is a very good thing. Hopefully the competition will bring out the best in both sides. This is not necessarily the case, as proved by the Charlotte bid for the 2005 NASFiC. They lost by fewer votes than the number of bid committee members who decided to go to a big media con instead, and who did not even mail in their votes. I had thought this too absurd to be more than merely fannish rumour until I was at the last DeepSouthCon -- the con that travels around the US South -- where this collection of stooges were awarded the Rubble award. This award is a parody of the prestigious Rebel award given out to the fan/s who've done the most for Southern fandom, except the Rubble is for the fan/s who have done the most to Southern fandom. The reason? "Because "they made all of us Southerners look stupid!" The prize was a day old cheap burger (Crystal), that would be two weeks old by the time they got it, and a stolen hotel ashtray with details scrawled on it with a marker pen. No question that this was the best award of the year anywhere.

2-year lead-time was a ruling of note at Noreascon Four, an affirmation of a decision made last year, this time by a sizable majority (it was closer last year when some members of Chicago fandom apparently attempted to hijack the vote). What this entails is that fan groups bidding for a Worldcon will now bid only two years in advance, instead of three. This ruling will likely be to the benefit of most Worldcons, but NASFiCs will have a harder time because they only know that they are needed after a vote (assuming a North American bid competing with an international one). I did not participate in the vote because, in mathematical terms, really-late-night + up-too-damned-early = not-happening.

This means that there will be no site selection at Interaction in Glasgow in 2005 and the vote for the 2007 NASFiC will take place at the 2005 NASFiC (Cascadia Con). The vote for the 2008 Worldcon will take place at L.A.con IV in 2006.

As to the future, the Chicago bid for the 2008 Worldcon has been challenged by a still somewhat mysterious Denver bid. Many people are mad at the Chicago bid because of its links to the above-mentioned vote, and were hoping someone would oppose them. Even though I have yet to see anything about the Denver bid, it will need to be strong to beat Chicago. Going by stories I've heard, often from Chicago fans, Chicago Worldcons are notoriously flawed from a smof perspective. Well, their fan group is still very strong and I loved my one Chicago Worldcon. The Swissôtel remains our favourite Worldcon hotel, and Chicago is a fun city too. On the other hand, Denver is also supposed to be fun and a great place to visit, and I have never been there before (always a plus). I guess I'll have to see both arguments first hand, in two years or so (I'll not necessarily be swayed by the vote fiasco, as two wrongs don't make a right).

For 2009 two bids appeared. Back in 2002 at ConJosé some US and UK fans were discussing NASFiCs and Worldcons with an Australian fan who wanted to host a Worldcon. The northern hemisphere fans all started throwing money at him (supporting memberships) and despite his opposition, 24 hours later the famous 24-hour Australian Worldcon bid had a web site, t-shirts and was an official bid (a long story for another time). That bid still stands as the only 2010 Worldcon bid, and it inspired a second drunken party bid, this time for 2009 in Montreal Canada (though nowhere near as organised -- as much as a drunken bid can ever be organized -- with no website at the time of writing this, let alone t-shirts or the like). Apparently they bid because they though nobody else was going to bid for 2009, except they were wrong -- Kansas City, spurred on by widespread advice and encouragement, made a far more organised and well-thought-out bid.

To my view, the Montreal bid has only one thing going for it right now; a really nice host city. I spoke to several of their team -- some of them friends of mine -- at least two of whom boasted that they would be able to make use of many of the same people who ran Torcon 3. They might want to rethink that boast, or at least market it better (i.e. we have learned and we will do x, y and z to avoid the same problems). They also ought to have thought it out better. The Australian bid was eight years out and they had a period of time (after Stephen had explained himself to Oz fandom) to decide if they really were a bid (or is that: really are insane?). This time -- coming up against a very strong second recent bid from Kansas, who were the emotional favourites as soon as they announced -- they needed to be better organised. The largest con in Montreal that I know of is barely a couple of hundred strong and the spoken language is French (will likely minimise the draw of new fans from the immediate area - unlike Japan which has a Natcon with a couple of thousand members). Torcon 3 was the smallest North American Worldcon in a while and, despite two massive local cons and massive local fandom, was not seen as well run. As a result this 2009 bid would have an uphill battle to convince fans that they could do much better with a far smaller local fan base (though many Toronto fans would make the trip I'm sure).

On the other hand, a bid in a city with a small con could set an interesting precedent for smaller fan centres (hint, hint).


Of course, those of you who read my Torcon 3 review know I'm already committed to Kansas and I'll keep that promise. I purchased their highest presupporting membership, becoming a patron of the bid. I'm nothing if not true to my word. They will get my vote in Japan and I do concede that this makes my opinions here suspect.

Currently Washington, D. C. is the only community to have tentatively expressed interest in hosting the 2011 Worldcon, and there are rumours of several other bids for 2011 through 2013. Columbus threw cold water onto speculation that they might contest the 2007 NASFIC bid and there is a rumour that they too are considering bidding for one of those years. If they prove that they have learned from their past mistakes, then they too have strong odds to win my support.

For a continuously updated list of bids visit http://worldcon.org/bids/  and see a list of standing Worldcons at http://worldcon.org/.

Buttons galore, and promoting Worldcons and fannish friendships

I took about 3,000 buttons to Worldcon. Over 600 were for Interaction, the Worldcon I'm North American Promotions Coordinator for. About 800 were variations of "I love Worldcons" and "ask me about Worldcons," for a project I'm involved in to promote the very concept of a Worldcon, rather than a particular Worldcon. I made about 500, "I support the Geneva CONvention" buttons for a hoax bid (whose party largely failed to materialize and became the DC bid party instead). The reason for the hoax bid should be really obvious, though it fooled many into thinking it was a real bid, even experienced smofs.

I also made 14 different kinds of SFSA (Science Fiction South Africa) buttons with logos or animal prints, as well as some specials for members and others. I took about 400 of these to the SFSA party and by evening's end there were only about 70 left - not bad at a party with 600-700 attendees. These were well received and I saw them all over the place afterwards, which will help raise our isolated club's profile still further.

The rest of my buttons were part of a personal campaign to encourage fandom and Worldcons by promoting friendships within fandom and making people feel welcome. I gave many buttons away at my newbie-help panel and gave more away throughout Worldcon, mostly by putting them out in social settings like the con suite. Captions included, "New around here. Advice welcomed", "I answer questions about Worldcons", "Seeking new friends" and the like, for both experienced and neo fans. It was nice to see these buttons here and there throughout the con and hear stories about how they had worked. Oddly, many people asked me for "Single X seeks Single Y" type buttons so I'll make some for next year I guess.

The best idea in this vein that I saw was not mine at all. Some fellow fans with similar ideas and goals decided that instead of putting out the publisher freebie books on the freebie tables, where some folks pinch a stack, that they would pass some of these out by hand. What they did was give folks two books and tell them, keep one book and give the other to someone you don't know. This way they made folks happy while also promoting/creating friendships and dialogue. It was a lovely idea. I participated and my neo instinct worked well as I chose someone at their first con. It put a smile on her face, though she was not quite ready for friendship.

Back to the buttons though. I had a t-shirt made for the Worldcon promotions campaign. It offered my buttons out free. See photos on the Noreascon Four blog at http://noreascon4.blogs.com/live/images/GrantKruger.html and an example later in the con at http://public.fotki.com/lsanderson/sf_conventions/noreascon_4/20040901/img_7063.html

The t-shirt was quite heavy and made me clink, but was well worth the effort as it got plenty of attention and served its purpose well. At the Kansas 2009 bid party a fan took one look at me and immediately handed me one of his ribbons, titled simply "silly ribbon". It was all fun.

SFSA presence - barbarians abound

Science Fiction South Africa was more in evidence at Noreascon Four that at any other non-South African con. I built -- with plenty of feedback and assistance from fans in South Africa -- a SFSA Exhibit. The exhibit was housed with the other international fandom exhibits and included photos, copies of early con posters, copies of Probe covers and the like, along with text that expanded on our history, conventions, fanzine, etc. I also put out two Worldcon-trip t-shirts and a few Probe zines, and the Probes were well thumbed through by the end of the con. The most fun part of building this was getting my hands on a recent photo of Tex and Rita Cooper, SFSA's founders. I had not seen Tex in many, many years.

We also had a selection of Probes in the Fanzine lounge, along with a special Probe flyer that I'd put together, again with help. The usual SFSA flyers were also put out in several places, also built as per above.

Of course our major event was our now-traditional Saturday night party. I did all the organizing and booking, Fiona ran the desk and everyone else chipped in cash and brought South African wine, chocolates and sweets (candy) and of course helped with setup, tear down and socialising. With just the five of us this was a lot of work, given how busy our party was. Barrett looked after the wine, Antonio and I socialised and Janis stickered badges at the door (I backed her up). This year we had some South African flag stickers sent over to us from South Africa and these were hugely successful. After they ran out we swapped to the dreaded animal stickers, but hopefully we can get more flag stickers next year. The flags came in various sizes, many too large for badges, but folks wanted even those on the backs of badges or on other surfaces -- I even stuck one onto a wheelchair!

The party was a roaring success and we were grateful to have managed to get a suite, as the normal sized party rooms were far too small. The next day I saw a party comment that complimented us on still having chocolate at 1am, so the team did very well on that count too.

On the down side, the streak of not inviting any South African fans to be panellists on any of the international fandom panels continued (even though two of us again volunteered). Could it be that we are not international enough? Or are we not as cool as Euros and Auzzies? I've no clue.

The only web photos I've found from our party -- where we unfortunately were too busy to take any of our own -- are:

Me in my Zulu urban outfit, from the front: http://public.fotki.com/lsanderson/sf_conventions/noreascon_4/20040901/img_7056.html
Me in my Zulu urban outfit, from behind: http://public.fotki.com/lsanderson/sf_conventions/noreascon_4/20040901/img_7057.html
A party scene portrait of a pretty lass (Laura Jean Fish), but withAntonio (centre) and Barrett (right) in it: http://public.fotki.com/lsanderson/sf_conventions/noreascon_4/20040901/img_7058.html

My Panels - discussing, evangelising and moderating

This year I was on four panels, and over and above everything else that really kept me busy.

My first panel was a fandom ra-ra panel late on Thursday, titled Welcome to the SF Community.  Fellow panelists were James Bacon, Elaine Brennan (moderator) and Joel Zakem. Basically it was an opportunity to offer advice to neo fans and Worldcon neos. This is how you can make friends, these are places to socialise, we really love having you here, feel free to chat to anyone, etc. I was amazed at how much I had to say and how much I now know. I really feel ideally suited to these kinds of panels, since I have no trouble waxing lyrical about any of it because I have learned a lot about it through my own neo-friendly and Worldcon-PR approaches. I also knew that what we'd said had had an impact because neos who had attended the panel later came up to me repeatedly, to say hi or ask advice. Several of them even came to FNT and contributed an article.

I hope to do many more of these panels because I believe they help to make the Worldcon better for neos and therefore makes it more likely that they will return. To cap it all I gave out a bunch of neo buttons (e.g. "New around here, advice welcomed") that I continued to see worn throughout the con, and had me going up to say hello when I saw them. I hope these efforts made them all feel a little more welcome and comfortable.

On the Saturday was the now-customary African panel. It was in a nice time slot (midday), unlike last year's debacle when we were on at 10am on a Sunday when only 60 fans are awake anywhere. Last year we were in a huge hall with 30-40 people and this year our problem was the reverse; the room was far too small. I guesstimated that the room had over 100 guests, with many sitting on floors and in aisles, and standing in every open inch. Many opened the doors after we were full and were forced to move on. My fellow panellists were the accomplished Mike Resnick and his daughter Laura Resnick (of whom he is immensely proud) with Don Sakers as the moderator.

This was one of the topics that I had suggested and it was really a merging of several ideas from SFSA members. It was titled Out of Africa, and concerned innovations coming out of our much-maligned continent. I need to turn this into an article some time because there really is a lot of it, and a lot more than most Africans realise. The subject was specifically chosen to highlight positives coming out of Africa, but I largely blazed a lone trail on that one. I'd done an immense amount of research and SFSA members had sent me leads and tips. Despite my preparations, once again panellist comments were often couched in terms of "innovation in Africa is useless because the problems are so acute." I still had a great time, though I was only able to talk about a handful of African innovations and much of my research was wasted. I did manage to mention social innovations like stokvels and ubuntu, and also clear up some misconceptions about why Africa appeared more prosperous in the past.

I still enjoy the fact that views can be so diverse and that we question each other. To me it makes my arguments stronger if they win out on balance, rather than by default. Immediately afterwards and for the rest of the con, many folks came up to me to thank me for talking about some of the positives, so I think that it was worthwhile exercise. The panel was very well received and I saw many of these same folks at our SFSA party.

On the Sunday I was on the panel: Just Because We Speak the Same Language Doesn't Mean We Think Alike. Fellow panellists were jan howard finder, Jay Caselberg, Michael Rennie and Karen Traviss.  This featured English accents from around the globe and was my first time as a moderator. I began poorly by asking panellists to cite examples of language confusion at Worldcons, to which nobody had a ready answer. So I tossed out structure and let it all flow for a while and this turned into a fun talk with many interesting points to compete with our own oddities, like calling traffic signals robots. This worked well so I let the fun continue with only the occasional redirect, while controlling a couple of overeager audience members. In the end we actually ran over our time. This panel had a large crowd and no early departures, so I'd call it a huge success, even though I had thought the topic would have limited appeal at best. Sometimes it's good to be wrong.

My final panel was on Monday and was in a similar vein to my first. My fellow panelists were Jack L. Chalker, Mary Kay Kare and John Pomeranz (moderator). It was titled: After the Worldcon - What now? Four of us experienced fans talked about how to find other cons, clubs and contacts after Worldcon. The best thing about this panel was having the author Jack L. Chalker as a panellist. He really is one of the biggest fans out there and was a fan before he was a writer. In fact he invented a couple of common fannish terms like smofs. It was a lot of fun and I believe that attendees gained much, and even we panellists learned a thing or two about the history of fandom. One failure though: next time I'll take printed pages of web links with me to give away as handouts.

As always being on panels is a fun experience that I recommend to all.

Random points of light and shadow

At First Night GOH Terry Pratchett wore a t-shirt with the following:
Tolkien's dead
J.R. Rowling said no
Phillip Pullman couldn't make it
Hi, I'm Terry Pratchett.
See http://www.future-classics.org/noreascon/thurspics.html for a photo of him (just page down a few).

I'm not sure if I'd been dipped in pheromones or swallowed some magic potion, but this year I kept getting propositioned. I'm not sure what the hell was wrong with me the last five years, but Worldcon six saw me get numerous offers for extra-mural activities, and two that sounded more long-term. It might be that I've lost 30 pounds or so, but I've been this weight at Worldcons before (and even much thinner). Whatever the mystery was I was not complaining, though I was quite confused by it. I was not feeling on the top of my game so the timing seemed off. Plus most of them were 10-15 years younger than me. Odder than hell and wasted on a married man (or this honest one at least). Contrast this to Fiona's single similar experience, a drunken Englishman sitting next to the SFSA party fan desk for over an hour trying to pick her up, until the crowd thinned enough for her to call me over to rescue her (though he persisted to a lesser degree thereafter).

My personal favourite button was in the above vein. A pretty young lass was chatting to me and showing off her joke buttons. I can't remember any but the one. It was stuck below her bellybutton and was in a tiny font so that you had to get real close to read it. It read, "If you're close enough to read this then you need to buy me a drink." I didn't, but she deserved (and wanted) one from me. If only I were not so busy on FNT at the time, um, I mean if only I were not married.

James Bacon, a somewhat crazy Irishman, was this year's TAFF delegate to Noreascon Four (The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, fandom's oldest charity, sends a European fan to the US or a US fan to Europe, on alternating years). We first met at the Wednesday night Interaction party and chatted without knowing who the other was. Thursday we were on a welcome to fandom panel together and my FNT and his TAFF duties saw us both in the fan lounge much of the time. He was a sweet guy who disguised his shyness behind loud gregarious behaviour. He did as he was supposed to, getting involved wherever he could, even helping on children's programming -- and loved every minute of it. He was a wonderful choice for the fund and did Europe proud.

For the first time in my travels in the USA I saw loads of corned beef hash on the menu. This is not an American staple, but New England still has quite a bit of old England in it. Oddly though it was usually a breakfast item. I had it once, and that was enough. It was interesting, but corned beef hash is never gourmet food, anywhere in the world.

There was a strong presence from NASA, both officially and indirectly. The former was a big-ass impressive stand with plenty of give-aways, and the latter was a nice stand highlighting some of the shots taken by Hubble (with free samples). They were both part of a well laid-out exhibit hall that I breezed through, before realising how much content there was. It all lived in an area called the ConCourse, which became the centre of the Worldcon. It housed the main Worldcon tables (standing Worldcons and bids), information, the Internet lounge, the fanzine lounge, a snack area and more. Most notable of all was a corner of the hall which had been turned into a mock medieval tavern called The Mended Drum. It was a splendid, yet simple, piece of work, and from the fanzine lounge we often heard some fairly odd filk music. The tavern (ish) was used for some special programming, including Literary Beers and even, I believe, knitting. Quite fantastic.

The ConCourse was the heart of Noreascon Four, and it never stopped beating.

Finally, I referred to it above, so read http://www.australia2010.org/timeline.html for the full story of the 24-hour Worldcon-bid for Australia in 2010, that was perpetrated at ConJosé and has now inspired the Montreal instabid. I do solemnly swear that I will never allow this to happen to me, at least not without permission from those back home.

Want to know more about Noreascon Four?

For more reviews and photos of Noreascon Four, go to their website at http://www.noreascon.org/ and scroll down. They are linking to every report and photo collection they can find, and I have never seen this many Worldcon-reports before. This is another tribute to this awesome Worldcon. There are some good reviews and I've read quite a few, but I've found none better than the one at Emerald City at http://www.emcit.com/emcit109.shtml which is filled with loads of background information. As always this year's Hugo winner Cheryl Morgan is willing to analyze many different aspects of Worldcon and is prepared to point out both the successes and the failures. For those of you interested in bidding for your own Worldcon, I strongly recommend reading though this article, and also as many of the others as you can.

Also worth a read are the logs of the business meeting at http://www.noreascon.org/wsfs/. These will give you a great idea of some of the internals that go on at Worldcon, which is run (mostly) according to a sizable constitution. I had meant to attend, especially since my name was against a couple of the BDP proposals, but in the end FNT kicked my butt. I need a couple of clones.

To close
Worldcon needed to bounce back after last year, and it could hardly have done so with more style or impact. Keep your eyes open for the next Boston Worldcon, save for it if you need to, but go. Call it an investment in your own happiness.

N4 review addendum - Condescending views, elitism and mundanes
I have a final negative point that is more about fandom than about Noreascon Four, but seemed more prevalent there than at my five previous Worldcons. It will seem a little odd that I largely left it out of the above review, since it did taint an otherwise wonderful affair. It is never good to end with a negative.

Let me start with a question. First, think of your non-fannish friends. Do you know any of them (the sane, literate ones at least) who would not be insulted if you called them a mundane? Me neither. So I have to ask, if a term is that insulting, how is it that it has come into semi-common usage in fandom?

I personally would prefer to see the derogatory term "mundane" disappear from fannish vocabulary, and I know that I'm not alone in this view. Surely the word is simply too mean to be fannish? When the reverse happens, and someone calls us geeks/freaks/etc then we find this upsetting. So why the double standard? Isn't it always wrong to blindly put others down, no matter who the perpetrator is?

This year the term seemed unusually prominent, appearing many times in the program guide and in panellist usage. To me, as one who promotes (and welcomes people to) Worldcons and fandom at every opportunity, it felt wrong and appeared to be somewhat short sighted. There was a panel titled, "Mundane Media and Science Fiction - Why is there so often a disconnect between the way fandom works and the way it's portrayed in the media?" I had to think that maybe we had partially answered our own question there. What would an intelligent journalist think when they read that? It seemed to me that a title like this could incite negative coverage, and worse, they could be right this time. And it's not just journalists who could see this as it was visible to others, most specifically the many highly educated and intelligent scientific/academic/etc guests who attend from outside the community, and also our non-fan friends and family. (Ironically enough, as my wife recalls it, none of the panellists on this panel liked the usage of this term in the panel title, so kudos to all of them.)

Now I know that the term is an old one and it can be argued that it has not hurt us much so far, but it seems to me that neither the age of a derogatory term nor the lack of repercussions make it acceptable. It also flies in the face of my own impression of fandom as tolerant, open and accepting of all, and it is this view of fandom that I love to promote.

Balance for those of us in "mixed marriages" is also tough sometimes, and this is exacerbated when spouses are made to feel unwelcome. This happened to my wife on numerous occasions during N4, mostly as pertains to the term, "mundanes" and the way it was used. She had heard the term before but only from a tiny minority and had formerly ignored it as an exception. This year her experiences started on First Night while she was doing Worldcon volunteer work (she overheard comments about "mundanes" from fans who assumed that she was a fan because she was a volunteer), through to a panel on the Monday (she asked a question about the usage of this word and was essentially told, by a couple of the panellists (essentially elitists), that she had no right to complain and basically was not welcome -- and worse, the three other panellists that didn't really agree with this view remained silent). My wife is tough and smart and stood up for herself, but when she asked me about this -- being fannish enough to wait until after N4 so as not to spoil my Worldcon -- I had no answer for her. And what possible answer could there be? It was a complete contradiction of everything I had told her fandom was all about.

I chatted to others with non-fannish spouses and noted that a couple of their partners hated fandom. That was something new to me. Sure some are bemused or even irritated by spousal activities, but hatred? And how jealous they were to learn that my wife fully accepted my fannish work and my time away at cons, and even enjoyed coming to Worldcons, and even did volunteer work. I had to wonder what made me so lucky, and was it merely that up to now my wife had had fewer negative experiences than their spouses? One thing we all had in common though, was that none of us ever used the term, at all.

My British wife was born in Ghana, grew up in several different countries and is better travelled than most. She's lived and worked in places like the UK, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and now Mississippi. She's marched in protest marches in apartheid South Africa, speaks two languages and a smattering of others, has worn a veil in Saudi Arabia and has been chased by elephants in Malawi. In recent times she single-handedly transformed a small, undermanned cat charity from almost nothing to where they currently rescue triple the cats that the biggest and best-funded local group does. So what if she prefers reading psychological thrillers to Science Fiction? Surely very few intelligent people would even consider thinking of her as mundane? If anything the reverse is truer, yet she looks down on nobody. Not only is she entitled to the same courtesy in return; it seems to me that her behaviour is more fannish than that of the elitists.

It's been years since last my wife read Science Fiction or Fantasy and she does not find enough of interest to her at local cons, so I'm lucky that she enjoys Worldcons and we have even built our annual holiday around it these past five years. I really don't need fannish elitists taking that away from me. More than this, many of us want to make fandom more welcoming, as per the book giveaways and buttons mentioned above. I feel that this elitism is the exact opposite approach. Besides, I think that it makes no sense. If some day everyone in the world was a fan in the sense of modern fandom, well toss out the post-apocalyptic trilogies because utopia has arrived! We should be so lucky! All likeminded folks should be made welcome, as this kind of person is all too rare.

"World Science Fiction Society", "WSFS", "World Science Fiction Convention", "Worldcon", "NASFiC" and "Hugo Award" are service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.