 |
 Presents:
|
Page 6 of 'A Short History of Baltimore Fandom' © Jack Chalker | ||||
 Now, about those business meetings... The truth was, we didn't have all that much
business to conduct. BSFS was held in members'
homes; there were minor dues and a 'BYO-Everything'
atmosphere. The very purpose of the club
was to provide a way for like-minded people to get
together and have fun on a regular basis. Because
of this, by the mid-1960s BSFS eclipsed its neighbor,
the Washington Science Fiction Association, in
size and in being the 'in' place to be for parties and
such. This was not only due to BSFS's own growth
and lack of interest in anything but fun, but also
because WSFA itself lost Elizabeth Cullen and thus
her wonderful house that had been the focal point
of its meetings for more than a decade.
The BSFS business meetings, having nothing
whatsoever to do, tended to be long and complicated affairs.
There were a lot of people who were
so in love with procedure and business that they
only showed up at those sessions; other than announcements,
which were important, the most frequent activity was revising
the BSFS constitution.
It happened dozens of times. Committees were
formed and came back with revised constitutions;
they were debated in detail (with anyone ruled out
of order commanded to be keelhauled under the
U.S.S. Constellation down at the harbor) and ultimately adopted.
A new committee to revise the
constitution was then immediately appointed.
However, in 1966, the club actually tried to do
something serious. It bid for the 1967 World Science Fiction
Convention, going to other conventions, throwing bid parties,
distributing flyers, etc.
We had a reputation for never closing a bid party at
a con so long as even one person was there, so we
were always the last hangout -- an obvious outgrowth of our
never-ending weekends. Ed and JoAnn Wood met at a Baltimore `67
party at the 1966 Midwestcon, for example, and
there were other such relationships formed in the
wee hours as well, most others best left unmentioned because
they didn't work out as well.
The schizoid club meetings showed how little
club members really felt about all the formalities of
a club. This was a social group that liked to party
and existed entirely for its own sake because its
members liked getting together. This meant that
the club offices weren't all that important, either,
although they sounded important to other clubs.
The elections became just as silly as some of the
rest of the party-oriented stuff, often involving
passionate mock campaigns (although BSFS almost
always re-elected everybody who wanted to run
again in the end). The elections then became excuses
to throw even more grandiose parties, and
became so popular that fans from New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania (as well as a fair share of WSFA)
often came. This quickly made it | ||||
|
| |||||
The Baltimore Science Fiction Society, Inc.
|
all maintenance is performed by: "webmeister at bsfs dot org" using 
ArachnophiliaBSFS Banner by Ed Edman Version HH-09 - 07/06/2003 | ||||
 |
 | ||||
World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary association. "Balticon" is a service mark of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, Inc. | |||||
