BASFA Meeting 887 Minutes July 30, 2007
Meeting 887 of the Bay Area Science Fiction Association was held in the meeting room of Giovanni's Pizzeria, Sunnyvale, California. The meeting was called to order on July 30, 2007 at 8:01 PM, Vice President Chris Garcia presiding and President Emeritus, etc. Kevin Standlee acting as Secretary. At least 28 people attended. Officers absent: President Trey Haddad (week 2), Secretary Barbara Johnson-Haddad (week 3). On a motion by (Evil) Kevin, a party jar was established on a vote by show of hands. Previous Minutes The minutes of meetings 883, 885, and 886 were, after much blank filling, accepted as "Dude, where's my con?" Officer Reports President Trey and Barbara have been called out of town unexpectedly and send their regrets. They will be gone through August 5. Andy moved to reset Trey & Barbara's absence counts to zero (Suspend the rules, 2/3 vote required). After spirited debate and attempts to amend the motion in strange ways, the motion failed, 10-10 Treasurer's report Last week the general fund collected $7.50 bringing the total to $9912.50 (before payments approved last week). The Party Fund took in $19.75, for a total of $630.31. The Treasurer noted that the Party Fund total does not include any expenses from Westercon or Con-X-Treme. The Bob Wilkins jar took in $106.55. The Kaja Foglio jar took in $142.22. These amounts will supplement our donations to those two people approved last week. Vice President When will Trey come home and rescue him from this madness! New The Drink Tank is out, featuring articles by Spring and (Tall) Kevin. Next issue will be out next week. A new layout editor is coming on board SF in SF. Expect a new issue next week. NASFiC is next weekend in St. Louis. Committees Dave Gallaher reported that the Site Selection Committee had secured sites for the next two meetings Monday, August 6 - Coco's, 1206 Oakmead Parkway (at Lawrence Expressway), Sunnyvale Monday, August 13 - Round Table Pizza, 5544 Thornton Avenue, Newark The Carrow's that has been previously suggested is not available on Mondays. There was discussion of what nights would be optimal for meeting. The sense of the meeting was that if Monday is not available long term, we shouldn't try a location. Party Committee Ed Stokke reported on BASFA's parties at Con-X-Treme. Although both parties seemed small, Ed thinks maybe fifty people, including lots of ghosts, passed through. Per the deal with the con organizer, we'll only pay for one of the two room nights. Our next party will be at SiliCon. New Business None Announcements Evil Kevin invites anyone working or wanting to work on Costume-Con 26 to meet at the Carole and Bills' home August 11th, starting 2 PM. Next week's meeting at Coco's will give members a chance to visit the local computer bookstore. Carole Parker announced that she is hosting a "First Wednesday" event for doing crafts and such at her house this coming Wednesday evening. Adrienne announced, for the benefit of people who claimed that there was nothing to see or do in South Dakota, the existence of the South Dakota Air & Space Museum and the International Museum of Vinegar. Lisa Harrigan reminded people that there's a convention coming up this weekend: MythCon in Berkeley. Reviews Joe: "I did not attend Con-X-Treme, and it was a blast!" Chris followed on that he did pay for his membership, and the only thing good about it was the parties and the picture of him on his badge. Harold reviewed the new Hairspray movie. It's bouncy and fun; worth bargain matinee. Chris followed on that it's the best movie he's seen so far this year. Carole reviewed Con-X-Treme. If it had announced itself as a relaxacon, it would have been a success. The martial arts tournament that was supposed to last all day didn't even last an hour, having received only five entrants. Once the martial arts tournament was over, all the martial-arts-interested people left. Not that there was much to stick around to see anyway. You could have rolled a bowling ball down the hall and not hit anyone. The dealers room had maybe 6-8 dealers, but nobody was selling anything; more dealers than customers. Art Show was all lithographs, no original art. The "professional models" seemed quite out of place, expecting a trade-show type atmosphere. The Taiko drums were pretty good. There was quite a bit of mismanagement. (There were BASFA members at this point who said they hadn't even heard there was a convention going on.) Con-X-Treme Follow-Ons: David Clark's one-word review: Uuuuuuhhhhh (said a la the Addams Family's Lurch). David was astonished at how barren the place was. Considerable hotel facilities neepery followed. It appears the organizer was expecting 2000-5000 attendees with pre-reg of "somewhat less than 1,000" (at least that much must have been true). Ed Stokke spoke positively about Robert Picardo having attended and being able to walk the halls without being mobbed. Ed talked about some of the other convention guests: C. Andrew Nelson and Bob May. Joe: I have never ghosted a con, and would urge people not to do so. Tall Kevin: Ditto; if you're not going to pay, then don't' attend. Further discussion of convention management and dissection of this train wreck followed. Adrienne reviewed the Gilroy Garlic Festival which was wonderful, with lots of vendors, all doing well, everyone having a good time, and the weather was good for a change. This degenerated into discussion of what the various dealers in the crafts fair area were selling. There was lots of food - obviously mostly with garlic, including the famous garlic ice cream. "I got full very fast." She was not at all sad to have missed Con-X-Treme. David Clark reviewed The Greatest Comic Book Evar: Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen. A rather sardonic review followed, the details of which are best not revealed to mortal fen. Julie Porter reviewed Goya's Ghost at an older theater that has been repositioned as an art house. The Secretary fell behind and did not get the details of the review, and came back in at, "the movie seemed somewhat incomprehensible." It's straight old-fashioned art-house filmmaking. Recommendation: Matinee or maybe DVD if you like films likely to become "cult" films. Dave Gallaher reviewed the San Jose Grand Prix, for which he had two standing-room-only tickets courtesy of his employer, and Tall Kevin came along for the noise. Dave did his work obligations while Kevin wandered around the track perimeter. Dave reviewed how much his ears hurt as the cars went past. Tall Kevin reviewed the amazingly loud sounds, how his noise-cancelling headphones earned their keep (along with foam ear plugs), and explained how with general-admission tickets you get no seats and have to stand all day, and most of the places you can stand you can't see the best parts of the race. Dave G. pointed out that there are big TV sets where you can watch the race, but if you stand where you can see those, you can't see much of the racecourse. Their consensus: worth getting free tickets and free parking, but don't pay $45 for this experience. Chris Garcia reviewed The Simpsons Movie. He said, "It's as good as the pink donuts for sale at Kwik-E-Mart. I laughed so hard, I think I'm dead in seventeen states." Auctions Auction items included Set the Seas on Fire by Chris Roberson ($1), Fortune's Bastard by Robert Chalmers ($0.25), some paperback books ($0.50), three Twinkies ($1), a stack of videotapes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes ($1.50, probably for their value as blank tape more than for what they currently contain), and Linda Wentzelberger for her birthday ($24) Announcements Redux Hugo voting deadline is just after 23:59 PDT tomorrow, Tuesday, July 31. (That's a hard deadline, unlike site selection voting below.) You can still join Nippon 2007. Remember that Frank Wu is nominated for Best Fan Writer, Chris Garcia is nominated for Best Fan Writer, and Chris' 'zine The Drink Tank is nominated for Best Fanzine. The Site Selection voting deadline by mail is officially tomorrow, but you can give your ballot to someone else to carry to Japan, and the administrator has said that if he receives your ballot in time to take it to Japan, he'll count it. Rumor of the Week Con-X-Treme has beaten out Awahneecon as Best Hoax Bid Evar (adopted 28-26 after a lot of money tossed around). Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:37 PM. Kevin Standlee Emergency Holographic Secretary _______________________________________________ Basfa mailing list [email protected] http://lists.basfa.org/listinfo.cgi/basfa-basfa.org
