Plus Ca Change, Plus Ca Change

(sorry, no funny Frenchy symbols in the title font…)

We are now less than a week away from:

Worldcon – Anticipation in Canada

The awarding of the much talked about Hugo Awards

The awarding of the much less talked about Prometheus, Campbell, Chesely, Sidewise and Prix Boreal awards

Lots of room parties

The Faneds luncheon

The gathering of many folks for their once-annual get-togethers

and

The World Science Fiction Society’s multi-day business meeting.

Mike Glyer at File 770 has been talking about several of these events as has TLTSNBN, as have the folks at Save the Semiprozine (multiple part entries)

Whether tabled, concluded, modified or pushed forward for other folks to deal with later, the decisions being made at this year’s business meeting will have a serious effect on how the future treats the roots of fandom.

Fandom, like science fiction itself, does not enjoy a black and white defintion. It is, by its very nature, ever-changing AND firmly rooted in the past.

This is because fandom is a culture, not a demographic. Cultures that water their roots and allow the branches to bloom survive and thrive and are capable of responding to changes, while still preserving their essential nature.? Both root and branch are needed for the tree to survive.

In order for that to happen, Fandom – as embodied by the members of WSFS (which ANYONE can become) needs to accept the fact that it must self-promote and take some wider cognizance of the greater world and pay some attention to it.

A recent addition to the votes at this year’s business meeting illustrate that some small cadre of involved fans recognizes this – but they are not going far enough and may, in fact, be making a mistake with their approach.

The basic premise is that Worldcons (run by independent groups of fans under the auspices and guidelines of WSFS) should be encouraged to have some presence at ‘commercial’ cons (Dragoncon, Comiccon, etc).

There are two problems with this proposal.? The first is that there is not enough specificity or guidance. ‘Presence at’ could consist of anything from a protest to flyers left on a table in the lobby.

The biggest of the two problems though is – what about Worldcon is going to be attractive to folks who are presenced at those other conventions?

This is a much bigger issue than one which can be handled at a single WSFS business meeting, with a single vote on a single motion.

The one vote that ought to have been proposed and getting voted on this year should have been: create a permanent committee (appropriate measures for appointing/changing members), with a budget (appropriate measures for oversite), who’s task will be two-fold: 1. FIND OUT WHAT NEW FANS WANT: 2. CREATE PROGRAMMING BASED ON 1 (while RETAINING traditional programming): 3. RECOMMEND WAYS TO PUBLICIZE THESE CHANGES

This is an addition to WSFS (and many will groan over that) but WSFS does not currently have a vehicle who’s primary purpose is to embrace change and manage its impact – and, if it is to survive and thrive, it needs to.

Such a sub-committee will also serve another purpose. It will be the front line in doing what needs to be done in order to remain relevant (= continue to grow and prosper) while preventing “crass commercialism” from gaining too much ground.

We don’t need flyers at SDCC: we need a survey of the attendees.? We need a mission statement and we need a GOAL.

What IS fandom’s goal/purpose?? I think it should be something along the following lines:

to preserve the culture of fandom, in all of its diverse forms, while continuing to embrace the future and grow in both size, importance and influence

or

to insure that the core values of fandom are successfully transmitted to a new generation

or even

to serve as an alternative to the commercialization of the genre arts

Does that mean that we’ll have to embrace the Twilight twits?? Probably – but you won’t have to go to their panels if you don’t want to.