How the LASFS fund came to be
Posted by: Michael Lee on: October 27, 2009
Thanks to Kevin Austin for mentioning a link to Paul Turner’s Remarks about how the LASFS Building Fund came to be in response to our own earlier post about the history of the LASFS clubhouse.
One of the things that I’ve found in some of my recent conversations about this blog is that it is worth pointing out that we’re talking about a long term dream. Right now we’re still talking about the $35 initial payment into the building fund. My hope here is to try something constructive for our communities — and that’s going to take some time to figure it out. But in LA eventually $35 became $2000, and it can grow from there.
I like “Onward and Upward” as well.
Why Organize
Posted by: Michael Lee on: September 11, 2009
I found a recent blog post by Seth Godin to be particularly relevant for our community building plans.
In a recent post about Organizing Customers, he describes the expense of negotiating the rights for Grease for small community theaters.
This strikes me as being very relevant to our discussions here. As a community, we do lots of things as a group — we obtain music and film rights for our events. We buy soda and snack food. We might outsource website development. We need high-powered lights and sound equipment. We need facilities for conventions and meeting facilities of a variety of sizes and shapes. We order t-shirts and other merchandise items. We rent storage pods and lockers. We have space needs and desires. Now there certainly should be independence — each event and group is different — but there are certainly some common causes where it is useful to collaborate.
Looking at all of this at once turns into an enormous problem. But if we look at this in little pieces? Break it down, spread it out and make it manageable?
Then it’s all very possible.
Let’s Play a Game
Posted by: stuckintraffik on: September 3, 2009
- In: Community
- 12 Comments
Let’s play a game.
Close your eyes.
Tell me what you see.
“Darkness” and “My eyelids” are not helpful. I can see I need to
explain.
A lot of the posts and comments on here are about a building, and I
think that’s a shame. While the Community Center is a great idea, I
think the organization that uses the building is a better one. A
building is brick and mortar, a thing, but nothing more. Oh sure, it
can be a very useful thing, but in the end, who cares?
But an organization, fueled by ideas, now that is something I can get
behind. Something I can fight for. So let me tell you what I see when
I close my eyes.
LASFS clubhouse interview
Posted by: Jon Olsen on: August 19, 2009
- In: Community
- 8 Comments
We requested information from The Los Angeles Science Fiction Society on how they got their clubhouse buildings. The inimitable Tadao Tomomatsu made a wonderful interview video of Milt Stevens and Dr. Jerry Pournelle. They described some of the things they went through to get their clubhouses and ideas for consideration. It’s really very interesting.
Video produced & directed by Tadao Tomomatsu, filmed on location at the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society Clubhouse. Uploaded and linked with Tadao’s permission and that of Mr. Stevens and Dr. Pournelle.
Diversicon Panel Wrap Up
Posted by: Michael Lee on: August 8, 2009
We had a very positive discussion at Diversicon.
As always, we are appreciative of examples outside of the SF Community in our local area, and one great example is the Quatrefoil Library.
And one major discussion point was the library functions — we have many pieces of material that are out there, some that belong to individual organizations, but others that may belong to organizations that no longer exist as well.
And one advantage of a central space is that there are elements of our shared history; for example, reference was made to items in Mn-stf’s library about the reasons why the “serious” Minneapolis in ‘73 Worldcon bid folded. And the shadow of the Minneapolis in ‘73 bid is large.
The discussion focused on several positive points. As our first public discussion outside of CONvergence, it was emphasized that building trust amongst the organizations is going to be a big challenge. The perception that different organizations don’t trust or respect each other is certainly out there and it has already been mentioned here, and is something that I am sure we will have further discussions and the organization will have to consider. There have already been good thoughts on this.
One thing that we need to work out is how organizations of different sizes and resources work together — we want and desire participation from a wide variety of groups of different sizes and financial resources.
However, one of the challenges pointed out is that we aren’t looking at a commune either — we need to make sure that the dishes get washed.
Our favorite suggestion was one where it was suggested that a community center is too small and we should be considering a small town with a helipad. But as has pointed out, if we’re looking at Leagues instead of Societies, in a 1000 years we will be Legion…
Fafnir
Posted by: Michael Lee on: July 30, 2009
One of the current challenges that CONvergence is facing is an old, familiar one: How big do we want to get?
Compared to something like San Diego Comic Con — which could fit the size of CONvergence’s membership into one room — we’re all still small stuff. 4,000 people? That is nothing when you’re looking at 40,000- or 125,000-person events.
I’ve been looking at some of the footage from San Diego last weekend, and it’s really incredible how the one event becomes the center of the entertainment culture for a weekend. And while it is called “Comic Con”, it really is a “geek pop culture” event.
But my experience is that size isn’t the only thing with bearing on the quality of the event. One of the values that I share in this discussion is that we are putting on participatory activities—we want to build a culture and environment where people are encouraged to engage with their passions. The community that we want to build and maintain is one of a participatory culture around our entertainment sources. That’s true whether you are involved in some sort of cosplay or having a writing workshop.
I want to keep the traditions of our community going—so many of the events in this area are member-and-participant driven. I can’t predict the future, and I don’t know where the community will take us.
In Norse mythology, Fafnir was turned into a dragon to better protect the treasure. But the dragon is a symbol of greed in Norse mythology — and something of which to be wary. And for good reason. Could CONvergence turn into Fafnircon? A Dragon*Con of the north? Is that what we want? If it is not (and I’m inclined to think it isn’t) — what are the best ways to keep our community healthy and sustainable?
One way I see of doing this is encouraging more things—CONvergence isn’t designed to be the only convention in this metro area, and for some people, it’s going to be too big, or too noisy, or too long. As a community we have multiple events; and we spread it around the calendar year.
League Panel at Diversicon
Posted by: Michael Lee on: July 29, 2009
We will be having a brainstorming session at Diversicon this weekend. Join us at this discussion if you are registered for the convention (and feel free to register at the convention!)
Saturday, August 1
2:00-2:55 PM
Krushenko’s Annex (Northern Pacific)
Brainstorming Discussion: Geek Community Center
What would you like in a hypothetical Geek Community Center? Through the leagueofwonders.org blog, some of us are starting to gather the requirements and dreams for a new broad community organization (including members of many independent SF-related groups) for some really big community dreams, including a community center or clubhouse.Michael Lee, mod.
(This will not be the last discussion we have on this subject if you can’t make it!)
Cake or death?
Posted by: Jon Olsen on: July 22, 2009
Participating groups would affiliate with this organization by mutual choice
- Partner organizations would vote to affiliate through a contract arrangement.
- Unless otherwise agreed, relationships would be reporting relationships, rather than managerial
- Affiliation agreements would be dissolvable by either party but only with significant lead time—at least one year.
- Affiliating organizations would participate in revenue sharing.
Other structures may need to be analyzed and considered
The revenue sharing matter is one that needs additional thought and detail. It probably should have gone to the top of the list above, so I’ll discuss it now.
One comparison that’s been mentioned is a kind of “Geek United Way.” In other words, combine the contributions and volunteerism of our communities of imagination, along with those of other community partners, into a substantial cross-boundary effort that enables projects of greater size.
We would like to make an organization that fundraising organizations and non-profits would be proud to give to on a regular basis. Something akin to what Anime Detour Con-Chair Kale Ganann made note of in earlier comments:
Is it better to say that since it potentially could be something we don’t want to fund we should walk away, or should we pariticpate in the discussion and see if it can’t become something we would want to fund?
We want to build something to which you want to contribute.
Read the rest of this entry »
A Mission
Posted by: Jon Olsen on: July 17, 2009
My mission, and one I would personally bring to this is:
to connect organizations for challenging collaborations that support charitable activities and improve relationships in diverse communities of imagination throughout the upper Midwest.
Do you see how that merges with/emerges from the principles that I suggested earlier?
We choose to connect over the fact of our passions, even where the sources differ.
We embrace openmindedness and imagination.
We seek participatory activities.
We enjoy challenge.
Community is worth building.
There is Nothing New
Posted by: Michael Lee on: July 16, 2009
- In: Community| Groups
- 11 Comments
I’ve been doing a little bit of research over the past couple of years, and I see some examples of other organizations that are “like” what we are doing here. Some are in other fan communities, others in art communities, others may be in religious communities, and others are in the non-profit space generally.
This sort of activity isn’t even entirely unprecedented within the Twin Cities fannish community, even if the scale is bigger than before. The Gordon R. Dickson Memorial Scholarship Fund has been running for several years, and is probably the closest example in our community. The Minnesota Fan Alliance also ran for several years in the late 1990s, but that has been dormant for several years, and the scope of our plans here are much larger than calendar co-ordination.
- Massachusetts Convention Fandom, Inc.
- Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, Inc.
- Mindbridge
- Intermedia Arts
- mnartists.org
- Twin Cities Maker
- Minnesota Council of Churches
- Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
- Metropolitan Regional Arts Board
- United Way
One of the things that fan groups (at least in my experience) tend to mainly look to other fan groups and so they say something “can’t be done” when other groups do things like this all the time. I am not exempt in that particular form of tunnel vision and want to cast my net wider.
What other groups are you aware of that are “similar” to what we are looking at putting together here? We’re looking at groups that aren’t just focused on one event; organizations that are coalitions of other groups.
Jon Olsen
Michael Lee
Lex Larson
uberhill
stuckintraffik
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