Okay one definition of SMOFfing is the practice of people sitting around discussing cons and geek community politics, and sometimes people joked as if decisions were being made by “secret masters of fandom” (hence the acronym). I find it has grown to be a fairly repellant term. Its meaning has become self-fulfilling, and not nearly as funny as when it was first used. Originally it was a kind of humorous self-deprecation: you know, “Oh we’re the secret masters of fandom” — funny because of course it’s so obvious we are not. But over time, some people actually smof and kind of mean it. The problem I have there is the first letter: “S”, as in secret.

Well, rather than turning this into a smofpit exercise, here’s a chance to invite public comment and input. This is intended to be a public exercise in talking about organizing. Partly so no one can later say “oh it’s just ______ trying to do ______.”

We aren’t just _____. We aren’t trying to do _______.

We are you, and asking you to help us figure out some good ways of working together at inter-organizational levels.

So let’s start by unpacking some of the original pieces of the ideas as they’re in progress:

I propose that we create a new, neutral non-profit organization with the goal of serving as a coordinating space between any and all willing fan-run organizations in the region.

• A small, nimble nonprofit board organization
• A nonprofit which has the ability and the mandate to look for larger projects benefiting multiple organizations.

Why something new? Trust. That’s not the only reason, but it’s a significant portion. There are trust issues in these communities. Sometimes concoms don’t trust the boards of their parent organizations, and vice versa. When these ideas were percolating, word got out (word always gets out), and I heard from members of Anime Detour’s own board that they’d heard that CONvergence had put together a plan to “take over” Anime Detour! No really, the impression in the earliest days—when this was just a smoffing exercise—was that they thought we thought we’d be “showing them how a real con is run.” Telephone!

Well, direct conversations between people in CVG and AD seem to have ameliorated some of those feelings (I hope), and I think you can see some of the good will that was present in the panel discussions and is here on this site.

But you have to imagine what I was thinking. Srsly? Oh my goodness, we have a four thousand attendee convention of our own to run over here! Does anyone think we really have time to “take over” another existing and functioning one? Maybe make another con, but not “take over” somebody else’s!

But the complaint is fair, because sometimes we convention committees and boards have fallen down on representing ourselves respectfully and even trustworthily to other organizations!

Quick! Name a concom or a board you have never heard a rumor about.

. . . Are those crickets I hear?

We would like to offer each other’s communities a framework of being able to trust their leadership to remain true to their own spheres, while also working together on their behalf. We would like to trade on the trust relationships that partner organizations have built up with their constituent members and personal networks, without asking those communities to just trust us out of hand. And we need to leave those relationships protected against outside interference.

What’s small and nimble mean? Time to peel back a curtain, and I invite you to join me for a little inside baseball. The Minnesota Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy is comprised of a twelve member board of directors. We have two standing committees: five MISFITS directors and seven CONvergence directors. The two committees have operational and budget planning authority within their own areas. As a Board, we meet every couple of months and we make decisions. We try very hard not to interfere with each committee’s sphere of activities. There are some turf struggles, but not always. No, what is really a serious issue is when we’re bound by the bylaws to act as a group of twelve. New directors in mid-term? That’s a decision for all twelve. Talks about changing our meeting space? Decisions for all twelve. It can be very productive, but it can also be very ponderous. Decisions that can be made very well by the individual committees often wind up butting against our existing structure.

But just as important, there is plenty of work to be done in our existing positions. Even as we work diligently to delegate things, it is at least the equivalent of a part time job to be a director on the Society board—some weeks a full time one. One problem with that is there’s often little room to take on larger projects. What could we do? Appoint an ad hoc committee. We could ignore the possible projects. We could grow the size of the board. Oh man, there’s some differences of opinion on that, but a board of twelve is an unwieldy beast! I can only imagine the struggle of moving together 14 or more. (Coming out of a Christian background, I like to point out that Jesus stopped at twelve! Just sayin’.) What if we came up with another place to do those projects that are related to our mission and would be in support of our mission? While not being the sole responsibility of our principal members? And able to move with more agility. So in the case of the cooperative organization idea, by small I mean like …five.

It also occurred to many of us that while an idea for a community center can—and may one day need to be—driven by one organization, maybe we could invite others to play in the pool too. From the start.

But we’re not fools, nor ignorant of the way these disparate community members are right now: the good old trust issue. The thing that started any talk of teaming up in a league fashion was the acknowledgement that some people just don’t trust each other! Sometimes we don’t even trust each other inside the same organizations. We will always work on that, but it’s also possible that we could partner with someone they trust more, and in good faith gestures, demonstrate a collective trust that one of us might not have on our own.

Well, maybe starting a neutral third party that remains out of our business while facilitating joint projects is an answer to that problem. I’ll take even grudging support, sometimes!

Trust, size, mandate.

The MN Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy could decide to simply assert itself and move forward getting what the board wants and needs. It will be ponderous, but it could happen. At the very least we need a new space sooner rather than later (former MISFITS director Matt Savelkoul said it well: “we need a new space yesterday“). So that’s probably going to happen because of immediate need, regardless of any “big ideas.”

For longer term dreams, we would like to see people excited about this from across our community. We would like to see people understand that it’s not just “those MISFITS people” or “the CONvergence people” and that they’re not just “pushing this on us.” It’s why other people have been invited into the conversation, in private and public.

I said this in an early conversation about this league idea: someone could just start a league and whoever joins, joins. There’s nothing stopping a collection of individuals from doing that. And then we build whatever we want to build. I would like to see whether or not the ideas here can be driven by our community, rather than just be seen as the purview of the Society on whose board I serve. I would like to see an organization of organizations; and one that takes place in public rather than in secret, and invites contributions by multiple organizations.