W Of all the letters in our alphabet has the only cumbrous name, all
others being monosyllables. By simplifying the name of w (calling it "wow"
for example) our civilization could undoubtlessly be, if not promoted, at
least better endured.
WACKY (1) A nickname of Ackerman's. (2) The Wacky Logic that Campbell
talked about when UNKNOWN WORLDS was in flower is much like the
surrealistic joke. An instance from fandom: "He looked back and saw that a
Martian was following him. Not a big Martian; that would be fantastic. But a
little Martian."
WAR On the outbreak of hostilities between Britain & France and Germany in
1939, Gallet's plans for a French stf prozine were abandoned, the SFA and
BIS were suspended for the duration and their official records placed in
safety, and several members living outside London who would likely still be in
the same place after the war were named as members to contact after it was
over so that things could be set going again. Tucker and others over here
expressed the feeling that British fandom had had it.
As a means of keeping Anglofandom in contact with itself, Chris Youd
started chain letters circulating. Even at the height of the German bombings,
fan activity continued, minor get-togethers were held, several old and new
fans continued publishing, and new proz were set on foot. BFS was organized;
BREs appeared. Ackerman and, later, Cunningham's British SF War Relief
Society [an American organization], were active in sending bundles of proz and
fmz to the Anglofans.
Amerifans' opinions about the war had fluctuated at such events as the
Sitzkrieg, the invasion of Finland, the fall of France, and the invasion of
Russia. After the Pearl Harbor incident, however, most of them supported the
war; some who had held pacifist ideas before the war registered as
conscientious objectors. Altho no study has been made, it seemed that more
fans were deferred from conscription than was true of their age group on the
average. Defects included: fallen armpits, hypertension, insanity,
homosexuality, osteomyelitis, deafness, defective vision, heart murmur, a
short foot, asthma, Twonk's disease, and over- and under-agedness.
Be that as it may, fans of fandom were found in all branches of the US
and British armed services and other places such as merchant service, CO
camps, Government war offices, and war industries. One had gone to Iceland
before Pearl Harbor and another was in Hawaii; still another was on the way to
the Philippines on 7 December, and ended up in Australia. French, British,
and American fans took part in Dunkirk, Guadalcanal, North Africa, Normandy,
Leyte and other operations.
Inside the various countries fen of war were shifted from place to place,
trying to contact fellow fen whenever they came near them; many landed near
Shangri-LA. Several service fans went into Army Specialized Training Programs
and all in all the fans ranked above average in the service, as was natural
with their higher intelligence. Those fen who were deferred, and those
sweating out the call, kept up activity in fandom and in some cases did work
for servifans and supplied them with fanzines gratis. If anything, activity
per capita increased, and serious discussion seemed to be stimulated; not only
those related to war problems, but on universal principles. The N3F went into
its coma and subzines declined in numbers for a while, as FAPA grew in
importance. (FAPA members in the armed forces stationed overseas were
exempted from activity requirements.)
The Korean War produced no particular difficulties for fans to surmount
and provoked little discussion once it became evident that it would not
precipitate a general war. It was remarkable for the high percentage of fans
in uniform who came from Michigan -- about 25-30%.
The effects of the pre- and post-Korean Cold War are difficult to
distinguish from what might be called "normal", since they affect so many
areas of national life. Noteworthy, however, is the shocking expansion of the
lunatic fringe in the proz; a certain growth of anarchism in the sense of a
belief in the incompetence of all governments; and a deal of debate pro&con
whether defeat of the Communist Empire does not involve our adoption of
undemocratic repressive techniques like those we're supposed to be fighting
against. Some fans even profess to detect a touchiness and acerbity
previously little-known in fandom, which they attribute to the tensions of our
unshooting hostilities.
WAPA Whimsical Amateur Press Association, created about 1956 by Larry
Anderson to be an APA of a new type, intended for whimsy and humor.
Instead of sending fanzines to an OE members mailed them direct to each other
on individual deadlines (one week apart) as in the Cult. Little was ever
done; the membership boasted several BNFs but slight enthusiasm. Dues were
charged for no discoverable reason. There was no link or continuity between
WAPA zines and schedules were little observed, so the club existed only a
little over half a year before being formally disbanded.
WATER PISTOL Standard sidearm of the Beanie Brigade, and introduced by the
Oblique Angles to British fandom. Contributors to the watergun
mythos have pointed out its range (Harry Moore remarked that now clowning fans
could shoot news photographers if the latter tried to take pictures of them)
but low mortality rate among its casualties. Fears for the future were raised
at the SuperManCon when John Roles of the Liverpool group introduced the use
of soda siphons, but quick action by cooler heads checked this menace.
WATERMELON STORY Get Burbee to tell it to you sometime. "It was a story I
began telling in 1942 even before I got into fandom", says
Burb. "When I got into the Army in '45 I got famous for it and had to tell it
several times a day, often by request of the Brass: '...Is there a fellow
named -- Burbee -- in this group?' 'Yes, here I am.' 'Fine. I understand
you have a story about a watermelon. Would you tell it before we begin our
lecture on double-action booby-traps?' I was sort of obsessed by it and told
it hundreds of times. I've told it on fannish tape a coupla times, too.
And before that, on wire." Don't confuse this with Martin Alger's Watermelon
Joke which concerns a fellow he knew in the Army who preferred watermelons to
gals.
WAW WITH THE CREW IN '52 Slogan coined by Shelby Vick for his successful
campaign to bring Walt Willis to the ChiCon II.
Walt's column, "The Harp That Once Or Twice..." in QUANDRY had been hailed as
top-grade fanstuff, and the idea of bringing him over for the worldcon was one
to rally much support from fans in America. Contributions and fundraising
gimmicks like the Willishes and the raffling off of the Iron Maiden mimeo
brought Walt over successfully, and the campaign itself is remembered fondly
as a high point of the amiable Sixth Fandom attitude. A conreport of
impressive bulk, The Harp Stateside, recorded Walt's adventures here
and the campaign had much to do with development of the present entente
cordiale between American and English fandom.
WASHINGTON DC Several non-connected groups of stfnists have existed in the US
capital. The Outsiders Club (formerly the Washington
Necronomicon) began as a Weird Tales club, apparently back when WT was one of
the only proz; it included Seabury Quinn and other fans who were more
interested in weird than stf writing, and often revived old-time fantasy films
to show at meetings. Some issues of an OO, THE OUTSIDER, were published, but
the group had no contact with fandom to speak of and its date of dissolution
is uncertain.
The Washington Worry-Warts (Rothman's name) were the stfans of the
District of Columbia; they had no formal organization. Chiefly they were
Rothman, Speer and Perdue, joined at times by Lester del Rey, Slate, and
others, including (1942) a group of Angelenoes -- reversing the general trend
to Shangri-LA of the war years. The group broke up when its members moved
elsewhere about the end of the war.
The Washington Science-Fiction Association, formed in a coal cellar in
1948, has persisted to the present day. It's noted for its high proportion of
actifans, beautiful wimmen, and two-fisted drinkers, including such folk as
Bob Pavlat, Bill Evans, Chick Derry, Dick Eney, Nelson Griggs, Ted White, John
Magnus, and various others at times. WSFAns have played a prominent part in
all four fan APAs, and contributed vast store of fanzines to the contents of
various mailings. Of late, such historically valuable projects as the Pavlat-
Evans continuation of Swisher's checklist, some APA indexing-work, and this
volume have been accomplished by WSFA members.
WE An avoidance for I. It gradually infected fans from its use in the
general press, and the fans who didn't take it up apurpose found
themselves caving in unawares. They are mainly troubled about their inability
to keep from indiscriminately mixing "we" and "I".
WEAPONS Tho the most stfnal weapon, the death ray, never left the laboratory
(refer to any physics text for the explanation), a large number of
other devices first "developed" by science-fiction military establishments now
are the property of mundane ones; atomic explosives, uranium power plants,
radioactive-dust poisons, guided missiles, tank destroyers, radar fire
control, and infrared vision instruments of the sniperscope type; some we
missed were submarines, bombardment rockets, and poison gas.
WEIRD FICTION Fantasy based upon ideas of the universe which science has
discredited or disproved. It was originally fiction which
aimed to produce an emotional effect of horror or the like -- the Gothic "make
'em shiver" movement -- but in our classification designates all fantasy of
the type which is neither stf nor pure fantasy. It does not include scarey
stories with a mundane explanation.
Weird fiction as separated from fantasy traces back to the Gothic horror
tale, beginning 1764, in which fantastic events began to be used simply to
horrify as well as to advance the action. It is a field in which treatment
and atmosphere is at least as important as the actual subject-matter, and
therefore not so easy to define extensionally as stf and fantasy.
Fandom centers around science-fiction, so that weird is sort of an off-
cousin, but for certain purposes, such as poetry and humor, it is found to be
a better field than stfsy.
WEIRD TALES Of old was the age when Weird began;
Fanzines nor letterhacks there were
Ackerman was not, nor Moskowitz
But boundless Mundane, and fans nowhere...
as the Pros' Edda
touchingly puts it. Weird, established in 1923, was the first successful mag
to specialize in strictly fantasy stories, contributing such authors as HP
Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, CL Moore, Robert E Howard, and Seabury Quinn in
its great days during the 30s. It began to slip during World War II, when a
puckle of other fantasy mags went under, and went downhill to extinction in
the mid-50s. But many of its mythos (Cthulhu, Hyborian Age), heroes
(Northwest Smith, Conan, Jules de Grandin), and great stories (Shambleau, The
Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror, Three Marked Pennies) go marching on in
fannish lore.
WEIRD WILLYS A 1938 Willys which, after a fashion, took FTLaney from Lewiston
Washington to take up his residence in Los Angeles -- perhaps
the most important single move in modern fan history.
WEISS RAK Various Ted White cars. Weiss Rak I was a 1949 Hudson Commodore,
which transported the Bulmers and other distinguished fans. II was
a gas-hog of a 1949 Buick convertible which took the DC Mob to NYCon II. III,
a Jaguar hardtop, gave way to IV, a black '54 Ford, early in 1959.
WELCOMMITTEE A group of N3F members who contact new members and help them get
acquainted with the club and its activities. Embarrassing
passages have arisen from such events as the one in which Burbee, after
several years of activity and fame, was "welcomed" to fandom. This group
originally had a function (no longer exercised) of watching the prozine letter
columns for promising letters from non-fans and having committee members in
the same section of the country write them letters "welcoming" them into
fandom and explaining what it is all about.
WESTERCON An annual conclave for the Western half of the United States --
West of the Rockies, that is -- begun by the LASFS on Labor Day
1948. It has since become an institution for which other clubs bid also, like
the Worldcon, and until the past year [i.e., 1958] was always some place in California.
WHEELS OF IF (DeCamp:Sixth Fandom) The BNFs of (Northern) Irish Fandom; same
personnel as the Oblique Angles.
WHERE OLD FANS GO TO DIE (Sneary:Laney) or any parody of this slogan has
reference to FAPA, on account of the tenacity with
which members clung to the roster toward the end of World War II. ("FAPA
members never quit and rarely died.") Laney, struck by Sneary's coinage,
stuck this phrase on the masthead of the FA during his OEship (1948). On
gaining office, Sneary as VP banned usage of the phrase there or in any
FAPAzine. "Why, I wonder?" wonders Burbee. "I suppose he decided that it
wasn't as funny or as significant as we claimed."
WHIMSY A manner of writing or speaking in which you toss out whatever pops
into your mind, especially if it's irrelevant or relevant only in a
surrealistic way. Maybe you take some cliche literally, and say "All the luck
in the world (no, not all; save some for other people)", or you get, and obey,
an impulse to send someone a telegram saying COME HOME COMMA DEAR STOP ALL IS
FORGUV LOVE BERTHA; or perhaps you're writing a drama and get the idea that it
would be funny if an alligator came crawling on stage, so you put that in. It
looks easy, but only a certain type of mind can do it acceptably. Dick Wilson
was the great master of this art form, tho other fans have attempted it with
some success.
WHITCON The gathering (brainstormed by John Newman) that marked the postwar
revival of congoing in England. It took place 15-16 May 1948, over
Whitsuntide weekend, at the White Horse tavern in London. Nearly 60 fans
attended, including Gillings, Carnell, ACC, Bill Temple, and Bertram Chandler.
New Worlds was declared folded (ending the last surviving English prozine),
and a cooperative company was planned to take it over.
WHITHERING (DeCamp) Moskowitz and Speer have been the chief whitherers of
fandom, tho others have turned a hand to it -- Silverberg, for
instance, and, in a way, Harlan Ellison. Many an article of the pattern "Is
Science Fiction in a Rut?" we may note and pass by. Important philosophizing
has been done over the question why the history of fandom has followed the
pattern it has, and what comes next. The swinging-pendulum model used in
Speer's original application of Spenglerian historical principles still has
much validity, and by use of it Speer, in a prize-winning prophetic article
published by the LASFL, made a generally accurate forecast of the Second
Transition and Third Fandom.
WIDNERIDE The epic journey of Moneybags Unger, Tree Toad Rothman, Pretty Boy
Madle, Sourpuss Bell, and The Thing Widner, in the FooFoo Special,
to the DenVention. The Fantasy Boys Out West were seeing a lot of country
they'd never seen before, and what with the Special's radiator and consequent
fundlessness which left them starving between fanhabited towns, it was an
experience unforgettable.
WILLISH Any of the special issues of various fanzines (MAD, SOL, OOPSLA, CF,
and FANTASIAS) which were dedicated to Walt Willis and published to
assist his journey to the ChiCon II. They contained material by WAW, tributes
to him, and, usually, other material. Often they had installments of "Willis
Discovers America", a serial about WAW's fictional adventures here written
before his trip. (The Harp Stateside was written after his return to
Ireland.)
WILLIS DEATH HOAX On a visit to Terry Carr's home in mid-1952, Pete Graham
(then aged 13) suggested a hoax that Willis had died. Carr
tried to squelch the notion and thought he had, but Graham circulated a number
of postalcards announcing Willis's death. He had done it, according to Carr,
because he'd gotten a gift from his parents of a postcard mimeo and two
stencils and "he had been dying to try them on something". Since the pcs were
mailed from San Francisco few fans believed the news, but Lee Riddle called
Lee Hoffman long distance to check -- and she was able to confirm that WAW
lived on. Practically everybody blasted Graham for the stunt. (Some blamed
Terry Carr, who was not involved.) Many were disturbed because the hoax might
affect the campaign adversely.
The postal said: "We regret to inform you that the well-known Irish fan,
Walter A Willis, is dead. He passed away at his home in Northern Ireland at
the hour of 9:50 A.M. on Thursday, May 15. The doctor said he died of
diptheria [sic], a disease from which he had been suffering for some time.
The Chicago Convention will honor his death by cancelling the banquet, and by
limiting the auction to quiet bidding. Most fanzines will have a memorial
issue, which will be for sale only to fans who contributed to the 'WAW with
the Crew in '52' fund. Fen who contributed to the 'WAW with the Crew in '52'
fund, send your name and address to Shelby Vick and he will return your money.
All fanzine publishers are asked not to treat this announcement as a hoax, but
to give it full consideration and to announce it in his own magazine so that
fans may know of this throughout the nation and the world. Yours, An
Interested Fan Who Is Willing To Pay Postage For These Cards."
Vick knew it was a hoax; he'd received a letter from WAW dated 20 May.
The card was postmarked Frisco, May 28, and was poorly mimeoed. Walt, of
course, turned up alive, but the rigors of convention and postcon visiting
almost caused him to make an honest man of Graham.
WIRESPONDING Corresponding by wire recorder. (The magnetic tape people did
the cause of scientificombination a bad turn when they chose a
name for their product that didn't end in re.) Not very many fen had the wire
machines, but they produced the same phenomena as the later tape-users -- even
a parallel with FATE in Shelby Vick's Wirez, a wirecording club which was
active till the wire got lost in the mail and Shelby gafiated.
WOLVERINE INSURGENTS The wolverine is a sort of state mascot of Michigan.
"Wolverine Insurgentism rose on the radioactive ruins
left by the Blowup", said the Michigan Fantasite. Its membership was
amorphous but generally comprised Michifen who were disgusted with the DSFL.
For months after the Blowup Art Rapp and the others published a parody of "The
Detroit Stfan" one week after that (the DSFL organ) appeared. The DSFL tried
to ignore this but at last had to blast back. Ralph Fluette, Ray Nelson, and
a few others were associated with Rapp in the movement.
WOLLHEIMISTS The Second Fandom name for the Futurians, because Don Wollheim
was the leading Quadrumvir.
They reached their peak while under this name -- at the time of the June
1938 FAPA elections. At this time the Phillies challenged them for control of
the organization, with allegations of irregular and unconstitutional conduct;
Wollheim countered by mailing out the ballots (the mailing bundle being
delayed) along with a propaganda flier claiming that the PSFS group was trying
to sabotage things and he himself was being libelled. (See illustration under
"Art".) [not shown] Later the Philly slate was abused on political grounds,
that VP-candidate Speer was an avowed Fascist and the Phillies planned to
censor Michelist material from the mailings. The Wollheimists made a clean
sweep of contested offices and Speer immediately started a Petition of
Reprimand circulating and being signed. A little later, as described
elsewhere, the Quadrumvirate quit.
The designation of the group came from the belief, widespread in Second
Fandom, that the other three Quadrumvirs, and certainly the lesser lights of
the Futurians-to-be, took their orders from Wollheim. To laugh this idea out
of existence, the Loyal and Benevolent Protective Order of Wollheim Stooges
was founded by Prize Stooge Michel; it was supposed to be open to anybody who
had ever disagreed with Will Sykora. Actually, according to Lowndes, the
unanimity of the Wollheimist/Futurian faction was the result of prior
conferences on policy, in which they frequently laid down the law to the
"Dictator".
WOOK (Hoffwoman) A Ghuist spirit, archangel by rank. As Ghu itself cares
for hekto and ditto, Wook is in charge of all Ghuist mimeography -- like
that done on QUANDRY -- except for certain specimens done by the ultra-pious
John Davis in purple mimeo ink.
WORLD STATE One point on which almost all socially-conscious fans were agreed
of old. They varied greatly, however, in their ideas of how it
was to come about. Youd favored Federal Union, tho on the eve of Pearl Harbor
he renounced the idea of any connection with these rotten Americans. Speer
also favored this idea, but lacking that hoped that consolidation of
individual states might take place satisfactorily as a result of the war. The
Michelists spoke always of a scientific, socialistic world state; the
Esperantists believed that a universal language would be a powerful force for
world unification.
Early hopes for development of the UN into an international government
having been dashed, fans seem at present to adopt the idea of an
irreconcilable conflict between the NATO powers and the Communist Empire which
cannot be settled by the parliamentary methods we understand by world
government, but can only be resolved by some form of force -- propaganda,
weaponry, etc -- tho whether it actually will be resolved at all is
disputed. Much speculation on the subject of late has dealt with
establishment of a world state after one or the other power bloc has been
destroyed; but actually the notion has gradually fallen into non-consideration
as it became more and more evident how little would be left to organize after
World War III. Your Frazer suspects, however, that the present degree of
international cooperation within the supranational alliances would have sent
most prewar World Statists into ecstacies.
WORLDCON The chief annual gathering of fans is usually designated as
an "International Convention".
WO3W (EESmith:DAG) Wide-open three-way, a title adopted from the Lensman
Series (complete telepathic contact among three persons, it means) by
Redd Boggs, Dean A Grennell, and Bob Silverberg to describe their habit of
sending each to the other a carbon of any letters to the third.
WRITING Often used in connection with fanzines to denote art work as well as
fiction & nonfiction. Characteristics of the usual colloquial style,
as distinguished from the puristic handling of grammar of which fans are
capable when necessary, are various practices of the Ackermanese type (varying
from fan to fan); considerable use of words and phrases in and from foreign
languages (and, anciently, Esperanto) whenever the writer feels like it; and a
tone as if the writer were talking to himself, or at least determining how he
should say things primarily to suit himself.
Some people in the fan world, it must be added, do not share the
competence of the typical fan in the matter of writing ability, and may
produce gibberish like this:
"Now there's understanding. A solid object you can understand. Prior to
understanding something, there is the understanding... (My
IQ has gone up fifty points while I've been here a year.) Hand in hand
with the symbol-substituter effect-people prace toward the world's end.
Or did, till a few seconds ago. There's a BUT in here..."
Or they are addicted to guff of this sort:
"I'll just drool till you get back; it's third door to the left... # Once
upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, came a knocking
at my dome, 'Ain't nobody home!' # With all this (and he --, too), mixed
well, sprinkle with salt and poppa; take one whiff and I'll send you a
few Daisies, pickled fresh from my harem. # Well, you have withstood my
desultory comments. I have tried to be candid and affable. I can make
one promise: you will find no cursory columns, but they will not be
impeccable. I hope I have succeeded. Au 'voir, I'll be dropping in
later -- # -- I hope!"
And nothing can be done about it. Not, at least, since the Post Office
passed that chicken-hearted regulation banning bombs from the mail.
WSFA see Washington DC
WSFS The World Science Fiction Society, Incorporated. The PhilCon II in 1953
had rumblings of a "permanent convention organization", and at the NYCon
II this group was actually voted into authority. It was alleged that
incorporation was necessary to prevent local fans being sued for debts in case
the convention ran into the red -- a real danger, with the Big Convention
movement -- since it could declare itself bankrupt when its funds were
exhausted, under the laws governing corporations, while individuals could be
sued for their personal funds if debts exhausted the Con-committee's
resources. Tho a well-taken point, the fact that the NYCon II and the LonCon
following it both ran into debt without rescue from the WSFS casts doubt on
the value of this feature. Certain dragooning tactics used in getting the
Incorporation adopted as sponsoring organization of the NYCon II (mostly
George Nims Raybin's public remark that iff'n the attendees en masse didn't
vote for that measure at the business session the society would gather a group
of Con-committee members who would put it into effect anyway) were strongly
resented at the time and later.
The WSFS in addition to other duties was supposed to "help with
convention planning and production, acting as a reservoir of experience". It
is reported to have given a good deal of valuable assistance to the LonCon.
Its bylaws regularized some important fannish convention practices, such as
the Rotation Plan. Tho the language of the organization's charter was
suspected of concealing crafty legalisms by which the WSFS directors could
"take over fandom" (i.e. dictate to convention committees) neither London nor
South Gate had any complaints to make about officiousness.
After the Plane Trip hooraw, and, some alleged, as a result of the
animosities therefrom arising, the New York WSFS officers (Frank Dietz,
Recorder-Historian; Belle Dietz, Secretary; George Nims Raybin, Legal Officer)
dunned Dave Kyle for about $100 in funds outstanding since the NYCon II, and,
receiving no satisfaction, attached his bank account. Kyle brought suit for
damages to his reputation in the amount of $25,000, the attachment and a
libellous article by one "Edsel McCune" in fanzine Metrofan being important
exhibits. (To make things clearer, this "Edsel McCune" was not the original
owner of the pen-name.) The other 3 filed counter-suit for the same amount
and a series of articles, most of which probably were actionable if the truth
were known, were produced by each side. Kyle cited some of these and raised
his claim to $35,000, while the Dietzes and Raybin offered to let Kyle
designate a lawyer to handle their end of the suit. Dave refused this offer,
since taking over would let him end the matter as he pleased but make him
liable for all the court charges (several hundred dollars) accumulated to
date.
Meanwhile, back in fandom, various others had taken an interest in the
matter, the Falascas reacting by attacking the legality of the whole WSFS as
at that time constituted and alleging irregularities in the Incorporation's
operation that would get it in trouble if it ever came under the scrutiny of
the courts. Inchmery Fandom and some others rallied to the support of WSFS
and the Dietzes, but the majority reaction appeared to be active or barely
suppressed nausea at the goings-on in New York. Motivations for the last
appear to have been (1) dislike of legal action on the general principle that
fandom is too esoteric for a fair judgement to be reached by a mundane court
or jury, and (2) horror at the size of the damages claimed, $25,000 being more
than sufficient to throw the average fan into debt for a decade. Such
feelings easily passed into opposition to the existence of the WSFS.
To make it easier for the contenders to back down, Kyle was accused of
vindictiveness in maintaining his suit, while the "Unholy Three" were accused
of "trying to wiggle out from under a bad case" in not maintaining
theirs. Since withdrawal by either side would undoubtlessly be
followed by denunciations for having admitted to a bad case, the lawsuiters
appear to be in an insoluble dilemma.
As mentioned above, disgust at these carryings-on, which were generally
linked to the name of WSFS, easily became the source of opposition to the
existence of the corporation. The Falascas and the Berkeley Bhoys were
generally the spreaders of anti-WSFS and down-with-lawsuits sentiments, tho
they had enthusiastic seconding. During 1958 fandom's intent to fight against
the WSFS at the SoLACon became so evident that the con committee decided not
to associate the convention with the WSFS, a decision which Anna Moffat
announced amid tremendous cheers at the business session. A resolution was
passed there calling for dissolution of the WSFS by the directors. (Since the
SoLACon wasn't WSFS-sponsored a resolution, which was probably set to go,
"that the WSFS be dissolved", couldn't be introduced.) The later history of
the organization remains in doubt, since no such action was taken, but it is
improbable that the WSFS Inc will be important in fandom henceforth.
Updated January 8, 1999. If you have a comment or question about these Web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.