What do you do with your Natcon when Worldcon comes to town? Why, fold it in with the Worldcon, of course. Everyone but the UK does that. But Natcon things still have to be done. For Australia there are Ditmars to be given out, and site selection to be done. So the Aussies are having a con within a con. It will consist of a Business Meeting and the Ditmars Ceremony, and possibly a barbecue if it doesn’t rain (but this is Melbourne we are talking about). It will also raise money for the Ditmars by the time-honored fannish method of being silly.
So, they are offering GoH positions to the highest bidder, possibly at auction if there is enough interest. And they have a variety of different membership categories, all of which gain you nothing but a warm glow for having done something good for fandom. I’m rather tempted by the AU$40 Protector of Kittens membership myself.
Paul Ewins and Dave Cake appear to be responsible for this. I shall report more as and when they have a web site. In the meantime I leave you with this important information:
If you have experience with registration, programming, masquerades, volunteer coordination, hotel liaison or security you probably have the wrong con. On the other hand if you have access to lots of free booze we may be able to use you.
Good to see that they have their priorities right.
Everyone but the UK does that.
Well, technically, the North Americans cancel theirs, although I guess that amounts to the same thing. I think I remember Kevin idly suggesting that there should be a NASFiC every year, as a third major rotating convention (after Worldcon and Westercon).
I don’t think NASFIC should happen every year. Dragon Con is the NASFIC every year due to it’s shear size and scope. It has some writers that are even more well known than Neil Gaiman or Cory Doctrow. Laurell K Hamilton hasn’t been to a Worldcon to my knowledge, but has been to Dragoncon. It becomes where many fans will go next year who can’t afford Worldcon and enjoy science fiction. I am going to Worldcon this year, but not next year due to cost.
Hmm. I’ve though for a while that lee should be a fan GOH-I’ll have to look into this. 🙂 And the Protector of Kittens is a great membership class.
Tom S.:
If you want to get technical, Dragon*Con really was the NASFiC in 1995.
NASFiC’s purpose is to provide a Worldcon-type experience to people who can’t or don’t want to follow it overseas, and Dragon*Con doesn’t provide that for everyone. (It depends on your personal definition of “Worldcon-type experience”.) Being that they’re different sorts of conventions, I don’t see anything wrong with both existing… and I really envy the Southerners who’ll have both in easy reach next year.