tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Sep 22 15:19:40 1996

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Fan CONS: Irish Experiences; Working on Ops; how we get around Privacy problems; MOre Irish Experience; 1997/8 Cons in Ireland, UK and Europe: Need Committee and locations to be finalised; Con Organisers sharing experience and working together

Dear Listers,

        I have about 4 MB of mail a week and have recently been reading
through the mail.  Just over 5 years ago, when I first started Star Trek
fandom in Ireland, I had no idea what I had unleashed.  On the 25th
Anniversary weekend we organised our first Con, just a few people getting
together with Diane Duane and Peter Morwood and enjoying each others company
and making new friends from other people from far away they otherwise would
not have met.  It is on this basis that Star Trek _Conferences_ are based on
Ireland: Fans getting together in small numbers mixing, confering and
developing each others interests.  The legendary Irish hospitality and
friendlyness, as well as these smaller numbers have enabled fans and guests
to get to know the guests, what they call "Intimate".
The guests, used to American hussle, were expecting hoards of fans jossling
and stalking the guests.  Here the fans are so friendly, outgoing and close
that the guests have felt at ease and comfortable with the fans, mixing with
them, sitting, chatting and enjoying each others company.  This was
especially evident when it was announced that Gates McFadden was entering
the Main hall and that the fans should make way - she was so shocked and
surprised when suddenly everyone moved aside as a large avenue formed that
she had to be helped to the podium, escorted under each arm by the committee
assigned to her.  Her attitude suddenly changed from the standoffish type
madam to the natural and friendly guest all the fans enjoyed.  Her and other
guests actually request MORE sessions with the fans than are contracted.  We
have been told that Irish fand are "Delightful" and a "Breath of Fresh Air".

        I have had many Cons under my belt - indeed I have been on more Cons
in Ireland than anyone else - including my mother who is trying to keep me
out - claiming that people can't handle my autistic tendancies - such as
being honest and helpful, and she WON'T be on any committee with me -
because she can't handle the hassle of people getting at me; she claims that
people (by her definition almost anyone) won't work with me.  My jobs on the
committees have been usually on PR/Publicity (able to use my Autistic
tendancies and abilities) for writing and getting press coverage,
interviews, etc and running the Ops Room.
While as some people on the list say that Ops is not a Committee position
and that it is for Volunteers, I wish to disagree.  We run Ops as the
Command Centre, where the Committee "Commanders" (and senior assitants "Lt.
Commanders") get their Tea, Confee, Doughnuts, Cookies, etc, and sit down
and relax.  Ops is also where the guests hang out, when they are waiting to
go on, or are trying to relax after a session.  Ops is also the
Communications Centre, which has the most up to date time-tables, with
direct Walkie-Talkie/Telephone contact with Registration Desk, Session Chair
and Security.  Ops usually assists the senior staff in making the so-called
emergancy decisions such as changes in programming, breaking down of
equipment, rearranging of staff, etc.
That's what we do behind the public access.  In other words, Ops is the area
run by at least one Committee and Assistant at any one time, which is the
Brass social clubs, and the bridge of the Con ship.  While as sometimes
people volunteer as Ensigns, also called Gophers as they "Go for this and
that", this is usually done at the Registration Desks.
We are in the process of drawing up the Federation's Con Schedules in
Ireland for 1997/98 Seasons.  Our cons, which have been called "Intimate" by
the guests, because the small amount of attendees. (Cons in Ireland have an
average of around 650 attendees).  This allows the guests to mingle with
some of the attendees, to the enjoyment of each.  The guests find that the
Irish are "a breath of Fresh air" because of the "legendary hospitality".
We always organise the cons in aid of some charity, usually the Chernobyl
Children's Project and the Irish Sudden Infant Death Association.  I first
started organising Cons in September 1991 in Ireland and will be running
Cons in UK and Europe from 1998; I have 12 Cons under my belt in a Committee
position, usually as Publicity and Ops.
Before my sister died in a car accident at the end of April, we were talking
about having a Con rotating around the UK, and one around Europe; however
each committee would need to be trained, as well as local support and
reflect more experienced personal.  We were looking to launch these
UK-TREK-CON and Euro-TREK-CON's in 1998.  Each previous con could help to
develop these new Con Committee members.  The reason I am mentioning this is
my sister lived in Antwerp, and we are looking for the first batch of
volunteers to become committee for these 1998 Cons.  We could train these
people and learn from each other at our own Federation Cons in Ireland.  If
you are interested, please get in touch with me, with an e-mail headed
1997/8 Con in (UK/Europe).
We are finalising the line up for a con on March 21st-23rd 1997 at the
Metropole, MacCurtain Street, Cork in aid of the Chernobyl Children's
Project.  Our Cons are usually March/April and September each year.  We are
looking for many low-costs guests from different genres for this event.  Our
cons are described as Star Trek/Sci-Fi Cons and are interested in the
following kind of guests:
	1)	Star Trek Actors/Experts;
	2)	Star Trek Fan Guests (I myself attend Cons as guest on Panels in this
category;
	3)	Star Trek Writers;
	4)	Sci-Fi Actors and celebrities, especially Babylon 5, X-Files, Red Dwarf
and Doctor Who;
If you know a guest or an agent/Manager that might suit those areas, please
contact me, as well.

Our usual arrangements include:
	Air Fare (especially if they are willing to go Economy from US, or Premier
from JFK, NY, Boston or Chicago, or are UK/Europe-based); Lock-in Fee
(usually 10% on signing a contract) and Appearance fee (we never paid more
than US$6,000 for Star Trek Regulars - this is because we arrange and assist
fans enjoy the Irish holiday experience); Dealers-space for guests own
fanclub/merchandise; 1 Autograph, Panel and Talk a day by guests (1 Hour to
90 minutes); Overnight accommodation (usually at Conference hotel); �50 per
days spending money plus tour and diners arranged with Committee members
(although many guests have found it refreshing to sit down and eat and talk
with the attendees.
	We have had the following main guests in Ireland: Diane Duane & Peter
Morwood (IRECON,  Athlone); John "Q" deLancie and Majliss Larson (writer)
(IRECON 2- Q HERE, September 1992, Dublin); George "Sulu" Takei,
TIMEWARP, March 1993); various fan experts & writers (IRECON 3, Cork,
September 1993); Gates "Beverly Crusher"
McFadden, IRECON 4, Bray, September 1994); Majel Barrett-Roddenberry
(Timewarp 2, Malahide, Co. Dublin, March
1995); Robert "Gowron" O'Reilly and Peter David (Writer) (IRECON 5, Galway,
September 1995); Lawrence M. Schoen
(Director KLI), (IRECON 6), Easter 1996; Alexander "Dr. Bashir" Siddig and
Nana "Kira Nery's" Visitor (VISICON,
June 1996);  Also in Ireland have appeared: Denise Crosby, Dean Stockwell,
Jerry Doyle and Andrea Thompson at the Summer Sci-Fi Experience (Commercial
Con)) Michael O'Hare, Ed Weiser and many other Babylon 5 Guests at Jumpgate
One Day events, organised by Dublin City University Star Trek club);
        How do we get around the Privacy problem.  Simply for us the
Official Secrets act doesn't exist.  The Federation collects the membership,
prosesses the enquiries, Registrations for Cons, and Federated club members
pay affiliation fees for reductions, which gives us all the information we
need.  When an event organiser wishes to contact our current members, lapsed
members, listed fans, con attendees, etc we run up the information on the
computer, produce the lables and send them from here.  That way We are not
sharing any personal information with any organisation - they are simply
supplying us materials for us to mail-shot for them.   No Problem.
The Data Protection Act is designed to stop PERSONAL information, Date,
Family relationships, sexual orientation, medical history, work history,
criminal or civil legal history, debts and credit histort from being misued.
Any organisation which retains such information on the computer, whether
they be a Supplier, or Receiver has to be registered under each section.
The person of whom information is contained has the right to view (free of
charge) any information contained on him on the computer, or pay a minimum
fee for a print-out of that information.  If there is any error, s/he can
state the error, and request it amended, and if s/he wishes this information
may be taken off the computer listings and only contained on paper.
        I firmly believe that just talking (or writing) about our con
experiences is just a little way forward.  I believe that the future of
fandom is in Co-operation and sharing of information and resources.  For
this purpose I would like people to keep me informed of the details of
fangroups and Cons they are involved with, in the format "CON INFO: ..." or
"CLUB INFO:...".  This way I can pass on the information and also use it in
our European Supplements, "The Federation's Fleet Sheet", which lists clubs
and con contacts, and some details in every issue.  If people kept on
sending me the info by e-mail and I forward it on to the other
fan-organisers for our WWW-Pages, etc, we could get a lot more support.
Also I think that we can develop and bring new ideas and methods to each
other by other Con Committee members supporting a large event, such as one
of our International Cons.  We are hoping to draw on the combined
experiences from various con organisers to improve and support Fan-Cons
collectively.  Many of us have the resources to provide the information,
such as E-Mail, Listev's, WWW Pages, Fanzines, E-Zines, etc, but the main
problem is that people don't supply it to us, in the first place.  This
means that we will exceed the sum of our parts.  I have a dream, and this is
fandom uniting to improve and develop each other and to make all of fandom
more successful.  For this purpose, I will need you help in this
co-operation experiment, we will need to collect:

1)      Club/Chapter information: Contact Name/Address, Tel and Fax No.s,
E-mail and WWW Addresses; Anything
        else that might be of interest;
2)      Con Information: Contact  Name/Address, Tel and Fax No.s, E-mail and
WWW Addresses; Dates, Guests              Planned, confirmed, prices;
3)      Star Trek/Sci-Fi Fan Resources on the 'Net, Lists, E-Zines, WWW
Pages, FTP Sites, etc;
4)      Information (to be restricted to Con Organisers only) of
Agents/Managers, used by Star Trek/Sci-Fi
        Cons;
5)      Sharing of training resources, and Committee members; also sharing
of guests between UK, Ireland and         European Cons to save airfare and
fees, and the co-operation and sharing of publicity/information of
these events.  Cons in different areas, but the same side of the Atlantic do
not neccesarily compete with each other, therefore sharing guests can save
more than any Con would lose.
To this end I pledge myself, and ask each of you to join in.  This should
help each of us -  it has often shown that co-operation is much more
successful than competition.
Damon Matthew Wise,     [email protected]
moderator, Trek@[email protected]
Personal Mail: [email protected]
(Other Accounts at Iol.ie: Karen.Wise; Irish.Star.Trek.Federation; 
Europe.Star.Trek.Federation;
Info.Star.Trek.Federation
also    [email protected])

General Administrator, Federation {Star Trek Fan Association in} Europe 
Society Ltd; Honourary President and Acting Membership Secretary, Irish Star 
Trek Federation; Publisher and Post Production Editor: Federation's StarFleet 
Journal;
Federation's Fleet Sheet; Federation Europe Election Guide; Federation Europe 
Membership Handbook; Information and Administrative Supplements; Senior Council 
Member for Shannon Star Trek Club; Deferred Shareholder, Star Trek
Conferences and 
Meetings (Ireland) Ltd, AUTINET; Chair, AUTINET Autism Listserv Project 
([email protected]); Contributor by E-Mail: IDIC, ENGAGE, Warp 10; and 
LISTSERV's: Strek-l, SF-NEWS, Trekchatter, Trekwrtr, TREKTALK, RAIL, TrekWho, 
AS-Support, AUTINET, Autism.

Snail-Mail:     Damon Matthew Wise,
                Federation Europe Society Ltd,
                11 Town Court, Shannon Town, Co. Clare,
                Republic of Ireland
                Tel/Fax/Modem: INT+353(0)61 - 361 986
                Tel/Fax: Mon/Wed (09:30-17:30/Fri (09:30-14:30):
                INT+353 (0)61 - 360210

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