Artist’s Bureau
By Sarah E. Harder, artistsbureau@yahoo.com
We’ve had a great rejuvenation within the bureau these past couple of years that has just started to wane. I will do my best to help invigorate it once more. There is always something to look forward to and new projects and assignments to work on.
We thank Heath Row for his part in making this bureau exciting again through his editorial work and illustration assignments. We also look forward to working with David Speakman and any other future editors.
I will soon be launching an idea within the bureau, which will be announced in the next zine. If you’d like to find out what this is all about early on and join the discussion please contact me at artistsbureau@yahoo.com. Thank you!
Birthday Card Bureau
By R-Laurraine Tutihasi,
laurraine@mac.com
Since whenever I lasted reported, seven birthday cards have been sent. The birthday card recipients are dwindling. Our new members don’t seem to be interested in receiving them.
Convention Coordinator
By Heath Row,
Kalel@well.com
As convention coordinator, I will continue to compile the Convention Calendar for The Fan. If there’s an event in your area that you’d like listed, send me the details for consideration.
If you’re going to a con, let me know, and I can provide fliers for you to take for the free table. Need a roommate or a ride? Maybe another Neffer is going to the con, too. If you’ve gone to a recent convention, consider submitting a con report for The Fan. If you live near other N3F members, consider getting together for dinner or a movie.
Because I am new to this bureau, I welcome your ideas on how to better encourage N3F participation in conventions. — Heath Row
Correspondence Bureau
By Sarah E. Harder,
artistsbureau@yahoo.com
I’ve thought on whether this bureau is even needed anymore, but every time I consider recommending we drop it I think of all the potential articles that could be written. If this bureau can transform itself from it’s old purpose of connecting pen pals to helping people connect better online then it will still hold value to the membership.
Unfortunately, I am not technically savvy and I do not spend a lot of time communicating with others online except for Facebook, which I’ve already written an article about. If any of you are willing to write articles – or even just send me an email with ideas and info – then we might be able to pull something together here. Maybe we’ll only produce one or two articles per year and that’s OK. Maybe, with your help, we can provide lists of the best sites to communicate with others regarding specific areas of fandom. Perhaps that can even be a subject for a fandbook. Please share thoughts and ideas (perhaps even with each other first) and send them on to me. Thank you!
N3F Bookworms
By Heath Row,
Kalel@well.com
For the first half of 2012, the N3F Bookworms will read and discuss Connie Willis’s novels Blackout (Spectra, 2010) and All Clear (Spectra, 2010). The linked time travel novels won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the 2011 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
If you’d like to participate, buy, borrow, or check out a copy of one or both books, and read them. Let me know that you’re doing so, and we’ll figure out the best ways for the group to discuss the book, be it in letter form, via email, or online in a chat or discussion forum. Portions of our discussion might be published in a future issue of The Fan.
Initially, discussions will take place in blog posts and comments on the new N3F Bookworms blog, http://n3fbookworms.blogspot.com/. — Heath Row
Welcommittee
By Heath Row,
Kalel@well.com
The Welcommittee hasn’t done a single thing since I replaced David K. Robinson early last year. Regardless, I’d like to welcome three new members:
Richard Handloff in Arlington, Massachusetts, joined in July
Wesley Kawato in Chino Hills, California, joined in October
Dionicia Parker in Albuquerque, New Mexico, joined in December
Welcome! I will mail those new members their new member kits in the next few weeks.
The new member kit will be sent to all new members upon joining. It will be a CD-ROM featuring various N3F member information, recent issues of The Fan and N’APA, and additional goodies intended to help new members get more involved more quickly.
Because the new member kit is just being introduced, every existing member of the N3F will receive a copy, as well, to see what new members receive. Those will be sent to all members in the next couple of months. — Heath Row