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SFAers in the Arlington area!
Nov. 5th, 2005 01:34 amSo it turns out there's a quorum of former SFAers in the Arlington area. There's ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
halfsparkle and zenpenguin, of course, and we met Warren Overholt at an Alumni picnic, and I just met Jennifer Rosenbaum at a Washington Science Fiction Association meeting. All of the new people were going around and introducing themselves and I said I had been in a science fiction club in college at Carleton, and she jumped up and got excited. Excellent! And if we extend that group beyond the Arlington area and into the beltway generale to include current SFA-ish students, there's draskireis and Kathleen.
The WSFA meeting was... interesting. The large majority of the attendees were over 50 and had apparently been involved in the club for a Very Long Time (this was the 28th year that meetings had been held at this family's house). Tension has apparently been running high in the group because of flame wars on their listserve and various interpersonal problems and so there was a lot of fallout apparent in their meeting. The guy who had been webmaster and secretary general had resigned and the hostess of the house had banned someone from the premises of her house the same night they were sworn in as a member. After the meeting, a number of the younger members hastened to tell us newbies that this wasn't typical and to stress how much the club needed new blood. I'd brought my copies of Settlers and Illuminati, and so Jennifer and a recently graduated grad student from Cornell and I retreated and played a long game of Settlers, wherein both ore and wheat were scarce. Another club member joined us to look on. Overall, a good night, although I'm not certain if I'll be going back to the WSFA.
halfsparkle and zenpenguin, of course, and we met Warren Overholt at an Alumni picnic, and I just met Jennifer Rosenbaum at a Washington Science Fiction Association meeting. All of the new people were going around and introducing themselves and I said I had been in a science fiction club in college at Carleton, and she jumped up and got excited. Excellent! And if we extend that group beyond the Arlington area and into the beltway generale to include current SFA-ish students, there's draskireis and Kathleen. The WSFA meeting was... interesting. The large majority of the attendees were over 50 and had apparently been involved in the club for a Very Long Time (this was the 28th year that meetings had been held at this family's house). Tension has apparently been running high in the group because of flame wars on their listserve and various interpersonal problems and so there was a lot of fallout apparent in their meeting. The guy who had been webmaster and secretary general had resigned and the hostess of the house had banned someone from the premises of her house the same night they were sworn in as a member. After the meeting, a number of the younger members hastened to tell us newbies that this wasn't typical and to stress how much the club needed new blood. I'd brought my copies of Settlers and Illuminati, and so Jennifer and a recently graduated grad student from Cornell and I retreated and played a long game of Settlers, wherein both ore and wheat were scarce. Another club member joined us to look on. Overall, a good night, although I'm not certain if I'll be going back to the WSFA.
