Minutes, 20 September 1995 Recorded by Michelle Melendez, mailed to hrsfa-list 27 September --------------------------------------------------- "Welcome to the 9th year of HRSFA !" pronounced by Claudia a founding member as she brings the meeting to order. Intro of officers: Chris Hernandez -Co-Chair chernand@fas Kevin Martin -Co-Chair kbmartin@fas Mike Gleeson -Treasurer gleeson@fas Alden Strock -External Secretary amstrock@fas Michelle Melendez-Internal Secretary melendez@fas Cyrus Mody -Editor-in-Chief ccmody@fas Chris begins his speech on the history of hrsfa: He has often been asked "What does hrsfa do?" to which he replies, "Everything", but the word everything tells people nothing about anything. A brief history of hrsfa: 10 years ago a group of students who were interested in role playing games decided to get together and form a club, so they petitioned the administration, but the club was rejected. Soon after that another group of students decided that they wanted to form a comic book group, they petitioned the administration and were rejected. Then 9 years ago a group of students got together to watch the premier of a new TV series starring Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and they came up with the idea of forming a club. The idea was presented to the administration, was accepted, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association was born. Then the people that were interested in roleplaying games joined, and the people that were interested in Comic books joined, and the club grew. Not everybody wanted to do everything so Special Interest Groups known as SIG's were created. As interest developed new SIG's were created, as interest wanned old SIG's would disappear. Hrsfa wide events were created such as the Game-a-thon (hours of all sorts of games during reading periods), The Masquerade Ball (February), The Wyld Hunt (a germanic/celtic ritual of running scantily clad chasing a deer through the streets of Cambridge in October painted blue), and the Myld Hunt (a leisurely English fox hunt). Basically Hrsfa will do anything up to everything, and we hope that you will hear something that interests you. " hrsfa is what you put into it, there is always room for more." Kevin begins his speech on the "4 categories" of hrsfa regretting that it could not be sung at 300 words per minute 1. We are Science Fiction fans. We have resources such as our library (books, games, movies, comics etc. including its 4 copies of "Lord Fouls Bane" ). We get together in groups to watch Star Trek, Babylon5, BBC, all or neither. When a blockbuster psuedo Sci-Fi movie comes out we get together and go watch it anyway. Speakers, last year we had Joe Haldeman, Hugo Award winning author of "The Forever War". This year we are trying to get Walter and Louise Simonson (Louise was integral in the Death of Superman series), and Neil Gaiman. Also under consideration is hosting a Sci-Fi convention. 2. We play games. Of the both short, and long, role-playing and non-roleplayng varieties. Magic, Nuclear War, The Black Death, Dungeons and Dragons as well as more bizarre fringe element games such as GURPS Illuminati (a unification of all conspiracy theories), ARS Magica (mages have all the power and rule the world), Cthulu Punk (a combination of them all) 3. Social Club. Party on Saturday October 14th at 8pm in Quincy 629. Our bizarre pagan rituals are *very* social. 4. We do bizarre things and confuse people. For example the Wyld/Myld hunts; Coming/Going of the Hour (dress in black marching around the yard with candles, performing the rituals to the God Chronos which twice a year doth cause an hour to appear/disappear); The Ignobel Prize Ceremony (last year our delegation was the aliens who kidnapped John Macke, this year rumor has it that we might be hippies protesting bad Sci-Fi movies, "But you never know the hippies might have antennae"). Basically we gather people with diverse interests. "Membership has its priviledges". For your $5 membership fee ($8 after Oct. 1st) you get a nice card "don't leave home without it", $1 off all hrsfa events, a 10% discount to Pandemonium Bookstore in the Garage, and the access to checking out stuff from our library. The SIG leaders (and their substitutes) are announced (except for the great and terrible SIG's we are not telling you about) Anime BBC (British Broadcasting Channel) Comics (Alexi & Susannah have first blood duel with battle axes) Filk (soon to be?) Fusion Gaming "Aaron SIG" Magic (soon to be?) Library (sign up for hours) Milk & Cookies Mystery Science Theater 3000 Star Trek Writer's Meeting is adjourned, People scatter to the SIG signs at various locations of the room, Munchies are consumed and many memberships bought. Quote of the meeting: "Want to play role playing games and don't want to be an elf?" ***Next Meeting Sunday October 1st at 7pm in Sever 106**** (old members please note time change) ****Party Saturday October 14th at 8pm in Quincy 629********** -michelle- (infernal Secretary)