Minutes, 29 September 1996 Recorded by Susan Marie Groppi, mailed to hrsfa-announce 30 September ------------------------------------------------------ The Meeting You're Sorry You Missed, if you weren't there that is. (aka The One With Terry Pratchett) (no really, it was really Terry Pratchett, at our meeting.) "Welcome to Utter Chaos." The meeting opens with the lights dimmed due to unexplained circumstances, and several HRSFAns dutifully assembling a really fricking big Independence Day cardboard theater prop, courtesy of Shane Owara. Aaron Mandel in absentia informs us that we've lost a couple movies we had tagged, but we can maybe get them back, it's a little unclear but he'll get back to us. Ig Nobel awards are this Thursday. Kyle launches into a confusing explanation of what sort of miscommunications went on and what exact sort of delegation HRSFA is sending. The upshot of it appears to be that we get to send 8 people who double as delegation and ushers. Something arcane and last-minute happened involving choosing the delegation, and apparently something even more arcane and last-minute happened after that, because we've currently only got 6 spots filled. When and if Kyle selects people to fill the two remaining spots, he'll let us know. We can only hope that this happens before the awards. To repeat: Ig Nobel awards, Thursday 3 October. Rumor has it that C-SPAN will be there, so anyone interested may in fact be able to watch Chris Hall half naked and Harvard's Nobel Laureates doing the Macarena. You know you want it. [chaos ensues momentarily with the simultaneous arrival of Tyg, Terry, and the maintenance man. Alexei assumes control of the meeting in the power vacuum created by the chaos.] HRSFA Fall Party happened. The meeting votes to approve reimbursement for $46.73 spent on munchies, many of which were not eaten and will be recycled for future HRSFA parties and meetings. The Wyld Hunt. The next full moon will happen on 26 October, which coincides with the Coming of the Hour. It is decided that there's no real harm to be done in holding both events on that day. Alexei describes the Wyld Hunt. A "volunteer" is attired as the stag, with horns and all. The rest of the participants wear very little clothing and paint themselves blue, then proceed to chase the stag through the Square while howling. Anyone who knows where we can find blue body paint, please contact the HRSFA officers. Poobah Rachel has "issues" with the John Harvard statue being the location for the burning of the clock at the Going of the Hour. Radcliffe Quad is suggested as a more subtle location. Other members suggest using a smaller clock and less flammable fluid as well. Everyone agrees that these are all good ideas. The possibility of changing the meeting time is brought up. Some people have expressed that Sunday at 7 (or 8) is bad for them. A quick show of hands at the meeting reveals that everyone seemed more or less okay with Sunday nights, but since people who can't go to Sunday meetings couldn't be there to vote, the issue will be brought up on one of the HRSFA mailing lists. We'll vote on this, complete with proxy votes for those who can't attend, at the next meeting. The HRSFA library is attempting to deal with the 1000 book donation we recieved over the summer. This will require a massive card cataloging effort, but many HRSFAns expressed interest in helping, if said cataloging occurs at a convenient time. I'm looking into the possibility of getting the common room next to the library, so that we don't have to carry the books too far. Details will be emailed and volunteers solicited after I find out more. The HRSFA library will be closed until the cataloging and storage of the donation is complete. Hopefully it won't be too long, and I'll let y'all know. The library card catalog is also discussed. After evaluating our computer situation in the library (a charming donated IBM XT with what we think is the original version of Lotus 1-2-3; we're glad to have it, but it's far from useful as a catalog) I concluded that an index card system has many advantages. Despite the fact that it's a step backward technologically, it's more serviceable than the computer, and it allows for a more personal record of comments on the books in our library. Several members expressed doubts about this, and Chris Hall brought up the possibility that we could get a better computer donated. One snag is that HRSFA does not have non-profit status, so any such donation is not tax-deductible. If any HRSFA member thinks that they have a computer they would likely be willing to donate to the HRSFA library, please contact me (groppi@hcs) immediately. Further discussion of the library issue was postponed because we were in a little bit of a rush, due to the Special Guest. Babylon 5 Season Three: a bunch of us watched the remaining episodes in Season 3, which begin airing in the US next week but were shipped over from Britain. Drew now has a VCR that can convert formats, so if anyone has contacts in the UK who could send us tapes of things like Neverwhere, that's a Good Idea. SIG REPORTS ----------- Cool Movie PSIG watched the Terminator last week. This week: Labyrinth. It'll be Wednesday at 8:30 in Adams H-21, probably, but watch this list for announcements. Comics: SIG hasn't met yet, contact Susannah (smandel@fas) if interested. (note: Susannah and all other SIG leaders will be getting lists of people who filled out the little forms with checkboxes, so if you've filled one of those out and checked off an interest in Comics SIG (or any other SIG) you don't need to contact them independently. Unless you want to.) Susannah wants to watch -old- Star Trek ("because you can't be a science fiction fan if you haven't seen Spock".), which technically falls under Star Trek SIG, but there are no regular meetings for watching old Trek. She's going to be having viewings in her room. Details to follow as they become available. Milk and Cookies: Moiraine is having a combination milk&cookies/housewarming, probably over Columbus Day weekend. If you're interested or have recipies, contact her (wong6@fas). Gaming: Aaron Landry is sending out a newsletter soon, but he doesn't know of any games currently running that aren't his. Kyle's starting an Ars Magica campaign and Alexei's re-starting the campaign in his world,, and there's a spurious rumor that Chris is running Battletech. Magic SIG is meeting this Friday. ---------------------AND NOW--------------------------- We present our Special Surprise No-Advance-Notice Guest Speaker: Terry Pratchett. Tyg ambushed him at a signing and invited him to come speak to us. I gave up the effort of trying to cover his speech in the minutes, because I couldn't if I tried. But he's a wonderful man, a wonderful speaker, and he signed a lot of stuff when he was done. And he's very funny in person, thus restoring the faith of everyone who has read and loved his books. In the final act of the meeting, the HRSFAns in attendance voted unanimously to award an honorary membership to Terry Pratchett. The meeting then adjourned to munchies and autographs. -- Susan ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The body is a dance. Hating the dance interrupts the choreography." -HS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ groppi@hcs.harvard.edu -=- http://hcs.harvard.edu/~groppi