Minutes, 98-09-15 Recorded by Lori Ricard Sent to hrsfa-announce, 16 Sep 1998 at 08:45 From ricard@fas.harvard.edu Thu Dec 3 14:45:26 1998 Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 08:45:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Lori Ricard To: Hrsfa-Announce Subject: [HRSFA-Ann.] Minutes 9/15/98 (really really long) Our first meeting of the year began about ten minutes after 8 (you know, there were not a lot of hrsfa members actually at the meeting). After introducing the officers, we ran through a list of our SIGs (special interest groups). Co-chair: Igor Teper (teper@fas) Co-chair: Matt Withers (withers@fas) Internal Secretary: Lori Ricard (ricard@fas) External Secretary: Marshall Perrin (mperrin@fas) Treasurer: Chris Hall (crhall@fas) Editor-in-Chief: Kelly Stage (stage@fas) Babylon 5: The only real activity for this last year consisted of announcements by Aaron Romanovsky to watch in his grad dorm. Susan Groppi sent the message that she has a large television and will be willing to host viewings of large blocks of Babylon 5 if her housemates agree. Comics: A rather defunct sig. We do have comics in the library and many people who would get excited with other people who like comics. Library: We have a library in Pforzheimer with a couple thousand books, games, videos, comics and an ancient unfunctioning computer. The combination comes on your nifty membership card. The library is currently in a state of disarray since we bought massive shelves from Tyler at Pandemonium, but hopefully this will be remedied soon. I will be sending out requests for help <>. Contact: me! (ricard@fas) Cool Movie Psig: This sig has existed for 4 years now. It shows cool movies weekly, ranging from Buckaroo Bonsai to the Transformer Movie. A copy of Black Cauldron has been obtained and will be shown at some point. Contact: Chris Hall (crhall@fas), Shane Owara (owara@fas) Ig Nobel: The Eighth First Annual Ig Nobels are upon us! The IgNobels are put on by the Annals of Improbable Research and will be held yet again in Sanders Theater. The Igs celebrate research "that cannot and should not be reproduced". Real Nobel laureates give out prizes and do very silly things. Examples of winners in the past are the inventor of the pink plastic flamingo, a church that used the census to determine exactly how many county inhabitants would go to hell, and researchers who determined that sharing inflatable dolls can spread venereal disease. Hrsfa will again be cosponsoring this event and will be sending a delegation. Tickets may be lotteried out if there are very many of us wanting to go. Contact Claudia Mastroianni (cmastr@fas) Milk and Cookies: Milk and Cookies celebrates the "traditional British childhood" in someone's common room. We sit around in our pajamas and read each other stories and consume snacks. Contact Tom Lotze (lotze@fas) Star Trek: We watch Star Trek. Besides watching whatever series is currently playing, we have movie marathons and have group outings to see new movies. Star Trek: Insurrection is due out November 11. We will ignore the fact that it is an odd numbered Star Trek movie and thus doomed to failure. Writers': Those interested in writing should come to Writers' sig. Members of Writers' sig help each other with whatever they are writing at the moment. Contact Matt Withers (withers@fas) X-Files: Well, watching X-Files, lending tapes, talking about episodes. Contact Ileana Ciobanu (ciobanu@fas) Gaming: Our most active Sig. Includes games of all types, role playing games, board games, Magic the Gathering, whatever you want to play, people will play it. Typically Gaming also holds 30 to 60 hour Gameathons at various times of the year. Some games in the fall: Matt Ender will be running a game reminiscent of Myst with linking to many worlds (I got that right, right Matt?). Contact Matt Ender (ender@ptc.com) Matt Duhan will be running a Teenagers from Outer Space game. Unfortunately, I've misplaced your email address, Matt. Nils Barth will be running a D&D based campaign (nbarth@fas). Chris Manning will conduct Magic as usual (cmanning@fas). The Gaming Sig leader is Igor Teper, the Lord of the Morning (teper@fas). He will be sending out reports on what games are running, Gameathons, etc. Contact him for any gaming info. Before we moved on, a message from Claudia: the Media in Transition project is again hosting science fiction writers at MIT. This week Hal Clements and Jeffrey Carver will be at MIT from 7-10pm on Thursday. Those interested in making a group expedition there will need to contact Claudia (cmastr@fas). Matt will forward her email to incoming freshmen. Events: Fall Party: We will hold a party. We need a room and date. There will be a scavenger hunt. This party may not actually be a fall party, but a postponed last spring party. Coming of the Hour: We praise the god Chronos who, in his infinite wisdom, has given us an extra hour in the fall. We blow this hour by wandering about the Yard at 2 am, holding a ceremony. The Grand Poobah is Tom Lotze (lotze@fas). Wyld Hunt: We celebrate a mishmash of pagan traditions by painting ourselves blue and chase someone with antlers on their head around the streets of Cambridge. We then kill and roast them at Memorial Church. Lots of fun for all involved. You know, we didn't mention the Spring events, so I will since these minutes are entirely too long already. Spring Party: Self-explanatory, I think. Going of the Hour: We praise Chronos by giving him the hour back. Myld Hunt: The milder version of the Hunt, where we all dress us, stroll through the streets of Cambridge chasing a fox and then retire for tea and croquet. Masq: We all dress us in costume and dance to sci-fi related music (with some normal stuff mixed in). Benefits of Membership: 24 hour access to the Hrsfa library and all its delights. 10% discount at Pandemonium Books, a scifi gaming bookstore in the Garage. 10% (right?) discount at Your Move Games. Voting rights. Discounts at Hrsfa campus-wide events that require money (such as the Masq and in the past, movie showings). Membership: All this for the low price of $5 for the first two meetings and $8 at subsequent meetings! Let me restate that (we had this problem at the meeting as well). $5 for the year if you join up at the first two meetings, but $8 if you sign up later. Anyway, we adjourned then for munchies and Tron. Lori [This is the HRSFA announcement list. To unsubscribe, please send the one-line message "unsubscribe hrsfa-announce" to majordomo@hcs.harvard.edu. Please send questions about this list to hrsfa@hcs.harvard.edu]