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Fantasite, v. 2, issue 3, whole no. 9, August-September 1942

Page 27

M.F.S. NOTES

So many moons have passed since the last installment of "MFS Notes" graced these pages that this one will have to be a general history of our activities this year rather than a detailed account of any one meeting, such as John Chapman wrote in the First Anniversary Issue. Fortunately our activities have been very sparse of late, despite a fairly regular schedule of bi-weekly meetings, so two pages should suffice to contain them.

At the meeting of Feb. 22, held at Arden Benson's, Russell finally was inveigled into giving his talk on Weinbaum's stories, or at least the first third of it, since he had no time for more, owning largely to the interruptions of hilarity caused by the surreptitious passing around of hastily drawn caricatures by Art Osterlund of various of the "screwy animals" being described. At the following meeting on March 8, Russell somehow managed to postpone the completion of his talk until the evening was too far gone to permit it, so nothing was accomplished except the usual heated gabfest, the exhibition by Morrie Dollens of his collection of high-class fantasy drawings clipped from magazines during the last ten years or so, and the taking of a photograph which later found its way to the West Coast by means as yet unferreted-out and appeared in a cut-up form on the cover of the June VoM, complete to a ghastly view of our host of the evening, Dale Rostomily.

Because of the objections of some members to having to search in a different part of town each time in order to find the current meeting-place, our next four gatherings were held at the downtown YMCA. Morrie's presence at the first one, on March 20 was a cause for unusual rejoicing, for he had been scheduled for induction into the army two or three days before and had escaped into 1-B only by the skin of his teeth. Wansbrough spoke briefly on various types of time-travel, and Gergen held a long drawn-out auction of not-too-old magazines. At the April 5th conclave Phil distributed the AnnIsh of The Fantasite, which was perused with such avidity that Russell again was able to get out of continuing his Weinbaum talk. Luck was against him, however, as the April 17th meeting, where small attendance and lack of business (aside from Bronson's ill-fated proposal for a Minnesota Fantasy Association, which was never followed up) forced him to discourse interminably on SGW's hackier work, while members wandered idly in and out of the room. There was a larger attendance on May 3, despite the absence of the Hastings contingent, and the meeting was a noisy, brawling affair, consisting largely of another of Gergen's magazine auctions and an auction of some of Morrie's photographs of the club, which took up enough time to allow Oliver Saari to squeeze out of giving a talk on rockets, by Russell's time-honored method.

Two days later Director Russell received his notice to report for induction into the army and so notified some of the other members. Since Chapman's induction was imminent and Morrie's probable this year, and since Cliff was living in Seattle and the Hastings fans were having increasing difficulty in getting to Minneapolis, a small and hastily-called meeting on May 8 decided to suspect the MFS and to give Phil Bronson the power of re-convening it when conditions again became propitious for the resumption of full-scale activities. Unfortunately a quorum was not present at this meeting, and some of the younger and newer members who were not there objected to the suspension, so another and larger gathering was held on May 22 to reconsider the matter. And it took us no time at all to reverse completely our former decision and start the club going in full swing again, for two main reasons: Russell's lucky rejection by the army for being underweight, etc., and far more important, Cliff Simak's sudden return to Minneapolis for the duration. Although our former secretary, John Chapman, was drafted three days later, we felt willing to take a chance on the viability of the old MFS again.

At the last two meetings we were the guests of Chapman (and his wife Jane,

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M.F.S. NOTES So many moons have passed since the last installment of "MFS Notes" graced these pages that this one will have to be a general history of our activities this year rather than a detailed account of any one meeting, such as John Chapman wrote in the First Anniversary Issue. Fortunately our activities have been very sparse of late, despite a fairly regular schedule of bi-weekly meetings, so two pages should suffice to contain them. At the meeting of Feb. 22, held at Arden Benson's, Russell finally was inveigled into giving his talk on Weinbaum's stories, or at least the first third of it, since he had no time for more, owning largely to the interruptions of hilarity caused by the surreptitious passing around of hastily drawn caricatures by Art Osterlund of various of the "screwy animals" being described. At the following meeting on March 8, Russell somehow managed to postpone the completion of his talk until the evening was too far gone to permit it, so nothing was accomplished except the usual heated gabfest, the exhibition by Morrie Dollens of his collection of high-class fantasy drawings clipped from magazines during the last ten years or so, and the taking of a photograph which later found its way to the West Coast by means as yet unferreted-out and appeared in a cut-up form on the cover of the June VoM, complete to a ghastly view of our host of the evening, Dale Rostomily. Because of the objections of some members to having to search in a different part of town each time in order to find the current meeting-place, our next four gatherings were held at the downtown YMCA. Morrie's presence at the first one, on March 20 was a cause for unusual rejoicing, for he had been scheduled for induction into the army two or three days before and had escaped into 1-B only by the skin of his teeth. Wansbrough spoke briefly on various types of time-travel, and Gergen held a long drawn-out auction of not-too-old magazines. At the April 5th conclave Phil distributed the AnnIsh of The Fantasite, which was perused with such avidity that Russell again was able to get out of continuing his Weinbaum talk. Luck was against him, however, as the April 17th meeting, where small attendance and lack of business (aside from Bronson's ill-fated proposal for a Minnesota Fantasy Association, which was never followed up) forced him to discourse interminably on SGW's hackier work, while members wandered idly in and out of the room. There was a larger attendance on May 3, despite the absence of the Hastings contingent, and the meeting was a noisy, brawling affair, consisting largely of another of Gergen's magazine auctions and an auction of some of Morrie's photographs of the club, which took up enough time to allow Oliver Saari to squeeze out of giving a talk on rockets, by Russell's time-honored method. Two days later Director Russell received his notice to report for induction into the army and so notified some of the other members. Since Chapman's induction was imminent and Morrie's probable this year, and since Cliff was living in Seattle and the Hastings fans were having increasing difficulty in getting to Minneapolis, a small and hastily-called meeting on May 8 decided to suspect the MFS and to give Phil Bronson the power of re-convening it when conditions again became propitious for the resumption of full-scale activities. Unfortunately a quorum was not present at this meeting, and some of the younger and newer members who were not there objected to the suspension, so another and larger gathering was held on May 22 to reconsider the matter. And it took us no time at all to reverse completely our former decision and start the club going in full swing again, for two main reasons: Russell's lucky rejection by the army for being underweight, etc., and far more important, Cliff Simak's sudden return to Minneapolis for the duration. Although our former secretary, John Chapman, was drafted three days later, we felt willing to take a chance on the viability of the old MFS again. At the last two meetings we were the guests of Chapman (and his wife Jane,