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National Fantasy Fan, v. 9, issue 3, June 1950

Page 12

attempt will not only knock you out, attempting to do all and be all, but will actually alienate some thru your "superior attitude" while they take everything you offer, deem it not enough, and do absolutely nothing int he way of cooperation themselves. Let em go, you're bound to have a turnover, unless you get enough of a cooperative nucleus from the beginning to farm out the work and responsibility. I don't know but what you're bound to have a turnover no matter what you and four or five may do -- a turnover, period.
Because you will soon find that there is the mere reader, and there is the genuine FAN. Of course, tho everybody will not be paying dues, and if you can get it from a droop, its not just useless, even if he is. The idea of loyalty to Fandom will be just incomprehensible to them -- "what is there to be loyal TO?" So, holding them will be just one long series of flipflops on your part, rabbit-pulling-out-of-the-hat unceasing. This process will naturally be possible without too much trouble if you don't have to do it all yourself, and is the one that NOSFS has taken up, at least for the present, since we have thru a year of turnover accreted enough of a genuinely active membership that will stick, and knows what it wants. So keep at it, you'll succeed with time, but not with even the most overwhelming physical attractions imaginable, overnight. Libraries -- they won't even glance at what they haven't heard of before, and particularly not as fanzines; Fan-history, anecdotes -- bah! -- that's showing superior attitude. Let em go -- maybe they'll come back after everything is regularized, and all the work done.
Secondly, no matter how loud the ASSOBs, the informality-at-any-price boys are, they'll be the first to depart if you leave it just a bull-session. Of course they'll be small loss in the long run, but their dues will go too, and you will find it sorta hard to recruit at all if the attendance goes down to three-or-four. So have a constitution and bylaws, and have 'em as quickly as possible. If you ca push through a minimum-attendance oath you'll find a tremendous load removed from your shoulders. Also, have a formal program regularly scheduled, with penalties agreed-on for defection of a scheduled speaker. And most definitely have a mechanism (which we didn't for a long time) for removing non-dues-payers and non-attenders. Otherwise, you'll never have a quorum, which will put a stop to democratic action right there, and almost automatically make you go into dictatorial illegalities to get anything done, and everyone will immediately LET George do it -- all of it.
How do you recruit? NOSFS has found its magazine-publicity almost completely fruitless from this angle. All the letters of ol letterhack Emile Greenleaf here got him only one contact. We're not ungrateful for the courtesy of Startling and Super-Science, and we hope that elsewhere the exact opposite will be the case, but it would be best for you to expect to progress by your own efforts, mainly. You may not have a cooperative Stf-bookdealer who will turn over names as Coronet has here, but such has proven one of our greatest assets. And of similar top-value is the time-honored method of inserting propaganda sheets and self-addressed postcards into the unsold prozines on the stands. All the biggest newsstands in the business district are cooperating fully -- indeed, only four - drug stores - in the whole city have so far refused permission. Thirdly, of course, watch the letter-columns yourself, like a hawk, and if you have access to back-issue files, they're great stuff, too, but the likelihood of complete coverages as I've had here are not, I'm afraid, too high. Other pointers: as soon as you meet a new fan, IMMEDIATELY ask his address and phone number, and any other fans he may know -- they may turn out to be veritable jewels where he never amounts to a hill of mudballs. Ask dealers for names every chance; many are friendly. Hang
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Saving...

attempt will not only knock you out, attempting to do all and be all, but will actually alienate some thru your "superior attitude" while they take everything you offer, deem it not enough, and do absolutely nothing int he way of cooperation themselves. Let em go, you're bound to have a turnover, unless you get enough of a cooperative nucleus from the beginning to farm out the work and responsibility. I don't know but what you're bound to have a turnover no matter what you and four or five may do -- a turnover, period. Because you will soon find that there is the mere reader, and there is the genuine FAN. Of course, tho everybody will not be paying dues, and if you can get it from a droop, its not just useless, even if he is. The idea of loyalty to Fandom will be just incomprehensible to them -- "what is there to be loyal TO?" So, holding them will be just one long series of flipflops on your part, rabbit-pulling-out-of-the-hat unceasing. This process will naturally be possible without too much trouble if you don't have to do it all yourself, and is the one that NOSFS has taken up, at least for the present, since we have thru a year of turnover accreted enough of a genuinely active membership that will stick, and knows what it wants. So keep at it, you'll succeed with time, but not with even the most overwhelming physical attractions imaginable, overnight. Libraries -- they won't even glance at what they haven't heard of before, and particularly not as fanzines; Fan-history, anecdotes -- bah! -- that's showing superior attitude. Let em go -- maybe they'll come back after everything is regularized, and all the work done. Secondly, no matter how loud the ASSOBs, the informality-at-any-price boys are, they'll be the first to depart if you leave it just a bull-session. Of course they'll be small loss in the long run, but their dues will go too, and you will find it sorta hard to recruit at all if the attendance goes down to three-or-four. So have a constitution and bylaws, and have 'em as quickly as possible. If you ca push through a minimum-attendance oath you'll find a tremendous load removed from your shoulders. Also, have a formal program regularly scheduled, with penalties agreed-on for defection of a scheduled speaker. And most definitely have a mechanism (which we didn't for a long time) for removing non-dues-payers and non-attenders. Otherwise, you'll never have a quorum, which will put a stop to democratic action right there, and almost automatically make you go into dictatorial illegalities to get anything done, and everyone will immediately LET George do it -- all of it. How do you recruit? NOSFS has found its magazine-publicity almost completely fruitless from this angle. All the letters of ol letterhack Emile Greenleaf here got him only one contact. We're not ungrateful for the courtesy of Startling and Super-Science, and we hope that elsewhere the exact opposite will be the case, but it would be best for you to expect to progress by your own efforts, mainly. You may not have a cooperative Stf-bookdealer who will turn over names as Coronet has here, but such has proven one of our greatest assets. And of similar top-value is the time-honored method of inserting propaganda sheets and self-addressed postcards into the unsold prozines on the stands. All the biggest newsstands in the business district are cooperating fully -- indeed, only four - drug stores - in the whole city have so far refused permission. Thirdly, of course, watch the letter-columns yourself, like a hawk, and if you have access to back-issue files, they're great stuff, too, but the likelihood of complete coverages as I've had here are not, I'm afraid, too high. Other pointers: as soon as you meet a new fan, IMMEDIATELY ask his address and phone number, and any other fans he may know -- they may turn out to be veritable jewels where he never amounts to a hill of mudballs. Ask dealers for names every chance; many are friendly. Hang (Continued one page over) [[arrow pointing to the right]]