DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Dawn, whole no. 5, August 1949

Transcribe
Translate

Dawn, whole no. 5, August 1949

Page 6

6

t I have received a good bit of the comment on my idea for a fandom better business bureau and will do a bit of enlarging. Many have expressed their skepticism that enough fen could be found who would be willing to do the work. Well, it seems to me that, out of all the fandom, we should be able to get enough who are inetrested. If there are'nt enough recruits to have an agent in each state, of course, you can always divide the whole country into as many or as few districts as you desire, but I believe that enough volunteers can be found for the original plan.

[[illustration]]

Probably your key man in the system would be your general director. He would be the link between the club representatives( who would form a sort of board of directors, regulating bureau policy, as well as financial matters and personal) qnd the actually functioning bureau. As I said, the club representative committee could choose him, and they ought to look around a good deal before they start.

Which brings us to the primary step, the club representative committee. Any club, local or national, which desired to help support the bureau could have representatives, or rather a representative, on the committee. How such representatives would be chosen would depend on the club comstitutions. Each club would donate whatever amount it's funds it wished to per annum, through it's representative. The total amount would be used to cover operating expenses in a way decided upon by the committee as a whole. Probably a treasurer would be chosen. Thestate representative would send their expence accounts to the general director who would forward them, along with his own, to the treasurer. The latter would handle the budget and make regular reports to the committee which could, if necessary, make drives for contributions. Of course, the first thing the committee would have to do would be to make some sort of a constitution to govern it's operation and that of the bureau. Whether or not it followed this plan would be up to the committee.

The general director would probably appoint a publisher to put out the various aid bookets as well as the annual report. Incidentally, although it would be best to keep the price as low as possible, perhaps some profit could be made on the report to aid the bureau's finances. 

Whether or not the bureau became international would be a matter of choice. There would actually be two ways of handling it. In one the bureau would be operated completely on a national basis. Should similar organizations be formed in other countries, exchanges of data would be arranged.

The trouble with this is that at the moment there are no such organizations in other countries and, for the moment at least, we would not be able to obtain information on foreign dealers and zine publishers, a serious handicap considering the rapidly increasing amount of international fan trade.

The second plan would solve this. In it the burean would be operated internationally, in every English speaking nation that has organized fandom. Every country would be regarded as one or more districts, depending on the number of fen in it, and all would operate under one committee and general directors. In this case, of course, all clubs in all countries could be represented on the committee if they wished.

Someone has mentioned that there was the danger o f being sued for libel. Well, of course, every piece [[of?]] information obtained would be carefully checked before being used. And one would not say in the report "John Jones is cheating 

[[image]]

fen". If someone sent in the reportto that effect, the state agent would look up a copy of John Jones price list (he would keep on hand a price list of all dealers in his district) and see for himself. If

Saving...

6 t I have received a good bit of the comment on my idea for a fandom better business bureau and will do a bit of enlarging. Many have expressed their skepticism that enough fen could be found who would be willing to do the work. Well, it seems to me that, out of all the fandom, we should be able to get enough who are inetrested. If there are'nt enough recruits to have an agent in each state, of course, you can always divide the whole country into as many or as few districts as you desire, but I believe that enough volunteers can be found for the original plan. [[illustration]] Probably your key man in the system would be your general director. He would be the link between the club representatives( who would form a sort of board of directors, regulating bureau policy, as well as financial matters and personal) qnd the actually functioning bureau. As I said, the club representative committee could choose him, and they ought to look around a good deal before they start. Which brings us to the primary step, the club representative committee. Any club, local or national, which desired to help support the bureau could have representatives, or rather a representative, on the committee. How such representatives would be chosen would depend on the club comstitutions. Each club would donate whatever amount it's funds it wished to per annum, through it's representative. The total amount would be used to cover operating expenses in a way decided upon by the committee as a whole. Probably a treasurer would be chosen. Thestate representative would send their expence accounts to the general director who would forward them, along with his own, to the treasurer. The latter would handle the budget and make regular reports to the committee which could, if necessary, make drives for contributions. Of course, the first thing the committee would have to do would be to make some sort of a constitution to govern it's operation and that of the bureau. Whether or not it followed this plan would be up to the committee. The general director would probably appoint a publisher to put out the various aid bookets as well as the annual report. Incidentally, although it would be best to keep the price as low as possible, perhaps some profit could be made on the report to aid the bureau's finances. Whether or not the bureau became international would be a matter of choice. There would actually be two ways of handling it. In one the bureau would be operated completely on a national basis. Should similar organizations be formed in other countries, exchanges of data would be arranged. The trouble with this is that at the moment there are no such organizations in other countries and, for the moment at least, we would not be able to obtain information on foreign dealers and zine publishers, a serious handicap considering the rapidly increasing amount of international fan trade. The second plan would solve this. In it the burean would be operated internationally, in every English speaking nation that has organized fandom. Every country would be regarded as one or more districts, depending on the number of fen in it, and all would operate under one committee and general directors. In this case, of course, all clubs in all countries could be represented on the committee if they wished. Someone has mentioned that there was the danger o f being sued for libel. Well, of course, every piece [[of?]] information obtained would be carefully checked before being used. And one would not say in the report "John Jones is cheating [[image]] fen". If someone sent in the reportto that effect, the state agent would look up a copy of John Jones price list (he would keep on hand a price list of all dealers in his district) and see for himself. If