Heinlein Society

News

>>First Reports From Torcon

From: "David M. Silver" <ag.plusone@verizon.net>
Subject: Torcon Heinlein Society Report (Long)
Date: Friday, September 05, 2003 2:46 PM

Torcon3 Report (sort of abbreviated -- we'll have more in the upcoming newsletter)

I left from LAX early Wednesday night, August 27, after checking in the mandatory two hours early; and the plane arrived in Toronto one hour late, the next morning, August 28, about 7:30 AM, EDT (after having sat on the take off strip at LAX for 90 minutes while they fixed the cabin attendants' microphone -- so Air West could be sure we heard all the commercials they now spiel in addition to the standard safety announcements). Phil Paine, a friend of Bill Patterson's, graciously met me at Pearson International in Toronto, and led me on a mad toad's ride via bus shuttle, subway, and streetcar, taking about an hour but costing only $2.50 Canadian, to my downtown hotel, The Grand, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police headquarters, where I had rented a suite for The Heinlein Society.

Phil was a life-saver for us during the Con. He'd arranged to print 3,000 black and white flyers with our advertisement made by Art McNutt announcing the Awards Dinner and the Blood Drive, and delivered them to Torcon's committee to stuff them individually in the bags Torcon gave out upon registration to attendees, so they would know of these events in time to attend despite the much delayed printing and mailing of the last progress report and souvenir program which had similar ads that were not seen by anyone. [Most attendees never received the last progress report before leaving for Torcon; and we were informed when we arrived at the Con that the Souvenir Program wouldn't be ready until Sunday. Not a good situation when you're depending on advertisements to sell tickets for a dinner scheduled for Friday and publicize blood drive set for Saturday. I expressed only a *few* unkind thoughts about publications directors who blow deadlines so badly that advertising is ineffectual and wasted; but then got to work.]

I invited Phil to attend the awards dinner as our guest. I was happy to see later he did.

After keeping me company for a late and much needed breakfast, Phil left for work; and I took a cab to the Convention Centre, picked up my registration and went to the fan table area to set up the big Heinlein Society banner we use, laid out a few copies of the Newsletter I'd brought; and got ready to push dinner tickets. Sam Kramer met me there within thirty minutes; and we got started selling tickets until it got close to 5 PM, when I had go to moderate the first of our panels, "Heinlein's Women: Just Like the Girl that Married Dear Old Dad." Sam got a few cups of tea into me so I was able to pronounce my name despite the really bad case of jet lag I had by the time the panel began.

The panel, despite being scheduled on a Thursday which knocked out both Robert James and Deb Houdek Rule from participating, since their flights weren't due in until later that evening, went very well and was attended by a full room.

Larry Niven and Elizabeth Ann Hull, Fredrick Pohl's English Professor wife, made up a great attraction as our guests on the panel and together were probably the reason for the full room attendance we had. Fran Van Cleave, a Society member, several of whose recent stories have appeared in Analog, and Pat York, a teacher from Buffalo, both did wonderful jobs on the panel, keeping a good balance in their presentations. Dr. Hull had a few interesting approaches to the subject; and I managed to keep from getting into any arguments with her, except once, when she "proved" her point that Heinlein wasn't so unique in his feminist viewpoints in the 1930s and 40s, by citing several obscure novels by truly obscure writers of the 1930s and 40s, which she said had equally feminist and far in advance views in their times. Perhaps so, but it would be nice if I'd ever heard of them in sixty years that includes an English degree from a fairly decent university; and if someone still read them. Larry gave a great overview of Heinlein's women characters and was the essence of healing reason so the panel never quite got out of control.

Later that evening, my sister Jane arrived with some more newsletters and relieved Sam and me at the fan table; and Deb and Geo Rule arrived with all sorts of great pre-printed items Deb had created to promote our events, which they set up. I was so jet-lagged, I don't even remember going to dinner; but I must have gotten back to the hotel, because I awoke the next day ready and raring to go.

Sam Kramer, Peter Scott, and Mike Sheffield started manning the fan table early Friday morning with Geo and Deb while Jane, Alan Milner (who had arrived Thursday night) and I attended to a few logistic details. Jane and Alan set out to the banks to change the large amount of US dollars I had brought to pay for the dinner into Canadian, while I arranged with the printer Phil had lined up to print up quickly a few things -- the big sign we use to advertise the panels we'd scheduled, the financial statements and reports for the Society's annual membership meeting, and a great looking full color flyer for For Us, the Living, that Simon & Schuster had made up and e-mailed a PDF to me in Toronto. Phil had dropped off the remaining black and white dinner advertisements for Sam and Mike to use; and an author named Keith DeCandido had brought out from New York for Simon & Schuster some nice tasteful table signs announcing For Us, the Living. We were able to use both at the fan table and later at the dinner. By the time I got to the fan table with the sign and flyers, etc., I was happy to see that Sam, Mike, Peter and the rest who had helped out were doing great on selling tickets to the dinner, and beginning to feel a little relieved about finances. Alan and Jane arrived with the Canadian cash just in time; and we left a note on the fan table and left for our 1 PM corporate meeting in the Royal York Fairmount.

We held the Annual Corporate General Membership Meeting on time, with eighteen members, and three directors, Alan Milner, Charles N. Brown, the publisher of Locus, and myself physically and one, Dr. Kondo, present by power of attorney to me, and one non-member visitor. Joe Haldeman had been scheduled by Torcon for a panel and a luncheon that conflicted, before he had been elected as a director, and I expressed his regrets conveyed to me at his not being able to attend.

Bill Patterson had gotten hung up in a transportation glitch, so I expressed his apologies for missing Torcon as well, and I presided at the meeting.

The Minutes were approved as read. My Secretary Treasurer's Financial Report was given and commented upon. We conducted our annual Election of Directors whose terms were expiring. Charles N. Brown was unanimously reelected to a three year term. I surrendered the gavel to Mr. Milner, and while he presided I was reelected to another three year term as well. Both Mr. Milner, before he surrendered the gavel, and I each introduced and commended all those Committee Chairs who were present, including Mike Sheffield, who has done a wonderful job on blood drives this year, Peter Scott, who equally has worked hard on plans for the 2007 Centennial celebration, Geo Rule, whose efforts to organize the academic committee are laudable, Keith Kato, who has saved us much time in arranging for social activities, and Jane Silver, whose membership services efforts have been especially fruitful, as demonstrated by the much improved dues payments situation since she took over the job.

We also introduced, thanked and commended Dr. Amy Baxter, Ginny's 'adopted' granddaughter, who was present with her husband, Dr. Louis Calderon, also both members of the Society, and who did so much to ease Ginny's last illness. After thanking those present, we adjourned the meeting and made the trek back to the Convention Center for our next panel, "Heinlein 101: All You Ever Wanted to Know About Heinlein But Were Afraid to Ask."

Robert "Doc" James was all ready to go when we arrived, passing out the prepared outlines he had made to the audience which was already filling up the room. Our panel which was very lively and well-presented, was once again given to a standing room only crowd. Brad Lyau and Deb Houdek Rule joined Robert and me for the panel, and everyone did their usual splendid job, while I moderated and tried to stay out of trouble. Once it was finished, some of us took off for our hotels to get ready for the dinner, while Deb and Fran Van Cleave ably filled in on a "Heinlein and Sex" panel set just one hour before the dinner that some of us had to miss.

Back at the hotel, Peter Scott, Jane Silver, and Sam Kramer got the dinner list straightened out, and final place cards printed up; and we finished dressing and left for the restaurant. I was greatly relieved to find we'd hit close to our break-even point for the dinner, with 93 paid guests, and two additional "comps," giving us a total of 95 official guests for the dinner (unless someone slipped another comp or two in while I wasn't looking -- which was always possible.)

Arriving at the restaurant at 5:30 PM, we had the usual mad dash to get everything in place: Peter Scott got the AV tech squared away, Sam and Jane and everyone else cooperated in getting the place settings down, Deb and Geo, assisted ably by Jake Keaton, set up the cameras to tape the event, while Alan Milner acted as my substitute host, keeping things going, while I paid off the restaurant and the service from which we'd rented the AV equipment and set up.

Guests did arrive indeed at 6 PM, sharp! and we let them take their seats while cocktails were served. It was a well dressed, wonderful looking crowd, and everyone seemed very excited and pleased to be there.

During the cocktail hour, Teresa Redmond arrived, looking beautiful as she always does -- hair styled like Friday Baldwin and ready to help our blood drive the next day, and promptly sat in my lap at the head table, and while the cameras clicked and flashed, provided ample evidence for my wife Andrea to keep things warm for me at home for the next several months, by hugging me and planting a nice big kiss right on top of my bald spot. Thanks, Pixel! j/k [It was a lovely greeting in great good fun, and I appreciated it very greatly. It's not every day I get to have Pixel in my arms.]

Dinner began without a hitch (other than the potential blackmail photos everyone took), with all guests including all the head table were seated and served in plenty of time. After the entree was consumed and while coffee and dessert was being served I began the program by introducing the head table: Alan Milner, our director and fundraising chair, and Simone DiMatteo, his lovely companion for that evening. Alan deserved a special commendation for attending -- he underwent surgery only three weeks ago, and two lobes of his left lung were removed, so he was under considerable 'discomfort' as the medicos call it; but Simone, a wonderful lady, deserved even more commendation for making his attendance possible. Next I introduced Larry and Marilyn Niven. Larry is one of the Award judges, and so well known as an author to require no further introduction. Then came Art Dula, the Heinlein Prize Trustee and successor literary executor, and Lt. Col. Sam Kramer, resplendent in his mess blues, whose devoted efforts at selling all the dinner tickets at our table merited his inclusion at the head table, when Tamea Dula could not arrive in time for dinner next to her husband. I next introduced Jeanne and Spider Robinson. Spider is an Awards judge, but also was the Toastmaster Guest of Honor at Torcon and one special attraction of the dinner was the opportunity to see Spider actually wearing a tuxedo! He looked glorious!

Oh, I forgot to tell you. Black tie was optional. It added tremendously to the tone of the affair. Next year be ready. See if it still fits. I suspect there will be even more guests wearing it, or the equivalent, in Boston. What was it they said about Robert Heinlein, gentlemen, that he'd even dress for dinner in the jungle?

I then introduced my sister, Jane Silver, who was lovely in her formal, and who lost the bet with my wife on who would be my keeper this World Con; and then on to introduce Gay and Joe Haldeman, who like Larry and Pink Niven, need no further introduction to SF readers. Joe is both an Award judge and, until Charles Brown's and my reelection, was our Society's junior director; then introduced Stan and Joyce Schmidt. Stan, and editor and writer, is the fourth of the Award judges able to attend; and finally Charles Brown. our Society's founding director, and the lovely Jenni Hall, Locus Magazine's new editor, now that Charles is "retired." Jenni had nicely arranged to have her camera ready during the ceremonies and took some photos of the event and presentation of the awards that we hope to see in Locus' next issue.

Once all the head table guests were introduced I asked them all to rise and the guests vigorously applauded them.

I then introduced Spider Robinson who began the awards ceremony with Joe Haldeman's able assistance. Spider and Joe awarded the first Heinlein Award to Virginia Heinlein, posthumously, for her years of devoted work to publish and restore the body of Robert's works, and her overall encouragement of man's quest to permanently achieve space flight and colonization.

Eleanor Wood and Dr. Amy Baxter jointly accepted the award for Ginny, and Amy gave a beautiful, heart warming speech about Ginny.

Next, Larry Niven and Stan Schmidt awarded a second Heinlein Award to author Michael Flynn for the body of his work, which includes a fine four volume series on advancement into space in the tradition set by Robert Heinlein. Michael thanked the judges and us for the award, and expressed his pleasure to be at the dinner.

I'm happy to note that Michael was one of the top three authors who we, the Society, suggested to the judges' panel after their invitation to us to do so given us back in May.

We next had an interlude, not originally scheduled, in which Fred Moulton, one of our first Heinlein Society members, on behalf of the Libertarian Futurist Society, awarded Robert Heinlein its 2003 Hall of Fame award for the story "Requiem." I was honored to accept that award on Robert's behalf. It is a beautiful plaque which I'll forward on to the UC Santa Cruz library to go with the Hugos and Nebula and all the other awards presented to Mr. Heinlein during his lifetime and beyond.

That makes two awards I've been honored to accept on behalf of Mr. Heinlein, this one for "Requiem" and the other, the retroactive Hugo for "The Man Who Sold the Moon," at MilPhilCon in 2001, so you might say I've accounted for Mr. Harriman's awards as well.

We then started the audio visual presentation. We again showed Ginny's copy of the broadcast of the interview by Walter Cronkite of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein on the occasion of man's first small steps in July 1969, the moon landing, to the delight of the crowd. There followed, while the disks were being changed and cued up, an interlude in which first Mike Sheffield was introduced and recounted our past year's blood drive efforts and urged all to attend the blood drive scheduled for the next day. Alan Milner then discussed fund raising and made an appeal to the audience to participate that evening in donating funds to further the Society's good works, which he started with a check of his own of $1,000, and introduced Art Dula to speak briefly on the Heinlein Prize Trust which Ginny set up before her death and appointed him trustee of. There will be public announcements this week and a website is going up to describe the trust which will be giving awards of about $500,000 annually to encourage space achievement! We'll give you the URL for the website as soon as it's ready.

Art followed up on Alan's appeal for funds and promised that the Prize Trust would match any funds raised during Torcon by The Heinlein Society. A note: we raised a total of $3,400 during Torcon; and the Prize Trust has matched that amount. [*But,* don't forget to pay your next year's dues, unless you'd rather I come find you -- you won't like it.]

Our AV Presentation then concluded with Ginny receiving Robert's posthumous DSM at NASA, in 1988 shortly after Robert's death; and with her reading of "This I Believe" on that occasion. Maybe there was a dry eye in the house after that: I wouldn't know, I got a little distracted for a moment.

We ended the dinner with thanks to all who attended and those who could not, but would have attended if they could: Dr. Yoji Kondo, Greg Bear, Elizabeth Moon, and John Hill and Herb Gilliland, the other award judges; and to the late Dr. Charles Sheffield, one of the original judges. A mob then descended upon me with checks and dollar bills of both Canadian and US denominations.

Most of us then retired to the Heinlein Society suite at the Grand Hotel and decompressed. I am gratified to report everyone was in bed by at least 4 AM. They also left me one little sip of Remy Martin in the bottle for the next morning; but all the wine bottles were empty, and the cigars were ashes. Actually, we had a great discussion of plans for the rest of the con and for next year. And we talked about what else: Heinlein.

The following day, we conducted our Robert Heinlein Memorial Blood Drive. Unofficially, seventy-four of 100 presentees gave blood. There may have been more taken. Mike Sheffield is going over the paperwork and will correct me, no doubt. Once again, despite our efforts to convince them of the potential, the Blood service grossly underestimated the capacity of a properly advertised Con blood drive -- there were three and four hour delays from signups to donations -- and despite this, donors showed up as they were closing and they had to go past the scheduled time by ninety minutes to finish all who got in under the wire. Next year they'll know better; and we plan to have an organized group of local members ready to help them.

While this went on, just next door, in fact, at 2 PM we held our "Heinlein: Stranger than Stranger, Four Decades After the Hugo" panel, once again, to a packed room. Well over 120 people were present. With Dr. James moderating, Brad Lyau, Geo Rule, Deb Houdek, Fran Van Cleave, and Joe Major all presented a variety of views. I stood in the back of the room for about half the panel, holding the door open for late arrivals who kept finding spots on the floor and against the walls; the rest of the time I was next door at the blood drive. Mike and I were interviewed by a television crew for a local station about Mr. Heinlein, his goals in organizing blood drives, and the society's goals in continuing the tradition by paying it forward.

Later that afternoon, we presented, in a room four times the size of the ordinary panel room (between 400 and 500 seats), absolutely packed, the "Heinlein: Lost, Strayed, Misplaced, and Found Again" panel, which was, of course, mostly about the discovery and publication of For Us, The Living. We distributed the flyers Simon Schuster had provided; and I'll cause a link on the Society's website so you can download your own, in full color, to use as you wish. We ran out of flyers, including those black-and-white copies we had printed knowing we were going to run out. It was a wonderful panel, the most successful we've had. Spider Robinson, Eleanor Wood, Art Dula, and Robert James participated along with your humble obedient servant who mostly stayed out of trouble, again.

We continued the next two days, with two more panels: "Heinlein's Take on Law and Lawyers: The Year We Hanged All the Lawyers," on Sunday and "Heinlein's Juveniles: Just Plain Kids, Superkids, or Sociopathic Monsters" on Monday, once again (I'm getting as tired of typing it as you are of reading it) to fully packed rooms.

L.N. Collier almost made it this time for the lawyers panel to join Art Dula, Sam Kramer and me; he got as far as the plane change at Chicago, when he received a telephone call notifying him that his younger son had been in an accident; and he had of course to return home to see that all was well. Fortunately, L.N. reports the boy is now okay, doing well; and he regrets missing the panel. We all shared his fatherly concern about his son's accident and are glad of the certain recovery to full health. The photos L.N. posted of the Butler original Heinlein home, which was restored last year, include photos of both L.N.'s younger son and his daughter; and he reports they are wonderful children, bright as their father is, and as talented.

So Art, Sam and I killed all the lawyers to the best of our ability, without his help. Sam, now retired from the Army, is a Deputy Public Defender in his second real life. Next year, for Boston, I'm going to schedule a layover through Kansas City and handcuff L.N. into a chair next to me. I'll have him properly sedated and smiling when we arrive at NorEastCon to kill the lawyers one more time! Maybe we'll both need a keeper to accompany us to ensure we arrive: Oz, are you reading this?

We were joined by David-Glenn Anderson, Fran Van Cleave, and Joe Major for the Juveniles panel. David-Glenn is the manager of the Reading For the Future list Greg Bear, Greg Benford and David Brin created a few years back to encourage the use of SF in teaching, and teaches himself in Utah. All our panelists were a great help on that panel.

And, oh, yes, we held a bit of a fairly successful membership drive at Torcon. We now have THIRTY-THREE more members than we had before we left for Torcon: unquestionably the most successful drive we have ever had at a SF convention; and I'm still receiving sign-ups attributable to the good work we all did in Toronto.

If you haven't joined the Society yet, now would be a good time:
See, http://www.heinleinsociety.org/

and then click "Join the Heinlein Society" or go to:

http://www.heinleinsociety.org/join.html

Everyone worked hard, and all mentioned above are commended for the hours of effort they've put in at Torcon.

Success breeds success. Wait until next year!

David M. Silver
Secretary Treasurer
The Heinlein Society

--
David M. Silver www.heinleinsociety.org
"The Lieutenant expects your names to shine!"
Robert Anson Heinlein, USNA '29, Lt.(jg), USN, R'td, 1907-88