The Lampwick Continuum

Meeting Report 11/30/08

The meeting was called to order by the lighting of the lamp. It is my hope that the lamp becomes the symbol for our new club. Maybe it is a bit silly, and we will certainly question it (as I expect to question nearly everything) as we build the new club, but I kinda like it.

We started by discussing objectives of what we wanted out of the new club. The consensus was that we wanted to focus on having fun, but we also want to have some sort of closed membership process. The exact nature of this is still up in the air. We do not want to be just a carbon copy of Star One Delta or Area 504, but to create our own ways and traditions. I introduced the following as a preamble to the
bylaws:

The first page of our bylaws is intentionally left blank. Every club should start off with a room full of friends and a blank sheet of paper, and the objective is for the room full of friends to get larger, not just to fill up the blank sheet of paper. We offer this blank sheet to anyone, anywhere that wants to borrow it. As for the rest, this is us figuring out who we are and what we want in a Baton Rouge Science Fiction Club.

I also set the expectation that we will be taking some time to come up with our bylaws (6 months to a year). Until then Operation Lampwick will remain a self appointed autocracy, although I was elected to the position ‘Man behind the Curtain’ by acclimation on Nebe’s suggestion. I retaliated by naming him our Chief Technomancer.

Operation Lampwick is a temporary name until such time as we come up with something better. We discussed ideas for a new club name and came up with the following:

• Solarian Social League
• Supernova Social (this was more of an alternate name for an event like Babel Banquet)
• Capital Area Genre Society (CAGS)
• Gulf Coast Fen

None of these particularly struck our collective fancy so we decided to table the name for the time being until the Muse decides to grace us with her presence.

Because communication is so important to any organization, we decided to establish a Yahoo newsgroup where we could discuss organization issues. We expect to have regular meetings about every month or so, but to have most of the business handled on line so the meetings are more of a social affair.

We also discussed how we want to separate from Star One Delta. Many of us are leaving SOD, but we want the split to go as smoothly as possible given the circumstances and to support those who wish to participate in both SOD and Operation Lampwick. With the expected withdrawals, only the SOD Vice President race will be contested. Operation Lampwick will throw it’s support behind Karen Lineske,
who is running for Vice President, and Mark Lineske, who is running for treasurer.

Finally, we have scheduled our first event under Operation Lampwick, a New Year’s Eve Party at my house. I’m not sure when we will start but don’t expect to stay much past 1:00AM, as we have a small child to consider.

Thanks,
Matthew Tessier

P.S. I would like to thank all the Pizzas that so bravely gave up their lives so that Operation Lampwick could begin. I promise that their sacrifice and tastiness will not soon be forgotten.