Transcribed by Elaine Walker. She hopes that any typos are the ones that were there originally. This covers page 7 and 8 of Progress Report 0, which are the last pages in this progress report, published in early 1991. So it contains the who to blame for it (some of the committee at that point in time), information on the con hotel, and the short story competition which I am including because you never know when you will want to run a short story competition again and will want to see what has been done before.
Who’s Responsible for the Apocalypse?
Dave Luckett, Chairthing
Dave Luckett. Dave’s first convention was Swancon 2, but it was all a big mistake; he’d thought they were playing wargames. He wasn’t seen again till Swancon 5, but has attended most Swancons since. Along the way, he chaired the very successful Swancon 9 (known by some as Harrycon, or the Claytons Natcon) and co-programmed Swancon 11. As Chair, he is able to weld a disparate group of individualists into a working Concom by the simple expedient of threatening to sit on anyone who misbehaves. Even the normally imperturbable ViceChair blenches at this threat, and the rest of us are frankly terrified.
Sally Beasley, Programming
Sally Beasley. Rightly described as having a grin like a demented pixie, but is actually finicky to the point of wilful nitpickery about nearly everything. Can always think of reasons why it can’t work, and then goes away and makes it work anyway. Has been associated with Swancons since forever. Was the second palace revolution from the right during Swancon 5, but has been on committees for 9 and 11 and probably others. As far as programming is concerned, follows the mad scientist school of creativity. Will be delighted when the lightning strikes, and the thing actually gets up from the table and walks.
Gigi Boudville, Secretary
One of the most generous and warm-hearted people that it is possible to know, Gigi is an active member of most of the fannish associations around Perth, and even has accumulated a goodly number of Honorary Life Memberships in the short time that she’s been involved. Gigi has a gift for finding the most amazing prizes for raffles, and has got to be worth her weight in precious gems for all her tireless work.
Tara Smith, Treasurer
Faster than a recalculating spreadsheet, more powerful than double-entry bookkeeping, able to leap cost accounting in a single bound, Tara is our Treasure(r). Aside from being a financial wizard (witch? sorceress? thaumaturge?), Tara is a warm, cuddly, human being who delights in family, wine and keeping unruly Swanconners in line. It is believed that her ambition is to salt away enough of the profits of Swancons to allow us to buy our own venue … at L5.
Mark Bivens, Jack-of-all-trades
Mark Bivens. Mark has been attending Swancons since 1980, and has been working on them since Swancon 9. He started as a gopher, and has graduated through hotel liaison, running the front desk, and attempting to organise day managers to his present dizzy height of ViceChair and troubleshooter extraordinaire. In his private life, Mark is the proud possessor of a Macintosh (the machine, not the raincoat) [in the days before iDevices], works as a child psychologist, and has fantasies about being a pirate. So far he’s only got the beard. Donations of parrots gratefully accepted.
Peter Cooper (aka Comrade), Publications
He is a charming fellow and is best summed up from a quote by Logan Pearsall Smith in Afterthoughts:
When and Where is the Apocalypse?
Swancon 18 is to be held at the Ascot Inn (situated on the banks of the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia) over the 1993 Easter Long Weekend. The rates are very reasonable, considering the quality of the hotel, and the facilities available to the Con.
Swancon 18 has booked the entire hotel, which should ensure a fun and hassle-free Con. The Ascot Inn will be quite suited to our needs as it has several large function areas [I still have fond memories of the gaming room – Elaine], a swimming pool, lovely gardens, and a ‘piped video’ system to every room which may be used for the major component of the Video stream of the program.
Swancons have been long known for an active ‘alternative program’ of great room-parties, gaming and pizzas. Especially pizzas. There is little doubt that all this will happen again. You’ll find booking forms in the Generic Application Form in this PR.
The Short Story Competition
We will be having a short story competition for previously unpublished short-stories (100-8000 words). The prizes will be awarded by a committee including the Professional GoH. The conditions of the Competition will be advised in the next PR.