If Phoenix shut its doors tomorrow who would be greatly inconvenienced? Active participation in all group activities is declining in the community. Scouts et al are all having trouble attracting people willing to do the work to keep the activities going.
When I joined NASF back in 1980, it was really the only game in town. There were the occasional SF TV shows (which you couldn't tape), books and that was it. If you wanted to talk about SF you were either lucky enough to have friends who were interested or … Nothing.
The meeting that got me to join the local branch of NASF was one where a taped interview of my idol Isaac Asimov was played. Very low tech, but not only was it something I couldn't do for myself, there were girls at the meeting! Here was something I couldn't get from reading books by myself.
These days there are so many other distractions. TV SF shows are easily available via the DVD sets, and there is more SF than you could comfortably watch in a month. If you aren't interested in that, you can go online and participate in endless forums.
Clubs only really work if they give scope for extroverts to get egoboo. There are so many other ways for extroverts to get their attention needs satisfied these days.
I keep thinking about reviving "Phlogiston" as an e-zine as that would remove the bits I really hated about doing it (printing it out, putting it in envelopes and mailing it out). I always come back to the fact that editing the damned thing wasn't that enjoyable either, there was always the constant hassle of drumming up content as contributors weren’t beating a path to my door. Eventually the satisfaction of creating something (no matter how ephemeral) was overcome by the stress and effort in creating it.
As for providing a showcase for my own writing, well it looks like Live Journal is scratching that particular itch. Even if I only have an audience of four!
For a few years I did run a weekly newsletter for a community until I finally threw my toys out of the bassinet and gave up. While everyone agreed it was wonderful, no one else replaced it, no one was interested in putting in the time. I don't think people really miss it.
Since then I have written the occasional article on that specialist subject and posted it out to the mailing lists. But you never get any feedback unless you say something controversial, otherwise it just falls into the void (there was a reason I finally entitled the letters column in "Phlogiston" "echoes from the void").
no subject
When I joined NASF back in 1980, it was really the only game in town. There were the occasional SF TV shows (which you couldn't tape), books and that was it. If you wanted to talk about SF you were either lucky enough to have friends who were interested or … Nothing.
The meeting that got me to join the local branch of NASF was one where a taped interview of my idol Isaac Asimov was played. Very low tech, but not only was it something I couldn't do for myself, there were girls at the meeting! Here was something I couldn't get from reading books by myself.
These days there are so many other distractions. TV SF shows are easily available via the DVD sets, and there is more SF than you could comfortably watch in a month. If you aren't interested in that, you can go online and participate in endless forums.
Clubs only really work if they give scope for extroverts to get egoboo. There are so many other ways for extroverts to get their attention needs satisfied these days.
I keep thinking about reviving "Phlogiston" as an e-zine as that would remove the bits I really hated about doing it (printing it out, putting it in envelopes and mailing it out). I always come back to the fact that editing the damned thing wasn't that enjoyable either, there was always the constant hassle of drumming up content as contributors weren’t beating a path to my door. Eventually the satisfaction of creating something (no matter how ephemeral) was overcome by the stress and effort in creating it.
As for providing a showcase for my own writing, well it looks like Live Journal is scratching that particular itch. Even if I only have an audience of four!
For a few years I did run a weekly newsletter for a community until I finally threw my toys out of the bassinet and gave up. While everyone agreed it was wonderful, no one else replaced it, no one was interested in putting in the time. I don't think people really miss it.
Since then I have written the occasional article on that specialist subject and posted it out to the mailing lists. But you never get any feedback unless you say something controversial, otherwise it just falls into the void (there was a reason I finally entitled the letters column in "Phlogiston" "echoes from the void").
Today is clearly a grumpy cynical day.