San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc.

Press Release 2008-5

SFSFC AWARDS 2008 SMOFCON SCHOLARSHIP

SAN FRANCISCO SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTIONS, INC.
A California Non-Profit Corporation
PO Box 61363, Sunnyvale CA 94088-1363 USA
info@sfsfc.org; http://www.sfsfc.org/

For release: November 7, 2008

SFSFC Awards SMOFCon Scholarship

San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (SFSFC) has awarded a scholarship of $500 to Heather Stern to attend the SMOFCon convention-runners convention in Columbus OH this year over the weekend of December 5-7, 2008.

Heather Stern has been attending conventions for more than twenty years, and has worked on conventions of different sizes and responsibility levels, including BayCon, Loscon, Equicon, Consonance, and others. She has held a staff position on a Worldcon and was a NASFiC division head. She says that she is interested in increasing her knowledge of areas in which she has not worked as much, including Main Programming and Dealers.

SMOFCon is an annual convention about organizing science fiction conventions. Subject matter ranges from managing small conventions up to the unique challenges of World Science Fiction Conventions. The convention is held in a different city each year. The 2008 SMOFCon will be in Columbus OH at the Drury Inn, December 5-7, 2008. More information about this year’s SMOFCon is available on their web site, http://www.midohiosf.org/.

This is the fifth year that SFSFC has issued scholarships to allow promising convention runners to attend SMOFCon. SFSFC issued two SMOFCon scholarships to attend SMOFCon 25 in Boston in 2007.

Applications were judged by the scholarship administrators, who for 2008 were the three directors of SFSFC who have chaired Worldcons: David W. Clark, Kevin Standlee, and Tom Whitmore.

The name “SMOF” stands for “Secret Masters Of Fandom,” and is a humorous reference to the people who organize and manage science fiction conventions. Another term sometimes used for such people is “conrunner.”

SFSFC was the parent non-profit corporation of ConJosé, the 2002 World Science Fiction Convention, and ConFrancisco, the 1993 Worldcon.

Contact:

SFSFC Inc.: Kevin Standlee info@sfsfc.org

SMOFCon 26: http://www.midohiosf.org/

San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. is a California non-profit corporation recognized as tax-exempt under US Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3).

“ConJose” and “ConFrancisco” are service marks of San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc., a California non-profit corporation.

“Worldcon” and “World Science Fiction Convention” are registered service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.