Something interesting

[chaoswolf]

I'm on a panel @ laconiv: Second Generation Filkers. According to flower_cat, I'm there with the Burnside-Clapp children and the Bohnhoff children. And another thing: flower_cat said I will make SMOF by the time I'm 30. I laugh at this, as nobody has seen fit to give me a smof ribbon based on the amount of gofur work I've done, recognizing any of my achievements at cons. Hell, I did more @ NasFic in '99 than at anything else. An entire con of gofurdom, and only 3 t shirts and a coffee mug to show for it.

When do I get to smof?? *whimpers and thinks gofurs are underappreciated*

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Heh. Wanna smof? Move here, to NY, and you're welcome to serve on the concom for Contata, next running in 2008. (Note: This is only half joking. I can't speak for the whole concom, of course, but I can say that we're chronically undermanned and overworked.)

[selinawoman.livejournal.com]

WOOHOO! All Ihaveda do is move to NY?
WOOT!

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Heh. FSVO "smof", of course :-) In this case, a filkcon that can always use folks.

i'll SMOF ya!

[selinawoman.livejournal.com]

But I'm not *really* a smof.. They just let me hang around, why?
I am not Sure. But I don't give a care, really.
MUhahhahahahhahaha!

Sixeen men on a deads man's whatever dude!?
I wonder...

Re: i'll SMOF ya!

[chaoswolf]

Well, I'm the daughter of a smof and have dedicated many years of my youth to aiding conventions as a volunteer. In the last several years I've run volunteer departments, but never been recognized by execs for doing a good job. Even as a lowly penguin I aided the con, and still no good words with the execs in my favor.

[beki.livejournal.com]

A lot of the powers that be dont really take their or others offspring into account. It's not fair, but it is how things sometimes are. I have found that all you have to do is show up at meetings. Back in the day when I was doing con com stuff (bc, before children) "they" would have meetings at cons to discuss this con and that con and what we learned etc. I dont know if its still like that anymore. It used to be the same group of folks putting on a lot of the cons, at least up here that was the case. IIRC, you have run a few things for the cons, like gophers/volunteers etc. If you can get folks to volunteer, you are enough of a SMOF for me.

[chaoswolf]

Yeah, though there are certain things that SMOFs are only able to do if they have been awarded the title. I haven't seen gatherings of such creatures except at WesterCon where I accidentally stumbled into a SMOF party. They didn't discuss what it takes to become a smof or anything...I don't know.

[beki.livejournal.com]

I dont think it takes anything really. I used to go to them at Norwescon and Rustycon and Anglicon back in the day when I went to a lot of conventions. I cant afford to now. I only go to one a year.

[mdlbear]

Zap! You're a SMOF. Secret Master Mistress Munchkin Meerkat ?whatever? of Fandom?

Nobody's ever likely to slap a propeller beanie on your head and proclaim you a SMOF, at least not until long after you deserve the appellation. They'll just keep giving you more work. It's like arcade games -- the reward for winning is you get to play another game.

[aerowolf.livejournal.com]

Don't do it for the appreciation... do it because it's what you feel is best. Even if the appreciation never comes, you'll at least know that you did your best and your best is probably a hell of a lot better than anyone else could have done.

That's what being a SMOF is... someone who isn't in it for the glory (if you're in it for the glory, you're not being "secret"), someone who is damned good at the craft (not a Novice, Apprentice, or Journeyman, but a Master or Mistress), and isn't in it for their work, but rather for their play -- that which they are passionate about (one would almost say... "fanatical"... about), along with a bunch of other people who aren't as good as they are at what they do (the Fandom).

Be quiet.
Be better than anyone else.
Be it because it's what you do for yourself, because you know that nobody else can do it for everyone else as well as or better than you.

Be a SMOF.

[selinawoman.livejournal.com]

And if you do accidently SMOF keep it a *secret*
Heh! :) That's the trick of it!

Heck it's so secret I don't even know if I am one or not!
( not caring helps too!)

But I have never gotten a ribbon either, would not be a great secret if we did... we are the REALLY secret Masters of F dom!

[selkit.livejournal.com]

Marf. *Appreciates a Chaos by simply clinging and hugging half to death in slinkfoxish manners.*