10 February 1997
Dear Bucconeer Folks,
Hello! I am writing to you now concerning a programming track that I'd like to suggest you include in 1998. I'm sending a similar letter to the organizers of the San Antonio Worldcon, but I think this area of interest is vital and I wanted to suggest it to you folks in Baltimore so you might have plenty of time to prepare.
Below, you will see attached a copy of an open letter that I addressed to the entire SF community last year, in company with my colleagues Gregory Benford and Greg Bear. [Please see the article titled "An Open Proposal to the SF Community." Ed.] It concerns the desperate lack of exposure of children to good written SF. One major result has been an aging of fandom! Literary SF may very well be on its way out. Clearly, something must be done.
At L.A.con III, there was a big panel discussion about this project, attended by over 200 enthusiastic participants. We hope to follow up on this at San Antonio.
In fact, we are suggesting that an intense compact program track be organized, with the Wonder Project being just one of the panels. Other panels might have to do with curricula for young people, curricula for colleges and universities, and resources for teachers and librarians.
Here's an idea for your consideration. How about letting it be known that any teacher in the Baltimore School District who would like to attend this session will be welcome, and get a free half-day (or full-day) pass. In fact, I'd suggest you allow each teacher to bring one honor student of his/her choice. (Odds are, many of them would then buy memberships for the remainder of the con!) In return, you'd get a huge list of interested teachers, and the names and addresses of a large number of bright youngsters who can be recruited into your local fan organizations!
One idea we thought about for L.A.con III, but had too little time to implement, was to offer guest memberships as prizes for writing contests in some local schools.
Ideally, none of these actions should hurt the con. In fact, there should be a net INCREASE in membership sales by generating interest in local schools, especially if you can produce some sort of small info brochure to go to the right teachers. Moreover, the publicity in local press could be appreciable.
Anyway, that's the general idea. You'll know better than I what would work for you. But I do think gestures of this sort will be essential if our community is to retain relevance in America in the future.
Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
David Brin
Dear David,
Thanks for your message about involving the community in Worldcons. Your input was particularly appreciated because we are gingerly feeling our way in much the same direction, but without a clear focus.
Let me give you some data points and perhaps you can help us tie them into a meaningful and useful package. Our Near Future Technology committee manager is a doctor in Baltimore City who has deep ties with the community.
Through his own contacts, we now are working with, for example, the Maryland Chapter of the American Heart Association. One of the several projects on which we are collaborating is a contest for folks in the Baltimore City schools. The first prize(s) would be guest passes for the winner (or winners) and their parents to attend the 56th World Science Fiction Convention.
We have considered going beyond Baltimore City, but then it becomes very unclear where the limits are. We decided that there was enough work coordinating with one jurisdiction!
Ideas for the focus of the contest (which probably should be in the area of the future of heart health care or some such) would be much appreciated. So would the willingness of the Killer Bees to offer to work with the winner/winning school over the Internet.
Sincerely,
Peggy Rae Pavlat, Chairman