Ottawa Science Fiction Society

The Ottawa Science Fiction Society, Inc., or OSFS (pron:"Oss-Fuss") is a membership fan club in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the oldest continuously operating science fiction club in Ontario.

Ottawa Science Fiction Society
AbbreviationOSFS
Formation1977
Typescience fiction organizations based in Canada
Legal statusactive
Purposeadvocate and public voice, educator and network
HeadquartersOttawa, Ontario, Canada
Region served
Canada
Official language
English, French
Websiteosfs.ncf.ca

Current activities

OSFS switched from formal monthly meetings in 2012 to informal dinner meetings. Other gatherings and outings are held on an irregular basis.

It publishes an amateur magazine called The OSFS Statement.

History

OSFS was founded in 1977 by Marc "StarWolf" Gerin-LaJoie who was President for the first two years.[1] Initial membership was around 150, and remained around a hundred for most of the first 15 years.

Stardock

Stardock[2] - Edited by Charles R. Saunders[3] was a science fiction fanzine that published fiction and articles by OSFS members, as well as local writers and artists. Some notable contributors besides Saunders were Galad Elflandsson and Charles de Lint all of whom went on to be professionally published writers.[4]

Maplecon

Maplecon was Ottawa's first fullfledged science fiction convention, initially held at the Skyline Hotel blocks from Ottawa's Parliament Hill in October 1978. Started by StarWolf to give 'direction' to OSFS. It was co-chaired by Jocelyn "Bink" Tait and her husband Frank. In its second year, it merged with an event run by the local comics club, called the International Comic Collectors Club (aka I.C. Cubed), and comics joined the mix. This led to a rapid expansion of the convention. Maplecon grew to a membership of around a thousand attendees, with many notable guests from both science fiction and comics. This rapid growth caused concern about liability, and the "Committee for Change" was formed by a group of concerned members. Its aim was to convince OSFS to spawn off Maplecon as a separate organization so that if Maplecon failed catastrophically, it would not also sink OSFS. This also freed Maplecon from OSFS's control, which had a mixed outcome. An oversight corporation was formed called Ottawa Fandom Inc (aka OFI), and ownership of Maplecon was sold to OFI for one dollar. Eventually, without oversight by OSFS, the comics aspect overwhelmed the science fiction and fantasy written word aspect, and that spawned conventions to meet the wants and needs of the literary fans. First was Pinekone[5] and later, CAN-CON. Another ramification of Maplecon's rapid growth was that it moved to Carleton University.[6] Although this dramatically lowered the cost of the accommodations, it also dramatically lowered the quality of the accommodations. This became a frequent complaint, and is one of the reasons cited as why Maplecon lost attendance. The last Maplecon was number 13, held in 1992.

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References
  1. "Canadian Fan Encyclopedia at efanzines.com" (PDF). An Incompleat Guide To Twentieth Century Canadian Science Fiction Fandom by Richard Graeme Cameron. Retrieved 2011-02-20.
  2. "Citation of OSFS's relation to Stardock and Charles R. Saunders". Gateways to Forever: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines, 1970-1980 by Mike Ashley. Retrieved 2011-02-22.
  3. "IMARO: The Naama War by Charles Saunders". Article from Black Gate Magazine. Retrieved 2011-02-22.
  4. "Notation by Grant Duff, writing as Ann Elid". Fan History of Canada by Garth Spencer. Retrieved 2011-02-20.
  5. "OTTAWA'S SECOND CANVENTION". OTTAWA'S SECOND CANVENTION by Garth Spencer. Retrieved 2011-02-20.
  6. "Carleton Hosts Annual Science Fiction Convention". Ottawa's The Citizen newspaper covers Maplecon's move to Carleton U. Retrieved 2011-02-21.
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