The Aurora award nominees have been announced. Congratulations to all the nominees and to concom member Sue Posteraro Jeffers in particular. Yay Sue!!

We’re putting together a Hugo recommendation page, similar to the Aurora recommendation page we put up recently. If you’d like your suggestions to be included on our page, please contact Diane at program2010-at-sfcontario-dot-ca.

The CUFF ballot has been posted online at http://sfcontario.ca/cuff/.

Because of the delay getting the ballot up, voting has been extended to March 13th.

Many thanks to Colin and Alex for their help in getting the ballot together.

SFContario has Twitter: follow @SFContario

Back yesterday from Boston and Boskone 47: 12 hours and 10 minutes on the road, including 90 minutes crossing the border at Lewiston, with many other Ontarians at the end of Family Day. Note 1: next year, do not arrive at border at 5:15 p.m. Note 2: instead, cross at Rainbow Bridge.

Almost all of SFContario 1′s guests were at Boskone.

If during SFContario 1 you see Michael Swanwick with a thick notebook, ask him nicely and he will let you hold it and look through it. The academic institution that eventually acquires The Michael Swanwick Papers is in for a treat: much more interesting than a stack of compact disks or a thumb drive of files.

If you like semi-precious stones and polished fossils, you have a comment hook, in addition to writers, about which you can talk to Teresa Nielsen Hayden. Mary Ellen described Teresa’s necklaces as “stunning.”

And if you find yourself in a bar with Patrick Nielsen Hayden, you can offer to buy him a Guinness.

Geri Sullivan as one of the guests of SFContario 1 might be easier to find in one place for more than a few minutes, because she will be a guest. Or maybe not. During Boskone, to my knowledge, and I am sure this list is incomplete, on Friday she was involved in decorating the Zombie Casino and was in charge of the Reno in 2011 Worldcon party; Saturday she was a member of the crew during rehearsal of, and the subsequent performance of, the world premiere of Roger Zelazny’s three act play, Godson.

Or at least their musicians! We are pleased to learn and share that the Bedlam Bards are coming to SFContario. Hawke and Cedric are a couple of great performers, long established in Celtic music and now widely known for their music about the worlds of Firefly and Serenity. The local filk community is reportedly excited to have these great filkers coming up all the way from Texas, and we’re hoping that a segment of Browncoat fandom will come along to join the fun.

Just a quick reminder for those who have not yet nominated: you still can! The deadline for submitting nominations for the Aurora Awards is tonight on Monday, February 15. You may use the online nomination form.

If you’re not sure who to nominate, please come to our Aurora recommendations page for some ideas. Please also feel free to look at Marcel Gagne’s excellent online reference of Canadian science fiction. The Aurora committee has also posted some of their favorites on the Aurora award web site.

I’m running to be this year’s CUFF delegate. I’m very pleased to learn that this year, for the first time since 2003 it seems, there will be an election. The competition will be good for CUFF and for Canadian fandom in general. Rob Uhrig, from Nova Scotia is also in the race. I wish him the best of luck.

So why am I doing this? Well, it occurs to me that while I’ve attended conventions all over the US, I’ve never attended any in Western Canada, and this seems wrong. I’d like to rectify that situation. I’d like to meet all those fans from Western Canada that I’ve been missing, as well as visit those I have managed to meet elsewhere. I’m also eager to attend the one day conrunner’s convention that’s planned for the day following Keycon. I’d like to find out what they’re doing over there and to let them know what we’ve got going on over here.

I believe I have the organizational skills to be a good administrator. I have some ideas for fund-raising but plan to pick the brains of those who are much more experienced with that than I am for more and better ideas. I absolutely intend to publish a trip report as soon as possible upon my return. I’d also very much like to see the fund promoted more. Right now it is difficult to find very much information online. Other than the facebook page, a google search brings up little information on the application procedure, membership, qualifications, expectations, etc., and many of those hits are several years old. I’d like to address this.

Voting takes place from February 5th to February 25th. I don’t have a link for that yet but will post it as soon as I do.

Thanks to my nominators. From the West they are Fran Skene, Dave Clement, Richard Graeme Cameron and Tim Hogue. From the East they are Murray Moore, Rene Walling, Lance Sibley and Colin Hinz.

The IDIC, aka USS Hudson Bay sponsored a concert this weekend at the North York Central library featuring Filk GOH Karen Linsley and many local filkers. (Judith Hayman, Peggi Warner-Lalonde, Howard Scrimgeour, Tom and Sue Jeffers, and Phil Mills).
It was a great concert, well attended, and a very good time. Thanks to Karen for organizing the concert and to Lynda Ciaschini and the IDIC for sponsoring it. We’re going to have a great filk track!