I recommend the blog of our Author Guest of Honour, Michael Swanwick.

This example includes a link to an audio interview.

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Murray

We do have tables available. However, the number of tables remaining is less than the number of people who’ve said they are interested in being dealers but haven’t confirmed yet. So if you would like to be a dealer at SFContario, waiting until August to make a decision might not be advisable.

We have a little information on our dealers room page. This includes an online payment form. Please note that the dealer table rate of $65 (until September 1, if we have tables left) does not include a membership. People can purchase a membership online at our registration page.

Merle is cajoling the dealers who have paid for tables to provide links and logos that we can put on our dealers room page. Hope to have some of that online by July.

More than 100 fans have saved themselves money by pre-registering for SFContario.

The cost of a membership in a SF convention rises in steps until the convention begins.

The most expensive membership is the membership purchased at the convention.

Conventions like SFContario encourage the purchase of memberships in advance because conventions have bills to pay before the convention starts.

And the convention member who pre-registers saves money. Another benefit is faster entry to the convention.

/\/\
Murray

1. Collect membership dues
2. Verify proxies and voting members
3. Call to order by Chair
   1. Welcome
   2. present agenda
   3. answer meeting procedure questions
4. Read and approve minutes of November 2009 AGM
5. Corporation president report
6. Convention chair report
7. Treasurer interim update
8. Election of one director
9. Proposed Motions
   1. 2011 Enabling Resolution
   2. By-law amendment
10. Other new business
    1. discussion of future plans
11. Announce fall annual general meeting date
12. Adjournment of corporate general meeting

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Society of Upper Canada, sponsoring corporation of SFContario, will hold its spring general meeting on May 2, 2010 at 1:00 PM at the World’s Biggest Bookstore, 20 Edward Street, Toronto. The meeting will be held in the second floor meeting room (ask the staff if you need help finding it).

The meeting will take about an hour. The agenda will include election of one director and proposed motions including an enabling resolution for the 2011 convention and a by-law amendment. The meeting will be followed by a SFContario 2010 committee meeting. Meeting agendas will be posted later this week to the SFContario blog.

Charter members may vote at this meeting. Other paid members are welcome to upgrade to charter memberships; otherwise, attendance at this meeting will count for the “two meetings in the past two years” rule in the by-law for voting at future meetings. A Skype conference call will be arranged to facilitate participation by voting members who cannot physically attend the meeting in person. Voting members who cannot attend in person, online, or by phone may give a proxy to an attending voter.

This announcement will be posted to the SFContario blog, the Facebook group, the Google Groups mailing list, and will be bcc’d to other charter members. Questions or suggestions may be directed to con2010-at-sfcontario-dot-ca, or just posted to the Google Groups mailing list. The corporation general meeting and the concom meeting are open to the public. After the concom meeting, anyone interested may join us for dinner in the area. We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Just a bit of background on how we expect to spend money on the convention (this will change over time):
                                       

Expenses

Revenue

The Hugo nominations have been announced and are online on the Aussiecon 4 web site.

SFContario would like to congratulate our Author Guest of Honour, Michael Swanwick, who received a nomination in the category of Best
Related Work for Hope in the Mist, a study of British author Hope Mirrlees. We would also like to congratulate Editor Guest of Honour
Patrick Nielsen Hayden, a nominee in the Best Editor, Long Form category.

Further congratulations go out to our Toastmaster, Robert J. Sawyer, who received a nomination for Best Novel for WWW:Wake.
Additional congratulations are due to Rob, as the pilot episode for the series FlashForward, “No More Good Days,” based on Rob’s novel
of the same name, was nominated for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

Additionally, we’d also like to highlight nominations for other Toronto authors and fans:

SFContario will be having a party at Ad Astra in Don Mills on Saturday, April 10, starting at 9 PM. We expect to be on the party floor so we’ll be easy to find. Diane, Catherine, and Jeff will be hosting the party. Come find out about Toronto’s newest science fiction convention.

SFContario will also be hosting the dessert buffet at FilKONtario in Mississauga on Saturday, April 10 starting around 8:30 PM. The party will be in the hospitality suite after the Filk Hall of Fame banquet. Marah, Alex, and Sue will be hosting the party. The green alien will be consumed. If you’re at FilKONtario that weekend, come and have fun with us!

If you are on Facebook, join our Facebook page to get notified about what’s going on. You can RSVP to one of our parties to let us know you’re coming.

Robert J. Sawyer has been invited to be Toastmaster at SFContario, November 19-21 in downtown Toronto.

SFContario’s toastmaster Robert J. Sawyer is a futurist and frequent keynote speaker and media science commentator with over 500 appearances on Canadian and international radio and television. He is a favorite at science fiction conventions across Canada, the United States, and elsewhere; he has been toastmaster at VCON, Norwescon, and Con-Version.

When he is not doing public speaking, Rob is a prolific science fiction author, having written 19 novels (as of April 2010) plus assorted short fiction and non-fiction. He also works in television, currently as creative consultant for the ABC/CityTV series FlashForward (based on his novel of the same name. For his fiction, Robert Sawyer has won the Hugo, Nebula, Aurora, and many other science fiction awards in three decades in the field.

The SFContario programming page is now online. You can give us ideas for panels or other program events on this page. Also, if you are interested in participating in the program, there’s a form where you can give us information about yourself.

The best convention programs I’ve seen are those that bring in the best ideas from many people. With about three tracks of programming, we won’t be able to use every idea or every person who volunteers, but we’ll use as many good ideas and good people as we can. So let us know what you’d like to see or talk about at SFContario. We look forward to your suggestions.