SFContario Convention Committee
Committee List
| Chair Vice-chair |
Alexander von Thorn Marah Searle-Kovacevic |
| Treasurer | Claire Beaumier |
Program Director Program Ops |
Diane Lacey Jeff Beeler |
| Events | Kevin Nunn Kelly Moore |
| Masquerade Director | (vacant) |
| Art Show Director | (vacant) |
| Dealers Room | |
| Fan Tables | Debra Yeung |
| Registrar | Evelyn Baker Donald Simmons |
| Hospitality | Catherine Crockett |
| Party Maven | Debra Yeung |
| Publications Adverstising Restaurant Guide |
Cheryl Freedman Sharon Reynolds Claire Beaumier, David Warren |
Webmaster |
Terry Fong Alexander von Thorn Sue Posteraro Jeffers |
| Volunteers | Diane Lacey |
| Publicity | Murray Moore |
| Legal Counsel | David Warren |
Help Wanted
- Art Show Director: responsible for receiving art by mail, setting up art panels, tracking art pieces, selling art, handling cash, organizing art auction, breaking down art panels, shipping unsold art back to artists, reporting on all transactions and obligations (cheques to be mailed) at the end of the convention
- Masquerade Director: responsible for helping promote the masquerade in the costuming community, registering masquerade participants, working with tech crew on requirements, organizing at-con masquerade
Committee Bios
Alex von Thorn - Chair
Alexander von Thorn has worked on many conventions in the Toronto area, including Ad Astra, FilkOntario, Toronto Trek, Anime North, Bloody Words, Pandemonium, Primedia, World Horror Convention, Torcon III, Mensa Canada Annual Gathering, and the International Space Development Conference. He has worked on twelve Worldcons, two NASFiCs, and other conventions in Chicago, Seattle, Detroit, and elsewhere, recently as co-chair of ConComCon 16 in Vancouver. He has won the Aurora award for fan writing and done game design work for TSR, Victory Games, and Steve Jackson Games. He managed The Worldhouse game store in Toronto in the '80s and early '90s and now helps manage a technical support group for a global telecommunications organization.
Marah Searle-Kovacevic - vice-chair
Marah Searle-Kovacevic has been active in Toronto fandom for twenty years. She has worked on Toronto Trek, the ISDC Space Development Conference, Primedia, Ad Astra, Bloody Words, Anime North, Gaylaxicon, FilKONtario, World Horror, Torcon III, and Creation Conventions. She is past president of IDIC, one of Canada's largest and oldest science fiction clubs. She has been worked on Worldcons since the mid-1990s. She was a co-Division Head for CascadiaCon, the Seattle NASFiC. She co-chaired ConComCon 16 in Vancouver. She is currently registration staff for FilKONtario; a member of the bid committee for the Seattle in 2012 Westercon bid; in charge of suites allocation for ReConstruction, the Raleigh NASFiC; and a director of the Chicago Worldcon Bid corporation. She has thrown dozens of parties on three continents (soon to be four) for different bids. Marah is an expert in classic Star Trek trivia.
Diane Lacey - Programming
Diane Lacey is a resident of Toronto, and has worked on conventions in Toronto and elsewhere. Highlights include Torcon 3, Noreascon 4, and LACon IV. She has worked at Confusion in Detroit and several Minicons in Minneapolis. Most recently she was a member of the Hugo Awards Committee and co-ran the consuite at Anticipation.
Diane has a PhD in chemistry, a lot of books, probably too many dvds, and nowhere near as many cats as she’d like. She likes to cook and to travel, is interested in photography, and has used the phrase “do you want fries with that” in a professional capacity.
Catherine Crockett - Con Suite
Catherine Crockett is a resident of Toronto. She attended her first convention in 1982. She co-founded Ditto, has published a number of fanzines, and helped run conventions ranging in size from 26 to 9800 attendees, in areas including con suite, hotel liaison, publications, and con office. Her interests include percussion, ethnobotany, and obscure cuisines.
Claire Beaumier - Restaurant Guide
Claire Beaumier has over a dozen years experience in the restaurant/ hotel hospitality industry and has used this experience to assist as a volunteer in consuites. She must be pretty good at it as she was recently “voluntold” to work the consuite at Anticipation (which she did quite happily).
Claire is French bilingual and started her corporate career as a Bilingual Customer Service Representative and is now a Case Manager for one of Canada’s largest insurance companies. She has three wonderful children: a daughter and two sons.
Cheryl Freedman - Program Book
Cheryl Freedman has worked as a research analyst for the CRTC, and as a producer for Rogers Cable and for the CBC Radio program "Ideas." She owned The Worldhouse game store in the 1980s and '90s. In recent years she has been Executive Director of Crime Writers of Canada and a busy freelance editor and book designer. She has chaired the Bloody Words mystery conference in Toronto twice, and edited its program book most years.
Sue Jeffers - Filk
Sue Jeffers has been reading SF since she was a kid, but didn't collide with organized fandom until much later in life. She's been active in FilKONtario for some years, and is currently acting as the web designer for them and SFContario. Now retired, she has worked for many years as programmer, systems analyst, technical writer, and quality assurance analyst. That is, in addition to being Mom, Wife and Grandma.
Murray Moore - Publicity
Murray Moore's first contact with fandom was in 1968, and he was a Charter member of Canadapa in 1972. His first big convention was Torcon 2 in 1973. He resumed attending Worldcon in 2000 as a member of the Toronto in 2003 bid committee. Highlights in this century: 2001, Canadian Unity Fan Fund (CUFF) delegate to the Canvention (Vancouver), and World Fantasy Con Registration Head (Montreal); 2002, Ditto 15 Chair (Toronto); 2003, Torcon 3 Facilities Division Head (Toronto); 2006-2008, FAAn Awards Administrator; 2009, Anticipation Program Division, Fan Track Head.
Sharon Reynolds - Program Book Ads
Once described as a “fan waiting to happen”, Sharon Reynolds is especially interested in sff’s literary, costuming, and party conrunning aspects. Twice, she served as the entire ConCom for ShejiCon-Spokane, a meet-up of CJ Cherryh aficionados, and has been credited blamed for risking Cherryh’s life on multiple occasions. Sharon was volunteered for Worldcon-Anticipation’s At-Con Registration committee, and can’t wait to help stuff 3,500 bags again. As a mundane, she was once awarded a jurisdictional Large Non-Cash Prize for organization of an event best described as “herding teen-age cats”. Sharon toils away in the USA’s Pacific Northwest: saving lives, stamping out disease, figure skating, and yearning to climb Mt. Rainier one more time.
David Warren - Legal Counsel
David Warren started his fannish career when he walked into the office at Fanfair 3 and asked "Can I help?" He was only allowed out of the office during the rest of the con to eat and sleep. He has been active on local concoms ever since, including Star Trek '76, Draconis, Summercon and the Ad Astra cons. As well, he worked at both Torcons 2 and 3 and one of the Chicago worldcons. As a lawyer, he incorporated both Ad Astra, which made him Fan Guest of Honour at the 25th one, and SFContario. He is also very active in Canada's folk music community, having been on the board of the Mariposa Folk Festival for over 25 years. Oh yes, in his spare time he actually practices law.