Standing for Chair

[LeeH]

My only worry is that as Prism editor you seemed very pressed for time...

I certainly was. Mind you, that was quite a few years ago. 

I'm standing because I feel the society is in need of someone willing to provide strong direction, and despite a lot of rhetoric, no other heads have been raised above the parapet, yet - if another candidate is declared who I think will do a better job, I'll happily offer them my full support, instead.

[David A. Riley]

We are short of volunteers, that's always been the problem. It would be nice to see several - or at least a couple! - of candidates standing for key positions on the society. It's worrying when it comes down to only one member who is prepared to take on responsibilities like this.

Who, for instance, will be responsible for collating and designing the next Journal? This eventually became David Howe's responsibility, though I don't think its a normal part of the chairman's role.

[Stephen Theaker]

In theory chair is the least time-consuming job in the BFS - if everything is going well and there are plenty of volunteers, you just set out the schedule and do your best to make sure everyone sticks to it. Never seems to work out that way, though!

One key thing, I think, is that the chair has to answer email promptly - not the minute it arrives, but at least within a day or two, because otherwise everything grinds to a halt.

[David A. Riley]

David Howe did a fantastic job as chairman. I didn't always agree with him and I certainly had a few issues with him over the Journal, but he was certainly not put off by the amount of work and inmcreasing number of responsibilities which his role piled onto him as his one year in office drew towards its abrupt close. He was dedicated and thorough, which anyone replacing him needs to be.

[Stephen Theaker]

The BFS survived another year (or at least I'm assuming it has - we haven't seen the accounts yet) - to that extent he succeeded in the chair's most important job.

And although he made a hash of the awards situation, the outcome has been very positive, in that it's made people realise the committee has been serious all these years about how overstretched they are.

I'm very grateful to him personally for taking the BFS off my hands. If he hadn't volunteered, I'd have felt duty-bound to keep things going, with all that entailed - the mailings, the accounts, etc.

And I'm grateful for the lesson he taught me, that volunteering for the BFS can be enjoyable, but don't put too much into it, because anything you build or plan can be swept away by the whim of the next new broom. I can't see myself volunteering for the BFS again for a while - not that anyone would want me to, given my grumbling! - but I'm bound to eventually, and at that point I'll go into it with a different attitude, to do a year of great work, make sure everything is finished by September, and if I stick around for a second year, to go into it without any expectations.

[David A. Riley]

And although he made a hash of the awards situation, the outcome has been very positive, in that it's made people realise the committee has been serious all these years about how overstretched they are.

Not being able to attend this year's FantasyCon I missed this, perhaps fortunately. It was an error of judgement to stay as involved as he was with the awards ceremony, but as for the results of the ballot that was, let's face it, out of his hands. It was our votes that led to the "hash", if "hash" it was. Other than that, it looks so far to have been a successful year. As editor of Prism I was never happy with the AGM decision to merge Prism, Dark Horizons and New Horizons into one journal. This was the single bone of contention I had with David, though he was only following what he saw as the AGM's will on this matter.

I am still sorry that things ended as they did, because it would have been better to have seen continuation in the society's administration, than what happened. We have had too many chairmen whose terms of office have been drastically short.

[joshua rainbird]

The other thing is the chair is assumed to take on whatever is unfilled which I think was David's downfall - with no treasurer and no DH editor (which was declared at the AGM) he was in dire straits.  Having editorial control and the purse leaves a chair wide open to accusations of autocracy.  I came out of that AGM feeling that there was a man bogged down with responsibility and making do when others would have just thrown in the towel, there and then.

But I also feel that the AGM was rushed and poorly scheduled - he was keen to get ready for the banquet and the awards ceremony, as were most people there, which didn't fare well when the awkward questions about some of his decisions came - especially Corby.  Of note, there were quite a number of empty seats in that room, I would say around 50 people attended and at least 3 were not BFS members.

I was sad to see him go - he had guts.

[David A. Riley]

In all fairness about some of these decisions, such as Corby, it was just David's decision. He did consult and ask for votes by the whole committee, so many of these were collective decisions. It's just unfortunate that some people regard them as his alone. He was a very consultative chairman.

[Stephen Theaker]

We're going a bit off-topic here, seeing as this is meant to be a thread about Lee's candidacy, but okay...

As editor of Prism I was never happy with the AGM decision to merge Prism, Dark Horizons and New Horizons into one journal. This was the single bone of contention I had with David, though he was only following what he saw as the AGM's will on this matter.

Sorry, David, you're quite mistaken - didn't we talk about this before on your blog? It wasn't a decision of the AGM to merge the publications, not at all. It was purely David's decision. Putting Prism in the back of Dark Horizons was something I mentioned off hand as a money-saving possibility, but that's the extent of it. And note the money-saving part!

Not being able to attend this year's FantasyCon I missed this, perhaps fortunately. It was an error of judgement to stay as involved as he was with the awards ceremony, but as for the results of the ballot that was, let's face it, out of his hands. It was our votes that let to the "hash".

It would be interesting to know what steps the BFS committee took to investigate the actual situation before declaring that David's only involvement in the awards was to arrange the ceremony. My perception, from emails I had, from the things David said on the forums, from stuff Kai said, was that David was to some extent involved in every single stage of the awards from the time I stepped down, and was clearly very involved in putting together the shortlist, in clear contradiction of the BFS statement.

That perception may well be wrong, but if he wasn't, presumably there are emails from the awards admin to David saying things like "Here is the longlist" and "Here is the shortlist", or to publishers saying things like "How long is your novella?" and "Can you send these books for the Best Newcomer panel?", and the BFS committee saw them before issuing the statement.

[David A. Riley]

My memory may be faulty over the merger issue, though it was something I seem to remember being strongly put forward at the AGM in 2010. I remember Pete Crowther for PS Publishing offering help with the proposed Journal in designing and laying out, etc., though this offer turned out only to be short term and yet another job which David had to take on himself. I do remember there was quite a strong vocal call for this merger, including from Steve Jones and others. It appeared to get the endoresment of the majority of people at the AGM, which is possibly what made this a definite decision on David's part.

Yes, this may be diverting the thread from Lee's nomination as chair, but as he happens to be the only nominee so far (to my knowledge) that hardly seems to matter.

[Stephen Theaker]

Pete Crowther was pointed to as someone who could help budget an affordable hardback, should the BFS want to move into charging much higher membership rates and producing higher quality books. That wasn't about merging the publications - it was about getting rid of them, because Stephen Jones thought they were rubbish, essentially.

[David A. Riley]

No, Peter helped with the first couple of Journals, doing exactly as he promised. David thought this was an ongoing offer, but it wasn't.

I would dispute your interpretation of this. I was quite disturbed at the time by all the talk of merging everything into one publication, and did hope it would be quietly dropped...

Stephen Jones may have thought the publications were rubbish - I probably missed this, not getting to the AGM at the very beginning - but that's his take on things, for which he's entitled, wrong though I believe him to have been. I do recollect that he was another who thought they would benefit from being in one uniform volume. A mistake, in my view, but there you have it.

[Stephen Theaker]

There was not even the slightest suggestion at the AGM that Pete Crowther and PS would do any of the typesetting. All that was said was something along the lines of "Talk to Pete about how he gets his hardback novellas printed".

What Pete Crowther did offer to do at the AGM was warehouse and send out our publications. Maybe that's what you're thinking of?

One way or another, there was no vote on merging the publications, no decision. The most that what you're saying can amount to is that Stephen Jones said it was a good idea and David agreed. (The irony!!)

For one thing, if the decision to merge them had happened at the AGM, I would have quit then. There was no way I was ever going to be able to do an extra issue of Dark Horizons by Christmas.

[Stephen Theaker]

You know, I wish I'd recorded that AGM on the iPad. I was going to right up until the last minute, but didn't get some of my notes printed out and had to use it for that.

It would be a really good idea to record at least audio from them in future, so we have something to refer to, because the memory does play tricks...

[Stephen Theaker]

Triple post!

David, if it was decided at the AGM, why in this thread did you say it had merely been suggested? You said: "I doubt if this will happen immediately".

Edited to add: And even there you're still talking about Dark Horizons and New Horizons as separate publications, with Prism tucked into the back of each.

Here is the first time David told us about his decision to roll all three publications up, and here is where I decided to quit.