BOGS Standard?

You'd think that with the elite organisational capability that is represented within ICSF, getting sixty people together for a buffet to honour some of the people who have helped us out above and beyond the call of duty would be an easy matter: Jakob the ChairEntity gives his personal take on the day and explains why life isn't always that easy...

The buffet was scheduled for noon on the Saturday. On the Thursday I got an email from Lorna (as ever the organisational backbone of the society) asking me whether the main guests had actually confirmed their attendance. Since we already had more than fifty confirmed attendees, I suppose this was a point that deserved some minor attention...

I already knew that Dr. John Finley was turning up, since I had seen him earlier in the day at a cheese and wine do in my department for us Aero Engineers who had finished our exams earlier that day - one down. The other two entities that were to be -ahem- 'honoured' with a BOGS (Being Of Great Significance) award were Juliet E. McKenna and Porcupine Books. I left a slightly worried and semi-coherent message on Porcupine's answering machine and sent an email off to Juliet asking whether she had received our invite...

Juliet's reply was succinct: "What invite?"

At this point, I did whatever any calm, competent ChairEntity would do: I whimpered quietly to myself. Then I sent an apologetic invite back by email. And then I went and found Lorna in the Union Bar to brighten her day with the news. This was Friday evening.

In fact Juliet was incredibly gracious about the 'complete and utter shambles' aspect of our invite: It turned out she had moved house since the last update of the Database of Doom (the ICSF contacts database), and since most contact is via email, this had not registered. I mean, what kind of person moves house without letting us know? In the event, we were lucky - Juliet could make it. Given that she was being presented with a BOGS award in part for bailing us out at more than one Picocon, our tempting of fate seemed more than a little ironic.

In the meanwhile, Jo had gathered up various Freshers and Pete Muir, saddled up the trusty Land-Rover and headed off to Sainsbury's to get the heavy food for the buffet the next day. The deli counter staff were by all accounts a little bemused by the order for a kilo of ham and about an imperial long ton of cheese...

The day of the buffet dawned, and I turned up in Beit Quad at the crack of 10am. The set-up went remarkably smoothly under the watchful eye of Pete Muir, the major issue being that the tables weren't quite big enough to hold the entire buffet. A skip- diving party was promptly assembled, and by their trained scavenging action a wooden desk top was acquired. After application of a multi-tool and some suitable brute force a wooden slab was fashioned and a large trestle table built.

In the meanwhile, the supply party had arrived, and so food prep was next. Apparently the Sainsbury's baker was less than impressed by having 20 Baguettes disappear from his shelves in an instant. Anyway, the kitchen-monkeys were handed sharp implements and let loose on the food. I was handed a block of cheese the size of a shoebox and told to slice it. Piling a mound of cheese the height of Ben Nevis on a platter, I did wonder whether we had over-catered just a little.

Everything was ready and set up by 11:20 - an unprecedented forty minutes early. There was nothing really left to do but await the oncoming storm. By quarter to twelve, people were starting to arrive. They were handed stickers and asked to write their names on them. This way, people could spend the afternoon peering myopically at other people's chests.

Just before twelve a special visitor had arrived. Dr. Finley had managed to get in touch with Dr. David Clark, who had been C&GCU president in 1957, and who had introduced Dr. Finley to SF. Almost fifty years of SF continuity put 25 years of ICSF into a little perspective. A few minutes later, Dr. Finley arrived, looking every inch a Timelord in a striped suit. Since many of the 1980 committee and Tom Yates had arrived, the librarian was found, and the elder beings were led to the library. They seemed suitably impressed.

By about 12:30, Lorna informed me that the plebeians were getting restless and that it might be a good idea to open the buffet before mass cannibalism set in. I stood up and announced that the buffet was now open, and leapt out of the way. I then wandered off to find Brian and Caroline of Porcupine Books. The ICSF pot was then thrust into my hands, and I was told to start a pot cascade.

By then, Juliet had arrived, so I headed over and thanked her profusely for turning up (I hope I didn't resemble Monty Python's Indian waiter too much!) Over lunch I chatted to Dr. Clark about his days at IC, but mostly about his days as an apprentice at De Havilland. Aircraft, spacecraft - all SF type stuff, right? Shortly after two, by which time the buffet was considerably depleted, it was time to hand out the BOGS. The actual awards were in the form of some great caricatures drawn by Alia. I stood up and did my spiel, and presented our Guests of Honour with their respective BOGS. The GoHs then each said a few words. Dr. Finley talked about the history of the society and the foundation of the library, Porcupine about fandom and their relationship to booksellers, and Juliet explained how writers gained from fandom too.

The most formal -ahem- part of the day now being over, it was time for lots of group photos. Amongst the various groups were: Chairs past and present, current members, librarians and treasurers. I had a conversation with Juliet about translating novels into Dutch and talked to Caroline and others about the relationship between the sciences and the humanities. Obviously we at ICSF are terribly cultured and cosmopolitan... Meanwhile everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves too; shaping alternate histories in a time-travelling card game, demonstrating their aptitude for puns, or just catching up on old or not-so-old times.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and so too it was with this star-studded BOGS ceremony. As people started to leave the cleanup operation got under way, and under Pete and Lorna's expert guidance went as smoothly as the set- up, helped by the raw manpower of the Fresher horde. As some people headed off to see Attack of the Clones, I ended up in the bar, a happy finish to a great day.

Finally, I would like to say a big thanks to everyone who made this day possible, and I hope you'll turn up to the next one... and Juliet - next time we'll check our addresses - honest!

Background and Dramatis Personae

The idea for some 'thank you' type award had been floating about for a while, but it was only after Picocon 19 that it was distilled into something more concrete. According to our records, 2001-2002 was ICSF's 25th year, so it made sense to do something special. Also turning up to Picocon was Tom Yates, who told us a bit about Dr. Finley's contribution to creating the library. He also mentioned that he thought that Dr. Finley was due to retire, and that we should do something as a thank-you.

We then decided to give people BOGS awards - Beings Of Great Significance. We decided on three initial recipients for the award:

• Dr. P.J. Finley: As Beit Hall Warden in the late 1980's, he made a donation of a couple of hundred books to the society - on the conditon that we be given a proper room to house our collection. Up to this point the books had been kept in lockers in the Green Committee Room or in members' hall rooms. We blame him for the continued existence of the society, since the library has created much-needed continuity across the years.

• Porcupine Books: Brian, Caroline (and Meryl) of Porcupine books have supported the society since the earliest days of Picocon, and wearing their other hat as representatives of the SF foundation have supported us in many ways; According to some, the kernel of the society's collection was created when the Haldane's SF Foundation collection was donated to us. And they dutifully turn up to every Picocon allowing us to buy stuff.
• Juliet E. McKenna: Juliet has bailed us out of Picocon chaos far too many times. All to often she is greeted with the welcoming cry of: "We've had a no-show - please can you do a panel for us?". For this, and simply because she's lovely!

Thank-yous

And last but not least, all the thank-yous... Lorna and Pete Muir for organising me and getting everything to come together... Alia for the BOGS awards themselves... Karne and James - artist out of residence for the special 'tongue... Jo, Pete and the Freshers for the food prep... Anyone else I've forgotten... and All the guests that made the day what it was.

Jakob - chairentity

Other Stuff

The event program can be found here (pdf) and more photos will be up shortly.