How much does a party for 300 of your friends in Hawaii cost?  James and Kathryn Daugherty turned in the  final accounting for Conolulu, and the convention's net loss (made up for by a donation from the Daughertys to the parent corporation,  SFSFC) was $31,906. The 2000 Westercon took in $18,046 and spent $49,852. "Not that this was surprising," wrote Kevin Standlee, "We've known all along that Conolulu would be almost certainly a money-losing event, and the Daughertys did the bid assuming that they would have to donate a substantial amount of money to make it work." A tip of the hat from Westercon members to James and Kathryn for their generosity.

What does Ferdinand Feghoot look like? ConJose is looking for artists to answer this question.

The 2002 Worldcon is running a contest for the best visual representation of Ferdinand Feghoot, the Imaginary Guest of Honor.
     Ferdinand Feghoot, created by the late Reginald Bretnor, was the hero of a series of shaggy-dog stories, each one ending with a pun strong enough to cause internal hemorrhaging in the unwary reader. For example, who can forget his famous culinary creation, the ground-glass-and-meat dish known as silicon carne?
     The press release explains, "Due to all of his roaming through time and space -- having adventures here, saving galaxies there -- ConJose has no photograph, or drawing, or anything, of Feghoot. But a representation of the Imaginary Guest of Honor must appear in the convention publications and web site somewhere. All knowledge is contained in fandom... including, presumably, what Feghoot looks like. Hence this competition."
     The rules are: (1) The artwork must prominently feature Ferdinand Feghoot. (2) The artwork must be capable of being displayed at the convention and reproduced in some manner in our publications. (3) The deadline for entries is April 2, 2002. (This may change.)
     Prizes and declarations of fame and honor for the winner will be announced later. Address inquiries to Feghoot Contest, ConJose, P.O. Box 61363, Sunnyvale, CA 94088-4128, or send e-mail to godfather@conjose.org.

ConJose, the 2002 Worldcon, has started two publicity listserves. The first will distribute official information about the convention. The second will foster discussion of ConJose-related subjects, including travel and tourism in the BArea. Both lists are open to anyone and can be joined by visiting the ConJose web site and signing up:
     http://www.conjose.org/Contact/maillists.html.

If you bet that Omaha fans would inaugurate their new convention before a Bugs Bunny cartoon would be nominated for the Hugo - you lost.
     Conviction, planned for the March 31 weekend, was cancelled for the second consecutive year. According to Selina Rosen, fans trying to make hotel reservations were told none were available. The hotel reserved all its function space and rooms for other users, though the committee claims it had a contract. Organizer Ginnie Fee will try again. In the meantime, she is offering refunds. [[Source: Chronicles of the Dawn Patrol]]

Czarkon will change its name to The Con Patrol in 2002. Organizers are moving the con to Kansas City, focusing on the members of the online Dawn Patrol and adding programming to make it a much different con than it used to be. Guests will include Web Hero GoH Keith Stokes, Dusk Petrol GoH's Carol and Dennis (The Unknown Pfan) Doms, Dawn Patrol and Technology GoH Ross Hathaway and Special Guests who are still making up their minds.
     For pictures of the last Czarkon:
     http://www.sff.net/people/sfreader/czarkon.htm

How do committees get fans to join their conventions sooner? They've been trying to solve this problem for a long time, not only to pay the pre-convention expenses, but more importantly, to based their budgets on accurate membership estimates. Capclave is giving fans an incentive to join immediately. They will be holding a drawing from the first 50 people to register for the convention and reserve a room in the con hotel room. Grand prize: your room free for a night! Second prize: Membership reimbursement and a Capclave T-shirt. Eight additional prizes will be given out, meaning that 20% of the first 50 people will win something.

Lance Oszko announced that on February 10 the IRS granted IRC 501(c)(3) status to the nonprofit corporation running the Charlotte in 2004 bid. Surprisingly, their application was approved within six weeks. 

Comptroller Bob McIntosh reported to BucConeer's corporate meeting on December 16 that there is a grand total of $28,800 left in all accounts. ChiCon expenses were expected to use most of remaining convention profits, with much of the rest going to finance Student SF Writing contests through ConJose.
     The committee will be looking for donations to continue the contests, and may have found the first "contribution" in-house. Michael Nelson's said there had been so few submissions for the BucConeer Memory Book that they should simply put the photos on the web page and give its budget to the Student Contests.

Natural gas, electricity, gasoline - the cost of every kind of energy has gone sky-high this year. Corporate price manipulation is suspected, and it seems convention hotel executives hated to see the bandwagon leaving without them. Doubletree employees told fans reserving rooms for the Portland Westercon there would be a $3/night "energy surcharge" added to the bill.   
     When Westercon's Patty Wells heard this, she contacted their sales manager and got the charge eliminated. She wrote online, "It's the gambit where they try it out and then deal with the groups that really object. What it looks like they're finding is that any professional group (where the room costs are being reimbursed) is fine with eating it, the rest of us aren't. But you can't blame them for trying."

Before Aussiecon Three ended, several fans were already promoting another Worldcon down under in 2007. Since then, Smofs inside and outside Australia have discussed alternative venues and so many different years fans are confused whether we're talking about the next Aussiecon or Ferdinand Feghoot!
     "There are rumours that Australia may move to 2009," reports Bridget Wilkinson in Fans Across the World #108. Oh, that's the old rumor, Bridget, part of last year's great smoffy scheme to keep non-North Americans from bidding for three consecutive years (2005-2008).
     Stephen Boucher left the jasmine-filled rooms of the Hawaii Westercon with a brief to shift the Aussie bid to 2009, but it may have been too early to assume there was any kind of monolithic bid able to make such a decision. Australia's rival local fandoms all want their say - and some are having it in the pages of  Marc Ortlieb's Australian SF Bullsheet. 
     Rose Mitchell wrote in #163: "Most of the Aussie fannish community has heard of a group of people, some of whom live in Melbourne, who are working on a proposal to bid for a Worldcon to be held somewhere in Australia in either 2007 or 2009….  So far, there is a declared bid for Japan (no city yet) in 2007. It is strongly supported by Americans and Canadians and a delegation from this bid attended Chicon last September where they created a great deal of interest and excitement. However, some people believe the bid may founder before 2004. A shame if it does because a Worldcon in Japan, though comparatively expensive, nonetheless would be extremely exciting and interesting…. So this group of people have decided to defer further planning of a bid to hold a Worldcon in Australia until after Philcon (in August 2001)."
     Mitchell adds, "It was never ever the intention of the above group of people to hold this possible convention in Melbourne. This is a misconception that keeps being perpetuated. There is also a bid for a Worldcon to be held in Australia in 2008 originating out of Sydney. As I understand this bid, the intent is to stage the Worldcon in Sydney…. Melbourne has staged all of the Aussiecons because at the time of bidding, that city had (a) an appropriate venue to accommodate the numbers and (b) an active fandom and (c) was not as expensive as Sydney! Just had to throw in some intercity rivalry.
     "All Australian cities now have (or will have within two years) purpose-built convention centres and connecting international flights daily. Perth has recently broken ground for its convention centre, and it has one of the most active fandoms in Australia today."
     Sydney's Garry P Dalrymple replied in #164. He researched the prospects of future Australian Worldcon bids during Aussiecon Three. "There was generous support for a future Australian Worldcon; none of the 200 people I approached rejected the idea as implausible. Non-Australian respondents were supportive of a time frame of 'more than five, less than ten,' while Australian respondents were more pessimistic, supporting a time frame of greater than nine years. I think it is very significant that for 'Next Australian Worldcon,' Melbourne for a fourth time was very much a minority choice, rating not much higher than Perth which was an unknown city to most respondents.
     "If the 'Melbourne Worldcon Bid' people are serious about being seen as a 'Not necessarily Melbourne' bid, I have seen no evidence of it, and it seems they are denying themselves a significant advantage by not making this point clear."
     On the other hand, said Dalrymple, "I have no objection to the next Australian Worldcon being in Melbourne in 2007 or 2008, provided the Smofs behind Melbourne do not drop the ball again, but instead announce a commitment to developing the opportunities for all Aust & NZ fandom."

Bubonicon 33 will be held August 24-26, 2001 at the Howard Johnson East, 15 Hotel Circle NE (I-40 and Eubank) in Albuquerque, NM. GoH: Sarah Zettel. TM: S. M. Stirling. Guest Artist: Lee Seed. Auctioneer: Robert Vardeman. Rooms: $58 sgl-quad. Telephone: (800) 877-4852. Memberships: $22 til 5/28, $25 til 8/13, $28 at the door. Dailies sold at the door. Make payments to "NMSF Conference." Contact: NMSF Conference, PO Box 37257, Albquerque, NM 87176, E-mail: cwcraig@nmia.com. Website: bubicon.home.att.net