https://heinleinsociety.org/thsnexus/

Centennial: R.I.P.
https://heinleinsociety.org/thsnexus/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=166		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  JamesGifford [ Sun Jan 04, 2009 6:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Centennial: R.I.P.
Just a quiet announcement to let everyone know that the Centennial is over. Really over. Really really over. (You guys over there who were working on, what was it, a "Centennial Reader"? Time's up.)

That is, the nonprofit corporation has been dissolved, all future-looking plans for the organization have been filed in the "someday" box and the web site has been converted to permanent archive status. There no longer is a "Heinlein Centennial" except in the hearts of those who attended.

A little tidying of paper files and for the first time in almost four years, there will be nothing labeled "Heinlein Centennial" or "HC" or "RAHC" anywhere on my desktop or file system.

A moment of silence, please.

Please. I really need a moment of silence. My head is just pounding.

:P
Author:  JackKelly [ Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Sad. :( But, the organization had to wrap up its business sometime, I suppose. Thanks for updating the website.

What I don't understand is this; I've been a Heinlein fan basically all my life. Even with the rise of Usenet and alt.fan.heinlein and the various organizations and websites that have come and gone over the past twenty years, I never got the impression that active Heinlein fandom was a very large group. I knew that Heinlein's influence on the U.S. space program was huge, because I work in that field, but in terms of avid fandom (or whatever you want to call it) I always thought we were a pretty small tribe. Or tribes, I should say - because Heinlein fandom has always been sorta ghetto-ized depending on what aspect of Heinlein's writing and philosophy you dig.

However, the Centennial really opened my eyes to the impact that this guy has had. To draw seven hundred paying guests from literally all walks of life, who all paid substantial amounts of money out of their own pockets to attend, not to mention the literal Whos-Who from academia, industry and government, was amazing. Thank you once again to everyone who thought this was important enough that they were willing to throw away their normal lives for two to three years to make this happen.

I think that the "other" group (the SIG) actually serves as a deterrent to the rise of a permanent organization that will really DO something real in furtherance of Heinlein's legacy. The sooner they go away the better.
Author:  JamesGifford [ Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Author:  UriGonda [ Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Oh.

:|

Hmmm. I guess whatever grief I have at that announcement is offset by the sympathetic unburdening of the shoulders I feel on your behalf, Jim. I hope this means good things for you and the others, at least. You've certainly given enough. And then some.

We've still got 99 years to work with. Who knows, eh?
Author:  JamesGifford [ Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Uri, hi! You don't speak up often enough around here.

Truthfully, the load has been very light since the end of 2007, with most of the last year spent kicking around ideas for continuation, resurrection, fresh efforts, etc. In the end, though, we found that there just isn't any current clamor for a hot new Heinlein org, that the HC structure was not really suited to continuing efforts, and that we were all too weary to contemplate further heavy lifting. There is also ongoing maintenance needed for a corporation, even a miniscule nonprofit one, and I wanted it off my desk... and there was no one to take it on.

So we close this door and put all the good stuff on the shelf for a coming thing... someday. Maybe after Rover goes to his reward.
Author:  JamesGifford [ Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
It just occurred to me that John Forster's hilarious is even funnier if you sing it with a different, immediately relevant name of identical meter. Someone needs to filk this a bit.
Author:  PeterScott [ Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Thanks, Jack. The Centennial will always be something that no matter how badly I screw up everything else in my life, I will always be able to look back on with pride and fond memories.

The sons and daughters of Robert Heinlein are numerous and enthusiastic, they just aren't well organized. Buncha Loonies if you ask me :D In mounting HC we learned how he is revered by the private space community especially, which is why the space track was so prominent at KC. However, there aren't necessarily many reasons for Heinlein fans to congregate, because the reasons to do so are more or less limited to explorations of Heinlein's life and works, whereas what they really have in common is whatever particular legacy of Heinlein is the passion of their life. So the rocket jockeys would rather meet to talk about specific impulse than The Man Who Sold the Moon, which they already know by heart anyway.

It's like having a fan community for Einstein - people everywhere are doing fantastic stuff with relativity, and know where it came from, but they don't need to spend a lot of time talking about its father.
Author:  RobertWFranson [ Mon Jan 05, 2009 2:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Jim:
Thanks for the link to the Robert Moses song.

Peter:
Interesting thoughts on the nature of the Heinlein fan community.
Author:  JamesGifford [ Mon Jan 05, 2009 3:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Author:  JusTin [ Fri Jan 09, 2009 5:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Author:  SusanPaciga [ Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
May I just add my belated thanks for a FABULOUS weekend? I don't do cons much; this was my third maybe? The first one being in 1974 or 5 when I was in high school and I tagged along with some friends going to the Star Trek convention in NYC. So, I am not familar with fandom or cons, I just have read Heinlein for going on 40 years now and love the chance to talk to others. I was convinced to go to the con by a friend on the now defunct Quotable Heinlein page who insisted that there will be other conventions, but never one devoted exclusive to Robert A.

I just walked around in awe. I loved the discussions, I loved talking to people, I loved looking up at the assembly after the banquet and realizing I was three empty chairs away from Spider Robinson. I just loved every minute; the hardest part was deciding between equally compelling discussions in the same time slot.

Really a wonderful job, all! Thank you again!
Author:  PeterScott [ Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Author:  JamesGifford [ Sat Feb 28, 2009 1:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Author:  TinaBlack [ Sat Mar 07, 2009 1:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Heh -- it did occupy the first half of my 2007, and in 2008 I went back into the workplace. I still want a copy of all the video, sine I never really got to hear any programming.

:roll:
Author:  BillPatterson [ Sun Jun 07, 2009 7:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Author:  JimCng [ Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
This is a bit off-topic, but I'd like to use this thread as an opportunity to thank you guys for putting the event together.
All the best,
Jim Cunningham
Author:  georule [ Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Now that a shorter and edited version of my 14,600 word ramblings on that marvelous weekend have appeared elsewhere, I thought about putting the longer, unexpurgated version here. But 14,600 words seems a bit long for this format! Hopefully Deb will get it on heinleinprize.com soonish, which Art Dula approved long ago.
Author:  JamesGifford [ Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Hold on and keep polishing, Geo. The new web site is an article-based platform and I assure you that (1) we have room and (2) we have interest and (3) it won't depend on me or anyone else to get off their chunk and make it happen - you submit the article and all I or one of the other supervisory types has to do is click it into life.

Not exclusive, either; feel free to publish alternate versions anywhere they fit.
Author:  PeterScott [ Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Nice to see you Geo. We do have room - I have it on good authority that Jim's servers can store content in the tens of kilobytes, at least. You can always break it up, like I did my Centennial story. But we are about to have better options than just the forum for that kind of stuff.
Author:  georule [ Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Did I also mention I still have that last unopened bottle of Jack Daniels from Jim and Audrey's con suite (they were flying; we were driving) put away in a closet with a note attached to it explaining its provenance and directing that at my demise bottle and note be delivered to either Jim (if I proceed him) or the chairman of any 50th-increment RAH anniversay celebration?
Author:  Rosie [ Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Hi,

Just wanted to say a belated thanks to everyone involved in the Centinnial. It was one of the best cons I've ever been to.

Rosie
Author:  PeterScott [ Wed Feb 03, 2010 9:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Hi Rosie, welcome!

I feel exactly the same way. I wish all the cons could be like that.
Author:  georule [ Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Author:  JusTin [ Sun Feb 07, 2010 7:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
If it is our Rosie P., then belated Happy Birthday as well....
Author:  Rosie [ Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Hi Geo,

Yes it's Rosie from the Heinlein Forum. (also the combat librarian) I've been lurking here for a while. I still haven't figured out how to get some things to work. How are you doing?

Rosie
Author:  Rosie [ Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
JT

Thanks. Have you heard from Bytor? We have the same birthday so I wondered. How are you doing?

Rosie
Author:  JackKelly [ Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Jim Gifford, it's been six years for Christ's sake! Will you please release the videos, or at least give them to someone who will produce and then release them?
Author:  TinaBlack [ Fri Jul 04, 2014 4:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Author:  JusTin [ Mon Jul 07, 2014 3:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Author:  PeterScott [ Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
The videos are and always have been digital, and there are multiple geographically separated copies. And yes... Life does get in the way...
Author:  TinaBlack [ Mon Jul 04, 2016 8:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Centennial: R.I.P.
Nine years. One of our videographers passed away this year. Joe Dixon was very young, but in terrible health. At least the video legacy exists, even if we have not seen it.
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