Dear

The short version of this letter is easy.

We feel that we satisfied our goal of throwing a memorable party at Noreascon Three, but this goal was reached only due to the creativity, time, and funds of over 150 volunteer fans and several fan and pro organizations. This was an extraordinary effort by all concerned, and we could not have done this without your help. You should know that we have received many verbal and written compliments from the Noreascon Three committee; Mark Olson, convention chairman, specifically asked that we express his appreciation to all concerned.

We would ask that, should you hear about future plans for a Boxboro Fandom party, please remind us to "Just Say No!" (by the way, over 800 of you did just that at our ‘Death of A Fandom’ party on Sunday night…thanks for your energy and support!!).

Again, thank you all for being part of our ‘definitive’ extravaganza.

Mark Norton

Anne Norton

A. Brigid Cassidy

Steve Koon

Paul Norton

Steve Boheim, for

P.S. The long version of this letter is harder…we’d like to mention everyone who helped out. We did not get on paper the names of many fen who helped…our thanks to them is even more heartfelt. If you know anyone who helped but who is not listed, please send them a copy of this thank you or send their name and address to Boxboro Fandom c/o Steve Boheim 50 MacIntosh Lane Boxboro Mass. 01719.

Advertising…Steve Boheim, Anne Norton, and Paul Norton (all pre-con), George Wain (at con)

Art…Kitty Kitik, Sandy Luperti, Mark Norton, Sue Toker

Decorations…Thanks to everyone who helped create six marvelous rooms. The Theme Directors were responsible for room design, concept layout, etc. They defined/collected/constructed room decorations and defined the room events. The Room Managers were responsible for implementing the Theme Directors’ plans at the convention, including setup, operation, and tear down of their respective rooms.

Kzinti Embassy…fans were stunned by the furry cave-like environment, not to mention the chef wearing a propeller beanie serving red meat!

Theme Director…LuAnn Vitalis

Room Managers…Sheila Oranch and Bill Powers

Prizes…Baen Books

Live Kzin…Drew Saunders

Map Room…all true tech fans hung out here and the videos were enormously successful.

Theme Director…Mike Nelson (part of the Uncle Den and Mikey show)

Room Manager…Den Fox (part of the Uncle Den and Mikey show)

Sound…Lance Larsen

Sternbach Artwork…Greg Thokar and Ctein

Prizes…Baen Books

Videos…Jeff Patterson and Vince Kurdyla

New Orleans Mardi Gras…masked ball, good tunes, great dancing

Theme Director…Anne Norton

Room Manager…Sue Toker

Birthday Cakes…Davey Snyder

Magic Balloon Clown…Dave Stephens

Performers…The Hi-Tops, Edgar Winter (yes, that Edgar Winter)

Crew of Wu Retinue…Jim Anderson (Dark King), Rae Bradbury, Heidi Cassidy, Doug Clayton (White King and Retinue Makeup), Shira Daemon, Amelia G., Kitty Kitik, Sandy Luperti, Elizabeth Mayberry, Anne Norton (White Queen), Mark Norton (Louis Wu), Karin Rosenbaum, Carol Salemi, Kathy Saunders (Black Queen), Reta Sorge, Susan Toker, Vickey Wavier, James Whalen (Harlequin), Kat Wheatley, and Shira Williams

Puppeteer Garden…fan botanists were treated to a rare sight.

Theme Director…Anne Norton

Room Manager…Sandy Luperti (who set this room up with, and then without, the baby grand piano)

The Mad Tea Party…the lines to play flamingo croquet attest to the game’s huge popularity.

Theme Directors…Patricia Vandenberg and Allan Kent

Room Manager…Ken Knabbe

Unbirthday cakes …Davey Snyder

Ghodzilla cake…Chip Hitchcock

Tokyo Through Mirrorshades…read the credits; the Mirrorshades Café and Ginza had everything!

Theme Directors… A. Brigid Cassidy and Mark Norton

Room Manager…Ozzie Fontecchio

Laser Show…Coherent Central (Jon "Corwin" Coburn, Phil Servita, Steve Wadlow, and Al "Hobbit" Walker)

Performers…Shira Daemon and Crime of Fashion

Dry Ice Wizard…Mark Norton

Face Painter…Reta Sorge

Louis Wu’s makeup…Laura Woodworth

Sound Equipment…Bill Perkins (Ginza), Rob Spence (Café)

Sushi…Heather Griffith

Video Games…Skip Morris and A. Brigid Cassidy

Video Wall Paper…Paul Norton

Giant Samurai…6 hours from a Mac IIcx

Propmistress (for all those great lava walls, purple bars, pipe walls, metal floors, etc., etc.)

Ellen Franklin and Hasbro Toys

Den…A. Brigid Cassidy (pre-con), Shira Daemon (at-con manager)

Fund Raising…Anne Norton (Fiscal Engineer Vavoom), Ken Knabbe (Club Table Maestro Extraordinaire)

Hotel Liaison…Peter Grace and Bob Lidral

Logistics…Steve Boheim and Anne Norton

MCFI Liaison…Steve Boheim and Anne Norton

People Mover…Steve Koon

Photography…Steve Boheim, Tom DeMarco, Jeffrey Herald, David Hobson, Mark Jones, Ken Konkol, Neil Lerner, Gordon McGregor, Mike Nelson

Security…Steve Koon and John Noun (about that line to get into the party…the Hilton would only allow 515

guests at a time on the second floor, excluding Hilton staff and fen working the party. Sorry about that!)

Security Staff…the unsung heroes of the party, many of these folks worked the entire event without relief…Murphy helped us lose most of their names, but we did get Wendy Glasser, Bill Perkins, and Lee Winter

Silly Offices of Import

Continuity and Critic-at-Large Emeritus…Steve Boheim

Under-President Emeritus of Boxboro Fandom…A. Brigid Cassidy

Vice President Emeritus of Boxboro Fandom…Anne Norton

Special Assistants to the President Deluxe…Hoboken Fandom (Shira Daemon, Scott Fader, Den Fox, Hans Kernast, Kitty Kitik, Lance Larsen, Sandy Luperti, Mike Nelson, Chris Ward, Laura Woodworth, and Nancy Ziegler)

SMOBF (if we spelled it out, it wouldn’t be secret)…Jim Hudson

Soda for the party was provided courtesy of the Lunarians.

Technical…Steve Boheim, Deryl Burr, Rod Burr, Boots Coleman, Rob Spence

Technical Video…Paul Norton, Jeff Briggs

Boxboro Staff…were folks working miscellaneous tasks before, during, and after the party…they had some responsibilities, but were smart enough not to be "in charge"…Jim Anderson, Angela Boheim, Doug Clayton, Tom DeMarco, Janis Hoffing, Rich Lesses, Skip Morris, Cyndi Norton, Margaret Phillips, John Prenis, Mark Trebing, Jim Turner, Lee Winter

The long-suffering spouse/fianceé squad…Angela Boheim, Tom DeMarco, Elda DiLorenzo, and Cyndi Norton

Helpers performed the innumerable miscellaneous tasks at the pre-convention construction parties and at the convention, such as cut, paste, glue, paint, fetch, tote, assemble, setup, teardown, etc. We tried to name everybody, and no doubt failed miserably. Many of the Boxboro Ringworld Engineers (see below) also helped, but may not be listed here…Danny Adler, Iskander Alexander, Robert Bazemore, Seth Breidbart, Dave Broadbent, Andreas Burr, Allan Burrows, Heidi Cassidy, Anton and Peggy Chernoff, Jeanhee Chung, Chip Coy, Heigi Dagsson, Carolyn DeMarco, Wendy DeMarco, Tammy Denault, Chuck Divine, Hollie Domiano, Toshiyuki Ehara, Thomas Endrey, Mike Everling, Richard Factor, Dale Farmer, Harold Feld, Mike Fisher, Daniel Franklin, Wendy Glasser, Stephen Gold, Heather Griffith, Judy Halloran, Marsha Hamel, Tom Hanlon, Stephen Hartman, Robert Hepperle, Richard Hill, Scott Hipp, Dan Hoey, David Hooton, Helen Hower, Ariel Hudson, Jay Hutchnicker, Bill Jensen, Stefan Jones, Carol and Rich Kabakjian, Muriel Kanter, Alexx Kay, Lincoln Kliman, Sandy Larkin, Laura Larsen, Robert Lipton, Chris Lowe, Kevin Maguire, Matt Marcus, Charles McGrer, Michael McIntyre, Rachel Mello, Gary Messer, Tom Miller, Susan Mohn, Sean Moran, Stuart Newman, Barbara Nicol, Nells Nichols, Bernie Norton, Cassie Norton, Kevin Norton, Jay Packlick, Susan Palmer, Jeff Patterson, Scott Pilate, Rob Rasberry, Michael Ray, Scott Reish, Rock Robertson, Clarinda Rose-Turner, Diane Rosenburg, A. Joseph Ross, Bill Rudow, Mary-Beth Santarelli, Kathy & Drew Saunders, Jane Sibley, Joel Siragher, Caroll Smith, Donna Smith, Nancy Stathis, Charles Sumner, Paul & Virginia Taylor, Joe Turner, Mrs. Vandenberg (Pat’s Mom), Henry Vanderbilt, David & Ellen Weingait, Diane Weinman, Joe White, Sara Willig, Janet Yelle, Steven Zaretsky, Harold and Virginia Zitzow.

Special Acknowledgements: For providing us the artistic freedom to throw this party, Massachusetts Convention Fandom Inc. (MCFI) deserves a special thank you. The Extravaganza Division Heads (Jill Eastlake and Ellen Franklin), the Noreascon Three Chairman and his spy (Mark Olson and Jim Hudson), and the MCFI Hilton Liaison (Davey Snyder) were all frequently amazed by the depths of our nonsense…thank you for providing your convention, your time, your facilities, and your funds to help our effort. Other MCFI folks that also should be mentioned include Ann Broomhead, Fred Isaacs, Colin Lanzl, Tony Lewis, Sally Martin, Priscilla Olson, Scott Robinson, Rob Spence, Tim Szczesuil, and Greg Thokar. More thank yous to Larry Niven, who graciously allowed us to use modified Ringworld text for our ads (Molson’s Rheveleer indeed!), Toni Weisskopf of Baen Books, Edgar’s manager Scott Welch, Barbara and Ted Koon for the El Camino, The New Jersey Science Fiction Society (NJSFS) for their valuable space and time, The Back Bay Hilton…especially Jamie Limoggio, and Pamela Krickrehm (our 10000’th guest).

A lot of money was needed to make Louis Wu’s Birthday possible. All of the money came directly or indirectly from the fans. Fen bought Ringworld Engineer offices at $30 a piece to support the party. Uncounted numbers of other fans donated money or bought tons of Boxboro Fandom paraphernalia at various fund raising parties and at our club tables at various conventions. Organizations that provided funding were MCFI, The New York Science Fiction Society - The Lunarians, The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA), Baen Books, The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (PSFS), The Silent Club, and Solar. The Fiscal Engineer was continually amazed at the generosity of the fans everywhere she went to raise funds. She would like to personally thank each person and organization who contributed.

(sure, some of this is redundant with the above, but these folks deserve it!!)

Sandy Luperti, for saying yes to an on-the-spot promotion to Room Manager of the Puppeteer Garden

Kitty Kitik, for instant artwork minutes before the party opened

Lance Larsen and Laura Woodworth, for fog generator removal when Anne was beyond the edge of death

Scott Fader and Vera Schabicki, for 4 hours of selling at the Club Table when only minutes were promised

Hans Kernast, for Louis Wu Party sign assembly and deployment

Hans Kernast and Chris Ward, ace moving company

Shira Daemon, for running a great den with very flexible hours

Yes, all of the above folks are from Hoboken Fandom. Thank Ghod for Hoboken Fandom!

Sue Toker, for setup of the Mardi Gras Room when all was pandemonium

Jay Hutchnicker, truck driver and Tokyo bar disassembler (otherwise, it wouldn’t have got into the Hilton)

Ken Knabbe, for spending most of the convention at the club table, and selling, and selling, and selling!

Mark Norton, for conceiving Boxboro Fandom

Paul Norton, for >>n hours of video work, copying, editing, etc. etc.

Angela Boheim, for allowing Boxboro Fandom to frequently convert her home into a piggy club house

Tom DeMarco, for patience extraordinaire and loving support to the Fiscal Engineer

Steve Boheim and Anne Norton, for orchestrating the event…these two must learn to "Just Say No"

P. P.S. Locus (Milton Wolf) may do a review of the party…look for it circa November/December.

P.P.P.S. For all you bean counters out there, here’s the gory details of what we have wrought this past decade…

1980 Bosklone Baaad Beatles Songfest (in the jacuzzi) ~30

Noreascon II Boxboro and Environs >200

1981 Boskone 18 The Valentine's Day Science Fiction Party >400

1982 Boskone 19 Beneath the Planet of Boxboro Fandom >600

Chicon 4 Boxboro & Hoboken Fandom Party >150

1983 Boskone 20 Revenge of Boxboro Fandom >850

Boskone 20 Dead Dog Party with Hoboken Fandom >200

1984 Boskone 21 Boxboro McFandom: Over 3000 Served 886

Boskone 21 Dead Dog Party >150

Lexicon GOH party featuring Kilgor Trout ~50

1985 Boskone 22 20000 Leagues Under Boxboro Fandom 1102

Boskone 22 Dead Fish Party >400

Lexicon Lexiconned 2 ~50

1986 Boskone 23 In Search of the Lost Temple of Boxboro Fandom 1340

Boskone 23 Sacrificial Dog Party >300

ConFederation Black Tie Invitational ~75

1987 Boskone 24 Boxboro Meets Ghodzilla Fandom 1280

Boskone 24 Dead Dinosaur Party >400

1988 Boskone 25 Boxboro is Missing >330

Boskone 25 Dead Dog Party with Hoboken Fandom ~75

– Fundraising Barbecue 37

Nolacon II Fundraiser Party ~40

Philcon ’88 Fundraiser Party >150

1989 Boskone 26 Boxboro Fandom on Vacation >360

Lunacon ’89 Fundraiser Party >150

Balticon 23 Boxboro Fandom Bake Sale and Good Time Saloon ~75

Disclave ’89 B.A.S.H. (Boxboro Auxiliary Silly Hospital) ~100

1989 Noreascon III Louis Wu's Birthday Party ~1400

Noreascon III Death of a Fandom (our last party, 9/3/89) ~800

October 15, 1989