2020 - Year in Review

Page Created 12/13/20. Last Updated: 12/30/20.

2020 - YEAR IN REVIEW

OVERVIEW

The past year was the most challenging one since the club split in 2006. This time the stress was from the outside -- the onslaught of the covid-19 pandemic -- instead of internal group dynamics. Limiting our perspective solely to how the pandemic impacted the Association (and not intending any nonchalance to the very real miseries experienced by people within and without the group), the S F A B C weathered this crisis amazingly well.

Planning was complicated due to the uncertain length and severity of the pandemic limitations. Early news reports predicted a relatively short (3 - 6 week) disruption of the normal state of affairs. As the crisis wore on, I became increasingly pessimistic and implemented changes to our structure to adapt to the new normal.

GENERAL MEETING

There were three distinct sets of meetings in 2020. January and February functioned as traditional, in-person, pre-covid gatherings. Both were well-attended and successful, particularly the February gathering which featured Patrick Hickey, Jr who has to be one of our all-time great speakers.

March, April, and May were transitional meetings. Madhavi Ghare gave a wonderful March presentation the final day before New Jersey banned group gatherings. The relatively low turnout was entirely due to covid fears. In April and May we held our first General Meetings through zoom. It is impossible to overstate the debt the club owes to Carol Gyzander for taking charge of running things on zoom. The Association had conducted some smaller gatherings via zoom in past years, but operating the General Meeting online was a whole different matter. We deliberately selected our April, May, and June speakers from within the SFABC so that any missteps would be confined with the group. We learned from each of these events and were confident that we had figured out how to make things work online by the time we invited outsiders as guests for the rest of the year. We took advantage of the geographic freedom afforded us by zoom and were able to book out-of-the-area speakers Daryl Gregory, Andrea Stewart, and MaryJanice Davidson for our late-year meetings.

The table below lists the meeting dates, speakers, and meeting attendance.

MEETING DATE..........ATTENDANCE..........SPEAKER

12/12/20..........37..........MaryJanice Davidson, Paranormal Romance / Young Adult Author

11/14/20..........35..........Andrea Stewart, Epic Fantasy Writer

10/10/20..........27..........Dan Abella, Philip K Dick Film Festival Director / Indie Movie Maker

09/12/20..........28..........Daryl Gregory, Science Fiction Author

08/08/20..........27..........Sarah Porter, Young Adult Fantasy Writer

07/11/20..........33..........Angus McIntyre, Science Fiction Author

06/13/20..........34..........Lonny Buinis, Astronomy Expert / Space Artist & Animator

05/09/20..........25..........Paul Calhoun, Robotics Expert

04/04/20..........15..........Carol Gyzander, Horror & Steampunk Writer / Editor

03/14/20..........18..........Madhavi Ghare, Tarot Expert / Author

02/08/20..........36..........Patrick Hickey, Non Fiction Writer / Voice Actor

01/20/20..........25..........Lincoln Farquharson, Comic Book Creator / Editor-in-Chief

SMALLER EVENTS

I take stock of what has been working well and what has not at the end of each year. Our 2019 strengths had been good attendance at our General Meetings and at our Writers' Critique Sessions. In fact, the Critique Sessions had become overstuffed, with too many stories and participants and not enough time. Many of our smaller events had seen declines in attendance, but it was our online groups which had suffered the most. They were all-but-dead, so a relaunch and revitalization of the Across the MultiVerse, the Writers' Space Saloon, and the Writers-of-the-Weird-in-Exile, as well as the March launch of an online Monday night e-Critique group to take some of the pressure off the live Sunday gatherings, was the top priority going into 2020.

The plan worked. Carol Gyzander had the Monday Night Critique Session running smoothly from its inception. Things were a bit bumpier for Across the MultiVerse, but a new moderator, Kathy Cannarozzi, and a new focus - an anything-goes as long as it's in genre - now has the group doing fine. Things are up and down at the Writers' Space Saloon which has a different topic and moderator each month. Sadly, the In-Exile Group has again petered out.

The shutdown of stores and restaurants and the the banning of group gatherings wiped out our late March and April activities. Carol Gyzander and A J Bartholomew came to the rescue of our Writers' Sunday Critique Session and moved it onlne. Meanwhile Phil De Parto concentrated on midwiving the three online April events already in the planning stage.

The next project was to evaluate the remaining smaller events and determine which ones could be converted to an online format, which ones should be placed on hiatus until they could safely meet, and which ones should be dropped from our schedule.

The Final Frontier and Infinite Images transitioned in May. The Topic Group followed in June. It took a couple of months to make the necessary adjustments to have things work properly. We are still tweaking some things,.

Armchair Odyssey, the Fantastic Worlds Book Group, Ice Nine, and the Writers' Space Salon were placed on hiatus. They will resume when it is safe to meet in person.

Six new activities were started in 2020.

As stated above, the Monday Night Critique Group was created to relieve some of the critique backlog from the Sunday afternoon group.

We held our first Star Stuff in the Night Sky in May. Lonny Buinis had been conducting a first Saturday preview of the month's astronomy highlights at Jenny Jump Observatory for years. When Jenny Jump reformatted all of their presentations as online talks, I asked Lonny if he would be willing to give the same presentation to club members as a SFABC event. He consented, and even offered to give a presentation on his off months--those months of the year when Jenny Jump did not offer programs because of the temperature. We renamed the talk to Star Stuff in the Night Sky and scheduled it on the last night of the month, a time slot previously occupied by the Double Star Film Discussion.

The post-meeting Virtual Diner Run also debuted in May. While most members of the Association went home after our live General Meetings, there was always a group of us who continued the evening with food and conversation at a diner afterwards. The Virtual Diner Run post-meeting zoom allows us to continue this tradition.

Books From Beyond premiered in July. The group effectively replaced the Monsters of Horror Book Group being held at Barnes & Noble in Hackensack, The reasoning was that an online book group could draw from a larger pool of readers than a live event. We created a custom Google Book Group to allow people who could not attend the zoom gathering an opportunity to participate in the discussion.

Films From Beyond also started in July. Club member James Phillips moderates the discussion. James has given classes on film at several colleges in the area. He lives in New York, so setting this up as an online event allowed us to tap into his expertise.

Matt McHugh agreed to moderate the Thursday Night Critique Group which commenced in September. Why yet another critique group, you say? Remember that our live, Sunday afternoon group ran for three hours. When we converted it to an online event it was shortened by an hour because it's really hard to sit through a three-hour zoom. The Monday night group was intended to pick up the slack from a three-hour Sunday session. We needed another group to clean up the backlog.

The following table lists the dates of events which have started, closed, or changed in operation.

EVENTS LAUNCHED, REFORMATTED, SUSPENDED & (CANCELED)

11/01/20..........(Final Writers of the Weird in Exile)

09/03/20..........Writers' Thursday Critique Launch

08/18/20..........Topic Discussion Group - Moved to Traditional Day

07/09/20..........Films From Beyond Launch

07/06/20..........Books From Beyond Launch

06/22/20..........Topic Discussion Group - Moves Online

05/29/20..........Star Stuff in the Night Sky Launch

05/13/20..........Infinite Images - Moves Online

05/09/20..........Virtual Diner Run Launch

05/06/20..........Final Frontier - Moves Online

04/23/20..........Across the MultiVerse - Reformatted as General Discussion

04/11/20..........SFABC General Meeting - Moves Online

04/09/20..........Writers' Space Saloon Revived

04/01/20..........Writers of the Weird in Exile Revived

03/29/20..........Writers' Sunday Critique - Moves Online

03/16/20..........Writers' Monday Critique Launch

03/14/20..........Ice Nine - Coolest News - Last Session Before Hiatus

03/14/20..........Writers' Space Salon - Last Session Before Hiatus

03/06/20..........Armchair Odyssey - Last Session Before Hiatus

03/02/20..........(Final Monster of Horror Book Group)

02/28/20..........(Final Double Star Film Discussion)

02/20/20..........Fantastic Worlds Book Group - Last Session Before Hiatus

EVENTS / EVENT ATTENDANCE BY MONTH

Event................................................01.....02.....03.....04.....05.....06.....07.....08.....09.....10.....11.....12

Across the MultiVerse................................05.....xx.....06.....14.....10.....09.....06.....08.....09.....09.....11

Armchair Odyssey.............................03.....03.....02.........................................................................................On Hiatus

Books From Beyond...............................................................................05.....07.....06.....06.....06.....07

Double Star Film Discussion.............03.....03...................................................................................................Disbanded

Fantastic Words Book Group............03.....02...................................................................................................On Hiatus

Films From Beyond.................................................................................08.....06.....05.....05.....06.....07

Final Frontier......................................05.....05.....04.....xx.....10.....09.....08.....04.....04.....03.....07.....07

Ice Nine Discussion...........................07.....08.....11...........................................................................................On Hiatus

Infinite Images Movie.........................07.....04.....04.....xx.....04.....04.....05.....01.....08.....07.....02.....02

Monsters of Horror Book Group.........04.....02.....03...........................................................................................Disbanded

Special Activity Group........................06.....04.....xx.....06.....06.....05.....04.....13.....08.....09.....23.....05

Star Stuff in the Night Sky......................................................17.....12.....10.....08.....06.....12.....08.....15

Topic Discussion Group......................06.....07.....xx.....xx.....xx.....08.....08.....06.....08.....05.....07.....07

Virtual Diner Run....................................................................11.....12.....07.....08.....06.....08.....06.....10

Writers' Monday Critique.......................................04.....06.....07.....09.....09....10.....08.....06.....07.....08

Writers' Space Salon...........................10.....07.....03............................................................................................On Hiatus

Writers' Space Saloon....................................................04.....08.....05.....07.....04.....04.....10.....07.....06

Writers' Sunday Critique......................19.....14.....10.....08.....08.....09.....11.....11,,,,,11......09.....11.....xx

Writers' Thursday Critique............................................................................................07.....08.....06.....09

PUBLICATIONS

The Starship Express and The Starship Local hewed to their monthly schedule. With so many genre events being canceled, we had to run some filler (and in the case of the May newsletter) or drop a couple of pages. Things were pretty much back on track by the end of the year.

SOCIAL MEDIA

With Google having discontinued its Google+ social media platform in 2019, we are down to FaceBook and Twitter. A couple of ongoing features were added to the SFABC FaceBook Group. We now post an artist or book cover of the day. We also celebrate the history of the Association by linking to the write up of a past meeting each day.

ONLINE CHANGES: GOOGLE SITES, MEETUP.COM, & ZOOM

Google has announced that its Classic Sites platform will be discontinued in 2021. The platform had hosted the six club websites. The five smallest sites have been migrated to its New Sites platform. The reconfiguration of our largest site, the public SFABC website, is a major project for the coming year.

Meetup.com is a platform which enables people to organize gatherings around a particular interest. If you wished to organize a Saddle River Ski Club, for example, you could set up a group to do that. Unlike FaceBook, Meetup is ad-free. People who wish to organize events pay Meetup to utilize the platform. I had considered bringing the Association to Meetup several times in the past, but was always deterred by the cost.

The pandemic has hit Meetup hard. While some groups have adapted to organizing events through zoom, many have not been willing or able to do so and have gone dormant. Meetup responded with a 50% price break for six months and I pulled the trigger in December 2020.

When someone creates a new Meetup Group, they receive two free additional Meetup slots. Therefore, the Association now has three Meetups on the platform: The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County Meetup which displays all of our SFABC and WOTW events, The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County Meeting Meetup which lists only our monthly second Saturday General Meeting, and the Writers of the Weird Meetup which features the critique sessions and other activities of particular interest to writers.

The Association has also purchased a Zoom Pro Account. The free version of zoom is limited to 40 minutes. We are extremely fortunate that both Carol Gyzander and Kathy Cannarozzi have Pro Accounts and have allowed the Association to use their accounts to set up longer events (Thank you, Carol! Thank you, Kathy!). During the coming months, some of these events will be transitioning to the club account.

MEMBERSHIP AND FINANCES

The Association is funded by the Annual $ 10.00 Membership Fee and the $ 2.00 Attendance Fee at our live meetings. In normal times we run small deficits at the nine meetings we hold each year at the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church because of the rental fee of the Church's Fellowship Hall. We make money from Attendance Fees at the rent-free summertime meetings at Barnes & Noble. This usually results in a small (under $ 100.00, normally under $50.00) surplus or deficit.

It is not practical to charge Attendance Fees for our online General Meetings. This resulted in the loss of nine months of Attendance Fees. Membership dropped from 87 members in January to 70 members in December, so we saw a corresponding decrease in revenue from Membership Fees.

The good news is that while income dropped, so did our expenses, and they did so to a greater degree. This enabled the club to fund the Meetup and Zoom Pro expenses. We have committed to Zoom meetings for the first six months of 2021. What happens after that is anyone's guess. For the moment we are okay, but another drop of 17 members in the coming year would be deeply disturbing.