Next week brings us to the final Meeting of the year, and the elections for the Executive Committee for the January-June 1968. As usual, I've been looking around the club, and I've picked out the five people that I think will do the best jobs in the five offices up for grabs.

LASFS elections are always influenced by several factors. Club politics, personal friendships, ability, ambition, and letting someone new have a turn at being an officer, are probably the basic ones. Sometimes we have opposing slates of candidates, sometimes just a lot of individual candidates for each office, and sometimes nobody's interested in running. Some people run because they want to work for the LASFS, others run just for the prestige of being one of the club's officers. Sometimes the club cares, and sometimes it couldn't care less.

Sometimes we get a do-nothing administration. Then the club drifts. Meetings become dull, and a lot of people stop attending. Other times, we get an active administration that pumps activity back into the club, running the Meetings in an orderly, competent manner, planning programs and activities, and so on. The Meetings become interesting again, and people start coming for them, not just for general conversation with friends once a week.

Our current term of office has been pretty much a do-nothing one, due mainly to the lack of effective leadership on our Director's part. Our other officers have done a good job, but it's the Director who sits up there and sets the tone of the Meeting. Schu just hasn't cared: the Meetings drift together later and later, they drift along in a sloppy manner, and they finally break up. Programs are lackluster or impromptu, and are as often as not held after the Meeting. The people who've been around for a couple of years, and have seen 3 or 4 different administrations, will know what I mean when I call this one do-nothing. I want to see this situation remedied. Rather than just voting for anybody for Director for the next 6 months, I want to see anybody elected who has both the interest and the ability to make the Meetings more interesting and lively.

Bruce Pelz is this person. He's served before, so we know what kind of a Meeting he'll run. It'll be sharp and to the point. Bruce doesn't want the reputation of running bad Meetings or dull Meetings, and he'll do his best to make sure they're interesting (or he'll cut them short). But there's another reason why Bruce is the Right Man at this time. We're -- hopefully -- finally beginning to move toward getting the LASFS incorporated, and taking the steps leading to getting our clubhouse. Bruce is the fan who's most active on this job. If he were Director of the club as well, it would save a lot of red tape in clearing things through the Executive Committee. Rather than having to corral extra people whenever a Committee meeting is necessary, Bruce will be able to work that much more simply. If the rest of my proposed candidates are also elected, the Building Fund Committee will have the full support of the Executive Committee at all times. So, to get a competent Director who wants the job, to improve our Meetings, and to make the Building Committee's job a lot easier, I think that Bruce Pelz is the best possible candidate.

Our Senior Committeeman, Secretary, and Treasurer are all running for re-election, and I'll back them all. They've all proven that they can do a good job at their posts. Chuck has served very well when he's presided -- in fact, he'd also be a good candidate for Director, if he wanted the post at this time. (We'll see later, after the FUN-CON.) Ken Rudolph has done an excellent job of taking dues, keeping up our financial records, and helping build up the Building Fund. And Sally does her job equally well in taking Minutes that are complete but not boring. They've all done a good job, and they all want to keep on doing a good job. I hope they get the chance.

This leaves 4 of the club's 5 offices in the hands of incumbents and regular politicians. We've got a lot of new members in the club, too, and it'd be nice to see one new face on the Executive Committee. Of the club's new members, I think that Barry Weissman will do the best job as Junior Committeeman. For one thing, he's proven himself to be a regular attendee; I don't think he's missed a Meeting in over a month. For another, he's interested in working for the club; his promotion of the book swap idea shows this. So by electing Barry, we won't just be adding new blood to the Exec. Comm.; we'll be putting an able fan to carry out his office's duties. I asked Barry if he'd be interested in running for this post, and he said, sure -- but he didn't think the club would elect a new member who'd only been around for a couple of months. I told him that he was wrong, and I hope you all prove that I'm right.

So, then: for Director, Bruce Pelz; for Senior Committeeman, Chuck Crayne; for Junior Committeeman, Barry Weismann; for Secretary, Sally Crayne; and for Treasurer, Ken Rudolph. They may not be the only contenders for these post, but I think that they're the best qualified, beyond a doubt.

Don Simpson -- An excellent cover, as usual.

Tom Digby -- I think that guests are more overlooked than snubbed. I know that a lot of times I don't seem to have enough time to even see all of the regular fans with whom I want to talk, much less having time to start up conversations with the new faces. The same situation holds true with a lot of fans. This is one of the reasons Apa L was started, to be given to the guests so that they wouldn't be too left out of things, even though they can't join in all of the in-group discussions right away.

Len Bailes -- Excellent, but no comment hooks other than that I suppose Ken'll learn.

Sally Crayne -- Nice to see that we're supporting the same candidates.

Tina Hensel -- I think that a lot of the modern writers just don't have the background in the English language and literature that the older writers had. The trend toward "realistic" Hemmingway-type writing also tends to weed out all the colorful words that aren't used in our everyday conversation. This is one reason I prefer romantic fantasy. I learned 'glean' from Edgar Rice Burroughs, I remember. Clark Ashton Smith is a rich source of beautiful, obsolescent words. Have you read The Well of the Unicorn, or The Blue Star, by Fletcher Pratt? You have read Eddison, I hope?

Dan Alderson -- Fascinating alternate-universe ideas in those old comics, though I don't agree with them all.