Written by Fred Patten and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, October 28, 1964. Intended for Apa L, 2^nd Mailing, LASFS meeting #1420, October 29, 1964. Address: 5156 Chesley Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90043. Phone: AX 1-1310.

***************************************************************************

Well, I think Apa L can be termed a success!

Our First Mailing brought 29 pages, if I count correctly, some of them quite surprising indeed. I'll have to admit that Don Fitch brought off a very neat ploy by lining up contributions from such unexpected sources as Michigan, New York, and North Carolina. I'm glad you took the trouble, though, Don; you've added five valuable new members to the club.

For the record, I think I'll set down how the First Mailing worked out. When I got to the club last week, Dian Pelz was collecting all the assorted Apa L zines. She gathered them all in; then, towards the close of the Meeting, when the zines were all in, she began collating them into a Mailing, and published the table of contents on the hektograph Don Fitch brought. To be more exact, Dian ran off the table of contents while Owen Hannifen collated the Mailing, at Dian's instructions -- we've agreed to appoint Dian our Official Collator, Apa L's only officer, whose duty it is to see that each individual Apa L zine gets collected to be stapled into the official Mailing. The assembly session in the back room of the Playground proved almost as popular a program as the John Glenn documentary being shown outside as the regular program. It turned out when we were through that 20 copies aren't nearly enough to give a copy of the Mailing to everyone who attends the Meeting, especially when we have to reserve some for our non-attending contributors. 30 copies is the new minimum limit; we'll see how that works. Don Fitch proved a willing worker by providing the cover for the Mailing and the hektograph for running off a table of contents on the spot; though I hope somebody can bring at least a ditto in the future. And a word of thanks is due Redd Boggs, who went home to bring us a typewriter to type up the table of contents, when it turned out we'd all forgotten to bring one.

The Mailing was quite well received; the last few incomplete copies were almost fought over when it turned out there weren't enough copies for everybody. I'm looking forward to seeing tomorrow night what our non-publishing fans thought of it, now that they've had a chance to read it. Maybe we can get a few more fans into the fanzine-publishing segment of Fandom.

- oOo -

Tonight is more than just the 1420^th Meeting; it's the LASFS' 30^th Anniversary. Usually, this Meeting is given over to presenting the Evans-Freehafer Award, and having some sort of guest speaker. This year, since we missed our usual Fanquet in March, we're combining the anniversary ceremonies with the fanquet in next week's special Meeting. Tonight, Walt Daugherty will preside over the customary 5^th-Thursday Auction.

The LASFS Auction is a hallowed tradition, and usually a very worthwhile one. I remember that an Auction was being held the first Meeting I attended, and I wonder if I'd have come back so readily for a second Meeting if I hadn't been so impressed by the show of stfnal goodies I saw that night. Since then, it seems to me that our Auctions have been declining in quality. I imagine that this is due largely to the sense of wonder of Fandom wearing off somewhat; I'm now used to seeing large amounts of sf books, original artwork and manuscripts, and the ubiquitous fanzines floating around. I've had a chance to build up my collections, and I no longer feel impelled to buy large quantities of sf to fill in the gaps. But it still seems to me that the quality of our Auctions in the last year or so has been dropping off. There's less original material and more bulk of fairly common 2^nd-hand prozines and paperbacks. The grab-bag lot -- a handful of zines or pbs, which may not be all sf -- for only 50¢ or 75¢ is becoming more common. Bidding doesn't seem as spirited. I wonder if a lot of our members aren't in the same position I am -- they've been picking up the desirable items for their collections over the past few years, and now they've reached the point that they're no longer interested in bidding for something as common as a handful of assorted 8-year-old prozines. I'm not suggesting we do away with the Auctions or anything of the sort; they still do a brisk enough business to show that some of us are benefitting from them, and they still provide an important source of revenue to our Building Fund. But I'm afraid that I'm not going to take much interest in tonight's Auction, other than in watching Walt at work. You'll probably find me in the back room, helping to get the Apa L Mailing out.

-- BEING MAILING COMMENTS ON THE FIRST MAILING

Don Fitch -- a nice cover, but what's this "First Distribution" jazz? I say it's an apa, and I say it's a Mailing. ## I'm also wondering how adding a weekly apa to my publishing schedule, even if I only do a minimum 1-sheeter, will affect my other fanac. Preparing an Apa L zine so far has meant about 2 evenings a week shot; one in typing the stencils for RR, and the other in taking them out to West LA or Santa Monica to publish them at Al Lewis' or Bruce Pelz's place. (Not that it takes a whole evening to publish two stencils, but you inevitably get into conversation, and before you know it, the whole evening's gone. Pleasantly, but still gone.) It'll be a big saving in time when Owen gets his mimeo fixed; I'll be able to just leave home a half hour earlier on Thursdays, stop off at the Lab to run off RR, then proceed directly to LASFS. I'll have to wait until one of my other fanzine deadlines crosses Apa L to see how I handle both at once. ## I don't think Apa L should have any activity requirements. Theoretically, anyone who shows up at a LASFS Meeting is entitled to that week's Mailing, whether they've contributed or not. Agreed, if there aren't enough copies of the Mailing to go to everybody, the contributors should get first care on them, but I think that that's about all in the way of "requirements" we should have. If Apa L gets so moribund that we have to enforce Activity to get zines, it'd be better killed off. ## I think that Farnham's Freehold is Heinlein's best novel since Starship Troopers, mainly because he has put himself into the central role and thus given us a dynamic protagonist to follow. Unfortunately, the book does suffer in most of its other characterization. In order to prosecute his views most vigorously, Heinlein has made most of the other people in the book little more than straw dummies, who mechanically arise at the proper moment to recite a common opinion on some controversial subject -- racial relations, atomic preparedness, etc. -- which gives "Hugh Farnham" the opportunity to rebut with his own views. As this is Heinlein personally talking straight from the heart, it does make very good reading, but it's not too much as a novel, I'll agree. ## By the way, did you notice in TIME magazine of October 16 that Michael Valentine Smith is being tried for reckless driving and negligent homicide? ## Great Roscoe; I'm already out of space and I haven't begun to comment on anybody else's zine yet! More next week.