Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, April 21, 1965. Intended for Apa L, Twenty-Seventh Distribution, LASFS Meeting no. 1445, April 22, 1965. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: GRanite 3-6321.

This would seem a good time to reiterate the rules to Apa L -- especially after last week, when we had gusts asking if they could possibly get a copy of the Distribution, while Tom Gilbert was trying to squirrel away copies for out-of-towners who had not contributed. I agree that Dave Van Arnam and Ted White are a lot more worthwhile as recipients than some guests or regular LASFS members that get Apa L -- they write comments on my zine too, you know -- but that still doesn't have anything to do with the way Apa L operates, and I'm not aware that Mr. Gilbert has been given any authority to change the setup.

Apa L, as it was originally set up, was available only to those who were physically present at the Meeting at which the Distribution was handed out. This rule was quickly amended to allow the participation of the out-of-towners, and others who couldn't be at the Meeting in person, but who sent in a contribution to act as their proxy, as it were. But the condition of attendance at the Meeting, even if only by a legal fiction, is still a requirement. Apa L's prime purposes are to encourage communication between the club members and to act as an incentive to bring people to the Meetings. Because of this, we have deliberately avoided setting up any kind of formal Apa L membership list; and we have tried to make sure that everybody who attends the Meeting, in person or by contribution, can get a copy of the Distribution.

I realize that this can be hard on someone like Van Arnam, who up to last week had had a contribution in every Distribution since Apa L was formed, but I do not want to set up a situation in which we say to someone at the Meeting, "Sorry, but you can't have a Distribution this week; we're sending the copies we have left to our out-of-town members." This tends to establish Apa L as an entity independent of LASFS attendance, and I think it would be a bad thing to build up an "establishment" of Apa L "members" who would be entitled to coast on the records of past accomplishments even for a week, as long as there are attending members or guests who would have to be turned down. Now, there have been weeks in which, due to sparse attendance, a copy or two of the Distribution or the almost-complete Incompletes have been left over. When there are any left over, Tom is free to send them to regular contributors who've happened to miss a week, or to Harry Warner or Roy Tackett or others. Unfortunately for Dave, though, the Meeting he picked to miss was one of the biggest we've had in a long while, due to the publicized vote on whether to change the Meetings to Fridays or not; with the result that even with the unusually light out-of-town participation, there were still so many people at the Meeting that we couldn't set aside any copies for any non-attending non-contributors. Tom tried saving a Distribution for Dave even so, but considering we still had attendees asking if they could have a copy -- and guest at that; the people Apa L is supposed to hook into returning -- I wouldn't let him.

Now this is a rule that can be changed. I'd prefer to keep it as it is, but if enough of you feel that regular out-of-towner (such as Dave Van Arnam or Ted White or John Boardman) contributors should take precedence over attendees (such as Dave Fox or Ted Johnstone or Len Moffatt) who never contribute, we can change the rule. So let me know how you feel.

I am making one new rule right now, though. The number of copies required for Apa L is hereby raised to 40 for those Meetings at which we can definitely expect a larger than usual attendance. This includes election Meetings, Meetings with special programs which have been publicized in advance through the NEWSLETTER, etc. I think we'll be able to predict most of these in advance and post notice.

-- BEING COMMENTS ON THE PREVIOUS DISTRIBUTION

Bĵo Trimble -- A delightful double cover; naturally there'd be no more fitting subject for our Easter cover than our own Bunny. Incidentally, if anybody ever wants to do a special Apa L cover for a particular occasion, it'll be a good idea to check with me in advance to make sure nobody else is also doing a cover for the same occasion. Bĵo gave me this cover a couple of weeks in advance, so when Jack asked if I'd like a special Easter cover or back cover, I was able to tell him I already had a set. I can always put your cover inside the Distribution, of course, but this can be a disappointment if you'd worked on it with the idea of having it featured in front. ## It's only been a week or so, and I'm already impatiently awaiting the next issues of EXPLETIVE and ACTIFAN COMICS. Soon, I hope?

Dwain Kaiser -- I don't think any of us are particularly enthusiastic about seeing your TT for TAPS in Apa L. I for one would like to see it, yes, but I wonder if it has any pertinency in Apa L? Aside from this 26th Distrib., Apa L is usually meaningless to us would serve no useful purpose. Reading TAPS letters that would be virtually meaningless to us would serve no useful purpose. If you have any pages or articles self-contained in themselves, of course, that's different. I'm not running my SAPSzine through Apa L because I imagine most Apa L readers would get nothing at all from the ingroup mailing comments. I am, however, reprinting my book reviews from that SAPSzine because they stand on their own. I'd advise you to do likewise regarding your TAPS TT. The InterApa Constitution is a good thing; I doubt too many Apa L readers will be interested much in it, but at least we'll be able to understand and criticize it as it stands without feeling too much like ignorant outsiders. ## Any chance you could get us an Apa L cover from Lynn Pederson?

Jack Harness -- Artistically speaking, I think your Mutated Mouse Musician cartoon this time is one of the best pieces of art you've done in a long time. Not exactly a pleasant subject matter, but the illustration seems to hang together better than most. It's been a while since you've tackled anything as artistically precise as these ghouls. I hope we'll be seeing more of this calibre work from you in the future.

Hilda Hoffman -- Welcome to the LASFS and to Apa L. We're always glad to get new members -- female-type members in particular (even if Hollander does have a rights-of-discovery claim on you right now). ## Is your hummingbird haiku by any chance inspired by some of UCLA's diminutive darters? When I was going there, up to a couple of years ago, you could usually find a couple in the trees just below the Undergrad. Library, peeping to each other in that funny grating squeak of theirs.

Terry Romine -- Your American Commando may be confused, but if his sudden transition from the Laotian jungles to an elevated futurific roadway doesn't register on him any more than you've shown here, he's not just confused, he's also an idiot. I'd be confused, too, going through the same experience, but I like to think that the contrast would register on me a bit more forcefully than "Not much traffic!"