Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, December 22, 1965. Intended for Apa L, Sixty-Second Distribution, LASFS Meeting no. 1480, December 23, 1965. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: GRanite 3-6321.

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Next week, the club's semi-annual elections will be held, to choose our Executive Committee for January through June, 1966. I've been looking around to see who I think would be the best-qualified candidates for our five elective posts, and I've come up with what I think is a pretty good slate.

For Director: Al Lewis. It's been a tradition in the LASFS since I joined, five years ago, to nominate Al at every meeting, and have him decline -- in fact, if he should be absent from the election meeting, somebody else will decline for him, as a matter of form. However, this time Al is finally not only ready, but eager to take his turn serving as a club officer. In talking to him, Al says he feels he's been criticizing the way the club's been run for too long for someone who, up to now, hasn't been ready to put in the necessary work himself. He'd now like a chance to put his own ideas into practice. Those of you who know Al will recognize that this means orderly run Meetings, with a definite schedule; and things planned out and announced in advance, rather than six months of impromptu Meetings, as we've had under some past administrations. Knowing Al's liking for science-fiction rather than Fandom, I'd predict that we'll be having a fair amount of serious discussion of the subject, without it getting pedantic or boring. Tyrannical Al knows how to run a Meeting, too, without letting it get away from him, but without letting it get away from him, but without being bossy or throwing his weight around just to let us know who's the boss, either. Considering the current Active membership, I think that Al Lewis is definitely our best choice for Director. It's way past time that he got his chance to sit in the Directorial chair and exercise his talents; I hope he'll finally get that chance now.

For Senior Committeeman: Bruce Pelz. Bruce has been serving as Senior Committeeman currently, and you all know what a good job he's been doing. The Senior Committeeman is in effect the club's Vice-Director, and, ideally, a good Sr. Committeeman should be the sort of member who'd also make a good Director. Bruce certainly fits this bill, and, if Al weren't running for the Directorial seat, I'd be voting for Bruce for the position. Frankly, the difference is mostly one of taste; Bruce is more faanishly oriented than Al, and I think we get enough of fandom in Apa L and in the pre- & post-Meeting conversational groups at Freehafer Hall, Kal's, and the Labyrinth, so I'd just as soon have the Meetings themselves set a little more around science-fiction. Also, Bruce's been Director before, and we've had a chance to see how he'll serve if he's elected again; Al is still to an extent an unknown quantity, and it'll be to all our advantages to see how he serves in practice. But for this, I'd been voting for Bruce for Director. As it is, I'm backing the old democratic practice of putting the next best man in the next best spot, and I hope that Bruce will be able to continue serving ably as our Senior Committeeman for the next six months.

For Junior Committeeman: Fred Hollander. The post of Junior Committeeman has always been the club's hoodoo spot. The Junior Committeeman is an Assistant Senior Committeeman, and, as such, hardly ever is called upon to do anything. His main duties lie in his alternate role as the club's Official Greeter; to keep an eye out for any new guests, to get into conversation with them, try to find out a little about them, and to introduce them to whatever's going on at the moment so that they won't feel frozen out of any particular ingroup events that may be going on. The post is an important one, though in practice it's been virtually ignored. For a long time, it was a tradition to award the post to Forry Ackerman as a sort of honorarium for all he's done for the club in the past; this is a nice sentiment, but as Forry no longer comes to Meetings, it doesn't get the Jr. Committeeman's functions carried out. A year ago, Tom Gilbert was drafted to fill the post; one which he didn't want, and which he made little attempt to fill well. Six months ago, Earl Thompson actively campaigned for the post on a promise to attend every Meeting and to be a good Greeter; he was elected, and that was just about the last time anybody's seen him around the club. It's now time to look around once more to see if we can find somebody who's both really interested in assuming the duties of the post, and competent to carry them out. I believe that this man is Fred Hollander. Fred is a steady attendee of the Meetings, and there's no danger of getting an absentee officeholder if the post is entrusted to him. He's naturally friendly, and won't have any trouble making new guests feel at home and welcome. He's got a good sense of responsibility, and he won't let the post go hang after two weeks because of losing interest in it. If he'll agree to accept a draft, I think that Fred will turn out to be the best Junior Committeeman that the club's had in anyone's memory.

For Secretary: Ted Johnstone. The Secretarial post is another that the club's been having trouble with for the past term of office. Lately, the Secretary has been habitually showing up late, or not at all, and we've been having to make do with substitutes who are sometimes either incompetent or so disinterested in keeping club history that they won't take good notes and refuse to be bothered to write up the ones they do take into a set of Minutes. Hopefully, we'll now get back to doing things properly. Ted has announced that he wants the Secretarial post, and he promises to do a good job. He's been Secretary before on a number of occasions, and has a spotty record. There's no doubt that he can do a superb job if he wants to; the question is, will he continue to want to do so, for the whole six months? Generally, I believe that fans who've just broken into the pro market tend to get less, rather than more, involved in fanac. However, if Ted can -- and will -- work at the job, he'll make the best Secretary we can get. I'm willing to give him a chance.

For Treasurer: Bill Ellern. Bill's been doing a highly competent piece of work in carrying out the duties of this office; why should we trade him for someone inferior? I just hope he wants the job for another six months!

That, then, seems to me to be the ideal slate of officers to make up our Executive Committee for the coming half-year. Of course, I don't know just who's likely to get nominated for the various posts, or even if all my choices are willing to run for the offices I've selected for them. But I at least intend to see that they get nominated, and get my vote. LASFS' voting for officers is traditionally done as a spur-of-the-moment sort of things; we all might do a little thinking about Best Men for the next week before we vote this time, for a change if for nothing else.

--BEING COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK'S DISTRIBUTION

Bruce Pelz -- I'll be glad to consider any humorous amateur comic books you care to recommend; I make no pretense of having a thorough knowledge of the field. ## Bailes has latched onto a sufficient number of the UCLA Library's children's fantasy exhibit booklet, which is in this Dist'n. is there any further interest in the club at this point to make up a library display on science-fiction, to offer UCLA or the L.A. Public Library downtown? ## "The Way of Life" gets ever more interesting.