Fantasy Amateur Press Association

The Fantasy Amateur Press Association ("FAP-uh") was founded in 1937 by the science fiction fan, author and editor Donald Wollheim and John Michel. They were inspired to create FAPA by their memberships in some of the non-fan amateur press associations, of which they learned from H. P. Lovecraft. The Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA) is science fiction fandom's longest-established amateur press association ("apa"). FAPA's original constitutional limit was 50 members to accommodate publishers using hektographs. There were 21 members listed on the roster of the first mailing in August 1937; it took until the November 1938 mailing to fill the 50-member roster. The membership limit was raised to 65 in 1943 and has remained at that level ever since.

The early years of FAPA were stormy with party politics and sociological feuds (for details, see the late Jack Speer's pioneering fan history, UP TO NOW [http://www.efanzines.com/UpToNow/index.htm] ). In 1947 Speer reformed the Constitution, and the Insurgents quashed the last inactive OE, Elmer Perdue. Since then official troubles have mostly not disturbed FAPA, and red tape has been held to a minimum. The Constitution was again revised in 1958 (also by Speer) to incorporate amendments, bylaws, and practices adopted since 1947. Another major revision occurred in 2001 under the oversight of Robert Lichtman (Secretary-Treasurer since 1986 and still holding that office), clarifying and conforming constitutional requirements with actual practice.

During the '50s and '60s FAPA was so popular and membership so sought after that the waiting list grew to monumental proportions, for a period of time exceeding the number of membership slots on the FAPA roster. A waiting list fee was instituted to cover the cost of sending the FANTASY AMATEUR to so many fans awaiting membership, and a requirement that waiting listers periodically acknowledge receipt of the FANTASY AMATEUR was begun in order to weed out those who lost interest during the long wait. By the '70s the waiting list became much smaller, and in recent years (since the mid '90s) has disappeared altogether. Additionally, the number of members has also shrunk as existing members died or otherwise dropped off the roster. As of August 2008 there are 36 active participants.

Like other APAs, FAPA is primarily an agency for distributing to its members publications put out by its members at their own expense. This it does by mailings every three months. Members are required to be active in some way -- writing or publishing -- and produce at least 8 pages of activity a year. There are annual elections (August) of a president, vice-president, secretary-treasurer and official editor; the two former are limited to two consecutive one-year terms. The current preseident is the author Robert Silverberg. Other officials have included Official Critics, a Laureate Committee, and ballot counters. The first two positions were abandoned by the mid '40s, but a teller for the annual officer elections continues to be appointed by the Secretary-Treasurer.

References

External links

* [http://www.fiawol.demon.co.uk/who/ Rob Hansen's "Who's Who in SF Fandom"]
* [http://fanac.org/Fannish_Reference_Works/Fan_terms/Fan_terms-03.html rich brown's "Fan Terms"]
* [http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/popcul.php Reference to archive at Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, Maryland]
* [http://baens-universe.com/articles/The_Literature_of_Fandom Bibliography of books about fandom, with multiple mentions of FAPA]