What do a bikini-clad gold-painted woman, Robert Heinlein and B-5's Michael J Straczynski have in common? If you said "The LASFS, of course!" you should find yourself fitting in before you've even found a parking spot around the corner. (Parking is ample, but please don't use the marked spaces in front.) We host the LosCon science fiction convention held annually at the LAX Marriott, as well as weekly meetings and other fascinating events at our Burbank Blvd clubhouse in North Hollywood. Come visit a few times for free.

Aspiring writer? Artist? Want to know what it is they're doing to you so that you never miss an episode of your favorite show? Come pick the brains of famous science fiction writers, heckle the fracas, or just humor the eclectic tastes of the LASFS video librarian as he shares an obscure 1950's serial just before meeting time. There is so much to assimilate we're working on cobbling together an informational documentary on YouTube (soontobe) available.

Come check out the snowballing viral event before clubhouse meetings become a thing of the past and we're sucked into Second Life.

The regular weekly meetings are documented by the official jester "scribe," archived for posterity in the De Profundis archives. If you like reading, and many among our literary and media membership do, they can provide an interesting profile of the goings-on. Have you ever wondered how the Hugo Awards are given? Never heard of them? There is a little of something for everyone here, whether you like to use a fannish "handle", appear in costume or lurk in the shadows of relative fannish obscurity, or appear to be a "mundane."

The doors open about 7:30 pm, though the meeting starts about 8:15 pm. We ask that you let us do a brief intro of you by way of a guest card. Feel free to make up things if you think we're being too nosy. We'll ask you to stand as we enthusiastically applaud your confession of bedwetting and reading manga.

A number of committee reports and parliamentary procedures proceed to proceed, and some of these may seem pretty silly or lengthy or both. They grow on you.

Though there may be an exciting auction of chatchkes, kitchen appliances, spare lawn gnomes and such; the meeting will often seem to end the moment it's begun. And then all the cool people are meandering out or gone... But wait, some of them are meeting down the street to an all-night diner, and you're invited!

Whether you want to trade insights on cold fusion with a fellow armchair physicist before the meeting (it's due to thin film mechanics of palladium hydrides emulating rhenium, but you didn't hear it from me) or to offer a deal-of-the-century option for your unwritten screenplay to a Lasfasian over "Aftermeeting" coffee, you'll probably find it's the eclectic, if reclusive, bookish science fictiony people that keep you coming back. You'll find mention of LASFS, which has held meetings since 1934, all over the web; a few examples:

Anyone may apply to join LASFS by filling out an application form and paying the Treasurer $5. You may even join before you attend a single meeting. But most people prefer to take advantage of the rules and use their three free meetings as guests. The guest meetings don't have to be consecutive. If you show up for a fourth meeting, the Treasurer will ask you to join.

You can get some idea of what a LASFS meeting is like by reading the Minutes, which can be found on the LASFS community located at http://lasfs.livejournal.com, under their traditional title of the Menace of the LASFS. Search for "Menace" and follow the link in parentheses (e.g., "Adric died for our sins" for the Menace of meeting #3683).

After the meeting, some attendees will adjourn to a late-night food place for the aftermeeting. and continue their conversations.

Park on the street and come to 11513 Burbank Blvd. Feel free to look around 4SJ (the front building) but there's usually more going on in Freehafer Hall (the back building). The Treasurer will be sitting at a table by the door. Ask for the Registrar who will hand you a guest card to fill out, asking your name, interests, and how you heard about LASFS. Later, the Registrar will read the cards of that night's guests, and you'll be asked to stand up so people can recognize you. There might even be applause.

There are four parking spaces in front of the Forrest J Ackerman building: one is for handicapped parking; the other three are auctioned off monthly and are reserved on Thursday evenings. Do not park in front of the neighboring non-LASFS building to the west; it belongs to our neighbors and annoys them. Most LASFS attendees park on the street within a block or two of the clubhouse.

Guests may get a free copy of APA-L collated each week at LASFS. Talk to the Official Collator, the fan doing mysterious things with metal racks in the narrow room west of the meeting room.

Guests may bid in the auction, contribute money or auction items to the LASFS, contribute zines to APA-L and buy books for sale on the shelves at the front of 4SJ. Guests may read books in the Library, but only LASFS members may take books out. Guests may make comments during the course of a meeting, but only LASFS members may propose motions or vote.

Below is a (slightly reduced) image of the guest card that you will be asked to fill out. Click it to see the full-sized image.