What Have You Done to Help the LASFS Lately?
There are LOTS of ways you can help the LASFS from the comfort of your own home. Our staff, membership and volunteers have set up some great ways listed here.
You can help raise money for LASFS by buying gift items at Zazzle.com.
Want a mug with the LASFS logo?
How about bumper stickers?
A T-shirt?
Looking for a gift for friends and family?
Want to help the club raise money?
Then check out our new store!
20% of the proceeds go to benefit the LASFS.
A big thank you goes out to Tim, who was a great help setting this up.
You can also search and shop through amazon.com, GoodSearch and GoodShop. Just follow the instructions on our Donate to LASFS for FREE! page to see how.
written by “Anon Fan”
(not an official LASFS spokesman)
Did you know that most of the LASFS’ day-to-day costs are paid for by the weekly membership dues? This is why it’s important to attract new members and welcome new folks who drop in to see what we’re all about. Here is your chance to show off your sparkling personality while taking care to curb over-enthusiasm.
With practice, you can learn to angle your clever remarks so that they find us so fascinating they come back for seconds or thirds.
How can you get them to come back for “seconds and thirds”? Here’s a tip: Stick with Peculiar, Weird, or Wonderful. Avoid telling them about (or being) Scary, Confusing or Boring. These were the top three complaints of newbies in my straw poll of 2007 and 2008.
LASFS’ second biggest source of funds is the yearly LOSCON. So buy a membership, space cadet, and we’ll be able to pay the storage costs for our clubhouse’s extensive library and furnishings (until we obtain new digs), our Zoom account and website domain, hosting and SSL security fees, etc.
VOLUNTEERS are ALWAYS NEEDED for the work, work, work involved in putting on this show. The folks who put together Loscons (our local, yearly convention) include many whom you would never run into at the regular meetings. Find out who coordinates volunteers and ask how you might be used. Remember there is value in humility and humble work. Chop wood, carry water. Very Zen. You never know; you might meet somebody interesting,…..but, you’ll probably just see fans.
Other regular sources of funding include direct cash donations for things like sainthood ($1,000) or towards Michael Mason’s or Allan Rothstein’s Pillar fund are considered acceptable. LASFS has non-profit status as a 501(c)(3), so donations are tax deductible. Think of The Glory That Could Be Yours! Respect! Admiration! Awe-struck admirers!
Then there is that Other Kind of Donation…
We’re all gonna die, even the Methuselahs (they’ll just have time enough to get bored first). Why leave your money to fiscally irresponsible relatives who will bad mouth you when you’re gone, when it could go towards continuity of LASFS where people can bad mouth you every Thursday, alive or dead? This assists the LASFS to continue in its honorable duty to the Next Gen, to help provide a distraction to hormonally overburdened young fans. LASFS gives them a place to go Thursdays, or else they might find themselves roaming the streets, irritating urbane mundanes with rocket launches and nano experiments…
Got books? Consider leaving your collection of SF to the LASFS Library….If the club can’t use it, we can sell it for fund-raising. This can get out of hand easily, so contact the Librarian (Gavin Claypool) first and make sure the books are easily saleable. Please, no junk. LASFS Librarian is a volunteer position. Don’t overburden the volunteers with your generosity. Making it easy is part of the gift.
With fen assist, LASFS can continue to nurture the spread of Fandom Worldwide! It is our destiny. Can you feel it?