ConneXions (original) (raw)

| | Just in case we need this comm in the future, here's a post to keep us alive and not deleted. The response to Stuart's untimely passing has been amazing and heartwarming and overwhelming. It's obvious he touched many lives and we all have a lot of good memories of him to carry with us.I've started a community where we can share stories and pictures and have a place to gather to remember him. Everyone, please feel free to join and post to minotaursfriend, and pass the word on to anyone else you think would be appropriate. It is with the heaviest of hearts that I post this today. My very good friend, and I know good friend of many of you, Stuart Carroll (minotaurs) passed away this morning, June 14. During the night he suffered a massive heart attack, and despite tremendous efforts to save him, he passed away at 6:00 a.m. He had good friends by his side until the end, and his family is gathering to decide on the next steps.I met Stuart when I ran Gaylaxicon in 2004 in San Diego, and together we not only started San Diego Queer Sci-Fi, but became good friends. Many of us gathered on a weekly basis to play board games, and he helped out with the new local San Diego convention, Conjecture. He also brought me into slash fandom, and when we attended CON.TXT together last year I was stunned by how both famous and loved he was by that community.I cannot express how sad I am right now. He was a truly wonderful, intelligent, witty spirit that will be sadly and sorely missed by those who knew him. Dear fanfic authors,first of all I’m sorry if OT posting isn’t allowed in this community, but there’s no other way for me to do this; just delete this if it isn’t appropriate. I’m a fanfic reader and occasional fanfic writer myself, so what did I pick for my thesis in communication sciences? Fan Fiction, of course. I designed a survey to find out more about our writing habits and media use; it takes about 10 minutes to complete.If you could go here and fill it out, I’d be forever grateful. Of course I’ll publish some of the results at my journal in about a month or two, so you’ll know what happened with your answers. The survey is completely anonymous; I have no way of finding out who gave which answers.Please, please help a fellow fan out. It’s only ten minutes for you; it’s a very important part of my work for me. This has been cross-posted like crazy, and I'm sorry for spamming you guys, I'm just a little desperate, too. To avoid any confusion in the future, all official ConneXions announcements to this community should be made by Martha, aprilvalentine, myself or another concomm member. Members of this community may make official announcements regarding ConneXions business only if they have prior written/verbal permission from Martha or concomm personnel. This doesn't mean you cannot make posts that talk about Connexions topics -please talk about Connexions all you want! Just official announcements, such as possible hotel sites, con dates, final panel topics, and the like should be made by Martha or one of her representatives to avoid confusion or the possibility of passing out misinformation. Thank you and looking forward to seeing you all in 2008.Tags:connexions, faq This was just posted by April Valentine (Martha) to the Yahoo mailing list:Hi, everyone,I'm out of the hospital as many of you know and home resting up now from my heart attack. I'm taking some meds and have several doctors' appointments in the next couple of weeks. I'm allowed to drive but I can't lift anything over 10 pounds and I still get really tired. The cardiologist wants me to stay off work for 3 to 4 weeks and avoid stress.Okay, stop laughing. Yeah, I need to avoid stress. That's obviously going to be somewhat difficult, I know. I've got 3 jobs I'm trying to work these days to keep a roof over my head. That's stressful enough, plus I have these new health concerns to deal with now.I have given it a lot of reflection and weighing all the considerations, I feel I am going to have to postpone our con this year. I know a lot of you have made plans to come and believe me, I really appreciate that effort on your parts. But running a con is stressful even at the best of times and I just don't feel I'm up to making ConneXions the great con it's always been.I'm sorry and I know that making this change will inconvenience some of you but I wouldn't want your weekend to be anything less than enjoyable and well organized. I'm terribly disappointed myself and was really looking forward to seeing all of you at the end of March.I've been concerned about the hotel -- although it's beautifully remodeled and they welcomed us back, it just isn't going to be the same now that the Boston Street Theatre, where we spent so much of our time for the banquet and entertainment during the con, is now a working dinner theatre again. Even with rearranging some of our rooms, we'd be somewhat spread out and I know that's never as enjoyable as it is having the con all together in nearby rooms. And I know not everyone who attends likes the hotel either.What I would like to do is do some searching to see if we can find another, better location that offers not only a good meeting space but great sleeping rooms and nearby food choices that can accommodate our needs and hold the con next spring. I will be glad to refund membership and dealer table monies or hold them to roll over for next year. They are in a separate account and not part of my personal funds. I sincerely intend to hold the con but can't really just push it back several months which would make even more complicated scheduling problems. Please write me offlist and let me know if you want a refund or want to roll over your membership money. Please contact the hotel to cancel your room reservations.I will be in touch with all of you and we can continue planning and discussion -- any input from the membership would be greatly appreciated as always. We have a great concomm and I know they would have stepped up to work the con but I know I couldn't avoid the stress -- even the enjoyable part of the stress -- if we did go ahead with our plans for this year.If anybody really wants to have a little get together here in Baltimore anyway that weekend, that might be something we can work out, as long as it's just hanging out and watching vids so we don't feel too deprived from not having the con, so let me know. I've been feeling a bit isolated lately, what with all my work in mundane RL, so at least my time home recuperating will allow me some more fannish interaction. I thank all of you for your concern during my illness and for your continued support of ConneXions. You all are the reason I do this con and you're like family to me. I hate to disappoint you, but I also don't want you to have less than the best con we can put on.Take care,Martha Tags:connexions I visited Martha in the hospital Thursday and she seemed to be doing okay. She was released on Friday and is resting quietly at home. She will be making an announcement about ConneXions soon, so be looking for that on the Yahoo Groups list. When that happens I will update here on LJ. She wanted to thank everyone for their calls and cards, they brightened up her very stressful week.*~*~*~*Now, a post from another Connexions member and myself...please feel free to post this to any fannish list you feel it would be appropriate. Thank you.*~*~*~*As some of you already know, Martha, aka April Valentine, had a heart attack last week. It was mild and she's okay, for which her friends are very grateful. Martha is one of the founders of Connexions and ShareCon in Baltimore, a zine editor and writer, has been a concomm member of FarPoint, and owner of Martha's Mugs.She has done a lot for Baltimore-area fandom and now we can do something for her. Martha will be out of work for 3-4 weeks and she just recently started a new job. Since her husbands death, Martha has been struggling to keep her house and has been working three jobs in order to do so. Money is tight and will only get worse during her recovery.Can you help a fellow fan in need? If so, please make donations through Paypal to aprilvalen@aol.com. Her account cannot accept credit card payments. If you'd like to send a money order or check, email me (iamrosalita, iamrosalita@livejournal.com) for an address.Rosalitavia m_lashaTags:martha I visited Martha at the hospital this afternoon. Apparently she had the heart attack Monday or Tuesday -- one of those quiet ones that happen to women -- she was very short of breath after the mildest exersion and became aware on the way home Wednesday that her left arm hurt badly. She asked Ian to take her to the Emergency Room last and fainted for just a few moments when she stood up. The attack was mild -- there was only a 30% blockage and she won't need a shunt -- and she should be out of the hospital tomorrow sometime. She will have to avoid stress from now on (!). Cards and notes will help but she was upset that she didn't get to see Wednesday night's Boston Legal -- if someone could send it to her that might cheer her no end of up.Tags:martha So, I'm assuming there will be no general East Coast slash cons in 2007? No information forthcoming from either ConneXions or con*txt since last spring, as far as I've been able to find.Does anyone have any idea if there's something in the works for 2008? 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