OMPA

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OMPA, the Offtrails Magazine Publishers Association, was organized by Ken Bulmer and Vin¢ Clarke on June 19, 1954 as the first UK fannish APA. The British Fantasy Amateur Press Association was a proposed fannish APA of the 1940s but that didn't come to anything and the British Amateur Press Association founded in 1890 was a earlier non-fannish APA in which some fans participated. Founding members included Chuck Harris, Joan Carr, Ron Bennett and Archie Mercer. The Official Organ was Off Trails. It was published four times a year: March, June, September and December. OMPA lasted into the late 1970s but 'faded away', as Rob Hansen put it, somewhen during that era. The last known issue of Off-Trails is #87, undated but seemingly late 1977. Many members felt that the effort of putting on OMPAcon '73 (an Eastercon) sapped its energy... though it is maintained by some that OMPA still exists, just that nobody has made minac since 1977.

In the advertising world it would have been called a brainstorming session. It began in the late afternoon of Saturday, June 19th, 1954, and carried on into the cool of a beautiful summer evening. When it had finished, Ken Bulmer and I had roughed out the plans for the first British SF fan publisher’s association.

It’s hard to say what was the catalyst which finally acted on this particular project. The atmosphere was right. British fandom was on its feet in a burst of activity which made this, the year of the SuperManCon, a small Golden Age. Numerous fans were interested in publishing, and the SF professional ’zines were bringing in new faces, throughout the year. I think it was Ken who decided that now was the moment for launching into reality the dream of years, and I think it was myself who, after various

euphonious titles had been tried out for a couple of hours, suggested that echo of a trombone, OMPA. It would, we thought, disperse any stuffiness about the introduction of an association with a real Constitution into the happily anarchic fandom of the time... and, moreover, it ran trippingly off the tongue.

— Vin¢ Clarke, APAthy, 1959; quoted in Rob Hansen, Generation Femizine

OEs[edit]

Ron Bennett's Burp #24 (December 1964, and included in OMPA mailing #42) lists 'Ten years of Officialdom', providing a list of editors, presidents and treasurers for all years up to 1963/4.

1954/55 means a term from September 1955 to June 1955. For many years this was the standard term of an OE, as OMPA launched in the autumn. 1970–73 means the full years 1970, 71, 72, and 73.

Year OE President Treasurer
1954/55 Vincent Clarke Ken Bulmer Chuck Harris
1955/56 Joy Clarke Pam Bulmer Daphne Buckmaster
1956/57 Archie Mercer Walt Willis Norman Shorrock
1957/58 John Roles Vincent Clarke H. P. Sanderson
1958/59 Roberta Gray Ron Bennett H. P. Sanderson
1959/60 Ron Bennett Roberta Gray H. P. Sanderson
1960/61 Daphne Buckmaster Eric Bentcliffe Ron Bennett
1961/62 Bruce Burn Bob Lichtman Ron Bennett
1962/63 Ken Cheslin Bob Lichtman Ron Bennett
1963/64 Ethel Lindsay Bruce Burn Ron Bennett
1964/65 Ethel Lindsay
1965/66 Brian Jordan
September 1967 Archie Mercer
March 1968 Heinrich Arenz
1969 Beryl Mercer
1970-73 Ken Cheslin
1974-75 Pat and Mike Meara
1976-77 Keith Walker
1977/78 Keith Walker Ken Cheslin David Griffin
1978/79 Keith Walker

Contributors and APAzines[edit]

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959
The Off-Trail Magazine Publisher's Association, formed 19 June 1954 to provide British fen wit an equivalent of FAPA. Ken Bulmer and Vin¢ Clarke organized it, and were first president and first Association Editor (respectively) of the group. "We weren't proud", says Vin¢; "we borrowed wholesale from the rules of FAPA." This isn't quite right, since FAPA's Secretary and Vice-President duties were combined with, respectively, the Association Editor's and President's, and the group was smaller (45 members plus the Keeper of the Printed Books British Copyright repository, carried as "Member #0"]). Founder members included eminent Anglofen like Chuck Harris (first Treasurer), Joan Carr, Ron Bennett, and Archie Mercer. The group grew rapidly; original membership of 25 had to be increased to 29 with the first mailing and later to its present level. Beginning in 1956 it became extensively infiltrated with Americans and some alarm and despondency over possible loss of British character was heard.

Links

Publication 1954—1978
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