Peninsula Science Fantasy Association
(Did you mean a Virginia club?)
PenSFA, the Peninsula Science Fantasy Association, is a club in the Bay Area. PenSFA was founded February 17, 1968 to provide a San Francisco Peninsula (roughly Menlo Park to San Jose) counterpart to the Berkeley-based Little Men. It grew using, among other things, a recruiting poster by George Barr. The bi-weekly meeting schedule was designed to interleave with Little Men's meetings; despite Little Men's no longer holding meetings, the PenSFA schedule remains the same.
The early members included Mike Ward, Jerry Jacks, Felice Rolfe and Johnny Chambers. One of the first events sponsored by the club was a debate on Dangerous Visions, which was then just published. It was moderated by Harlan Ellison and included Norman Spinrad and Ed Wood. Fans came up from LA for the event.
The club published a newsletter zine, Winnie the POO (POO being the PenSFA Official Organ, and Winnie being the most famous POO.) Since 2000, the newsletter has officially been distributed by e-mail only, though the last paper copy was mailed some years before. Winnie actually has a longer continuous history than the club has, since around 1969 the club quit having meetings for a few months, but in the interim Mike Ward used the title to publish a West Coast-centered newszine to complement the then East Coast-based Locus (File 770 did not yet exist.)
APA-π was looselh associated with the club, with a large overlap of membership, and PenSFA meetings being occasions to collect contributions and distribute mailings.
The club has always been oriented to socializing, meetings -- official parties, really -- are held in member's homes, and no formal business is transacted, nor has the club ever sponsored conventions. (Individual PenSFA members have been involved in conventions, but not as a club activity.)
During the COVID-19 pandemic of the 2020's, meetings have moved online using Zoom.
Members have included Allen Baum, Johnny Chambers, Doug Faunt, Jerry Jacks, Danny Low, Felice Rolfe, Mike Ward, Donya White, Ctein.
| Club | 1968— |
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