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WisCon 36

Ship your WisCon Books & Artwork Home Instead of Schlepping It On The Plane

The UPS Store will set up shop at the Concourse on Monday for all your shipping needs.

Packing and shipping service will be available on Monday from 9 am to 3 pm to ship your art show and dealers’ room purchases safely home. The UPS Store is a locally owned and operated shipping and packing store. We work with UPS, DHL, and the US Postal Service (but not FedEx). We are professional packers and have professional-grade boxes and packing materials. Our computer software helps us choose the best carrier for your shipment based on its weight, dimensions, and its destination zip code. We are experienced in book conventions and know how to best get your purchases to your destination.

Please note. You do not need to provide a box for your materials. We prefer to package all items at our retail store, and will not bring packing materials to the convention.

Reminders: It is always more economical to ship to a business rather than to a residential address. The business has to be in a commercial building; businesses in homes do not qualify for the commercial rates. All carriers except the U.S. Post Office include $100 of insurance and tracking capabilities. We highly recommend going with that type of carrier.

Visit our website at http://www.theupsstorelocal.com/0704/ or call us to get more information at (608) 833-7447. We are looking forward to meeting and working with you over Memorial Day weekend!

–Shannan Bogle, The UPS Store, Ondana Rd, Madison, WI

WisCon 37

Hotel Reservations Now Open for WisCon 37

Whether you prefer to make your hotel reservation in person with a friendly face, on the phone with a friendly voice, or online, you can secure your room for the 2013 convention starting Sunday morning, May 27.

Reservations can be made online via a link on the WisCon website, or stop by the concierge desk in the hotel lobby to make your reservation in person, or call the friendly folks in the Concourse’s reservations department. The Concourse has scheduled extra reservations agents for Sunday morning to ensure that everyone’s request is handled as expeditiously as possible.

Room rates at the Concourse Hotel for WisCon 37 will be $101/$111 single/double for a Concourse-level room, and $173/$183 single/double for Governor’s Club rooms. If you make your reservation in person or by phone, be sure to tell them you want a room in the WisCon 37 room block to get these rates.

After you get your hotel reservation lined up for 2013, go online to the WisCon website or stop by WisCon’s Registration/Information desk in the second floor lobby area to get your membership for the 37th annual World’s Leading Feminist Science Fiction Convention! The committee is already in the planning phases of what will be yet another fabulous four-day marathon of spirited dialog, thought-provoking readings, and just plain fun, so make sure you have your membership secured.

WisCon 36

Scenes from an Opening Ceremony

Here are scenes from yesterday evening’s Opening Ceremonies, which featured the Carl Brandon Society singers and a special virtual visit from absent Tiptree foremother Karen Joy Fowler channeled through the person of Ellen Klages, who then placed the Tiptree tiara on the head of guest of honor Andrea Hairston, the first Tiptree Award winner who was also WisCon’s Guest of Honor in the same year.

The Carl Brandon Society entertained the gathered membership with Broadway show tunes:

And members of the concom welcomed everyone to WisCon 36 and offered members information about volunteering and access for an appreciative audience:

Tiptree Award, WisCon 36

SAVE THE AUCTIONEER! (A Message from SpaceBabe)

Ellen has been doing the Tiptree Auction for 17 years. She is older than when she started, but the auction keeps getting longer and longer, and she gets tired after a few hours.

How can you help?

  1. Come to The Gathering. Look at auction items. When you see something you can’t live without — Bid. Bid sheets will say:
    • TO AUCTION (those will be on stage Saturday night, no matter what) or
    • TO AUCTION IF THERE ARE _____ BIDS
    • (enough bids by 5 pm Sat., it goes to the stage; not enough, the last bidder has bought it) or
    • BUY IT NOW (Fixed price. See it, want it, have it!)
  2. Come to the Art Show on Saturday between 10 am and 5 pm. Look at auction stuff. Covet it. Buy or Bid.
  3. Pay for your items at the auction, or at the Art Show Sunday morning. Please don’t make us track you down…

The auction starts at 7:30 pm on Saturday night, and will go until the auctioneer cannot stand anymore, or when the laughs stop (whichever comes first).

Any items that go to auction WILL be sold. At the very end, when the auctioneer is tired and most of the audience has left to go to parties, we’ll take a break, and there will be 10 minutes of lightning-fast, last-ditch paper bidding. The highest written bid when the bell rings will be the winner.

Proceeds from the auction, and Buy-It-Now sales all go to support the Tiptree Award. The money you spend supports a worthy cause, and is also tax-deductible (for any $$ over fair market value).

The Tiptree is also supported by t-shirts, temporary tattoos, and cookbooks, all available in the Art Show. They are way cool.

Thanks for all your help and support!

— Space Babe