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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