Well, after the 'Council of War' on November 19th 2005, a clear sign was given as to the views of our club and how it can be developed (and how fandom per se has developed) within our 'modern age'.



Discussion became quite intense regarding the dichotomy between face to face fandom contact, and the IT revolution of cyber contact that has emerged as a predominant way of communicating and socialising with others. This can easily be seen as a trend of the times, with many commentators describing the twenty first century's social world as the 'Age of the Screenager'.



Acually, the use of the Internet was ardently defended by the majority of SFSA members, who cited that many good and fulfilling friendships and happy times have been shared between people throughout cyber space. Considering that the Internet is an essential aspect of youth culture and is growing to become one of the most powerful sources of communication, it is no wonder that it has been seen as an asset to the SFSA rather than a hindrance.



Although I really enjoy contributing to Forums (why else would I be doing this!?!?) on the SFSA website, I also enjoy socialsing with the people behind the interface of my PC, and having the benefits of seeing expressions and hearing tones of voice.



From the 'Council of War', the following data was gathered:



1) We are a social group and we gather in public spaces to socialise.



2) We need to expand our membership - and the following suggestions were put forward as possible ways to achieve this :

"David suggested registering a domain name based on the name South

Australian Doctor Who Fan Club, and as he was the one who did this for

us with <sfsa.org.au> he would be the one performing this. Conversely he

felt keeping the other string of badging the club as SFSA was valuable

and seemed happy with continuing to occupy that space also.



Another issue which simply leap out at us was youth membership. By sheer

coincidence we happened to have three pre-pubescent males attend the

club, a very strong hint that we needed to factor this in.



I am myself in the process of organising another mail out to public high

schools as per our 2002 experience, except this time we want it to be

successful and affordable.



[Dot points from James R.'s notes.]



* Catering for different age groups.



We discussed the mid-nineties format of an afternoon session which was

child friendly and a more adult evening session.



* Merchandise.



Stephen suggested returning to the club being an outlet for merchandise.



* Book club/multimedia/discussion group/start an SFSA library.



Essentially this is occurring now, this was both a suggestion to

formalise the ongoing loaning of material from member to member as a

club asset.

James R. has written a proposal of forming a discussion group under the

umbrella of the club.



* SFSA publications and news on line.



David is still willing to arrange downloadable versions of our entire

archive, and is eager to see a members section for the current publications.



* Promote website.



Tim is preparing a new version of the website. Apart from requiring more

content, this would also wipe our current forum posts."



3) *The Internet is surpassing the SFSA and fandom in general as a way of socialising - AND IT WAS THE INTERENT THAT WAS HOTLY DEBATED AS BEING THE VEHICLE WHICH COULD HELP DEVELOP OUR CLUB AND BOOST ITS MEMBERSHIP*

It seems that the cyber world is both the nemesis of fandom social groups, and the genesis of a new way of developing the social aspects of fandom (in both the cyber aspect, and as a way of enticing people to come along to meeetings).



This is an extremely interesting conundrum, and I have already emailed a majority of our members my ideas for helping the club to grow ('The Big Picture and You' document, which also includes the need for the use of the Internet).

I think that this forum is a great opportunity for us to start seriously examining the arguments outlined above and considering how the Internet can *help* the social aspect of the SFSA as a club that people wold like to physically attend.



We're online, the challenges have been set, and this is an open forum for discussion - let's go.........................................

Hi Jimmy,



I had been a member of the SADWFC for many years until I let my membership lapse. I will be signing up again very soon,,, and the only reason I was able to sign up again was because of the internet.



I had no old correspondence or contact details, I just typed in the info. I needed to www.google.com.au and it delivered me here



Because I the site I am able to renew my membership (though it would have been nice to have membership forms online )



I, as a prospective member, would encourage the greater use of the website as a means of communication and socialising.



Whilst I would love to attend some meetings (and I will try) and I live in Adelaide thre are various obstacles in the way of me attending.



So at least with the website I have a chance to get my dribblish opinions on the radar something I lacked back inthe old days of the 1990s. And this lack of interaction is what eventually led to my lapse in membership.



Enough of my incoherent, illiterate waffle. Have a nice day

Hi Sneb!



I found out about the SFSA exactly the same way as you did!!!!!



Desperate for social contact with other sentient life forms led me to 'bite the bullet' and go to the Adleaide High meeting back in March of this year.

It was the best decision I've made for my social life this century!!!!



But.......this does say a lot about the internet - obviously it is a friend to the club - its getting us members!!!!!



P.S. - If you want, start up a forum on this site - I regularly get on waffle out my thoughts (and so do others).

I discovered SFSA when I met someone at a Star Trek con, they told me they knew of a great fan club for science fiction and we decided to meet there.

She never turned up, but I met a wonderful group of people.

Is that before you came to our club...

Hi all

I just joined after doing a Google search for Doctor Who fan clubs in Adelaide and found this site. I have been wanting to link up with fellow Whovians but unsure how, where when etc. I find the Internet a valuable source of info and to connect up with others.

I have some suggestions about the website... (I'm a newbie so please don't be too harsh on me if I posted this in the wrong place  LOL  )

It's the look of a website which first grabs my attention. The first thing I noticed about this site was that it could be made to look more attractive with graphics and better layout. (I could be fussy due to my artistic background ) Making it more 'user friendly' and easier to find things could help also. A contacts page is needed too as I wanted find an email address to find out what happens at the meetings but couldn't find one.

Ok, I've added my two cents worth 

I disagree about the extra graphics.
They load down a web site, and for those who are still on dial up, it takes too long to load. Plus I find too many graphics can distract from the information some one is looking for.
That is MY one cents worth (that is all my opinion is worth now days).
As for finding things, you could be right as I am long time user, I forget sometimes about how new visitors see links.
You quite right about contact details. I am sure our IT  supremeo will add this soon.
Timetraveller, if you live in Adelaide, come along to our meetings (This Saturday Adelaide High School 3PM onwards to late at night). We have a couple of members who also into making costumes (not always at every meeting thou), and of course we have a number magazines which are dying for contributions of any sort.

Timetraveller : Hi all I have some suggestions about the website... (I'm a newbie so please don't be too harsh on me if I posted this in the wrong place  LOL  )

Everyone is welcome, even newbies

Timetraveller : It's the look of a website which first grabs my attention. The first thing I noticed about this site was that it could be made to look more attractive with graphics and better layout. (I could be fussy due to my artistic background ) Making it more 'user friendly' and easier to find things could help also. A contacts page is needed too as I wanted find an email address to find out what happens at the meetings but couldn't find one.

I agree, the layout could be improved, but it's functional.  Most things are easy to find (except as you pointed out, the contact page was missing).

Being a purist (read BOFH), I prefer my websites to be fast to load, and easy to navigate.  Not everyone has unlimited bandwidth at broadband speeds so adding more graphics is not an option I want to resort to if I can avoid it.

I have however, been working on a purely CSS based layout which gives all the niceness and prettiness of images with only CSS and HTML, with possibly a little javascript thrown in for good measure, I just haven't had the time to finish it yet.

Good on you Tim; everyone's happy with you and we carry you on a chair.

Martin : Good on you Tim; everyone's happy with you and we carry you on a chair.

No you don't, at least not without a good chiropractor on hand.

I forgot that some people still have dial-up and that more graphics or fancy buttons would takeup more bandwidth, sorry about that  .

I'm spoilt here with supersonic, lightspeed ADSL  so I tend to lose all contact with reality...LOL! 

..I'm thinking about popping in to take a look at the meeting on Sat.

Timetraveller : I forgot that some people still have dial-up and that more graphics or fancy buttons would takeup more bandwidth, sorry about that  .

It's part of my job, I have to keep it in mind.

Timetraveller : I'm spoilt here with supersonic, lightspeed ADSL  so I tend to lose all contact with reality...LOL!

I have quite a reasonable connection as well, but I still get shivers down my spine when I think how recently I had dialup.

Timetraveller : ..I'm thinking about popping in to take a look at the meeting on Sat.

Feel free, it's at Adelaide High School starting around 3pm.

I dunno HOW I managed without Broadband! Oh dial up...brings back memories ...most of them not good!

If I didn't have ADSL it would take me ages to back up the interweb once a week