Portland Science-Fantasy Society

PSFS was a club located in Portland, OR which was formed in 1947 and lasted through 1950 (at least).

It was was a stand-alone club, in no way connected to the previous Portland club, the Progressive Fantasy Fan Federation of the early 40s not did it have a connection to the later Portland Science Fiction Society (PorSFS) -- nor to PSFS, the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society in case you were wondering.

It organized a small (23-person) regional named Norwescon in 1949 and then bid for and won the right to run the 1950 Worldcon, also named NorWesCon. The regional seems to have gone smoothly enough, but running the Worldcon was fraught (but when hasn't that been true?).

Just before the 1949 Worldcon, the Cinvention Donald B. Day, the Treasurer, suspended half the club for non-payment of dues. John de Courcy resigned, then became the temporary chairman of an open meeting to produce a new constitution. The club's officers started handing in their resignations at each meeting, and abolishing both the club and its constitution on special occasions. At one point Dale Donaldson wound up holding all offices in a club which had just been put out of existence again. It the mess that followed, De Courcy nearly tried legal action.

Its clubzines included The Fanscient, edited by a number of people, but rescued by Donald B. Day after the club descended into chaos, and under him it became influential. It also published the Portland Science-Fantasy Society News Bulletin.

A list of active members in September 1947: Lambert Ashton, H. R. Bowman, Fred A. Couch, Forrest C. Davis, Donald B. Day, Bob Hagan, Thomas Harryman, Al L. Montpelier, Ruth Newbury, Ralph Rayburn Phillips, Cherol Preisz, Helen Sandoz, C. W. Pullen, Frank Rossi, Joe Salta, Donna Shaffer, Paul Shaffer, Betty Shreeve, David Shreeve, Gene P. Slyvester, and Gerald Waible.

---

Club

This is a club page. Please extend it by adding information about when and where the club met, when and by whom it was founded, how long it was active, notable accomplishments, well-known members, clubzines, any conventions it ran, external links to the club's website, other club pages, etc. When there's a floreat (Fl.), this indicates the time or times for which we have found evidence that the club existed. This is probably not going to represent the club's full lifetime, so please update it if you can!