Alberta Science Fiction Society

From Canadian Fancyclopedia

by Garth Spencer

Science Fiction club based at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary circa 1971/1972. Meetings often held "high atop the science building in the penthouse lounge at SAIT".

Members included John Mansfield, Randy Thomas, Michael Roberts, Bill Gemmil and John Byrne.

Beginning in 1971 published a newsletter titled THE GREAT NOR-WESTERN NEWS, switching with #5 to the title ALTAEGO. Also in 1971 the club held their first convention, on July 1st, called THE ALBERTA SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY OPEN HOUSE with Guests of Honour Forrest J Ackerman, A. E. van Vogt and J. B. Clarke. 75 fans attended. A second open house was held in August of 1972.

The club apparently faded as members graduated. However, "a new club formed from the remnant, including Bob Gibson, Gordon McNab, Eric Tilbrook, and Grant Thiessen (Owner of Pandora's Books). Eric Tilbrook and Amin Bhatia produced the radio play "Cattlefarm Galactica" and it has been popular ever since (when it appears)." This club (name ?) also faded from view, in 1978. But in 1979 some former members got together and created yet another club, DEC.

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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!