FAPA

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FAPA ("FAP-uh"), the Fantasy Amateur Press Association, the oldest fan apa in the world, distributing members’ fanzines for nearly a century. It was founded in 1937 and is still going. It has been nicknamed, infamously, Where Old Fans Go to Die and The Elephants' Graveyard for most of its existence. However, in the 2020s, it has become a growing organization.

Members are usually called Fapans, but terms such as FAPAte have been tried. Fanzines distributed through FAPA are FAPAzines.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959
Fapans Fapate, Fapans, Faps. All names designating members of FAPA. The second is that endorsed by usage (prob'ly by analogy with "fans") but really the first is correct; FAPA is an association, so its members are associates.
From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944
FAPAzine A fanzine published thru the FAPA; sometimes a synonym for individ fanzine. The name was used as the official title of a thing by Perdue.


Mechanics[edit]

Like other apae, FAPA is primarily an agency for distributing to its members print publications, produced by its members in a variety of formats, at their own expense. Members are required to produce at least 8 pages of minac a year. Mailings are quarterly.

Joining[edit]

According to FAPA's by-laws, to qualify for membership, a prospective member must have done one or more of the following within a year of applying:

  • produced and distributed at least one issue of a fanzine;
  • contributed material (written or artistic) to two fanzines not produced in the same metropolitan area;
  • and/or posted contributions in two different electronic forums.

However, in practice, FAPA had no (or virtually no) new members throughout the 2010s and seemed destined for extinction. As an expedient, when prospective new members suddenly starting showing up in volume in 2022, the primary way they were added was by sponsorship or "franking" by an existing member.

Thus, as of 2023, the way one becomes a member of FAPA is less formal than it has been in the past. To wit:

  • Send a check for $10; and,
  • 20 copies of your zine to the OE:
    Ken Forman
    2234 Marion County 7055
    Flippin, AR 72634

If your zine is accepted (no one has been rejected yet), you're a member so long as you maintain your 8-page minac requirement and the annual check to cover mailing costs. These costs may increase as more members join.

For more information, Ken can also be reached at kforman@att.net.

Officers[edit]

There are annual elections (August) of a secretary-treasurer and Official Editor, limited to two consecutive one-year terms. Other officials have included president, vice-president, Official Critics, a Laureate Committee, and ballot counters. The latter two positions were abandoned by the mid '40s, and the former two in 2009, but a teller for the annual officer elections continues to be appointed by the Secretary-Treasurer.

History[edit]

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959
Fandom's Oldest Organization -- Established 1937 (Or, more usually, approximations and parodies of this) refers to FAPA, which was and is the oldest Fandom-wide organization. There are other clubs like the LASFS and PSFS which are older but are locals.

1930s[edit]

The Fantasy Amateur Press Association was founded in 1937 by Don Wollheim and John Michel. They were inspired to create FAPA by their memberships in some of the non-fan amateur press associations (“ajays”), which they learned of from H. P. Lovecraft. FAPA's original constitutional limit was 50 members to accommodate publishers using hektographs. There were 21 members listed on the roster of the first mailing in August 1937; it took until the November 1938 mailing to fill the 50-member roster. The membership limit was raised to 65 in 1944 and has remained at that level ever since.

The early years of FAPA were stormy with party politics and sociological feuds (for details, see Jack Speer's pioneering fan history, Up to Now), and its third year, 1939-40, was marked by the Interregnum. Thereafter the prophets of Third Fandom came into control.

FAPA Campaign[edit]

The 1938 elections for the officers of the newly-created FAPA were seen at the time as a battle for the future of fandom between the Don Wollheim–John Michel axis and the non-political fans.

Wollheim was at the peak of his influence in fandom -- basically, he dominated it -- and arranged to continue control over FAPA by running a slate of officers and by sending out his slate’s attacks on the opposition along with the ballots. His slate won because, in those days of much slower communication, most of the FAPA membership had no idea what was going on. Once fans did realize how Wollheim had played them, sentiment turned against his group and it resigned.

While Wollheim and company continued to be very influential, they never again dominated fandom.

Jack Speer, while very much a player in these events, produced the first fanhistory, Up To Now, in 1939 and described the process in detail. For a full and fairly well-balanced account, see the chapters:

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944
Pronounced variously [efeipiei], [faepe], and [fapa]. The Fantasy Amateur Press Association, constituted in 1937 by Wollheim, and Michel. Others soon joined, up to its constitutional limit of 50 (changed to 65 in 1943). The FAPA's first year was stormy with party politics and sociological feuds, and its third year, 1939-40, was marked by the Interregnum. Thereafter the profets of the Third Fandom came into control, and it prospered to become the longest-lived successful fan organization.

It is primarily an agency for distributing to its members publications put out by its members at their own expense. This it does by mailings every three months. Members are required to be active in some way, writing or publishing. There are annual elections in June of a president, vice president, secretary-treasure, and Official Editor (he also does the mailing), who cannot held the same post again for five years. Other officials are the official critics, laureate committee, and ballot counters. Red tape is at a minimum.

1940s[edit]

Order of Dagon[edit]

(Did you mean the Esoteric Order of Dagon?)

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959
Order of Dagon In 1944 FAPA had become somewhat cumbered with deadwood and official resistance to change frustrated attempts to get the latter out by tightening activity requirements, etc. By December 1944 the Battle Creek-Bloomington-Los Angeles Axis had plans for an anschluss in FAPA well in hand. The Futurians were to be quashed by a nebulous group, the Freedom Party, standing for strengthened activity requirements and some miscellaneous projects which came to nothing. It was to be backed up by a secret self-perpetuating group known as the Order of Dagon; this started with the three plotters mentioned above (Ashley, Tucker, and Laney) and included such folk as Liebscher, Wiedenbeck, Saari, Spencer, Rothman, Croutch, Perdue, and Ackerman. The Order was to implement the Freedom Party program by bloc voting and by presenting all FP candidates for office, and successfully swung its first election. But the anti-Futurian aspect of the move was frustrated by the Little Interregnum, when the Futurians abdicated their leadership and withdrew into VAPA.

1944 also saw a special election about racism, spurred by obnoxious opinions of Jack Speer.

At the beginning of 1945, withdrawal of the Futurians, some of whom were officers, precipitated a Little Interregnum and during the next two years a series of officers who failed to properly function plagued the group (see Blitzkrieg).

In 1947, Speer reformed the Constitution, and the Insurgents quashed the last inactive OE, Elmer Perdue. Since then official troubles have mostly not disturbed FAPA, and red tape has been held to a minimum. The Constitution was again revised in 1958 (also by Speer) to incorporate amendments, bylaws, and practices adopted since 1947.

Where Old Fans Go to Die[edit]

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959
(Sneary:Laney) or any parody of this slogan has reference to FAPA, on account of the tenacity with which members clung to the roster toward the end of World War II. ("FAPA members never quit and rarely died.") Laney, struck by Sneary's coinage, stuck this phrase on the masthead of the FA during his OEship (1948). On gaining office, Sneary as VP banned usage of the phrase there or in any FAPAzine. "Why, I wonder?" wonders Burbee. "I suppose he decided that it wasn't as funny or as significant as we claimed."
From Fancyclopedia 2 Supplement, ca. 1960
Sneary's term did not refer to the "tenacity with which members clung to the roster" -- in Winter 47-8 there was no waiting list at all. What he meant was that actifans who had produced important subzine work were withdrawing from this activity to spend their declining years (fannishly speaking) in FAPA. And "I wasn't VP [when I banned the phrase from FAPA appearance]" recollects Sneary, "but Prexy. I made many foolish rulings, like no one being allowed to read a FAPAzine before the mailing -- including its editor -- and appointing myself, at the end of my term, as FAPA's ex-vice-president for a term of 9 years, to run concurrent with Perdue (who was the ex-President for 10 years)."

1950s–70s[edit]

During the '50s and '60s FAPA was so popular and membership so sought after that the waiting list grew to monumental proportions, for a period of time exceeding the number of membership slots on the FAPA roster. A waiting list fee was instituted to cover the cost of sending the Fantasy Amateur to so many fans awaiting membership, and a requirement that wait list periodically acknowledge receipt of the Fantasy Amateur was begun in order to weed out those who lost interest during the long wait. Bill Danner started the FATE Tape (the Fantasy Amateur Tape Exchange) for FAPA members in 1955.

The '60s also saw more FAPA fan politics: As recounted in Ratatosk #6 and #7, ten or so members of FAPA blackballed the entire waitlist, apparently to protest the blackballing provision in the FAPA constitution, thus eliminating the entire waitlist. The Secretary-Treasurer of FAPA duly cleared the waitlist and then immediately invoked a precedent from the 1940s when FAPA was short of members, and selected a group of fans to be on a new waitlist. By coincidence, the new waitlist looked a very great deal like the old one.... In a similar vein, Rick Sneary proposed an amendment to the FAPA constitution that no member of The Cult (another apa) be allowed to be FAPA members. Someone arranged for all FAPA members who were not members of The Cult to be granted Honorary Membership in it -- and Dick Eney ran a large Fantasy Rotator, Avanc 8 through FAPA -- so that if the Sneary amendment passed, everyone would be thrown out of FAPA. (It failed 24 to 6.)

1980s–2010s[edit]

Decline and Fall[edit]

With the growth of the Internet, paper-based fanac began to decline generally, and most apas faltered in competition with online forums.

FAPA had long been known as the last stomping grounds of geriatric fandom, and at this point, the waiting list became much smaller, and in the mid-'90s had disappeared altogether. The number of members had also shrunk as existing members died or otherwise dropped off the roster. As of May 2016, there were 23 active participants; by May 2017, there were just 19.

A major revision of the FAPA Constitution occurred in 2001 under the oversight of Robert Lichtman (Secretary-Treasurer 1986–2022), clarifying and conforming constitutional requirements with actual practice.

2020s[edit]

Renaissance[edit]

At the beginning of 2022, the nadir of FAPA, there were only 13 members.

In 2021, Erica Frank, a fanwriter and member of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Galactic Journey, made the intensive effort to determine whether the legendary FAPA still existed and, if so, how to join. It wasn't easy. Eventually, she got a hold of member Roger Wells, who put her in contact with Ken Forman.

Erica joined in the second mailing of 2022 (May). This sparked an inflow of people, all tracing back to her. Since Erica, a new member has joined every quarter, and the rolls now total 19 (one longtime member, Robert Lichtman, died in 2022, and is being kept on the rolls as a posthumous honor).

Thus, FAPA is undergoing a comparatively explosive revival while maintaining the timbre and tradition of the original organization. It is hoped that FAPA can reach its 65-member cap (and explore what to do then!) in time for its hundredth anniversary.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959
("FAP-uh") The Fantasy Amateur Press Association, constituted in 1937 by Wollheim and Michel. Others soon joined, up to its constitutional limit of 50 (raised to 65 in 1943). The first year of FAPA was stormy with party politics and sociological feuds, and its third year, 1939-40, was marked by the Interregnum. Thereafter the prophets of Third Fandom came into control. At the beginning of 1945 withdrawal of the Futurians, some of whom were officers, precipitated a Little Interregnum and during the next two years a series of officers who refused to function plagued the group (see blitzkrieg). In 1947 Speer reformed the Constitution, and the Insurgents quashed the last inactive OE, Perdue. Since then official troubles have not disturbed FAPA, and red tape has been held to a minimum. The Constitution was again revised in 1958 (also by Speer) to incorporate amendments, bylaws, and practices adopted since 1947.

FAPA is primarily an agency for distributing to its members publications put out by its members at their own expense. This it does by mailings every three months. Members are required to be active in some way -- writing or publishing -- and produce at least 8 pages of activity a year. There are annual elections (August) of a president, vice-president, secretary-treasurer and Official Editor; the two former cannot hold the same post again for five years. Other officials have included Official Critics, a Laureate Committee, and ballot counters.

FAPA was the stronghold of the Brain Trust during Third Fandom, and has always been the most influential general fan organization; in fact, such APAs are the only general fan organizations that are really active.

Members of FAPA and their FAPAzines included:[edit]

FAPA Issues and Officers[edit]

See FAPA Issues and Officers for a full list.


Publication 1937—
This is a publication page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was published, how many issues it has had, (including adding a partial or complete checklist), its contents (including perhaps a ToC listing), its size and repro method, regular columnists, its impact on fandom, or by adding scans or links to scans. See Standards for Publications.

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