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Category Archives: ICFA

Call for Applications for Conference Director

CALL FOR APPLICANTS FOR CONFERENCE DIRECTOR
Appointed Position, Effective March 17, 2019

IAFA seeks applicants for the position of Conference Director of the ICFA. The Conference Director is an appointed, voting member of the IAFA Board of Directors. Qualified candidates ideally should have experience with all phases of conference planning, including site inspections for potential sites, negotiation with hotels, and managing the conference on site. In addition, the Conference Director must attend the June Board meeting as well as conduct a site visit ten days prior to the conference.

The specific duties of the Conference Director are as follows:

General Overview
Make all necessary arrangements for the holding of the IAFA annual conference, including, but not limited to hotel site inspection and selection with Board approval, negotiation of all contracts with hotels with Board approval; providing for the physical needs of the annual conference and the annual Board of Directors meeting.

Time Line and Outline of Duties
The Conference Chair position requires year-round work on IAFA matters, and a planning cycle that looks 3-5 years into the future to ensure that appropriate contracts are in place for upcoming conferences. The contract negotiation duties encompass providing for meeting rooms, guest rooms, meal functions, and the maintenance of concessions in support of our event from the hotel (currently these include a reception, suites, upgrades, and complementary room nights). The negotiated contract must be approved by the Board and be consistent with current IAFA operations.

The Conference Director is responsible for inspecting and securing all physical spaces needed for the conference and for the summer Board meeting; investigating alternative properties, as directed by the Board; planning the annual conference budget; planning the menus and prices for conference food functions; making hotel reservations for major guests; managing all ongoing relations with the hotel, including guest rooms; negotiating an overflow hotel as needed; and monitoring food and beverage commitments leading up to and at the conference, adjusting as needed. The Conference Director must attend the conference each year and be available to make adjustments in any of these matters and otherwise troubleshoot, as required. The Conference Director is responsible for reviewing the account with the hotel and making any required payments at the end of each conference.

How to Apply
Application should include a cover letter, a one-page statement of previous event planning experience with an emphasis on budgeting and managing relationships with hotels, and a letter of reference from someone familiar with the candidate’s work in these capacities.

Please send all materials to Sherryl Vint, IAFA President, at sherryl.vint@gmail.com.

Applications are due February 20, 2019. The Board will review applications and make a selection prior to the start of the 2019 conference. The new Conference Director will be announced at the conclusion of that conference, with duties to commence immediately for the 2020 conference cycle.

ICFA 40 Overflow Hotel and Registration Information

ICFA 40 “Politics and Conflict”
When: March 13–17, 2019

Where: Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA

Guest Scholar: Mark Bould (University of the West of England)

Guest Author: G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel, Alif the Unseen)

Cost: Regular registration ($135 for nonstudent registrants, $55 for students) closes on January 30. Note that the Friday Guest Scholar lunch is included with your registration fee. The other meals cost extra.

Late registration closes on February 22. After that you must sign up on site.

Hotel update: The conference hotel is SOLD OUT. Thank you to all who support the conference by choosing to stay at the Marriott! However, we have negotiated a block of rooms at the conference rate of $140/night at the nearby Sheraton. The rate is good March 13 to 17. The last day to book is February 13.

The overflow hotel’s direct conference link is here: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1548254683340&key=GRP&app=resvlink

Looking forward to seeing you in Orlando!

Karen Hellekson, ICFA Registrar (iafareg AT gmail.com)

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ICFA 40 Registration and Hotel Information

ICFA 40 “Politics and Conflict”
When: March 13–17, 2019

Where: Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA

Guest Scholar: Mark Bould (University of the West of England)

Guest Author: G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel, Alif the Unseen)

Event details

Cost: Early registration closes on January 14. Regular registration goes up to $135 for nonstudent registrants and remains $55 for students. Prices go up again for late registration! Note that the Friday Guest Scholar lunch is included with your registration fee. The other meals cost extra.

Late registration closes on February 22. After that you must sign up on site.

Hotel update: January and the first week of February are usually our highest hotel registration periods. We currently have plenty of rooms except for the Monday before the conference, when the hotel block is sold out. Every other night except March 11, 2019, is currently available, but please do remember that the hotel does sell out, and once our block is filled, we will be unable to increase the block. If you are notified that our block is filled, please get in touch immediately. We will then negotiate for an overflow hotel, if possible.

Graduate students: Not sure yet if you got funding? Go ahead and book your room anyway. You can always cancel it, and the conference hotel nearly always sells out. Also, the room rates at the conference hotel are by room, regardless of the number of people in it. Feel free to share!

Problems logging in? What if the system fails to recognize your name/e-mail combination? Don’t create a new profile. STOP and e-mail me. I can update your info.

Do you have a credit? (The system will tell you.) Sign up as usual, which will generate an invoice. Then STOP. Do not pay. Instead, e-mail me with the invoice number or numbers and tell me to apply your credit. I will then contact you with your outstanding balance, if any.

Looking forward to seeing you in Orlando!

Karen Hellekson, ICFA Registrar (iafareg AT gmail.com)

Availability of Hotel Rooms for ICFA 40

Availability of Hotel Rooms

January and the first week of February are usually our highest hotel registration periods. Our situation right now is that we have plenty of rooms except for the Monday before the conference when our block is sold out. Every other night except 11 March is currently available, but please do remember that the hotel does sell out during our conference, and once our block is filled, we will be unable to increase the block. If you are notified that our block is filled, please get in touch immediately. We will then negotiate for an overflow hotel, if possible.
With every good wish for 2019!

Donald Morse, IAFA Conference Chair

ICFA Membership Survey

Hello IAFA Members!

Make sure to check the email account linked to your IAFA Member Profile for an important survey from the IAFA Board.

Information for ICFA 40

ICFA 40 “Politics and Conflict”

When: March 13–17, 2019

Where: Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA

Guest Scholar: Mark Bould (University of the West of England)

Guest Author: G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel, Alif the Unseen)

Membership and registration gateway: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/mnrgateway/

Cost: Early registration is $110 for regular members and $55 for students. Those presenting must be IAFA members, which costs $85 for North American individual, $90 for international individual, and $60 for student individual.

Please note that the Friday Guest Scholar lunch is included with your registration fee. The other meals cost extra.

Complete price list (prices go up January 14, 2019): https://www.fantastic-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ICFA-40-price-summary.pdf

Authors, artists, and editors: Invitation emails have been sent out separately.

Graduate students: Not sure yet if you got funding? Go ahead and book your room anyway. You can always cancel it, and the conference hotel nearly always sells out. Also, the room rates at the conference hotel are by room, regardless of the number of people in it. Feel free to share!

Merch: All merch is now the same price: $25 per piece. Regular T-shirts and fitted T-shirts (formerly called ladies’ fitted T-shirts), as well as small and large totes, all cost the same. Now if you realize you would prefer another piece of merch, you can freely exchange it, as there is no price difference.

Problems logging in? What if the system fails to recognize your name/e-mail combination? Don’t create a new profile. STOP and e-mail me. I can update your info.

Are you a joint membership holder? The joint membership administrator first must pay the IAFA membership fee through her own account. Then each person must log in individually and sign up for the conference. It’s best if the admin doesn’t do this through her account because the system populates the sign-up form, and it will mess up individual preferences, like division membership or dietary needs. If you want everything on one invoice, then generate invoices for each transaction (joint membership; individual conference attendance). Then STOP. Email me the invoice numbers and I will contact you with directions on how to pay with one transaction.

Do you have a credit? (The system will tell you.) Sign up as usual, which will generate an invoice. Then STOP. Do not pay. Instead, e-mail me with the invoice number and tell me to apply your credit. I will then contact you with your outstanding balance, if any.

Looking forward to seeing you in Orlando!

Karen Hellekson, ICFA Registrar (iafareg AT gmail.com)

ICFA 40 Announcement of 25th Anniversary of Dell Magazines Award

ICFA 40 Announcement of 25th Anniversary of Dell Magazines Award

At ICFA 40, the Dell Magazines Award will celebrate its 25th anniversary with the return of the first Dell Award winner, Eric Choi, to the Conference on the Fantastic. Choi, a celebrated Canadian aerospace engineer and award-winning writer and editor, will receive a special commemorative plaque at the conference awards banquet from Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine and co-founder and co-judge of the award with author and teacher Rick Wilber. The Dell Magazines Undergraduate Award for Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (formerly the Asimov Award) honors the best previously unpublished undergraduate science-fiction or fantasy short story of the year. A number of other winners and finalists from previous years will be in attendance.

Call for Nominations by 30 October 2018: IAFA President and First Vice President

Call for Nominations by 30 October 2018: IAFA President and First Vice President

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts announces a call for nominations for the elected Executive Board positions of President and First Vice President. To be eligible for President, an IAFA member in good standing must have served either as a Division Head or as a member of the IAFA Executive Board. Any IAFA member in good standing may run for the position of First Vice President.

Those interested in running or in nominating someone for either position should send a nomination to both IAFA Immediate Past-President Sydney Duncan at and IAFA Chief Technical Officer Michael Smith at by 30 October 2018. The Election Committee will notify each nominee of her or his nomination and will provide each with the names of everyone else who has accepted nomination during that election cycle. Candidates declining nomination must notify the Election Committee immediately upon notification of their nomination.

Candidates eligible for the offices to which they have been nominated and willing to run for those offices will be asked to submit position statements by 20 November 2018. The Election Committee will distribute position statements and ballots to the membership on 10 December 2018, and ballots will be counted by the Election Committee after 10 January 2019. If no candidate receives a majority vote, a runoff election between the two candidates who have received the most votes will be conducted. The Election Committee will announce results of the election at the IAFA business meeting at ICFA 40 in March 2019, with additional announcements in appropriate IAFA venues thereafter.

For those elected, terms will begin immediately following the conclusion of ICFA 40 in March 2019 and will last for three years. Duties of each position are listed below. Please contact Sydney Duncan if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!

President

The President is the chief executive officer, responsible for directing and coordinating all functions of the organization, including the annual conference, the quarterly journal, other sponsored publications, the Awards Program, and public relations of all kinds. The President sets the agenda for, and presides at, all meetings of the Executive Board and the annual business meeting at the ICFA. The President is also the chief planning officer, responsible for setting agenda in all Association projects. The President oversees the work of the other officers, recruits special guests, seeks institutional support, confirms non-elected Board members, etc. The President is elected by majority vote of the IAFA members who participate in the election.

First Vice President

The First Vice President coordinates the ICFA Program, overseeing the work of the Divisions Heads and scheduling paper sessions for the Annual Conference Program. The First Vice President also consults with the President and Second Vice President concerning appearances by special guests in panels, readings, and lectures, and with the Conference Chair about physical arrangements such as AV equipment, room assignments, etc. The First Vice President substitutes for the President when necessary. The First Vice President also oversees the IAFA David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award, including the following: advertising the award, organizing the prize committee, and collecting and forwarding submissions to the committee for a blind reading process. The First Vice President is elected by majority vote of the IAFA members who participate in the election.

Important Information for ICFA 40

ICFA 40 “Politics and Conflict”

When: March 13–17, 2019

Where: Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA

Guest Scholar: Mark Bould (University of the West of England)

Guest Author: G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel, Alif the Unseen)

Will you be attending?
Register: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/event-2865930

Event details

Call for papers: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/annual-conference/submissions/ or as a PDF: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ICFA40-CFP-Final-1.pdf

Proposal deadline: October 31, 2018.

Membership and registration gateway: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/mnrgateway/

Cost: Regular member early registration is $110; it goes up to $135 on January 15, 2019; then up again to $165 on February 1. Students, there is no early registration fee break for you. Use the “normal” registration fee of $55, which goes up to $110 on February 1. Please note that the Friday Guest Scholar lunch is included with your registration fee. The other meals cost extra.

Preferred pronouns: We now have a ticky box for your preferred pronouns. This will appear on your badge unless you opt out.

Swag update: We have abolished the pink tax. All swag is now the same price: $25 per piece (up slightly from last year). Regular T-shirts and fitted T-shirts (formerly called ladies’ fitted T-shirts), as well as small and large totes, all cost the same. Bonus: if you realize you would prefer another piece of swag, you can freely exchange it, as there is no price difference.

Problems logging in? What if the system fails to recognize your name/e-mail combination? Don’t create a new profile. STOP and e-mail me. I can update your info.

Do you have a credit? (The system will tell you.) Sign up as usual, which will generate an invoice. Then STOP. Do not pay. Instead, e-mail me and tell me to apply your credit to the invoice. I will then contact you with your outstanding balance, if any.

Looking forward to seeing you in Orlando!
Karen Hellekson, ICFA Registrar (iafareg@gmail.com)

CFP: “Politics and Conflict,” the 40th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

Please join us for ICFA 40, March 13-17, 2019, when our theme will be “Politics and Conflict.”

We welcome papers on the work of: Guest Scholar Mark Bould (Reader, University of the West of England; winner of the SFRA Pilgrim Award; author of several books on sf including Science Fiction: The Routledge Film Guidebook) and Guest Author G. Willow Wilson (winner of a PEN Center award; writer of the Hugo-Award-winning series Ms. Marvel, author of Alif the Unseen). Speculative texts have a tremendous power to help us envision how the world might be otherwise and to see the historical contingencies that have given us the world as we find it. Fantastic genres allow us to imagine other paths that history might have taken and to explore the power dynamics of conflicts among competing factions, from the local scale of family and gender arrangements to the global scale of transnational trade and migration. Such texts can often articulate critiques that would have been silenced by censorship of realist genres in times and places of government, religious, or other oppression. We invite papers that understand the concept of politics very broadly, from international relations and structures of governance, through to the politics of everyday life. If at times the genres of the fantastic can be complicit in naturalizing and perpetuating dominant power structures and the politics they endorse, more often they provide a rich set of tools for telling such stories from marginalized perspectives, visions that cannot be captured by a realism that is structured by default ideological assumptions. We also welcome proposals for individual papers, academic sessions, creative presentations, and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media. We will gather in 2019 to question, celebrate, argue over, and deduce speculative fiction’s contributions to thinking through the politics and conflicts of our past and its capacity to guide us toward more inclusive futures.

The deadline for proposals is October 31, 2018. We encourage work from institutionally affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, graduate students. Artists are encouraged to submit proposals for our Creative Track, which features sessions on writing, art, music, and poetry, as well as panel discussions on topics of interest for creative professionals.

For more information on the IAFA and its conference, the ICFA, see https://www.fantastic-arts.org/.

The Submissions Portal opens on September 1st. To submit a proposal, go to https://www.fantastic-arts.org/icfa-submissions/.

To contact the Division Heads for help with submissions, go to https://www.fantastic-arts.org/about/governance/division-heads/.

For more information about the Creative Track, go to https://www.fantastic-arts.org/annual-conference/creative-track/.