C/FO national officer list?

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mbanu
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C/FO national officer list?

Post by mbanu »

Does anyone happen to have one? Most info seems to focus on the beginning or the end...

At the start In 1977, there was Wendell Washer, Robin Leyden, Judith "Judy" Niver, Fred Patten, and Mark Merlino. Fred always refers to his role as the "secretary"; was this false modesty? I don't know if he has become more mentioned as time has passed simply because he kept talking about the C/FO when others have gone quiet, or if there was some kind of shadow government fan politics going on. (^_^)

Were there formal roles in the beginning? The club had a charter, at least, which usually seems to imply some sort of organizational structure.

Mark Merlino is often credited with the programming by Fred Patten, although it sounds like he was more responsible for getting the programming in front of other people. Apparently a lot of the early tapes were actually from Wendell Washer, an animator and general animation collector who had purchased an industrial Sony U-Matic and was using his industry connections to gain access to original reels for transfers, but more for archival purposes than promotional ones.

Judy Niver named the C/FO and hosted meetings when the LASFS was between clubhouses, but I'm not sure if she had a more formal role.

I'm not quite sure who Robin Leyden is. (^_^;)

After that I can't seem to find much about the national C/FO leadership until 1987 or so, when Mark Keller of C/FO Hayward was president, then on to Randall Stukey and the end.

Anyone have any clues on the gaps?
mbanu: What's between Old School and New School?
runesaint: Hmmm. "Middle School", perhaps?
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mbanu
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Re: C/FO national officer list?

Post by mbanu »

mbanu wrote:Mark Merlino is often credited with the programming by Fred Patten, although it sounds like he was more responsible for getting the programming in front of other people. Apparently a lot of the early tapes were actually from Wendell Washer, an animator and general animation collector who had purchased an industrial Sony U-Matic and was using his industry connections to gain access to original reels for transfers, but more for archival purposes than promotional ones.
Mostly basic this guess off of a comment by Merlino:
Mark Merlino wrote: I met Wendell Washer, an animator for Filmation, and Robin Lyden, a special effects creator, both were huge Japanese animation fans, and had recordings of older US TV shows (Astroboy, Amazing 3, Kimba the White Lion, Marine Boy, etc.). Wendell had copied Robin’s real-to-real B&W video tapes to his massive U-Matic cassette recorder. I had a borrowed U-Matic player, and would borrow his tapes to show my friends. I had the machine and the tapes in my car one Sunday, when the local Loscon was winding-down… I found a TV in a meeting room, and started showing Uusha Raideen and Getta Robo-G episodes. The LASFS fans loved it, and so we decided to have regular screenings at the club house…
(http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/ho ... me-fandom/)

It sounds kind of like copies of Washer's tapes ended up as seeds for other national trades, managed by Merlino:
Fred Patten wrote:Mark Merlino was in charge of providing the video programming, and I never knew where he got all of his anime videos from. Some were recorded from Los Angeles TV; some were traded with fans in other cities for the anime on their local stations. Some were traded with fans in Japan who wanted American s-f TV programs. Some were traded with American fans who got them from rental videos in their local Japanese communities. Some were favorites with dozens of episodes available, while others were samples with only one or two available.
(http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/an ... h-america/)

In another comment, Fred Patten suggests that the first two non-Californian clubs in the C/FO were C/FO New York under Jerry Beck and possibly C/FO Philadelphia under Bill Thomas -- it looks like there was some informal correspondence for a few years before the club became official?:
Fred Patten wrote:Bill Thomas of Philadelphia was probably the first person, except possibly for Jerry Beck who was in NYC in those days, outside of Los Angeles who showed any interest in Japanese animation. This was around 1978 or 1979. Bill’s enthusiasm helped lead to the decision to reorganize the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization as a federation of anime fan clubs for trading copies of tapes; and the C/FO-Philadelphia, run by Bill, was one of the first chapters outside Los Angeles. (Started as late as September 1982? I would’ve guessed earlier.)
Luke Menichelli wrote:Bill was showing anime tapes to various people before forming the club. I contacted you in 1982 about creating a chapter and you gave me his name along with four others necessary to make the quota of six required for a chapter.
(http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/fr ... 2008-2009/)

Were any of the national officers from those clubs?
mbanu: What's between Old School and New School?
runesaint: Hmmm. "Middle School", perhaps?
davemerrill
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Re: C/FO national officer list?

Post by davemerrill »

I don't have a list handy, but I was the last "Secretary" of the General C/FO (for some reason that's what we called the national club). Mostly it involved answering a lot of letters that would be forwarded to me from the General club PO box. I still have a lot of those letters in a file folder labeled "Clods' Letters To C/FO" after the Mad Magazine letter column title.

My rigorous interview and approval process consisted of me getting a phone call from Fred Patten, he asked "do you want to be the C/FO Secretary?" and I said "Sure."

When the General club authority moved to San Antonio, I was dismissed from my secretarial duties. I don't know if the position even survived the transition.
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mbanu
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Re: C/FO national officer list?

Post by mbanu »

davemerrill wrote:I don't have a list handy, but I was the last "Secretary" of the General C/FO (for some reason that's what we called the national club).
The Obi-Wan Kenobi of the C/FO. (^_^)
davemerrill wrote:Mostly it involved answering a lot of letters that would be forwarded to me from the General club PO box. I still have a lot of those letters in a file folder labeled "Clods' Letters To C/FO" after the Mad Magazine letter column title.
That's really entertaining! Any weird ones?
mbanu: What's between Old School and New School?
runesaint: Hmmm. "Middle School", perhaps?
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