Join the Army and See the Navy
We said last time that we want to know "what kind of intense and interesting and weird programming ideas you want to see," or be on. Of course, that's kind of ambiguous: what sort of programming is interesting?

Our working theory is that, first, programming at Minicon should be enjoyed by the people who attend. We're not doing panels for the good of the panelists' souls. Second, programming should be about things that interest the people who come to Minicon- first and foremost science fiction, fantasy, the SF community, and the works of our Guests of Honor. And related subjects. Which covers a lot of ground.

Your programming department is acquainted with a long list of Minicon regulars - easily enough to fill the program slots. But we suspect we're overlooking folks we don't know so well, people with fascinating specialized knowledge, heartfelt opinions, unusual points of view, new things to say, and jokes we haven't heard yet. We want to hear from those people. Yes, you.

A Few Notes on Good Programming
We want to avoid the kind of panel that simply asks a flat question, like "Can you write good fantasy outside of the Western mythic model?" The answer is yes, the discussion runs short, and the panelists spend the rest of the hour vamping. That's a wasted opportunity.

Any panel that starts off with any of the panelists saying "I have no idea why they put me on this panel" is probably the result of suboptimal program planning. So is any panel with a title so cutesy and convoluted that the panelists can't tell what the subject is supposed to be.

We're fond of the kind of simple panel idea (for instance, "Most Important Books Of Last Year") that serves as an opportunity for opinionated and entertaining people to hold forth. But we're also fond of the kind where the initial proposition strongly constrains the discussion, something like "Has the rising popularity of media SF changed the kind of SF that gets written?" These are very different kinds of panels: one is driven by its participants, the other by its subject.

We want to try some unusual formats, such as dialogues. Everything doesn't have to be a panel. And we're also interested in dragging people outside their usual ghettos of interest and having them discuss something else. How about putting some hard-SF types on a panel on mythic fantasy? (Plenty of hard-SF types know a fair bit about myth.) How about putting some fantasy writers on items about space development? (Lots of fantasy writers know plenty about technology.) And so forth. How many people only know about one thing?

Send Mail Today
We expect to be assembling and finalizing Minicon 34's program in January and February. Don't wait; get in touch with us now! Tell us about the programming you want to be part of, and the programming you want to see. We have a web form at <http://www.mnstf.org/ minicon34/programming/programming-idea.html>; or you can send email directly to . We want to hear from you.

Comps &
Programming

In past years, we've given complimentary memberships to some program participants. We haven't had a coherent policy, and what we've had, we've implemented inconsistently. After a great deal of discussion, the following is Minicon's new comp policy as it applies to programming participation:

1. Members of the community who are attending Minicon and parti- cipating on the program will not receive a comp for that participation.

2. It's possible there may be program participants who are only there to do their item, not for the whole con; we intend to handle these circumstances with good manners and common sense.

3. Minicon is offering its former guests of honor complimentary memberships at Minicon 34 and subsequent Minicons. This policy is unrelated to participation in the program, but the odds are darn good that if we asked you to be a guest of honor in the past, we'd like to see you on the program now.