GENERAL FAN ORGANIZATION

from Fancyclopedia 2

An organization to include all fans; to be synonymous with fandom, as opposed to locals like WSFA and select groups like FAPA. The SFL was the first important effort at this, and it failed because of its commercial ties. TFG, ISA, and SFA had hopes, as did less important organizations like SF International. During the First Transition Speer began plugging a federal organization, but New Fandom, a centralized dictatorship, was the first to revive the aim. Before it expired, individual fans came forward with other plans, and at the suggestion of damon knight and Art Widner the N3F was formed in late 1940. This suffered the common trouble of cumbersome machinery and too little that the organization as a whole could undertake, and the stress of war conditions gave it the coup de grace despite its zombie-like later existence. However, the Plancom did suggest more activities for it than any previous such organization contemplated.