INTERREGNUM

from Fancyclopedia 2

A period of no government. It has occurred in fan organizations when terms of an administration have expired without a new set of officers having been elected to take their place; tho in the case of FAPA Speer advanced the legal fiction that the President had appointed himself and others to keep things going, under his power to appoint auxiliary officials.

The FAPA Interregnum began in July 1939. The Official Editor, Rothman, had resigned irregularly and turned his office over to Bob Madle. Madle failed to supply the Secretary, Taurasi, with a list of the active members, and a new constitutional amendment had restricted the vote to the active members for the first time [!!]. Taurasi finally sent ballots to all members; Wollheim put the matter to V-P Marconette, who (in July, after terms would normally have expired) declared Taurasi's ballots void and authorizing President Wiggins to issue new ballots. This the latter did, without mentioning the VP decision authorizing the action; but the list of active members he drew up contained several errors and was accompanied by Futurian propaganda. Wollheim, named as counting committee head, announced the results of this ballot as the official administration. (Speer, who had condemned the ballot, was elected VP.) At the PhilCo that September agreement was made for a referendum, in which a majority approved this administration. But Taurasi, personifying FAPA as Wollheim, failed to turn over the records and funds. In the course of the year a mailing was elided, and each of the remaining three was sent from a different place. It was thought in many quarters that FAPA was dead. Then came the Blitzkriege. (The Tenth and Eleventh Mailings were the combined ones.)

A Little Interregnum was produced in 1945 by the resignation of OE Larry Shaw and President Lowndes in February of that year; almost simultaneous announcement of the formation of VAPA led to accusations that this constituted an attempt by the Futurians to wreck FAPA. Speer took over as OE and, barring a six-week delay in appearance of the Fall mailing due to difficulty getting outgoing Treasurer Sudday Schwartz (another Futurian) to turn over records and funds to the new administration, little trouble was experienced.

The N3F started out with no constitution, and the one drawn up was cumbersome and, because of the FinCom report, was rejected by the membership when it was submitted. A constitution was finally adopted, but the machinery remained cumbersome, and the negligible results for the early labor plus the difficult requirements for nomination (all under the shadow of the stress of war) caused insufficient candidates to file to fill the necessary offices when the first administration lapsed. EEEvans, Plancom chairman of the first year, got a new set of officers by Blitzkrieg methods; but before the organization could gather momentum again Evans, the new President, was forced to drop activity. VP Tucker turned the presidency over to Evans' neighbor (at Slan Shack) Al Ashley. It being conceded that the old Constitution was unworkable, Ashley planned to carry out Evans' idea of a pyramiding state-regional- national scheme with many officers (the " Battle Creek Plan") including as "citizens" all who could be called fans, while Harry Warner spoke for an organization with few officials and stiff membership requirements. A wrangle over whether the directorate should pick one plan for submission to the membership or have a vote on both led to stalemate, again the terms of officers ended with no replacements, and the N3F lapsed. In the fall of '43, at the height of Cosmic Circle furor, Ashley questioned the Board members with a view to revising the group under an emergency for-the-duration constitution; this was realized next year, with Walt Dunkelberger in the Presidential chair. Elections were resumed in 1947.