Convention History
One day in early 1992 Rob Furr, Tina Lewis and Jason Brannen
scheduled a meeting with Connie in the University Scheduling
department. You see, Rob was from Blacksburg and had been weaned on
Technicon and had finally gotten the gumption to do something about it
by his junior year. Jason starting his second semester at JMU as a
freshman. He had attended several cons in the Virginia Beach area and
was very interested being on the staff of a con. He was quite surprised
that JMU did not already have a con up and running because of the active
and enthusiastic nature of SFFG. Tina was the SFFG treasurer and could
write checks. :)
The three of them walked into Connie's office prepared to fall flat on their
faces but walked out singing like warriors from Valhalla. Having
secured rooms, times and a spiffy conjunction of events with UPB Madicon
was on it's way. Rob used his vast artistic skills to design a flyer,
Jason got it copied and approved, and proceeded to hang it up around
campus anywhere there was room. Jason also posted to all the listserves
he was on at the time in hopes of attracting people from outside JMU.
Madicon went well. It was a one day event with just under 50 members.
It featured heavy gaming, active computer rooms, and a nifty movie room.
It concluded at midnight when everyone who had a membership was granted
admission to Grafton-Stoval theater to see the 2nd annual Animation
Festival.
Jason took over the reigns for Madicon 2 and used the same design on the
first flyer but added a second sword to the first. It was still a one
day event, but much better attended with about 100 members. Highlights
included gaming, computers, movies, anime, art, and clay-o-rama.
Jason passed off the reigns of conchair to Dave Seletyn who had served
as his director of advertising. He elevated to expand the convention to
three days and as President of SFFG, appointed Jen Grob (the SFFG
treasurer) as his second in command. Fully using and abusing SFFG's
resources he paid for SFFG members to go to cons and recruit more
con-type people to JMU. It worked. This three day con attracted more
people than ever before and had an awesome art show, dance and as usual
great gaming and computers. Clay-O-Rama! Always a favorite!
In the great tradition of passing things on, Jen Grob became the
ConChair for Madicon 4. She was ably assisted by Brian Glass who did an
outstanding job coordinating the gaming.
Brian Glass took over the reigns for Madicon 5. This con will be remembered
for the outstanding party of Saturday night that took place off premises of
the university. It inspired the White Wolf guys to introduce "Beer Pong" to
the staff of WW and also the "Zlogar the Unrepentant" Wyrm Rage card named for the
host/location/reputation of the party in the Swamp. Needless to say, a
good time was had by all. :) Madicon 5 also saw the birth of Pimp: the Backhanding, now a popular card game published by Arthaus Games
Madicon 5 has been the most successful Madicon, though Madicon 9 did come close.
Madicon 6 was run by CC Bidwell, No. 7 by Nicole Fauquet, and No. 8 by
Joshua Leake. The aforementioned Madicon 9 was jointly run by Michael Morrison and
Sally Pritchett.
Madicons 10 and 11 were very successful under the direction of Mike and Lora Timonin,
marking the first time since Madicon 2 that someone has been crazy enough to head up this
convention twice.
With Madicon 12 came the reign of the ConMistresses: Sarah Pantke, Chris Rogers, Lucy Street,
and Verity Caron who also ran Madicon 13.
For Madicon 14 we left Taylor Hall and moved across I81 to the new College Center. The conmistresses that year
were Verity Caron, Lucy Street, Emi Qualls, and Christine Neidley. By Madicon 15, changes in the convention and
JMU's dark inner workings made it necessary to remain in the College Center. Christine Neidley and Graham Beaber
marked the return of the ConChairs.
Now at Madicon 16, 2007, Christine Neidley and Graham Beaber are again ConChairs, joined by Nicole Reeve.
The College Center has now been renamed the "Festival" Center for reasons only known to the Dark Lord himself.
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