When Lou Antonelli looked over the field of candidates running for SFWA office this spring he deduced there might be an unclaimed seat among the Directors-at-Large – and the temptation was too great to resist.
Evidently SFWA members have until April 14 to vote.
(By the way, is Antonelli currently a SFWA member? If so, that news hasn’t caught up with the editors of the Wikipedia, where his entry says: “He was an Active Member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), but has since left the organization as of 2017.”)
Once Lou announced, some people thought his name sounded familiar. They soon remembered why. K. Tempest Bradford has assembled a list of episodes in Antonelli’s “resume” and tweeted it here.
At the top of the list is “Lou Antonelli’s BOLO Story”. During the peak Puppy hysteria of 2015, Lou Antonelli said he’d written a letter to the Police Department of Spokane, Washington, telling them to be on the lookout for someone who may incite violence — Worldcon guest of honor David Gerrold.
Many more examples of Crazy Uncle Lou’s acting out are described by Aaron Pound in Dreaming About Other Worlds.
Should it really be the case that SFWA has a leadership vacuum, Lou is probably not the fellow to cast in a heroic reenactment of “Gentlemen, Be Seated.” A fact which members have already realized, and has caused support to coalesce around another write-in candidate, Monica Valentinelli.
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Well, what he lacks in self-awareness he more than makes up in chutzpah.
It seems that he has served a positive purpose by inspiring others by his example. 🙂
Please count me on the list of Valentinelli supporters.
Among the reasons:
1) It’d be great to get someone with game writer credits on the board, which currently lacks anyone with that in their wheelhouse, as far as I am aware
2) She did SFWA voters the courtesy of posting her platform on the discussion forums, and had posted it before that mail about the vote went out.
3) Monica is energetic, has great people skills, and is enthusiastic about SFWA.
4) Monica has been a frequent volunteer with SFWA, including serving on the game writing committee that helped get game writers into the organization.
It would have been nice if that voting mail had suggested that write-in candidates follow her lead in posting and made people aware there was at least one write-in there already but I understand that SFWA uses the same form from year to year. Still, these were extraordinary circumstances, particularly after last year’s deluge of candidates for the same position.
The price of a reasonable society is eternal vigilance. As in politics, now in science fiction. These guys never give up.
I hope the SFWA dodges this bullet.
I’m not much of a gamer, but Monica Valentinelli has impressed me in the couple of times I’ve heard her talk. She has good organizational skills, and that alone should make her preferable to Lou Antonelli (not that his skills in this area seem to be terrible, just mediocre).
Of course, I’m not a member of SFWA, because while I like playing with writing, I’m bored by the end-game of producing a polished product.
For enlightenment, readers can view Antonelli’s platform when he previously ran for SFWA in 2012. It’s… uh… enlightening.
Also, has anyone ever noticed that nowhere in his many posts which mention Columbia does it ever say that he actually graduated with a degree from Columbia?
JJ, that page is, apparently, not there. I wouldn’t want to leap to conclusions, but one of the possible reasons might be that CUL decided its availability was not beneficial to his campaign.
Or it could be just one of those glitchy things that happen on the internet. I honestly wouldn’t say one is more likely than the other.
Yes, one customarily writes “attended” to signal having had some college but no degree. As a former hiring manager at Microsoft and Amazon, I’ve seen this formulation at least a hundred times. It’s so well known I wouldn’t say there’s anything underhanded about it.
At one time, there was a significant difference in terms of income between people with no college vs. some college, and surveys would routinely ask you to pick between no college, some college, graduate, and post-graduate (e.g. masters degree).
These days I don’t hear people talk so much about “some college,” and I think I saw a report that said the gap between some college and no college had largely disappeared.
Anyway, there are plenty of things to fault Lou for, but I don’t think this is one of them.
Lis, he’s apparently requested the Archive take it down. I’ve fixed the link to an existing version.
Also, I’ve saved a copy. The Internet is forever.
@lis I had no trouble bring up the page. It was …enlightening.
@rochrist–JJ fixed the link to a working version. It comes up fine now, yes, and yes, it is…enlightening.
I believe that particular archive site may be either down or unavailable. It was unavailable in Australia previously for legal reasons. Almost certainly not related to Mr Antonelli
eta: I see JJ changed sites. My comment applies to the new link rather than the original
For a few moments today David Gerrold was a candidate for the Director-at-Large position, before withdrawing in favor of Monica Valentinelli.
Candidate
Withdrawal
Lou’s attempt to swat Gerrold is enough that I would not vote for him for dogcatcher
I am curious about Filers’ reactions to his proposal (in the current platform as shown in the ?fixed? link in @JJ’s comment) for a new upper tier of SFWA membership, which tier would be the only pool for officers. I’m not sure how much I’m reacting to the source and how much is my own … difficulty … with hierarchies.
It seems designed to limit officer positions to older and established writers? Excluding the newer crop of writers?
Of course my reaction is also “I wonder who specifically he’s trying to exclude?”. I can’t remember who he’s particularly angry at right now.
Greg Hullender: Yes, one customarily writes “attended” to signal having had some college but no degree. As a former hiring manager at Microsoft and Amazon, I’ve seen this formulation at least a hundred times. It’s so well known I wouldn’t say there’s anything underhanded about it… there are plenty of things to fault Lou for, but I don’t think this is one of them.
Of course it’s fine to include a partial college education on your resume. It’s quite another to brag far and wide about being an alumnus of a college you attended for a semester or two. That’s just sad and desperate.
@JJ: That’s just sad and desperate. i.e., CUL.
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