All about Bird Scramble!
Bird Scramble celebrates its 20th anniversary this August--Congratulations!
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| Cover for Bird Scramble! #86 - 20th Anniversary Issue |
Bird Scramble! is an Amateur Press Association (APA for short). It's a combination fanzine, mailing list and club. Like a fanzine, it contains Gatchaman-related articles, translations, fiction, artwork, poetry and other creative endeavors. And like a club, it's a place for a group of people to chat--a mailing list on paper. Bird Scramble! has been around since August of 1986, passed through the hands of three Organizing Editors, and is still going strong.
How does it work?
Bird Scramble! has 25 members. Each member creates a contribution, or "trib," for the apa (this can be art, fanfic, articles, news of your life, or anything you think would be relevant and of interest to your fellow tribbers), makes 25 copies of the trib, and sends the trib to the Organizing Editor (me). The OE then compiles the tribs into 25 issues and sends them back out to the members. This happens four times a year: February, May, August and November.
Can I buy a subscription?
Unfortunately, no. Each issue is the size of a small phone book, and would run in the neighborhood of $25 per issue for copying alone, not including mailing costs. At the moment, I have neither the time nor the funds to support subscriptions.
However, I have back issues for sale for $10 each. Please contact me for a list of issues and content. All proceeds go to the Bird Scramble production fund for the purchase of mailing supplies and cover copies. For mailing inside the US, add $4.05 Priority Mail shipping for each issue (can also mail book rate for cheaper). For Canada, add $7.50. For Europe and Australia, add $9.50. Please contact me to arrange payment and shipping.
I want to become a member! What should I do?
Write me and let me know you want to be a member! Include your full name, address and phone number or email. At the moment, the membership is limited to 25 members due to size considerations, but I can put you on the waiting list. When a spot opens up in the membership, I will contact you again and ask you to start a mailing account (this provides me with postage to mail out your issue). As a general rule, the APA is usually either US$4.05 to mail within the continental US, US$7.50 to mail to Canada, and US$9.50 to mail overseas.
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| Cover for Bird Scramble! #61 (Art by Allen Rowe) |
Sure! This is a practice known as "franking," and it's welcome. All you have to do is find a member of Bird Scramble! you can frank through (and whose issue you can look at once you've contributed). Unfortunately, franking doesn't entitle you to your own issue because of copying and mailing costs.
Are there any other rules?
Generally, we're all adults here, and the apa policies are fairly open. But if you want to get a feeling for the atmosphere within the apa, here are a few basic rules:
Minimum activity: The content of Bird Scramble! all depends on you, the contributor. MINAC, or Minimum Activity, consists of two pages per issue. This is the minimum amount you can contribute and still remain in the apa. There is no maximum size--if your time and money allow it, go wild! Contact me for details on excused absences and other MINAC policies.
Mailing accounts: Keep enough in your mailing account for me to mail your current issue. Otherwise I will hold your issue until you send me enough money to mail it.
Censorship and the "Blue Paper Rule": Bird Scramble! does not exclude any original contributor work unless there are flames involved (see below). However, any work containing sexually explicit material (art containing full frontal male nudity, fiction with graphic sex or rape scenes--basically, anything R-rated) will have a colored paper cover and will be fastened shut. Either you can do this or I can do this. This protects the tribber as much as the other readers: those who unseal and read a "papered" item do so at their own risk--there will be no screaming about being offended by content. Hurt/Comfort stories and fiction violence are not blue-papered, but it would be a courtesy to extend some kind of warning to readers in your trib.
Fanfic policy and mailing comments: This is not a hard and fast rule, but standard etiquette at Bird Scramble! is for other tribbers to constructively critique the fanfic of their fellow writers (in other words, if you want comments on your work, you need to comment on the work of the other contributors). If you do not want your fiction critiqued, please make that very clear in your trib. If you wish to trib something that you think some folks will find objectionable, ask around first, or put out an offer where folks can write you privately for a copy of that fiction. Or you can always blue-paper the material with a warning.
Moderation: Bird Scramble! does not have a history of flame wars, and we intend to keep it that way. On the whole, treat your fellow tribbers as you wish to be treated. Constructive criticism is welcome. Civil debates are welcome. Flames are not. All angry disputes must be settled by private correspondence.
Copies of forwarded e-mail jokes, chain letters or virus alerts: Please don't include these as part of your trib. It takes up space, and while some of the jokes are cute and may be new to you, they've probably been circulated through your fellow tribbers' mailboxes five or six times by now.
Any other questions? Write me at wendy@chronicsite.com
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