The Oort Crowd

The Convention is being organised by the combined powers of the existing Satellite team and other experienced conrunners.

Michael Davidson — Bringer of Peace (Chair)

Michael has been going to conventions since Christine took him to an Albacon in the early 1980s. Since then he has caught the bug. He dipped his toe in the waters of con-running with Satellite 1, managed to get up to his neck chairing Satellites 2 & 3 and is now going for full immersion with our Eastercon, Satellite 4. Previous to that his main contribution to cons has been running a series of 'Deface the Music' quizzes at Redemptions, Eastercons and even a Worldcon.

In the real world he runs an Analytical Services Team at the Health Protection Agency, and when not working or SMOFing, likes to sail, sing and play the sax.

Fran Dowd — Bringer of Wisdom (Vice-Chair)

Fran’s first Eastercon was Evolution in 1996, where she chaired a bid to run the 1998 one. Intuition was originally an all-female committee, made up of women who had worked together on the 1995 Bloody British Worldcon. Since then she’s chaired two further Eastercons, and been on the committee of a few more. She partnered Chris O‘Shea in chairing the Emergency Eastercon of 2007 in Chester. Actually at the con, she’s usually staffing membership tables, working on the newsletter, or programme operations. She’s particularly proud of running At-Con Publications for the 2005 British Worldcon, heading up the international teams of newsletter editors. She’s also the nominal Chair of the Sheffield SF fan group.

In real life she’s in retirement in Sheffield, abusing her Cineworld Unlimited card, and cooking the produce of the Dowd allotment and writing about it on her foodie blog. And Facebook. And Twitter.

Christine Davidson — Bringer of Jollity (Programme and Guest Liaison)

Christine started attending cons in the early 1980's but only became involved in con-running later in life, when it dawned on her that experience gained running scientific meetings might be transferable. Interestingly, this is now working in reverse: the 11th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant may be the first ever major scientific conference to feature a ‘gopher hole’! She ran programme for Satellite 1, 2 and 3, and also looked after guest liaison, as a result of which she is now an official minion of Fluff (the plush Cthulhu).

Her real-life job is as an academic, specialising in environmental and analytical chemistry. She plays guitar, various types of percussion and also enjoys walking and sailing, especially in the West of Scotland.

Carolyn Sleith — Bringer of Wealth (Treasurer & Membership)

Carolyn's conrunning career started with Satellite 1 when she was involved with hotel selection. For Satellite 2 she was treasurer and for Satellite 3 she is treasurer and membership secretary. So now she doesn't just count beans she counts chickens as well. Carolyn is a big hard sci-fi fan and even wrote her library studies dissertation on Science Fiction in Libraries. She concluded that libraries do have science fiction, but the staff aren't aware of it.

In real life she is a SIGN Information Officer with Healthcare Improvement Scotland working exclusively on clinical guidelines. She is Pog's mother, Alligator Descartes' wife and is a director of her local Out-of-School Care Service. Officially she likes wine, coffee and reading. Unofficially it's more like eating, sleeping and playing facebook games.

Mad Elf — the Winged Messenger (Publicity & Website)

Mad Elf has been congoing since 1988. In that time he has discovered the delights of being a Gopher, Green Room Bod, Tech, and Steward, and has finally settled on Operations as the place to be. He has also been on several con committees, from the tiny Isocon 4 to Albacons and Eastercons, and only one of the resulting conventions has been classified as Better Off Not Mentioned.

Outside of conventions, he enjoys watching anime, playing table-top RPGs, computer games, and reading dodgy fan-fiction — and also working on his own RPG, and writing the occasional computer game and dodgy fan-fiction. He is also discovering the wonders of raising a teenage daughter. All of this is funded by a job contracting as a web applications programmer.

Mark Meenan — Bringer of Dreams (Hotel Liaison)

Mark's first convention was Albacon II, he enjoyed it so much he volunteered at his next convention — Invention later the same year — and helped run the at-con registration desk. After helping again at Albacon 84 he was invited onto the committee of Albacon 85. He has been on the committee of 3 previous Eastercons, most recently LX. For both Intersection and Interaction (the 2 Worldcons held in Glasgow) he was responsible for liaison with the SECC & the Moat House hotel (now the Crowne Plaza, the venue for Satellite 4).

In real life Mark works as a sysadmin at the University of Glasgow while trying to amass enough books to enter L-space.