SMOFTalmud

In 1994, SMOFcon (the convention for science fiction convention runners) coincided with Chanukah. A few months before the convention, there was a controversy on a fan mailing list about what had happened at a business meeting several years before. Mark Olson jokingly said that it was too bad that we didn't have a Talmud-like document to resolve disputes such as this.

Never one to resist a challenge, I asked Ben Yalow's help in finding suitable source material. Then I created a Talmud page that would look like the real Talmud but would instead contain WSFS (World Science Fiction Society) material. Thus was born the first SMOFTalmud page, distributed at SMOFcon.

In 1996, SMOFcon again coincided with Chanukah, Ben again found good source material, and the second page was added to the SMOFTalmud.

The third page was added at the 1999 SMOFcon, the next one that coincided with Chanukah, aided by Pat McMurray's swift posting of the 1999 Business Meeting minutes from Aussiecon 3.

The fourth page was added at the 2002 SMOFcon in San Diego. I had no source help from anyone but appreciated the availability of past business meeting minutes through SF-Lovers.

The latest page was added at the 2007 SMOFcon in Boston. Again, Pat McMurray's posting of the 2005 business meetings, which I found through the WSFS archive page, gave me the text I needed.

If you'd like a printed version of the SMOFTalmud pages, just send me an email request. More pages will be added when SMOFcons coincide with Chanukah.