At their March 14, 2004 Board of Directors Meeting, San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc., issued a challenge to non-profit groups and individuals interested in developing science fiction and fantasy literature by offering a matching grant of up to $1,000 to help fund the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop.

As explained on Clarion's own web site http://www.msu.edu/~clarion/ "The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop is the best known and most highly regarded science fiction writing workshop in the country. Now in its thirty-seventh year, the Clarion Workshop is discussed frequently in science fiction publications and has national and international visibility. As Kim Stanley Robinson says, Clarion is 'an integral part of the American science fiction community.'"

Quoting from Clarion's grant request, "Michigan State University has drastically reduced funding, from an annual funding of $72,200 in 2003 to $26,400 in 2004.... MSU has charged Clarion staff with fundraising the difference between workshop expenses and the MSU funding."

SFSFC urges groups and individuals interested in making donations to fund the Clarion Workshop and qualify for the matching grant to contact the organizers directly at clarion@msu.edu.

SFSFC Inc. was the parent non-profit corporation of ConJose, the 2002 Worldcon, and of ConFrancisco, the 1993 Worldcon.

A copy of the resolution authorizing the grant to Clarion and specifying the challenge grant is available upon request to the corporation's secretary, Kevin Standlee, at secretary@sfsfc.org.

Posted April 1, 2004