Conn-Mini-Con

Convention
Name:	Conn-Mini-Con
Dates:	April 23, 1983
Frequency:	one time
Location:	Plainville, Conneticut
Type:	fan con
Focus:	Star Trek: TOS
Organization:
Founder:	Diane Lee Baron, Sue Doelling and Pam Trelli
Founding Date:
URL:
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Conn-Mini-Con was a one-day con held on April 23, 1983.

It was held at the Holiday Inn in Plainville, Connecticut.

Guests were Bill Hickey, Allan Asherman, Shirley Maiewski, and Jeff Maynard.

Allan Asherman speaks

Con Reports

Someone called me yesterday and said, "I can't believe the con is over!" And I said, "Gee, it is?" Because, you see, Conn-Mini-Con '83 went by so fast, I hardly remember it. If you were there, you will recall that I was a sea-green streak during April 23, 1983. On con day, I kept thinking "No! I'm not ready!" But of course, we were ready. Pam, Sue, and I turned our dream into a reality. There were no major hitches and, to our credit, the con met all

of its expenses. I have some memories of Conn-Mini-Con. Every now and then I stopped to gather my wits, and I took in the action. Pardon the stream of consciousness writing, but it's how things appeared to me.

• The Holiday Inn suite, which came to be known as the con suite, had just been remodeled, refinished, and refurbished. It was the epitome of hotel elegance. But by the time we piled our boxes and bags and bottles in, it looked like a government surplus warehouse.

• When Allen Asherman didn't step off the New York bus, I sent Jeff Kaplan to investigate. He ran onto the bus yelling, "Is there an Allan Asherman on board?" There wasn't, and he got politely shoved out of the door.

* Everyone showed up for the Friday night meeting, everyone except the key members of the con committee. Listen guys, next time send out for Chinese!

• Allan and I couldn't bring our- selves to eat rice with our fingers. (O.K., so there are disadvantages to take-out Chinese.) He went in search of silverware. Ten minutes later, there was a knock

at the con suite door and two waitresses had their hands filled with silverware. How did you do that, Allan?

• I thought it would take hours to set up for the con on Saturday morning. It didn't. With the help of Tom Moran, Janice Doelling, Anne and Elaine Batterby, Bonnie LeRoy, Tony Patti and others, it took only an hour.

• I kept waiting for a registration line to form. It never did. I forgot that we were in Plainville instead of New York. People had to drive great distances to attend CMC. It didn't make me any calmer to think of this.

[...]

• Bill Hickey was reciting Shakespeare and I never saw such a quiet bunch of Trekkers.

[...]

• SAMI-D2 disco-danced and kept everyone laughing.

• Anne and Elaine ran the reg. desk without problems. Bles s you!

• Bonnie was stationed in Outer Mongolia, I mean room 125, and didn't see the light of day from one slide show to the next.

• Sue Dubina ran the art show.

• Jeff Maynard never s topped praising the con--and we didn't stop him!

• What a wonderful idea it was to have a graffiti board!

• The costume call was a mi nor fiasco.

• Someone got 100% on the Trivia Contest.

• Channel 8 came in, but they showed a lack of interest.

• It was 70 degrees out- side that day. So why did we have a fire roaring in the fireplace in the lobby?

Then, suddenly, it was over. The fans were gone. To the friends and helpers who To the friends and helpers who helped make CMC '83 a success, I extend my deepest love and gratitude.

I walked in, greeted Diane, and quickly discovered that CMC '83

was only mini in that it was scheduled to last for but one day.

What Diane Lee Baron, Sue Doelling and Pam Trelli came up with when they put CMC together was a wonderful, strange hybrid of a regular length con and a mini con. You see, nobody told these three determined women that they couldn't fit two-day's worth of events into one day. So, they went ahead and made it work perfectly. So what if they didn't have any of the big-name actors from Star Trek? This con was put on by Trekfen for Trekfen. We got to see Bill Hickey, Allan Asherman, Shirley Maiewski, and Jeff Maynard. There were film parodies by Bob. Griffith and Chris Callighan, the added and always welcome attraction of Lynne Stephens' STAR WRECK: COMMOTION PICTURE, two talented magicians and even a robot. The video room in which STAR WRECK, WRATH OF KHAN, and other movies were shown was very logically arranged. Instead of one TV set at the front of a large bank of chairs they connected three TVs to the same video cassette player and aimed each one toward a different group of seats.

I have only one minor complaint and one rather simple request. First the complaint: the rooms in which the con took place were not separated from the rest of the hotel. While this did not in any way hamper my enjoyment of the con, some people may have attended without paying.

Now the request: so, how about two days the next time?