STAG Mini-Con

Also see Mini Con.

Star Trek Convention
Name:	STAG Mini-Con and The British Star Trek Minicons
Dates:	1974, 1975
Frequency:
Location:	Wigton, Leicester
Type:	fan-run fan con
Focus:	Star Trek:TOS
Organization:
Founder:	Jenny Elson and members of the fan club, STAG
Founding Date:
URL:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

STAT Mini-Cons were practice runs that were pre-cursors to The British Star Trek Convention (1974 & 1975 cons).

These minicons were also a way to generate interest as well as allowing Star Trek club fans to meet each other and take back their enthusiasm to members to promote the bigger "first" cons a few months later.

Like its American counterparts, which were an afternoon event held at a public library and preceded the bigger "main" cons, the very first British Star Trek cons were held in a church halls beginning March 23, 1974.

1974

• March 23, 1974
• location: St. Thomas's Church, Wigton, Leicester

... I went to visit the local vicar and asked it we could hire his church hall. Certainly. £10 for the day and a tip for the caretaker. The use of the kitchen, clean up with you're through, and not more than 60 people. 60 people? It was only a local get-together...20 at the most! As I said before - ha, ha. We could have filled that hall twice over. Everyone from everywhere wanted to be there, and in the end we had to do a first come first served basis.

• 

  flyer from STAG #4 (November 1973) "And YES, there will be two loos!"

Con Reports: 1974

Action Group officers are pleased ???? to report (Yes,the question marks ARE supposed to be there!) that we now have enough funds to hire the local church hall for a Trekkie Con!... But don't mock. Rome was once a village! STAR TREK was once just a thought inside the head of Gene Rodenberry. Thing is, those villagers got working and built an Empire, and Gene.. .well, look what HE did!... My husband suggested the Duke of Bedford's place... So now, we've got the church hall! Tomorrow, who knows?... Not that we've got anything against Church Halls. ..great places for Scout Shows...or even stately homes, come to that. It's just that we want to aim for somewhere in between those two extremes. Anyway, think of the disadvantages of both. Great draughty places, and not exactly ideal for the first ALL STAR TREK CONVENTION IN GREAT BRITAIN!... This is only our eighth week in production. Already we've got a theoretical church-hall. So watch out, Duke of Bedford, we've got our eyes on your Country Estate!

No-one who was at the mini-con can deny that we all had a good time. This was the first meeting of its kind in England, and not unnaturally, we were apprehensive as to its success. We needn't have worried! Judging by the sheer din alone, the committee knew they had made it! And wow! Wot a day! Leicester had never seen one like it before in all it's several thousand years history.. . although the city can only breathe freely again until September. Sheer chaos... or so it seemed to the committee! It was only afterwards, when all the letters began to pour in demanding another one that we were really aware of it's impact on the Star Trek population... Peace reigned on not more than three occasions; During the opening speeches, during the slide show (When everyone wasn't booing the Klingons, "Aaahing" at De Kelley or cheering Spock, and during the auction, which was the success of the day! Everything... food. Star Trek goodies, art-work and all were hungrily devoured. Friends meeting friends for the very first time sat, stood, knelt, stood on their heads, champed at crisps and swigged tea... and STILL managed to carry on talking. The older mixed with the younger, Chris PS Jones never did get round to setting up WSE table as she would have liked, and my Mum argued black and blue that her Enterprise was NOT upside down, SO there! 2 bob bits rattled into the gas meter.... MORE tea? The Sandwich spreaders (Thanks girls, you did a great job!) spread more loaves than there were in a baker's shop... A great day! And we WILL have another mini-con next year, that's a promise. But PLEASE, let's get the Big One over first! Many thanks to all who assisted. We couldn't have managed without you. And thanks to everyone for just coming along from all over England to enjoy yourself. We raised almost enough for George Takei's airfare. Isn't that just great?

I suppose that was the first real convention, People came from the length and breadth of Britain, all for a one day of slide shows, talks, and friendships.

I joined STAG as soon as I saw it advertised and was always proud of my membership number - no. 2. The club was soon up to 400 members and enough money was raised to rent a church hall for a day. The first Star Trek Convention to be held in Britain was actually a one-day Mini-Con held in a church hall in Wigston, Leicester. As far as I remember there were about 100 people there and the atmosphere was fantastic. It was the first chance the majority of us had had to meet and chat with other fans.

I collected my first Star Trek cuttings from the good old Radio Times in July 1969. I was enthralled with this new series; it was different, it offered hope. I cut the papers and scanned the bookstalls; not much. Years passed. I had a few pen-pals from a club called the Star Trek Action Group. I wrote and exchanged a few meagre goodies and then, in 1973, just before Christmas, I sent off the vast sum of 75 pence to Jenny Elson, deciding to go and meet people at the STAG mini-con, to be held in a local hall in Wigston, Leicester. 'Mother's going to Leicester to meet some nutters' my children kindly remarked. Undeterred by mockery and scorn, I set off on my own, meeting up with pen-pal Jean at Victoria. We nattered all the way to Leicester. At least one or two other folk seem to be mad on Star Trek; I'm no longer alone! We arrived at the local hall in Wigston to a great welcome. We are definitely not the only ST fans in England. What a lovely feeling. Jenny welcomed everybody and we fell on the goodies stall like starving refugees. Look, badges... photos... slides!!! Real goodies; made my collection of newspaper clippings look a bit sparse. After the buffet we were introduced to Streck Deck Clip Joint and an Alien Adoption Centre (no prizes for guessing who was the most popular alien). We chatted and swapped goodies and then came the auction of artworks. To finish off, the best news of all... ST will return to our screens in July! I was broke, happy and relieved that I was not the only one, all alone. We nattered all the way back to St Pancras with new friends and got some odd looks from the other passengers but, no matter, we were no longer alone!

Last weekend was a riot. I went to the MiniCon in Leicester, England and had such fun I am gonna tell you all exactly what happened from the time I hit Sunny Leicester ---(bonk)---

What is a MiniCon, you ask? A fascinating question. Well... we British Star Trekkers have read so many reports of fabulous "Star Trek" Cons in distant USA that.... YES! We are holding the First British Star Trek Convention here in England this Fall! [...] You can't make it? Why not get a non-attending membership? Write to Jenny NOW and find out about it!

So, with the Big Con in mind, Jenny decided to have a MiniCon, for British Trek-Club members... just 70 or so of them... to let them meet one another, and to sell some Trek goodies to help the Great Con Fund. Hiring hotels for expected four-figure numbers does need Funds, oddly enough... And Jim Doohan and George Takei are coming! Flying over to see us all!

Okay. So now you know what a MiniCon is. But what is it like? Read on.

I arrived in Leichester Station...

[...]

On arrival at our delightful little hotel, the first thing we did was ring Jenny, to find out the earliest time we could come to the hall she was hiring tomorrow. Can you imagine three excited Trekkers crammed into a tiny telephone box 2 feet wide? (No, I'm not joking; it was 2 ft x 2 ft!) Don't ask what poor Jenny thought when she answered that call. By the time she picked up the phone, we were incoherent with laughter!

[...]

After breakfast [the next morning] Sue put on her Authentic Starfleet Nurse's uniform, I pinned on my Membership Cards, and we taxied to the hall, where Jenny, and Sheila Hull, were setting up tables already. People started arriving from nine thirty onwards; by twelve noon, almost seventy Trekkers had convened, among them the other members of our B.A. staff Gang, Fran Ball and Sue Toher, and my penpal Kija Bowerman (who met Len Nimoy in person on her recent trip to the States!)

Jenny and her committee officially opened the Minicon after a supper buffet lunch, and we heard that Ye Old Beeb, (BBC) are repeating "Star Trek" in July, due to "popular request." (Yep, we done it again!!)

We then rushed over to the tables at the side of the hall and began waving our pound notes at folks. Yes! It was buy-everything-in-sight-time! And what a lot they'd got! Clip-joints, Poster Corners, a Trek Deck piled high with pennants, stickers, pix, stationery, patches, Saurian Brandy labels (hmmm, yes, only the labels. Honest.), and a table creaking under the weight of a multiplicity of space aliens for adoption. I promptly adopted three of the dear little beasties! I love 'em! After grabbing a beaut of a poster and a couple of clips of a guy with pointed ears, whom I happened to like the look of, (!), I subsided into a chair to help Sheila at our B.A. info/membership table.

After talking Spock with so many new friends, and filling up more pages in my precious address book, I cornered Kija and had her tell me AGAIN who she met Mr. Nimoy.

When the tables were cleared of all the saleable items (which didn't seem to take long), we all collected chairs and gathered around a screen to see lovely slides of Mr. and Mrs. Nimoy backstage after "Full Circle," and of the stars and the events at the ISTCon in New York. These were from Kija and Jenny respectively. We then laughed through a delightful selection of Trek clips, before the Art Auction...

There was a huge tableau of Trek folk done in cardboard, and nearly life-size, each character was auctioned. We hear that the Spock was bought by someone who would be cycling home with him under one arm!

The auction was over, it was almost time to go. Everyone in the hall who did not have to run for buses or trains stayed to help tidy up. Within minutes, the hall was cleared. It only remained for us to thank Jenny and make our farewells. "See you in September" was an oft-repeated phrase as our "Star Trek" family broke up into ever-smaller groups and headed for home.

[...]

I wish now to thank Jenny Elson for arranging this MiniCon, and her committee for all their organization, and I also thank all of you, you wonderful "Star Trek" People.

It cannot be stated often enough that there is that spirit in the people of "Star Trek" which the world needs today. The spirit created from the union of diversity, from the coming together of people who have never seen or heard of one another before, and who, despite thins, find that they can blend with one another like the separate notes in a musical key.

It's fun to be a Star Trekker.

It's also a matter of pride.

1975

• March 22, 1975
• location: Leicester Center Hotel

Con Reports: 1975

The 2nd annual ST Action Group Mini-Con was held on 22nd March at the Leicester Centre Hotel, and yet again, good fun was had by one and all. Fans from all over the country came to Leicester...for the third time in a year for most of them. We opened, more or less, at about 10 a.m., although most of the attendees had opened long before then on the previous night, in coffee shops, trains, S hotel rooms. During the afternoon, the Con Comm announced the names of at least two of the guests for the 2nd Convention, these being James Doohan 6 Walter Koenig. There was frantic buying of ST material, slides and tapes of the 1st British ST Con, an auction, and an inter-club knock-out quiz, with Beyond Antares winning the final, and the shield which went with it, against stiff opposition from the other finalists, Empathy; all the ST clubs in England participated. Our last event of the day was the showing of the sf movie, "Doppleganger." Just another funny day...and as we can't get enough of them, stroll on September!

Also See

• The British Star Trek Convention (series of cons)