I believe that all of you know this story by now, but I'll tell it anyway for those of you who aren't actually in the Sci-Fi Club.
     It goes like this: Larry's been a pretty damn solid member of the Sci-Fi Club since his first semester here. So solid, in fact, that he was actually elected Treasurer for his Sophomore year. The weird part, though, is that he was originally drawn to the club because it claims to be interested in Comic Books. Unfortunately this isn't so... it's more or less become an anime club in the past several years.
     A few of the members see a problem with this... mainly that we exist as a Sci-Fi Club that does very little in the way of Sci-Fi... but no one really speaks up because we're a pretty apathetic society. Larry, being as outspoken and blunt as he is decides that he ought to speak up for himeslf and the rest of us who would like to see more Sci-Fi in the Sci-Fi Club.
     So, one day in an E-Board meeting, he brings up the concept of having Tuesday screenings opened up from exclusively anime to a general TV-format night. Not exactly earth shattering, but Kurt and Brett become very defensive of the anime night, and a big argument/debate ensues.
      So we decided to put it to a vote in the spirit of fairness and democracy. The vote was a total bust. Everyone was given 2 choices: Change or No Change. This was Larry's idea to make it simpler. The problem, as Bill and I pointed out to him later is that by saying "No Change" you attach a negative connotation to the choice through incorrect wording.
      The votes themselves were no prize gems either. Commy practically wrote a manifesto on his "Change/No Change" ballot. Heather voted "No Change except show Invader Zim with the anime," which got counted as "Change." And, even though we tried to make everything fair, Tryon (an e-board member and vote counter) added in Heather N.'s vote as an absentee ballot, something we agreed explicitly not to do.
     So everything was all sorts of screwed up, and it was more or less because of bad communication and mispersceptions. I admit that I made my own unfair assumptions about the vote (like assuming that because we'd open up to Sci-Fi on Tuesday, we'd lose a lot of members and show old crap that a scant minority of the club wants to see). Bad communication, misperceptions, and screwed up situations are breeding grounds for conflict, and so a lot of confilct arose. People decided to vent their frustrations regarding the vote on Larry, as he was the one who brought it up. At the time, I remember hearing people say Larry was "the only one who wants this anyway." I won't mention who said that, and I'm sure he knows who he is, and realizes that it's not true in hindsight. But there was enough hate and mob mentality that Larry thought the only way he could get away from this fairly unscathed was to get the fuck out of Dodge.
     So Larry went home that weekend and hoped for this all to blow over by Monday. When he came back though, there was a little e-mail war between him and Kurt which got Jeremy (our Advisor) quite annoyed. So he stepped in, told everyone that they were acting immaturely and that we have to re-approach the situation with a professional and mature viewpoint. We threw out the vote and started again from scratch with a more complete plan and a (I feel) more objective viewpoint.
     The vote in the end sorta kinda went Larry's way. We decided that we would show Sci-Fi TV shows as well as Anime, but Anime would remain on Tuesday, and we would add a Wednesday Meeting for traditional Sci-Fi shows. Hopefully, we've all moved on from this incident. I'm sure most of the people involved look back at it now with a bit of shame and embarrassment. "I can't believe I was such a dick" should be running through most of our minds. I know I was unjustly angry at Larry for a short stretch because the subject he brought up drove a bit of a wedge through the Sci-Fi Club. I realize now that it was a pertinent issue that sorely needed to be addressed and that Larry was just unfortunate enough to be the first person to bring it to light.
     So I reccomend to you who are in this mess, admit to yourself that you had some misconceptions and that you may have been a dick about it. Laugh at your mistakes, and get the fuck on with your life. Seriously folks, Student Activities tries to take away all of our rights to personal safety, and we joke about it. Yet we can't find the humor in a bunch of young adults fighting tooth and nail about watching TV Shows.
     So, I guess it's finally old enough that we can make fun of it without fear of decapitation. And any time you get angry about this whole thing, imagine Senator Kennedy standing up in the middle of a Congress and saying "Gun controll, hahahahahaha.... Now let's hang Newt Gingrich for suggesting we get Gilbert Godfried instead of Jon Stewart for our charity luncheon."