Fan Guest of Honour
Rose has been an avid fan of science fiction since young girl (just as everybody else claims to have been), but only discovered fandom and cons and such stuff in the early nineties. Her involvement with science fiction fandom has concentrated on club activities, convention running and supporting the fan funds associated with Australia.
She commenced her fanac as the editor of Austrek’s (Melbourne-based Star Trek fan club) clubzine The Captain’s Log. Many a good fan has risen from the media-centric fan clubs. Over the years she has held positions within Austrek, the Melbourne Science Fiction Club, the Australian Science Fiction Foundation and Victorian Science Fiction Conventions – the legal entity for both Aussiecon 3 and 4 as well as working on at least 2 Confluxes, the annual Canberra based convention.
She chaired the Australian Natcon in 2002 and 2007 and headed up the Finance Division for Aussiecon 3, the 1999 Worldcon, culminating in Co-chairing Aussiecon 4, the Worldcon held in Melbourne in 2010.
She was the FFANZ Delegate for 2003 when she forged strong and long lasting links to New Zealand fandom. Rose continues to work for all the fan funds associated with Australia – FFANZ, NAFF, DUFF and GUFF.
Currently Rose is the President of the Australian Science Fiction Foundation, a body formed out of Aussiecon, the first worldcon to be held in Australia. She continues with its 50 year mission of furthering science fiction in Australia.
In 2017 Rose was awarded the Peter McNamara Lifetime Achievement & Contribution to Science Fiction Award and made possibly the worst acceptance speech EVA!
Oh yeah, she likes SF – in all its forms but mainly contemporary, groovy writers, particularly those from the UK. Sue Batho once described her as a “cuddly party animal”; she is known for using four-letter words as punctuation marks. The word “moderation” is not in her vocabulary, Mark Loney once describing her with great diplomacy as “driven”.
Rose lives in Melbourne with no cats – dreadfully unfannish but she has raised two teenagers to mid-life crisis.