Denver 2008 Staff Biographies:

Mary Morman

Mary Morman attended her first Worldcon (and her first science fiction convention) at Baycon in Berkeley in over Labor Day of 1968.  She was a bit too dazzled by it all to actually volunteer, but she does remember seeing a naked Astrid Anderson as Dejah Thoris at the masquerade, reveling in table after table of used paperbacks in the dealers room, having a pass made at her by Harlan Ellison is said dealer's room, and being engulfed in an enthusiastic bear hug by Randall Garret at her first SCA event (also held at the worldcon).  This eye-opening weekend led her into both the Tolkien Society and the Mythopoeic Society and she attended (and volunteered at) Mythcons and Westercons for the next decade while she finished college, married, and even had babies - reading SF all the while.

Mary's second worldcon was LAcon I in 1972 where she helped out at registration and at the masquerade.  She ran her first con in 1976 - the first Mythcon run outside southern California.  This experience, the birth of her third child, and a new job with IRS kept her too busy for active fandom for a couple of years, but she returned to cons and con running on the east coast in the 1980s working on Darkovercons, Disclaves, Datclaves, and the occasional worldcon - she was an official "Bug-Eyed Computer Operator" at Noreascon II.  By now her areas of expertise were in running registration and programing, and running babysitting (a task she took on for several consecutive years at Disclave, possibly setting a record in fandom for insufficient reluctance).

In the late 80's mystery fandom won out briefly over SF fandom, and she created and chaired the first few years of Malice Domestic (a DC area mystery con designed to provide a cozy alternative to the more hard-boiled Bouchercon).  By now married to Kent Bloom, and attending worldcons and SMOFcons annually, Mary has worked site selection, information, newsletter, registration, events, and even taken a turn as a program participant.

She ran worldcon babysitting at Bucconneer putting in 17 hour days and managing to only once have to change a diaper.  With Linda Ross-Mansfield she ran at-con registration at Torcon (that was the one without the long lines).

Interaction in Glasgow in 2005 marked the grand debut of the Denver 2008 bid with a return to the worldcon masquerade.  Mary and Kent were the Gnomes on the Range who won Best Audience Reaction;  Mary's first masquerade entry since a leather-togged Assasin tore apart the Robes of Concealment that were her Gor costume at the 1972 Westercon and then dragged her off the stage tied up with his bullwhip - she got a lot of audience reaction to that costume, too.  Bidding for the 2008 worldcon in Denver has been full of more cons than Mary felt it possible to actually attend in one year, but she's looking forward to LAconIV (and a learning experience working Treasury at a worldcon).

Mundanely, Mary works as a Business Operations Manager for the support organization of a major software firm - dealing with global hiring, budgets, and expense management.  All of her children managed to grow up reasonably sane (although none are science fiction fans) and move away from home. Mary lives with her husband Kent, her chum Terry, and her cat Sappho in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  She used to have a basset hound, and would like to have another someday.  Everyone should have a goal in life.