Annual Picnic This Saturday!

What: Annual KaCSFFS Picnic
Where: The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, MO 64111
When: Saturday, June 16, 2018
6:00 - Setup
7:00 - Program: KantCon Presentation 
Please bring Tabletop Games to share informally afterward - playing time up to 60 minutes.
Food Theme: Picnic Food! Please bring Side dishes, Salads, or Dessert to share!

Our Annual Picnic
The KaCSFFS Picnic is traditionally held in June, because it's the month after ConQuesT.

We wanted to just relax and eat all the ConSuite leftovers, plus it often was a little cooler in June than July or August: back when the club was almost exclusively made up of 20- and 30-somethings, we'd reserve a pavilion or shelter in a local park for this event.

One of the last outdoors-only photos of a KaCSFFS Picni, held
in So-Ko-Par Park, Lenexa, KS, in 2006.

Now we've made different arrangements for most ConSuite leftovers, and some of our members have health or mobility issues, so we've moved it to an indoor-outdoor event. We still try to make it fun.

KaCSFFS provides burgers (including Veggie-burgers), hotdogs, buns, condiments & tableware. Please bring Side dishes, Salads, or Dessert to share!

Please also bring Tabletop Games to share informally afterward - playing time up to 60 minutes. Lawn games also are welcome, but the lawn at the Writers Place faces west, and the forecast is for temperatures in the 90s, so there may not be as many takers for those.

KantCon Presentation
We are pleased to host a group of the organizers of KantCon, set for July 13-15, 2018, who will present information about their tabletop game convention.

Many KaXFEN love tabletop games. Our meetings frequently have been enlivened by tabletop games brought by members to share with other members, and this blog has posted an ongoing series, "Not Your Parents' Board Games."

A photo from KantCon 2017.

KantCon's website tells us that "KantCon is a gaming convention for tabletop hobby gamers in the Kansas City area, created by tabletop hobby gamers in the Kansas City area. The only available gaming conventions and large gatherings of gamers in the Kansas City area are limited to the beginning of the year, and the end of the year, in March and November, respectively.

"As most gamers are increasingly busy, in school, or have children in school, there is a void of a centralized gaming convention in the summer months in Kansas City. KantCon will fill that void with three days of tabletop fun in the form of tabletop role-playing games, card games, board games, and miniatures games."

More photos from recent KantCons.

IMAGES: The "KaCSFFS Picnic" banner design is from Jan S. Gephardt, who also took the photo of members Jim Murray and Margene Bahm at the Writers Place during the 2015 picnic. The 2006-in-the-park photo is by Tracy Majkol, and is used with permission. We also are grateful to KantCon's Gallery for the photos from several past KantCons, used here with their permission! The KantCon Dragon logo is from their "About Us" page. Many, many thanks!

It's picnic time! Saturday June 17, 2017

When: Saturday, June 17, 2017--Setup begins at 5:30 p.m.; plan to eat 6:30-7:00 p.m.
Where: The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64111
Bring: Beverage of your choice, plus a side dish to share (members can sign up on the KaXFEN email list!)

It's the Annual KaCSFFS Picnic
Our traditional evening of gathering to share food, play tabletop games and eat or distribute all the ConQuesT Con Suite leftovers while they're still fresh is upon us!

Join us for an indoor-outdoor event that accommodates all abilities and respiratory capabilities. KaCSFFS provides hotdogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers, condiments, ConQuesT Con Suite leftovers, and table service. Please bring your own beverages and a side dish to share (there's a sign-up on the KaXFEN email list for members).

But WAIT! There's more!
Reviewers' Reading Circle Summer Selection

We'll kick off our new summer Reviewers' Reading Circle selection, Stupid Humans, by V. R. Craft. This is the program's first humorous selection.

What's it about? "What if all the intelligent humans abandoned Earth... and we're what's left? Samantha is a journalist who travels through the wormhole to New Atlantis and discovers that embarrassing reality when she meets the People, humanity's more intelligent--and smugly superior--distant relatives. Unfortunately, thanks to humanity's penchant for fighting, a Human/People conflict is brewing. She could almost forget she's not on Earth, except the People have tails and don't slap idiot warning labels on everything . . . "

KaCSFFS' Reviewers' Reading Circle program offers free downloadable copies of current books by lesser-known and emerging authors, available to dues-paid KaCSFFS members via links provided through the email KaXFEN list. Members may download the selection as a review copy during the two-month period following the first announcement. Read some or all of it, and if you choose, write a short review.

At the July 15, 2017 meeting, we'll have a live author interview with V. R. Craft via Skype or FaceTime, to discuss the book and answer questions. The selection will remain available through our August meeting.

KantCon presentation

There also will be a presentation about KantCon, the annual gaming convention, to be held July 14-16, 2017, in Overland Park, KS. It features lots of different gaming possibilities and a costume contest.

For more information, please come to our presentation at the meeting! You can also learn more at their website. Get some fun glimpses of their events at the KantCon gallery.

Dare we mention it? Membership cards!
As promised, new, 2017-18 KaCSFFS membership cards will be available for all dues-paid members, on a laminate-while-you-wait basis. Show your card for a discount at Prospero's Books!

IMAGES: The "KaCSFFS Picnic" header was made for this event by Jan S. Gephardt, based on a photo taken in 2015 by Jan S. Gephardt. The Stupid Humans header is from V. R. Craft's Stellar Sarcasm website, the Stupid Humans book cover image is from Amazon, and the KantCon header and gaming dragon logo are from their website. Many thanks to all!