Enigma
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Enigma (UCLA Student Organization), Enigma (Science fiction organizations)
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[edit] Introduction
Enigma is the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Gaming Club at UCLA. Founded over twenty years ago, it is one of only three known sci-fi clubs still in active existence in the entire University of California (UC) system, and one of only two remaining active known college/university-level affiliated organization left in the greater Los Angeles area.
Unlike other counterparts at older institutions around the world, Enigma functions despite having no permanent space to call home at the UCLA campus. Even with this handicap, Enigma still loans items from a thousand item collection of fiction, has continued to run conventions over the years, and maintains continuity through a variety of on and off-campus activities between new members and alumni through volunteering efforts by its members. Membership has gone up and down over the years; a renewed push for recruitment in 2005 by then officers Saul Wyner (President), TC Lai (Administrative Coordinator), and Sean Diaz-Lapham (Publicity Officer), has lead to a dramatic resurgance in membership and growth of the club on campus which continues today.
According to its constitution, Enigma "provides a forum for discussion, exploration, and social activities; brings professional writers, scientists, designers, and artists to meet with members; and encourages and assists members in the creative aspects of science fiction, fantasy, and gaming." Enigma serves both graduate and undergraduate students at UCLA, as well as staff, faculty, alumni, and local community members who do not have ties to UCLA. These members also often have ties to other local and national fandom groups, including the Southern California Browncoats, LASFS, and the 501st Legion.
[edit] History
Enigma was founded in 1985 as a graduate student organization at UCLA. The club was the brainchild of Robert Hurt, a former UCLA graduate student in astrophysics, who had been a member of Chimera, a sci-fi/fantasy club at UNC. To quote Robert:
"I figured that if I didn't start up a club like this I'd end up only knowing people in the physics department, and face it, there just aren't enough women in physics."
Club meetings of that time period often revolved around the latest episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which had just begun airing. Among some of the very first meeting members were Pat Mannion, Andy Ashcraft. Other notables such as Scott Martin would find their way to the ranks of Enigma later.
Enigma is currently in its third decade of existance, a feat which can be credited to the slow diaspora of existing members to areas local to UCLA, which has enabled the club to function as a social realm not only for new members, but for alumni as well.
Enigma once had its own comedy troupe, the Enigma Players, which performed regularly at local science fiction conventions. Though now inactive, many former members have gone on to form Lux Radio Theater, which has performed at conventions such as Worldcon and Loscon.
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[edit] Organization
The club, as enumerated in the current constitution, is organized by three officers and various "ministers". These people run the weekly meetings, administer Enigma's online activities, maintain the Enigma Library, edit and publish the club's journal/newsletter Enigmata, and generally keep things going.
Enigma serves as an umbrella organization for any and all types of events planned by its members. See the sections on Events and Games for descriptions of some of these activities, or the Creative section for the inventive output of Enigman imaginations.
The Enigmacon Chair runs Enigmacon, Enigma's "not-so-annual" science fiction and gaming convention.
Enigma has a writers' workshop and a quarterly newsletter/journal called Enigmata.
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[edit] Notable Members
Former and current members include club-founder Robert Hurt, as well as Michael Everson, Wayne Bell and the founders of Dewdrops records, Brant Nelson and Pat Mannion. Other noted individuals include Mike Donahue, and Greg van Eekhout, who recently had his first novel, Norse Code, published by Bantam Spectra.
[edit] Live Games
Among other activities, Enigma supports a strong troupe of Live Action Role-Players. Enigma and its members have run dozens of mostly Theater Style live games since 1988. In 2006, Enigma members won four out of the eleven awards at the First Annual LARPY Awards, an international event with nominees from more than a dozen different LARP troupes.
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