A welcommittee is usually a group of volunteers of an organization with the goal of reaching out to new members in a sort of
Welcome Wagon
Welcome Wagon is a business in the United States (and formerly in Canada) that contacts new homeowners after relocation, providing them with coupons and advertisements from local businesses. The company's full name is Welcome Wagon International, ...
-approach. The word "welcommittee" is a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words[United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...](_blank)
residents, the word is sometimes shortened to "welco" or "WelCom."
The term originated in the 1950s in
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
with the
National Fantasy Fan Federation which still has an active welcommittee. Other notable fandom-based welcommitees include the
Star Trek Welcommittee started by
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Jacqueline Lichtenberg (born March 25, 1942, Flushing, Queens, New York) is an American science fiction author.
Many of her early novels are set in the Sime~Gen Universe, which she first described in a short story in 1969. Writing the series ...
and the
British Science Fiction Association. The concept also has been adopted by many host committees of various
science fiction conventions as an outreach to those new to fandom.
Although the welcommittee concept has a long history in fandom, with the advent of the Internet culture, term has evolved beyond the fandom subculture. A recent trend is for the term to be adopted by various
wiki
A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...
communities. In fact, Wikipedia's sister project,
Wikinews
Wikinews is a free-content news wiki and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation that works through collaborative journalism. Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipedia by saying, "On Wikinews, each story is to be ...
has an active welcommittee.
External links
StarTrekFans.net transcript of a chat with Jacqueline Lichtenberg about the origins of welcommittees*
Wikinews Welcommittee
Science fiction fandom
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