Despite its name, HRSFA is not all about science fiction. Its weekly gatherings organized around specific activities (Special Interest Groups, or SIGs) range from video-game sessions to Smallville viewings. HRSFA (pronounced “hurs-fa”) also has many monthly, semesterly, and annual events, such as the monthly “Milk and Cookies,” a Saturday night on which members read short stories of their own choosing out loud. Because these events are regularly scheduled and sent out over an e-mail list, anyone can choose to go to specific activities (their “special interests”) but not to others.
Members of HRSFA (or HRSFen, pronounced “hurs-fen”) also just hang out. They “work in company”—sit in a JCR with homework, do a little of it, and start chatting—and also go on spontaneous Kong runs. “None of us drink [at the Kong], so I guess we go for the food,” co-chair Noam Lerer ’07 says, tongue-in-cheek. Apparently it’s all about the “big tables” around which many people can gather and engage in “metaphysical conversations.”
