COSine History

2009 marks the sixth annual COSine, and in that time we've developed a few special traditions that ought to be explained for the sake of posterity, as well as to prevent our history from being irretrievably lost when we all become senile. At one meeting of First Friday Fandom we talked about possibly running a science fiction convention. We had already run SMOFcon successfully, and had the crazy idea that it might be fun to run another convention, perhaps one every year even! Thus COSine was born. The name arose from a discussion of what to call this as of yet theoretical science fiction con. COS is the airport designation for the city of Colorado Springs, and Robin recounted her old story of how someone was looking at her luggage airport tags and asked, "What does COS stand for?" to which Robin replied, "Cosine." We debated whether we were allowed to name a convention without including the word "Con" in the name, and decided that yes, there was sufficient precedent to do so. We voted, and COSine won.

COSine 2004 - If you build it, they will come

The first COSine featured author Guest of Honor author Barbara Hambly, and was held at the ever-changing brand hotel at Bijou and I-25 near the Bijou Street bridge, not far from downtown Colorado Springs. The book raffle started as a COSine tradition the very first year. Badges were a reiteration of the basic convention logo and Robin's favorite recurring rocket ship. The program book cover was pretty much the same.

COSine 2005 - What, we're doing it again?

The success of the first COSine led us to plan another one. Once again we celebrated science fiction and fantasy literature with the fans of Colorado, assisted by our author Guest of Honor Joe Haldeman. We were at the same hotel for 2005. That year is notable for starting another one of our COSine traditions - the Nubella Award! A news crew from one of the local TV stations attended the convention. During their spot on the evening news they reported that Joe Haldeman was an award winning author, including among his honors the Nubella Award. While it's true that Joe did have a Nebula Award already, we decided he needed to have a Nubella Award as well. We promptly constructed one out of a relabelled jar of Nutella and a styrofoam rocket ship (like the Hugo rockets, only not as dangerous if you clobber someone with it). The badges and program book cover were a repeat of the previous year. Boring, I know.

COSine 2006 - After three times, it becomes a tradition

People kept coming to our little convention, so we got Sharon Lee and Steve Miller to come all the way from Maine to be our author Guests of Honor for 2006.