swil has a filkbook, which was compiled in the mid-eighties and early nineties. the filkbook contains a large number of filks by outside people, plus filks written by swatties. there used to be some legal issues involved in what filks we were allowed to publish and where we were allowed to store them. most of these have been forgotten, but they may resurface. to keep an eye open for this, the filks page of the swil webpage should always contain contact information for the current filkmaster.
the filkbook is kept in electronic form in two places, the swil server (section 4.7) and the swil web page (section 4.5). all content updates to the filkbook should ideally be made in both places, but the webpage is current somewhat out-of-date relative to the server files.
if i were in charge of the filkbooks right now and had some time and didn't think anyone would mind, i would redo the filkbooks in LATEX, since there is a program to translate LATEX files to html. they are currently formatted in microsoft word.
at any rate, the filkmaster is in charge of editing the filkbook when there are new filks to add to it, keeping the web files up-to-date, and making sure there are print copies of the filkbooks for inauguration.
in format, the filkbooks are divided into four sections, which basically represent kinds of filks, and there is a table of contents for the copy in the server folder. if you add more filks, you should do a bit of formatting and reorganization so that things fit on the page nicely. add attribution for any filks for which it is known, both in terms of tunes (never assume it's obvious) and author.
one copy of the filkbook can be printed to beardsley, but multiple copies should be made at kinko's or some other xerox place, and you should apply to budget committee in advance to get funding for them.
if you want to be proactive, read the usenet group rec.music.filk, and write to authors of new filks asking for permission to put good filks in the filkbook. buy filkbooks at philcon. arrange a filksing. filkmaster is a position which has not been particularly well-maintained in the past few years, beyond making sure there is a copy of the book at inauguration, but no one would complain if you wanted to do something with it.
By: chaos golubitsky '00 -- Last revised: 18 January 2000