did not join the filk community as a performer, but over the eleven years she has been in filk fandom she has become an excellent drummer, and has recently started to sing in circles. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, she has been very active in encouraging and helping newcomers to the community to join in and participate.
Lissa does stuff. She doesn’t care what it might be, or whether she is thanked; if it needs doing, she does it. When the Filk Stream Committee for the Glasgow Worldcon collapsed, she single-handedly took over programming, writing, publishing, announcing, and producing the fun time that was had by all. Lissa has helped to run two British Filkcons (Obliter-8 and Didgeri-Douze) and created the new filk con, HarmUni. She is one of the best membership salespeople in UK filk; when Lissa says, “Wanna come to a con?” she is rarely turned down.
She is a long-serving organizer, fundraiser, and treasurer for the British Filk Fund, and is constantly looking for better ways help it grow. She conceived of using the fund, in the form of loans, to finance the recording of some filk albums.
Thanks to her campaigning and championing, she has brought many would-be filkers into the fold, making everyone feel welcome. She and her husband, Phil, host parties and excursions for filkers within their area, helping to keep the community together and strong. Lissa’s parties almost always end up as filksings, and this is entirely due to her encouragement and appreciation of everyone’s performances, however shy or fearful. Lissa isn’t the loud person at the front of the filk, playing guitar over someone else’s nervous a capella start. She’s the loud one at the back who says, “Hey! There’s a new person here. Will you sing us something?”, and thus we gain a new friend, new music and a new perspective.
For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Lissa Allcock is inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame this sixth day of April, two thousand and two.