has been an enthusiastic and multifaceted pillar of the filk community since 1987.
He is a prolific and talented songwriter and performer, with a particular penchant for mischievous parody. He writes songs in, about, and for the filk community, and maintains an archive of them on his website, www.autographedcat.com.
Rob also writes filk album and filk interest reviews articles for Aphelion, an SF webzine, and works as their WebMaven/Features Editor.
He and his partner, Larissa, are the heart and soul of GAFilk. He has been on the GAFilk Concom from 2000 to 2008 as Programming Director, and Conchair from ’09-present despite living in Seattle. Rob also has runs the convention’s very entertaining game show, “My Filk”, based on trivia from the filk community, which also preserves our shared history. More recently he has joined the Board of Directors of Interfilk.
Rob is a co-founder of Filknet which includes support for a private IRC network hosting #FilkHaven and filk-related mailing lists. #Filkhaven became a virtual meeting place for filkers worldwide. Rob is also the administrator of the chat server in that network. It was, for a long time, an online meeting point for the filk community which provided an opportunity for filkers from around the world to meet and interact. Rob’s vigilant but relaxed style of moderation made it a safe and enjoyable space where many friendships were born and flourished. In 2017, Rob and Mike revived #filkhaven on Discord, and are pleased to say that it is once again a very active online gathering spot for the filk community
In 2016, Rob started moderating a Facebook group for filkers, also based on the principles of kindness and courtesy that Rob embodies.
Whenever he’s at a convention, Rob takes pictures of all the events he’s at. He posts those, a con report, and collection of others’ con reports to a community archives, sharing the biggest communal picture he can. It may seem like a small thing, but it speaks volumes about his viewpoint and attitudes towards filk and other filkers.
He has been hosted regular house filks, since 1998; even spontaneously hold them for when filkers are visiting in town. Rob is a welcoming smiling presence at many cons. He is truly a gentle but powerful force for good within the filk community
For these reasons, Rob Wynne is inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame, this twenty-sixth day of April, two thousand twenty.