Don first became a fan when he took a Science Fiction course in high school English and read “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury (among other books) in 1972.  Throughout high school and college he continued to read science fiction and fantasy books nearly exclusively.  He continues to read science fiction and fantasy books and is especially fond of short fiction, and has been an active participant in the North Country Gaylaxians monthly book discussions for many years.

Don started being active in fandom in the mid 1980s attending his first convention “Minicon 18” in 1984.  Since then he has attended numerous conventions in the Twin Cities.  He sponsored Gaylaxian room parties at Minicon for several years in the early and mid 1990s and helped organize (and moderate) panels of GLBT interest at that same time.  He attended his first WorldCon (NoLaCon II) in 1988 and has attended 5 others since, volunteering at all them.

Don started playing D&D in college soon after the game was released and has been an avid gamer ever since, both role-playing and board games.  In the late 1980s Don ran Tékumel games, which published ancillary materials from Professor M.A.R. Barker’s Tékumel roll playing world.  During that time Don attended many large game conventions (including GenCon as both a dealer and a judge).

In 2001 Don started volunteering on the con committee of Diversicon.  In 2002 Don was deputy-programming head and in 2003 & 2004 Don headed programming.  Although a small con in numbers, Diversicon has three tracks of programming for an entire weekend (typically running between 65 and 75 programming items in the weekend) and in know for its high participation rate (we usually had 30 -35% of attendees on one or more panels).  Don also regularly attends CONvergence and volunteers in the Masquerade and as a panel moderator.

In 2004 Don attended his first Gaylaxicon in San Diego and also attended in Boston in 2005 and Washington DC in 2008, volunteering significant hours at each convention. He also volunteered to be a reader/judge for the short fiction category of the Spectrum Awards in 2004 and 2005.

Professionally Don has worked with small start up companies for over 20 years and is highly experienced in organization, running meetings and keeping projects on track.