The heart of Foolscap is the Commons, an open space where ideas and connections are created. It's the place you go between panels, it's where you'll come to get your badge at the start of the convention, and it's where you'll find comfortable chairs and tables to play games or hang out with new friends. Announcements, gaming, and crafting all happen there — even tea-tasting and molecular gastronomy demonstrations.

Foolscap's panels and discussions take place in the meeting rooms nearby, and during daytime hours, the Commons expands to include the adjoining Dealers Room, Art Show, and silent auction.

A Culture of Sharing

We create community through sharing.
The Commons is our living room, and our bookshelves are your bookshelves. We furnish the Commons with books. We started with a box of them, and called it the Magic Book Box. It's a simple tradition: If you've got a book that you're ready to pass on, leave it in the box for someone else. If you find a book you want to read, it's yours. Over the years, the box has grown — it fills several shelves, and not everything in it is a book: we share albums and art supplies, games and tea. But the spirit is simple and expansive. We want you to come away from Foolscap with new ideas, and what better container for ideas than a book?

Friends share food. Communities have eaten together as long as we have been recording history. We make space to eat together in many ways. When we create the schedule for Foolscap, we leave ample mealtime pauses for lunch and dinner — not just enough time to grab a bite on the go, but a real break in the schedule, long enough to get a meal and conversation. We also gather over food as a community — the Bite of Foolscap brunch each year is a chance to reconnect with friends as the convention is winding down on Sunday.

Hospitality is our open kitchen. We don't just create space and time for food; we feed every member of the convention. Hospitality is open each day of the convention, whenever panels are running and into the night. We serve home-cooked food in Hospitality: hot tea and bread, and meats, spreads, snacks and sweets. Our members bring food to share, and the whole community supports Hospitality. No one should go hungry at Foolscap.

Volunteers make Foolscap happen. We can create this space and community because people give selflessly. The members of Foolscap donate books, food, time and energy to make the conversation possible. If you have something you want to lend, we'd love to hear from you. We give to create a community, and we always appreciate help. If you'd like to volunteer, contact us at volunteer@foolscap.org.

Every year we host an auction with proceeds going to fund future Foolscap adventures. If you would like to donate an item, please contact donations@foolscap.org.