BASFA was formed at a “meeting zero” in the Quiet Bar at what is now the San Jose Doubletree Hotel after a SiliCon committee meeting in 1991, where people who realized that the only time they were ever seeing their friends was at committee meetings. Michael Wallis proposed that people also start meeting socially and organized the initial meetings of the club. Michael’s account of the club’s formation:

Dave and Marli Medinnus, Lamont and Mitzi Jones, myself, and several other con-com staff were sitting in the Quiet Bar at the (then) Red Lion Hotel after about the 4th or 5th weekend in a row of having con-com meetings for one convention or another… and Dave was complaining that we only ever saw each other at committee meetings. I suggested starting a social club where we could actually have fun….

Dave called the next day (a Monday in July) and said “Coco’s at Lawrence and Oakmead, 8 p.m., Wednesday.” There were 28 people at the first meeting. The “Numismatic Responsibility Act” was proposed and adopted. Dave was elected President. I think Lamont was Treasurer. We’ve met (mostly) weekly since then. We’ve met at various other locations over the years. Activities at meetings have come and gone (we used to be a hotbed of Hearts playing back in the day), but the club goes on. And Death will not release it.

Appropriately, BASFA celebrated its 1,000th meeting by holding it on the final night of SiliCon 2009 at the San Jose Doubletree.