Dear fellow fans—
This note would have come a lot sooner, but I’m just coming down from the emotional high of our little tête-à-tête the evening of April 1st; that, and the fact that it’s taken me over a week to put all 976 of your email addresses in the BCC line!
To those of you who were there and took part, and to those of you who couldn’t be but contributed in some way to one of the most amazing experiences of my life, just saying thanks is somehow not enough. So I’d like to send you each a copy of the $3000 George Lucas FRAMES book…. I’d really like to, but of course I can’t. Who has enough money for even one of those?
Yes, I was surprised. I expected a toast, perhaps a few words of goodbye….but never the evening that transpired and the wonderful gifts that I received. The friendship and love that filled that room at Jillian’s was proof to me that all of my work and efforts for the last 15 years to not only make all fans part of the extended Lucasfilm family, but to make sure everyone realized that the fans are at the very heart of what Lucasfilm does and why it succeeds, have truly been worth it. And in doing that, so many of you have become close personal friends and part of my own extended family.
As most of you know, Lucasfilm has asked me to stay on as a consultant for a while, with the title of Fan Relations Advisor. Even before that, I was independently planning trips to fan conventions all over the world—and I hope and expect to see most if not all of you over the next few years.
And of course, you’re all invited to visit the expanded and remodeled Rancho Obi-Wan … if and when the expansion and the remodeling is finished.
We’re at about 54 weeks and counting, but we hope and expect to resume tours by around mid-summer. Just don’t all 976 of you try to come here at once; we’re in the country and the septic system couldn’t take it!Because of you and fellow fans, I feel like the richest man in the world—but rich in ways that a Wall Street financier just couldn’t imagine. I owe you all a lot, and I will never stop repaying that debt.
Yours in the Force!
--Steve
