OMPA
Entry updated 5 October 2026. Tagged: Community, Fan.
Known usually by its acronym, the Off-trails Magazine Publishers Association (1954-1978 or 1979) was an Amateur Press Association or APA (which see) formed in the UK by Kenneth Bulmer and A Vincent Clarke, whose founder members included Chuck Harris. It was the first UK APA to emerge from sf Fandom, though preceded by the non-sf British Amateur Press association founded in 1980, of which John Carnell was a member in the mid-1940s.
OMPA was modelled on FAPA, and was likewise created to facilitate distribution of Fanzines published by and for members. Administrative matters appeared in Off Trails, the APA's OO or Official Organ published by its current AE or Association Editor (a variant on the more usual OE for Official Editor), which also listed members and their contributions. Founder members at the time of the first mailing in September 1954 included Ron Bennett, John Brunner, Kenneth Bulmer, A Vincent Clarke, Chuck Harris, Fred Smith and Walt Willis. Others with entries in this encyclopedia who were members at one time or another include Mike Ashley, Gregory Benford, Terry Carr, Howard DeVore, Gordon Eklund, Terry Jeeves, David Langford, George Locke, Michael Moorcock, Bill Rotsler, Larry Shaw, Arthur Thomson, Bjo Trimble, E C Tubb, Bob (Wilson) Tucker, Harry Turner, Peter Weston and Ted White. In later years the hyphen in "Off-trails" was sometimes omitted or replaced with a space: "Off Trails".
Uniquely for an APA, OMPA once organized a national convention: OMPAcon, the 1973 UK Eastercon. This climactic effort may have hastened the end of an APA already perceived as in decline; OMPA was moribund by 1976 and faded away altogether by the end of the decade. A 1974 attempt to start afresh with the Rival Off-trail Magazine Publishers' Association (ROMPA, first proposed under that name in 1972) was unsuccessful and achieved only five mailings, the last in February 1975. Its Official Organ was titled Bumf. Rob Hansen has chronicled the full history of OMPA – including ROMPA and its impact – in OMPA: The Rise and Fall of the First UK APA (2026). [PR/RH/DRL]
further reading
- Rob Hansen. OMPA: The Rise and Fall of the First UK APA (Reading, Berkshire: Ansible Editions, 2026) [nonfiction: pb/photographic]
links
- Fancyclopedia 3
- OMPA at Fanac.org
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