About

Mission: The Geek Partnership Society is a non-profit organization with a mission of celebrating imagination, inspiring creativity, and building our community through service and education.

Vision:  The Geek Partnership Society (GPS) is a group of geeks working in cooperation with other organizations to better serve the geek community of the Saint Paul and Minneapolis area through:

– Providing a venue & other infrastructure to deliver programs to our community;
– Celebrating all that is geek through year-round programs and activities designed to inspire and connect individuals with the broader geek community;
– Encouraging creativity, curiosity and volunteerism while maintaining a sense of humor;
– Giving back to the greater St. Paul/Minneapolis community through organized activities, fundraising events and school interaction;
– Collaboration with schools and other local agencies, with a focus on connecting kids to the powers of science and literacy;
– Promoting a spirit of community which encourages creativity, diversity and a sense of partnership; and
– Building partnerships with a broad array of local geek organizations to help us accomplish together what none of us could do alone

History: 

Founded in 1998 as MiSFiTS (the Minnesota Society for the Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy), we have established a tradition of year-round programs by and for local geeks. From our educational initiative of bringing science into local classrooms, to a movie club, to things as simple as an ice cream social, we’ve always believed that there are great opportunities for service and fun, even if we have to create them.

As 2009 drew to a close, we determined we could and should become more. We believed it was time for a community institution dedicated to serving the local geek community, and a hub for those activities. That meant:

• providing a facility for work and events to happen.
• building more programs and events to host in that facility.
• networking with the geeks around us to do all of this in new and exciting ways. 

The idea was hardly new, but in years of dreaming, nobody had put together something like this before. There are a couple very successful science fiction clubhouses out there, and they helped inspire us to take the idea beyond the next level. The time was right and we were committed to making that happen. The Twin Cities are, by many measures, one of the geekiest places to live in the world.

Through a series of groundbreaking agreements, GPS, Convergence Events, and Anime Twin Cities, made this facility a reality. From May 2010 through January 2023, the Event Horizon served as this local geek community hub. The Event Horizon was a facility that hosts over 3,000 square feet of event space, and was capable of hosting more than 200 people at once, and used by GPS and multiple of our partners. working with other local geek organizations……..  to fulfill not only our mission, but to support the missions of our partners.

Partnerships have always be important to the culture and purpose of GPS. We have partnered with many local geek organizations over the years and intend to continue. Our first key partnership was with Convergence Events, with whom we committed to a program partnership that represented an unprecedented level of cooperation and support between two organizations in our community. Just a few months later, we also partnered with Anime Twin Cities who helped us run the Event Horizon. Other key partnerships have included MnStF / Minicon, MarsCon, CONsole Room, Twin Cities Geeks, and more. 

In 2020, the needs of the community swiftly changed from mostly in person gathering to mostly virtual or hybrid gatherings. 

Current Status:

It is now February 2026.  GPS is alive and continuing to providing core programming opportunities: Writing Contest, Space Camp Scholarship, club activities, and social gatherings. We are continuing to host mostly hybrid gatherings. We are also working toward implementing more activities and restarting activities done before 2020.

We operate as an all-volunteer community organization under IRS section 501(c)3 – a fancy way of saying we’re a charity. We have some of the best volunteers we could want, but that’s not quite enough…

Our Membership are the core of our society. In the end, it’s about people, and we promise never to forget that. They attend our events, participate in our programs, or those of our partners. Only slightly less important are those thousands of geeks who aren’t yet plugged in to all the great stuff going on in this town. Membership is yours for the asking, so hop on!

Partnerships are the key to how we operate. Partnerships are flexible things, what we each need and can offer one another varies widely, so we’re committed to finding creative ways to support each other that fit each partner’s independent mission and identity. Collaboration can make great things happen.

The Future: 

No one knows what the future holds. But, we hope that our story will be a long tale that will grow in the telling of it, as most good tales do. We will continue to grow our people and financial infrastructure, and through that grow our programs and physical infrastructure. We’re in this for the long haul, and we only plan to accelerate. We invite you to be a part of it.

————————-

For news about the current Board elections, look here.

Our Bylaws can be reviewed here.