Jeff VanderMeer has an interview with Tero Ykspetäjä over at his blog. Tero, who lives in Turku, has been involved in Finnish fandom for quite some time and currently runs the informative blog Partial Recall. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Why do you think Finnish SF/F readers/fans are so well-organized?
Finland has a long tradition of small and bigger non-profit associations, so this isn’t unique to fandom here. But also probably because how fandom got started in Finland—rather late compared to many other countries (fanzines started getting published regularly in the 70s, and conventions started only in the 80s)—and because the persons who were starting it all happened to be quite organized and positive to cooperation by nature. They created a tradition that was easy to follow and that has proven very useful over the years. Although having lots of organizations also has its drawbacks (things sometimes tend to get quite bureaucratic, and it may be difficult to find enough people to man all the needed positions in the organizations), having established organizations has helped a lot getting funding for the Finncons, for example.
The World SF Blog 