How to Bid for a Westercon

[kevin_standlee]

On Sunday I was contacted by someone on behalf of a group of people interested in bidding to host Westercon. The would-be bidders had read the Westercon Bylaws and knew that there were documents they needed to file in order to bid, but they could not figure out where to file them. This puzzled me initially, because I pretty much take it for granted that anyone bidding for Westercon has attended a few of them and been involved in their politics, but upon looking at the Bylaws, I guess I can see how someone could be confused about where you file. It's not like the Bylaws have explicit language that says, "To bid for Westercon, fill out this checklist and send it to this fixed address."

Because the election is administered by the Westercon two years before the target year, the address to which you submit your bid changes every year. This year being 2015, the election is for 2017, and would-be bidders file with the 2015 Westercon in San Diego. If you want to bid for 2018, you file your papers with the 2016 Westercon in Portland. There's no single fixed address, no online form on a single web site, and no single point of contact, and this apparently is confusing to people coming to Westercon out of the blue. Worldcon is the same way, which is presumably why sometimes the Worldcon web site gets e-mail from groups who want to know how they can persuade the WSFS Board of Directors to award a Worldcon to their city.

Anyway, in light of the request for clarification, I wrote an article for the Westercon web site entitled How to Bid for a Westercon. I hope it helps. I'm so close to the process that I clearly cannot see what things newcommers cannot see, so I'm likely to not be fully explaining everything you have to do.

Comments

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I was going to point out their status as American territories but decided I was putting too much thought into it anyway. *grin*

Is there a rule for what offshore islands are considered North America and which aren't, for Westercon purposes?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I was going to point out their status as American territories...

Yes, but they're not part of North America. If Hawaii wasn't explicitly included, it wouldn't be part of Westercon either.

Is there a rule for what offshore islands are considered North America and which aren't, for Westercon purposes?

No, there isn't. "North America" is a geographical distinction, not a political one. The sensible interpretation (and the one I'd make if it ever came up, which it could) is any islands that are parts of US or Mexican states or Canadian provinces associated with the North American continent. The reason this could come up is that it's not impossible that someone might bid Victoria BC, that being in my opinion the only city of any decent size that's on a North American island on the west coast.

[akawil]

Nanaimo's slightly larger than Victoria actually, but given that it's also on Vancouver Island it's the same question.

Is a Catalina bid completely out of the question? I don't have a sense of how much hotel space it has.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I thought Victoria had more convention facilities, but I might be mistaken.

I'd be very surprised at a Catalina Island bid. I'm not familiar with its hospitality space. Mind you, I helped with the Tonopah Westercon bid, and Tonopah isn't very big. OTOH, it does have a convention center and certainly would have had enough hotel space for the number of people who would have attended.

[jbriggs.livejournal.com]

Avalon, Catalina Island does indeed have enough facilities, but I'm beyond bidding Westercons now.

[delosharriman]

You can easily find the continental shelf boundary on a good map. The distinction is quite well demarcated, most everywhere below the Arctic Circle.