Close of Business
Aug. 7th, 2015 11:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeYesterday was the deadline for submitting new proposals to the WSFS Business Meeting. A few proposals that I helped people draft did not actually get submitted in the end, and given how many things we actually have to discuss, I must admit to some relief. I currently count at least twenty items of new or continuing business, including a few things not listed below because they'll arise out of committee reports and are mostly routine.
Although it's technically possible for business to make the agenda after this point, it's going to be a very hard sell. You either have to convince me that it's worthwhile (and my patience has grown rather thin), or convince 2/3 of the people voting at the Business Meeting to Suspend the Rules and allow the proposal.
The substantive business falls into two main categories. Links are to the Sasquan Business Meeting web site.
1. Business Passed on from Loncon 3. These are the four constitutional amendments passed last year. If ratified, they take effect at the end of this year's Worldcon and first affect next year's Worldcon. In particular, if Popular Ratification is ratified this year, it first applies to proposals that get first passage next year. Anything that gets first passage this year can be finally ratified next year in Kansas City.
2. New Business Proposed This Year. This includes eight proposed amendments to the WSFS Constitution and five resolutions, two of which are Hugo-eligibility extension requests.
There is no proposal from the YA Award committee. After discussing it (and they'll have a long report which will be online along with other reports before Worldcon and will form part of a huge -- currently 60 page -- set of Business Meeting handouts), the committee decided to ask to be continued for a year with the idea of producing something next year, particularly given the crowded agenda this year.
There are several ad hoc committees that we expect to submit routine motions to continue themselves, but nothing substantive.
Resolutions can be considered directly at the Preliminary Business Meeting on Thursday of Worldcon.
New Constitutional Amendments can be discussed, amended, referred to committees (to report later in the Worldcon), and killed (postponed indefinitely) at the Preliminary Meeting, but they cannot be directly passed. If not killed, we'll set the debate time for the main debate.
Business Passed On technically can be amended, but it's rarely a good idea, and if it increases the scope of the proposal, it resets the ratification clock. I therefore hope that the Preliminary Meeting will merely set the debate time limits for the four items up for ratification.
There were no "surprise" submissions before the deadline. There were some things floated in the last few days, and I helped their sponsors with them, but none of them actually made it as far as being formally submitted. Some of them may have decided that waiting until next year is a more productive strategy, given the crush of proposals this year.
Although it's technically possible for business to make the agenda after this point, it's going to be a very hard sell. You either have to convince me that it's worthwhile (and my patience has grown rather thin), or convince 2/3 of the people voting at the Business Meeting to Suspend the Rules and allow the proposal.
The substantive business falls into two main categories. Links are to the Sasquan Business Meeting web site.
1. Business Passed on from Loncon 3. These are the four constitutional amendments passed last year. If ratified, they take effect at the end of this year's Worldcon and first affect next year's Worldcon. In particular, if Popular Ratification is ratified this year, it first applies to proposals that get first passage next year. Anything that gets first passage this year can be finally ratified next year in Kansas City.
2. New Business Proposed This Year. This includes eight proposed amendments to the WSFS Constitution and five resolutions, two of which are Hugo-eligibility extension requests.
There is no proposal from the YA Award committee. After discussing it (and they'll have a long report which will be online along with other reports before Worldcon and will form part of a huge -- currently 60 page -- set of Business Meeting handouts), the committee decided to ask to be continued for a year with the idea of producing something next year, particularly given the crowded agenda this year.
There are several ad hoc committees that we expect to submit routine motions to continue themselves, but nothing substantive.
Resolutions can be considered directly at the Preliminary Business Meeting on Thursday of Worldcon.
New Constitutional Amendments can be discussed, amended, referred to committees (to report later in the Worldcon), and killed (postponed indefinitely) at the Preliminary Meeting, but they cannot be directly passed. If not killed, we'll set the debate time for the main debate.
Business Passed On technically can be amended, but it's rarely a good idea, and if it increases the scope of the proposal, it resets the ratification clock. I therefore hope that the Preliminary Meeting will merely set the debate time limits for the four items up for ratification.
There were no "surprise" submissions before the deadline. There were some things floated in the last few days, and I helped their sponsors with them, but none of them actually made it as far as being formally submitted. Some of them may have decided that waiting until next year is a more productive strategy, given the crush of proposals this year.
