Where (and When) Can You Hold a Westercon?

[kevin_standlee]

Because no bids filed by the end of December 2016 to hold the 2019 Westercon, any site on the North American continent west of 104° west longitude, or in Hawaii, is eligible to bid to hold the 2019 Westercon. That includes even the two seated Westercons. There is no restriction prohibiting a seated Westercon from bidding to hold a future Westercon. There are some other restrictions that apply up until the December 31 prior to the election, but if nobody files a bid by December 31, all sites become fair game.

If no bids file by April 15, site selection will proceed with nothing but write-in bids. The deadline for filing bidding papers to be eligible to win the bid as a write-in is the close of site selection balloting at Westercon 70 in Tempe this July. If no bids file bidding papers, or if no filed bid wins the voting, or if None of the Above wins, then the Westercon Business Meeting gets to decide where to hold Westercon two years hence. Again.

Note that while the Westercon Bylaws recommends that Westercon be held over the American Independence Day weekend, this is not required. It is merely a strong suggestion.

Comments

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Westercon 69 last year was a lot of fun but I'm not sure Portland fans have recovered their breath enough to do it again just yet. Granted we do have a larger hotel than Tonopah...

[totient]

Sites in Australia can't (currently) hold the Westercon, but they may bid and be selected. Should this occur, they would be given a deadline for affecting the annexation of Australia by the US (or vice versa). In the (likely) event of their failure, arrangements for the convention would then fall to the LASFS board of directors, and the wording of this process in the bylaws does not appear to apply any geographic restriction to the replacement arrangements whatsoever (that is, such a Westercon could be anywhere in the world).

So if you are outside of the area Kevin describes in his post and you really want to run a Westercon anyway, try bidding Australia.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Actually, there is still one restriction left in place when you get a "Section 3.16 failure," which is what happened in San Jose in 2011. Section 3.1 still applies in such a case, so unless the (highly unlikely) Australian conditions be met, you still are limited to Western North America and Hawaii.

[totient]

Ah, but see, it's not a section 3.16 failure, it's a section 1.9 failure. Section 3.16 refers to section 3.1. Section 1.9 does not.

[Edited to change userpic]

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Hm, okay. But I personally suspect that LASFS would simply cancel Westercon in such a case.