![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
WSFS Business: Decoupling Publications
Aug. 10th, 2013 10:19 pmOne of the significant problems I have with a proposal on the agenda for the LoneStarCon 3 WSFS Business Meeting entitled "No Cheap Voting" is that it effectively keeps the price of a Worldcon supporting membership from being much less than $40 (that's where it is now), because the current WSFS Constitution requires that all supporting and attending members receive "generally-distributed publications," which is usually interpreted as the progress reports and program/souvenir book unless the members explicitly opt out of doing so. In other words, paper publications, which are not cheap, are at least half the cost of a $40 supporting membership. The purpose of a Supporting membership is to support the Worldcon, so it's not reasonable to expect a Worldcon to sell a membership that costs more to service than it takes in revenue.
Now personally I think the best way to handle my objection would be to modify No Cheap Voting to also strike out the existing section of the Constitution (1.5.3) that requires paper publications by default. However, not everyone shares my strongly held feeling that the issue of paper publications and the minimum membership price are tightly tied together. The lead proponent of No Cheap Voting has, however, said that she would support a motion to repeal 1.5.3 and to have it voted upon before her proposal. (This would require the agenda to be rearranged, but the Business Meeting staff can do this.)
Meanwhile, Lisa has expressed a concern about the (now possibly minority) of members who want paper publications and would be willing to pay reasonable costs to get them. She is concerned that without some restriction, Worldcons would simply drop all paper publications, and possibly even do something as silly and require platform-specific e-readers or something like that. (She was a member of a club that dropped paper publications and wouldn't even quote a price for producing them even when she offered to pay extra for them.)
Putting on my WSFS Consultant's Hat, I talked with her about what she wanted to accomplish and drafted a constitutional amendment that I think does so. Here it is below the cut.
( The Amendment is Short, but the Commentary is Long )
I have posted this to the SMOFS mailing list, but I have not yet submitted it to the Business Meeting. This is officially Lisa's proposal; I'm just the first co-sponsor. If there is any other member of this year's Worldcon (attending or supporting) who is interested in being listed as a co-sponsor, let me know.
Now personally I think the best way to handle my objection would be to modify No Cheap Voting to also strike out the existing section of the Constitution (1.5.3) that requires paper publications by default. However, not everyone shares my strongly held feeling that the issue of paper publications and the minimum membership price are tightly tied together. The lead proponent of No Cheap Voting has, however, said that she would support a motion to repeal 1.5.3 and to have it voted upon before her proposal. (This would require the agenda to be rearranged, but the Business Meeting staff can do this.)
Meanwhile, Lisa has expressed a concern about the (now possibly minority) of members who want paper publications and would be willing to pay reasonable costs to get them. She is concerned that without some restriction, Worldcons would simply drop all paper publications, and possibly even do something as silly and require platform-specific e-readers or something like that. (She was a member of a club that dropped paper publications and wouldn't even quote a price for producing them even when she offered to pay extra for them.)
Putting on my WSFS Consultant's Hat, I talked with her about what she wanted to accomplish and drafted a constitutional amendment that I think does so. Here it is below the cut.
( The Amendment is Short, but the Commentary is Long )
I have posted this to the SMOFS mailing list, but I have not yet submitted it to the Business Meeting. This is officially Lisa's proposal; I'm just the first co-sponsor. If there is any other member of this year's Worldcon (attending or supporting) who is interested in being listed as a co-sponsor, let me know.
