Where (and When) Can You Hold a Westercon?

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.

2019 NASFiC Bidding

NASFiC is held when the Worldcon is held outside of North America. (Not just the USA.) For example, this year's Worldcon is in Finland, which is not in North America. Therefore, the 2017 NASFiC will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As you can see, NASFiC does not have to be held on the North American mainland. It can be held anywhere within North America, which includes Central America, and also the Caribbean, Bermuda, the Bahamas. Hawaii is not currently explicitly listed as being included within the NASFiC definition. "North America" is somewhat ambiguous around the edge cases, and there's a pending constitutional amendment that would restore the de facto definition that existed before we deleted the zone definitions from the WSFS Constitution.

Assuming that the Dublin in 2019 Worldcon bid wins its (unopposed) election, there will be a need for a 2019 NASFiC. By WSFS rules, the Worldcon (or NASFiC, if there is one) one year before the convention year will hold the NASFiC election. In this case, it means that the 2018 Worldcon, Worldcon 76 San Jose, will run the 2019 NASFiC election.

Any site in North America more than 500 miles from San Jose, California will be eligible to host the 2019 NASFiC. That effectively means that no place in California or Nevada is eligible. The 500 mile circle around San Jose does allow places like Portland OR, Salt Lake City UT, and Phoenix AZ to bid. Of course, any place farther away than that is also eligible.

NASFiC does not have a date restriction, other than it has to be in the year for which they are bidding. Unlike Worldcon, NASFiC doesn't administer awards, and therefore it has even fewer practical limitations on how early in the year it can be held. This year's NASFiC is the weekend after Westercon.

Combined with the rules for Westercon bidding (see my previous post), it is technically possible for a site to bid for and host both Westercon and NASFiC simultaneously. The elections take place at different times and places and are run by different groups. (Westercon is selected two years in advance and voted at Westercon. NASFiC is selected one year in advance and voted at — in 2019's case — at Worldcon.) However, any site in North American west of 104° west longitude and also more than 500 miles from San Jose is eligible to host both.

There are of course many places in North America east of 104° west longitude, and they are all eligible to host NASFiC but not Westercon. There's never been an official NASFiC outside of the USA (Puerto Rico is part of the USA, folks, and don't forget it!), but sites in Canada, Mexico, and the elsewhere are all eligible as well.

To my knowledge, no group has ever actually tried to bid for both Westercon and NASFiC, but that's only due to the practical issues such a bid might encounter, not due to any restriction in the rules of either Westercon or WSFS.

2020 NASFiC Bidding

An afterthought about the 2020 NASFiC: Assuming that Dublin wins their 2019 Worldcon bid and New Zealand wins its 2020 Worldcon bid, we will have an interesting case regarding the 2020 NASFiC election. The 2020 NASFiC will be selected in 2019, and the 2019 NASFiC, not the Worldcon, will administer the election. Only members of the 2019 NASFiC will be eligible to vote on the 2020 NASFiC site. Members of the 2019 Worldcon will not be eligible to vote unless they also join the 2019 NASFiC as at least a supporting member. I am trying to make this clear because, based on the past times a NASFiC has selected a NASFiC, it's likely that Worldcon members will think that they are eligible when they are not, and some of them are going to get testy about it.

Anyone bidding for the 2019 NASFiC should consider that they'll be running one official WSFS voting function: 2020 NASFiC Site Selection. There are no Awards. There is no Business Meeting. But there will be Site Selection. Bear this in mind if you consider throwing your hat in the ring to host the 2019 NASFiC.