Worldcon 75 Day 3 Postscript: Lunch

On Friday, I actually did have a few hours of "spare" time after the Business Meeting, so after I changed out of my suit into my San Jose shirt and Lisa put away the recording gear, we went down and joined Linda Deneroff, then took the train downtown and had lunch because the food court restaurants had queues out the doors.

( What's That? Smells Like Fish! )

While I was writing up Business Meeting summaries and getting ready for the Hugo Awards, Lisa took the tram down to the S-Market and the hardware store we found the other day and did some more hardware and grocery shopping for us. The minibar fridge is small, so we can't buy very far ahead.

2017 WSFS Business Meeting: Second Main Business Meeting

Here's the summary of what happened at the First Main Business Meeting. As yesterday, you'll need to refer to the 2017 WSFS Business Meeting Agenda to understand what's happening. Anything not mentioned either happened previously or was not considered yet. If a vote count is not listed, it means it was either by unanimous consent or by a show of hands.

Constitutional Amendments Passed on From Last Year. Ratified items take effect at end of current Worldcon and first apply to next year.

C.1. Best Series (as amended by C.1.1. RATIFIED, 51-39.
C.4. Three Stage Voting (3SV): FAILED, 41-45.
C.5. Motion to Suspend E Pluribus Hugo for one year: FAILED
C.6. EPH+: FAILED
C.7. Defining North America: RATIFIED
(Item C.12 was moved up on the agenda by a 2/3 vote)
C.12. Motion to suspend 5 and 6 for one year: FAILED

At that point the meeting adjourned, so we once again will go to an "overflow" meeting on the final day of the convention, starting at 10:00.

Constitutional Amendments Passed on From Last Year. Ratified items take effect at end of current Worldcon and first apply to next year.

C.8. Retrospective Improvement Pt. 1. (8 min)
C.9. Retrospective Improvement Pt. 2. (8 min)
C.10. Universal Suffrage. (8 min)

New Constitutional Amendments

D.1. What Our Marks Really Are. (4 min)
D.2. The Reasonable Amendment. (4 min)
D.3. Make Room! Make Room! (6 min)
D.5. Requiring Electronic Payments (This was killed by being postponed indefinitely at the Preliminary Business Meeting.

(The three Hugo Category splits/revisions were referred to the Hugo Award Study Committee and will not be considered this year.)

Once we get past C.10, the meeting can adjourn sine die without considering any of the remaining new proposals.

The WSFS Mark Protection Committee will meet about 15 minutes after the final adjournment of the Sunday Business Meeting.

Worldcon 75 Day 4: Batten Down the Hatches

Today's WSFS Business Meeting took four hours including the first half-hour of Site Selection business and half an hour of Worldcon Chairs Photo. I'm pleased that this part worked out, and that we got the chairs reorganized in time to call the meeting back to order at 11:00 for the roughly 2 1/2 hour Second Main Business Meeting.

Lisa took photos and video of the former Worldcon Chairs gathering. I'm uploading the video to the YouTube Worldcon Events channel as I type this, so it should be online soon. I'll post the photos as well as soon as I can find the time.

Lisa and I had lunch with Linda Deneroff and Elanor Busby in the food court, which also gave us an opportunity to spend the "groats" (tokens for hours worked as a volunteer, redeemable in most of the convention center food outlets). Lisa went off on her own while I spent the afternoon in two separate back-to-back panels with overlapping subjects: "How to Start a Worldcon Bid" and "Friends Don't Let Friends Run Worldcons."

By the time my last panel was done, we were already reaching dinner time. Lisa and I met up with Linda and Elanor again. I suggested going downtown, but Linda told me that a bad storm was moving in, making it a bad idea to go off-site. We managed to get a table in the restaurant. Shortly thereafter, the threatened storm (which apparently had moved here from central Europe, where there were people reported killed by it in Poland) arrived, blowing open the door next to our table, and sending the large gathering of fans on the patio running for cover.

( What a Mess )

After dinner, we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel (which it turned out we didn't need) and took the #9 tram back down to the S-Market (which has a better selection than the Lidl within walking distance). Linda came with us in order to get out of the hotel for a while.

Returning from our shopping errand, Lisa turned in, while I went downstairs and met Linda. I was able to show her where the ATM is located in the convention center, and pick up issue 7 of the newsletter with the Business Meeting report I submitted this afternoon. (Turns out that I made a mistake — I'd forgotten that one of the items I reported as coming up tomorrow had already been killed by being postponed indefinitely.)

Linda and I walked through the Winter Garden, where the Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon victory party was in full (and very loud) swing. Neither Linda nor I had any stamina left, and I fear that I'm finally starting to get some sort of con crud despite trying to use hand sanitizer and drink lots of water. We both headed for our respective hotel rooms.

There is a bunch of "housekeeping" I need to do, but just getting the video files off of Lisa's camera and starting the upload of the Worldcon Chairs Photo is proving to be about all I can manager. I must get more sleep. There's one last Business Meeting tomorrow, followed by the Closing Ceremonies. I'm really glad that we're not leaving Helsinki for a few days and that we're staying here in the same hotel. I'm not sure I could face doing move-out tomorrow or even the next day.

It's Official: The Hugo Awards are Oldest

During the "Friends Don't Let Friends Run Worldcons" panel, the plaque that was presented during the Hugo Awards last night was brought in because Kent Bloom and Mary Morman, as part of the Worldcon History Project, were taking responsibility for it.

( Official Notice from Guinness Book )

I think this is a pretty cool thing, and I'm happy that Worldcon 75 was able to arrange with Guinness Book to get this presentation done here at Helsinki.