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And Then There Were Three
Apr. 28th, 2021 02:24 pmYesterday's big news in Worldcon was that Winnipeg announced that they are bidding to host the 2023 Worldcon.
( Logo and Press Release )
With this filing, the decision of DisCon III to ignore the WSFS Constitution and declare that the original deadline for filing bids to be on the ballot for the 2023 Worldcon Site Selection stands even though the convention was postponed from August to December is no longer academic. There's a real case before DC3, and I do hope that DC3 reconsiders their initial decision, not just because I'm a director of Winnipeg's parent non-profit corporation, but more importantly for the reason I cited in my original post about their decision: If a Worldcon ignores a clear directive in the WSFS rules, and for that matter one that is relatively easy to obey and is not ambiguous, what is to stop them from ignoring any rule?
As I noted above, I'm a director of CanSMOF, Winnipeg's parent non-profit corporation. When the CanSMOF board of directors began discussing how they were being approached by Canadian sites interested in hosting Worldcon, I was in a touchy situation, for multiple reasons. Not only am I the Parliamentarian of the 2021 WSFS Business Meeting, but I'd also already agreed to run Memphis' WSFS division should they win. I was obliged to navigate a minefield of conflicts of interest.
( All Sorts of 'Inside Baseball' Here )
Given my involvement with the Memphis committee, I was asked to open communication with them on Winnipeg's behalf. I had a nice conversation with Cliff Dunn, co-chair of Memphis, and I found myself somewhat unexpectedly in a group conversation with Winnipeg's bid chair (Terry Fong) and one vice chair (Linda Ross-Mansfield) and Memphis' co-chair, Kate Secor. This happened a few days before the Winnipeg bid was officially filed and the press release issued. (There were a few days of delay while the final version of the Tourism Winnipeg package was prepared and signed off by the appropriate person.) The bid was filed with DisCon III several hours before the bid issued the public announcement.
Winnipeg also asked me to run their WSFS division should they win. In order to (in my opinion) give equally fair (or unfair, depending on your point of view) advice to both bids, I am an "official double agent" as a member of both bid committees under the title "WSFS Advisor."
How will I vote? That's between me and my ballot. I wouldn't have agreed to be on either committee if I didn't think either of them could put on a good Worldcon. However, I will say that the 1994 Worldcon in Winnipeg is one of the best Worldcons I've ever attended, and I would rank it ahead of the one I co-chaired. Incidentally, while the quality isn't that great (it's a VHS-to-digital transfer), here's a video of the 1994 Hugo Awards Ceremony, during which I make a brief appearance (skip to 1:26 to see my five seconds of fame) as the stand-in to accept a Hugo Award for a finalist who apparently never got the letter asking them to designate someone if they weren't attending.
I would, however, encourage anyone who picks either Memphis or Winnipeg as their first choice pick the other one as their second choice. Worldcons are selected by the same preferential-ballot ranked-choice system that the Hugo Awards use. In a multi-way race, members' second preferences could easily make the difference. If no site gets a majority of first-place votes, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated (usually this means eliminating the votes for ineligible write-in bids and None of the Above) and their votes redistributed to their next preference, with the process repeating until a candidate polls a majority.
In 1990, in a race between San Francisco, Zagreb and Phoenix on the ballot plus Hawaii as a filed and legitimate write-in bid, San Francisco eventually won, but not until Phoenix was eliminated: most of their votes redistributed to San Francisco, giving us (I was on the bid committee) the 1993 Worldcon. Your lower preferences may be vital, so consider them carefully when you cast your ballot.
( Logo and Press Release )
With this filing, the decision of DisCon III to ignore the WSFS Constitution and declare that the original deadline for filing bids to be on the ballot for the 2023 Worldcon Site Selection stands even though the convention was postponed from August to December is no longer academic. There's a real case before DC3, and I do hope that DC3 reconsiders their initial decision, not just because I'm a director of Winnipeg's parent non-profit corporation, but more importantly for the reason I cited in my original post about their decision: If a Worldcon ignores a clear directive in the WSFS rules, and for that matter one that is relatively easy to obey and is not ambiguous, what is to stop them from ignoring any rule?
As I noted above, I'm a director of CanSMOF, Winnipeg's parent non-profit corporation. When the CanSMOF board of directors began discussing how they were being approached by Canadian sites interested in hosting Worldcon, I was in a touchy situation, for multiple reasons. Not only am I the Parliamentarian of the 2021 WSFS Business Meeting, but I'd also already agreed to run Memphis' WSFS division should they win. I was obliged to navigate a minefield of conflicts of interest.
( All Sorts of 'Inside Baseball' Here )
Given my involvement with the Memphis committee, I was asked to open communication with them on Winnipeg's behalf. I had a nice conversation with Cliff Dunn, co-chair of Memphis, and I found myself somewhat unexpectedly in a group conversation with Winnipeg's bid chair (Terry Fong) and one vice chair (Linda Ross-Mansfield) and Memphis' co-chair, Kate Secor. This happened a few days before the Winnipeg bid was officially filed and the press release issued. (There were a few days of delay while the final version of the Tourism Winnipeg package was prepared and signed off by the appropriate person.) The bid was filed with DisCon III several hours before the bid issued the public announcement.
Winnipeg also asked me to run their WSFS division should they win. In order to (in my opinion) give equally fair (or unfair, depending on your point of view) advice to both bids, I am an "official double agent" as a member of both bid committees under the title "WSFS Advisor."
How will I vote? That's between me and my ballot. I wouldn't have agreed to be on either committee if I didn't think either of them could put on a good Worldcon. However, I will say that the 1994 Worldcon in Winnipeg is one of the best Worldcons I've ever attended, and I would rank it ahead of the one I co-chaired. Incidentally, while the quality isn't that great (it's a VHS-to-digital transfer), here's a video of the 1994 Hugo Awards Ceremony, during which I make a brief appearance (skip to 1:26 to see my five seconds of fame) as the stand-in to accept a Hugo Award for a finalist who apparently never got the letter asking them to designate someone if they weren't attending.
I would, however, encourage anyone who picks either Memphis or Winnipeg as their first choice pick the other one as their second choice. Worldcons are selected by the same preferential-ballot ranked-choice system that the Hugo Awards use. In a multi-way race, members' second preferences could easily make the difference. If no site gets a majority of first-place votes, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated (usually this means eliminating the votes for ineligible write-in bids and None of the Above) and their votes redistributed to their next preference, with the process repeating until a candidate polls a majority.
In 1990, in a race between San Francisco, Zagreb and Phoenix on the ballot plus Hawaii as a filed and legitimate write-in bid, San Francisco eventually won, but not until Phoenix was eliminated: most of their votes redistributed to San Francisco, giving us (I was on the bid committee) the 1993 Worldcon. Your lower preferences may be vital, so consider them carefully when you cast your ballot.
