Loscon/Westercon Day 2: A Very Busy Day

Day 2 (Saturday) of Loscon 47/Westercon 73 was just packed with activity for Lisa and me. We managed to make breakfast happen in the room this time with less hassles than yesterday. We were able to open up the Westercon 74 Fan Table by 10 AM, but had to leave it in the hands of other members of the convention committee: Lisa and I had to go sort out getting an output from the sound board in California 4 (where the Business Meeting would be held at 11:30) run to Lisa's Panasonic P2 camera, in order to get better sound.

This was the first time Lisa's camera was in the field using the new camera case. It seemed to work well, and it was easier to transport than in the box we've used for the past few years. If we'd had some more time to work on it (we never seem to get enough time), we could have had better audio; however, this was still better than it would have been if all we had was the in-camera microphone.

After the Business Meeting, we took that camera gear back to the hotel room and then returned to the Westercon 74 table. My time was split between talking to people about Westercon 74 and discussing possible Westercon 75 sites with multiple people. I told several people variations of the same thing: come to Lisa and me with a proposal for a viable site and committee and we'll consider it. We're making no decisions here today, nor this month, nor probably until February.

It appears to me that some people think that because I gave the same answer to everyone, that I somehow have already made a decision, which is silly. I have said what I personally would like to happen, but we have to think of Westercon overall. I can't make a decision until we hear from more interested entities. Who knows, maybe not having to go through the bid-campaigning process may shake loose some more viable bids.

Meanwhile, I managed to shoot a small number of photos of people in costume as they came by.

( Only a couple of those who passed the table )

In the mid-afternoon, Lisa and I went down to Carl's Jr. again for lunch. I was not going to face doing Match Game SF on an empty stomach.

Loscon programming, at my request, scheduled MGSF a little later than the regular program grid would have called for, and left the space open after us. Both of these things were important. It still put Lisa in a pickle, because the technical set-up can be tricky, and when there are bleeps and feedback (which is almost inevitable) while people are coming in to the room, people complain or laugh, and Lisa really dislikes the pressure this puts on her.

( Match Game at Loscon )

It was a great load off our minds that there was nothing after us. That gave us a relatively easy hour or so of disassembling the gear and storing it back away. We'd borrowed a cart from ConOps for a few hours, and thanks to having moved the minivan over to a good space in the parking garage, we were able to move three cartloads of gear out to the Astro tonight. We returned the cart to Ops, went and got burgers again and had dinner.

There are parties here at Loscon, but we are too worn out to attend them. Besides, it took a few hours to edit the material from the Business Meeting out of the camera and into the form for the two videos I uploaded to YouTube, then to post them on Twitter, Facebook, File 770, and DreamWidth/LiveJournal.

Sunday should be somewhat easier. We still have the Westercon 74 table, but not much else until Closing Ceremonies, where it will be my honor to receive the Gavel of Westercon in my capacity of next year's convention chair (in contrast to my temporary custody of the Gavel to chair the Business Meeting). But meanwhile, it's time to try and get a few hours of sleep. Other folks at Loscon will party overnight, and I wish them well.

Westercon 73 Business Meeting: Trying to Select Westercon 75

The Westercon 73 Business Meeting met today to determine what to do about the site of Westercon 75. We first officially received the site selection results, which were that (mainly because no bid filed), None of the Above won the election. The threw the selection to the Business Meeting. Having learned a lesson from 2011, I recommended that we go into Committee of the Whole. That's a kind of parliamentary shell game that allows the meeting to act as a committee, hold multiple test votes, and discuss matters more informally than it can do while in a formal meeting.

Here's the video of the Business Meeting itself:

Watch on YouTube

You will notice that there is a break in the middle, when the meeting resolved itself into committee of the whole. After the break, the meeting resumed, received the report of the committee, and unanimously adopted its recommendations.

By the direction of the Business Meeting, the deliberation of the Committee of the Whole were recorded separately:

Watch on YouTube

Despite the fact that the Business Meeting and the Committee of the Whole include the same people, they are separate meetings, with separate rules. Ben Yalow presided over the COTW, while I presided over the actual Business Meeting.

With just a few minutes to go before we would have had to adjourn until Sunday, we reached a conclusion to Westercon 75 site selection (at least as far as the Westercon 73 Business Meeting was concerned) by creating the "Standlee-Hayes Commission," which consists of me and Lisa and whoever else we recruit. We will consider proposals from groups to host Westercon 75 and select a group to host it. Those of you who think a small select committee should decide where "movable feast" conventions should be held have got your wish, at least in the case of the 2023 Westercon.

The Committee of the Whole also recommended, and the meeting adopted, a recommendation to lower the threshold for determining a site from three-fourths to two-thirds. That wasn't an issue this year (the selection was unanimous), but it did lead to a near-deadlock in 2011. Next year's Business Meeting will have to vote on whether to ratify this change.

I'm not thrilled to be in charge of this site selection. I said in the COTW that I don't expect to get to work on this in earnest until after we get back from Worldcon just after the first of the year. That's also when planning for Westercon 74 needs to ramp up, so I guess we have an incentive to make a decision as soon as we can. What we don't want to do is actually run Westercon 75. One Westercon is enough, thank you.