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Westercon 77 to be Hosted by BayCon 2025
Jun. 15th, 2024 12:11 pmIt took longer to get this announced while BayCon's parent non-profit organization did some work behind the scenes, but the committee (Lisa and me) that was charged by the Westercon 75 Business Meeting at Loscon 2023 to either find a group interested in running a Westercon in 2025 to to do or to do it ourselves reached a conclusion and "transferred the license" to BayCon 2025.
Westercon 77 to be Hosted by BayCon 2025 is the announcement on the Westercon website.
I must say that I'm relieved no not be in the position of having to organize another Westercon. While I'm very proud of the convention we ran in 2022 in Tonopah, one of the reasons that we were able to do so was thanks to what I have called an "all star" team of conrunners, including multiple Worldcon, NASFiC, and Westercon chairs, who agreed to help put on that convention. In addition, Lisa and I were at that time in a position to "backstop" up to $5,000 in losses the convention might have incurred, although as it happens we never had to do so, as we were able to obtain financial support (grants) from various convention groups that allowed us to do things like have guests of honor, which we initially said we would not do. While the Tonopah Convention Center is very inexpensive to rent (About $600/day including the kitchen and bar) &emdash; so much so that when we won the election in 2019 (a contested election, I will remind people, against a "real city" that we won handily), we already had enough money to cover the largest fixed cost of the convention, which was the convention center rental.
( For Those Who Say 'Let It Die' )
In any event, if the members of Westercon conclude collectively that the convention's time has passed, there is an orderly way to wind it down: repeal the Westercon Bylaws. This was Scenario 1 that the 2023 Westercon Business Meeting considered last year. Repealing the Bylaws would take two years (passage this year and ratification next year), after which there would be two final Westercons without a Business Meeting or Site Selection, with the Last Westercon happening in 2027. At that point, the owner of the Westercon service mark, the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, would have to decide what to do with it. They couldn't just hold it indefinitely without holding something to keep the mark alive, because trade/service marks are "use it or lose it," but perhaps if LASFS really does think there's no further interest, they might just formally abandon the mark and leave it to anyone else who might want to try holding an event by that name; it would be up to them.
This year's Business Meeting in Utah will consider ratifying proposals that would effectively "undock" Westercon from the US Independence Day weekend in a procedural sense. (It was not a requirement before, only a "traditional" recommendation.) This would increase the freedom that some groups, including other conventions, would have to try other dates. Possibly Westercon might have a future traveling around and combining with other conventions around Western North America at other times of the year, giving interested fans an incentive to try out other conventions that they've never attended.
Combining the 2025 Westercon with BayCon makes sense, and it might even make sense to consider doing so for 2026 as well. Or maybe we should just wind it down and "hand in the keys" to LASFS. But as long as Westercon has its own bylaws and is governed by its members, it should be the members who decide.
Westercon 77 to be Hosted by BayCon 2025 is the announcement on the Westercon website.
I must say that I'm relieved no not be in the position of having to organize another Westercon. While I'm very proud of the convention we ran in 2022 in Tonopah, one of the reasons that we were able to do so was thanks to what I have called an "all star" team of conrunners, including multiple Worldcon, NASFiC, and Westercon chairs, who agreed to help put on that convention. In addition, Lisa and I were at that time in a position to "backstop" up to $5,000 in losses the convention might have incurred, although as it happens we never had to do so, as we were able to obtain financial support (grants) from various convention groups that allowed us to do things like have guests of honor, which we initially said we would not do. While the Tonopah Convention Center is very inexpensive to rent (About $600/day including the kitchen and bar) &emdash; so much so that when we won the election in 2019 (a contested election, I will remind people, against a "real city" that we won handily), we already had enough money to cover the largest fixed cost of the convention, which was the convention center rental.
( For Those Who Say 'Let It Die' )
In any event, if the members of Westercon conclude collectively that the convention's time has passed, there is an orderly way to wind it down: repeal the Westercon Bylaws. This was Scenario 1 that the 2023 Westercon Business Meeting considered last year. Repealing the Bylaws would take two years (passage this year and ratification next year), after which there would be two final Westercons without a Business Meeting or Site Selection, with the Last Westercon happening in 2027. At that point, the owner of the Westercon service mark, the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, would have to decide what to do with it. They couldn't just hold it indefinitely without holding something to keep the mark alive, because trade/service marks are "use it or lose it," but perhaps if LASFS really does think there's no further interest, they might just formally abandon the mark and leave it to anyone else who might want to try holding an event by that name; it would be up to them.
This year's Business Meeting in Utah will consider ratifying proposals that would effectively "undock" Westercon from the US Independence Day weekend in a procedural sense. (It was not a requirement before, only a "traditional" recommendation.) This would increase the freedom that some groups, including other conventions, would have to try other dates. Possibly Westercon might have a future traveling around and combining with other conventions around Western North America at other times of the year, giving interested fans an incentive to try out other conventions that they've never attended.
Combining the 2025 Westercon with BayCon makes sense, and it might even make sense to consider doing so for 2026 as well. Or maybe we should just wind it down and "hand in the keys" to LASFS. But as long as Westercon has its own bylaws and is governed by its members, it should be the members who decide.
