kevin_standlee | Loscon/Westercon Day 1: Settling In

Perhaps I shouldn't have slept in until after 8 AM on this first morning of Westercon, especially inasmuch as our plan to have breakfast in the room using the coffee/hot water machine to make instant oatmeal and tea ran afoul of the machine producing hot water with black specks no matter how many times we ran clean water through it. We speculate that past users of the machine were using used coffee cups to run additional hot water, and thus it was "contaminated" with old coffee. Eventually I ran down to the Starbucks in the lobby and got myself coffee and a breakfast sandwich, while Lisa used some of the bread and lunchmeat left over from yesterday to make her breakfast.

We (mostly Lisa, but I helped a little) moved our Westercon 74 signs and convention gear, plus the box of Winnipeg in 2023 bid material we transported on their behalf, down to the fan tables area.

We had previously arranged for Winnipeg's table to be next to ours in the Fan Table area and for the 2023 Westercon site selection desk to be just on the other side of Winnipeg's table. This allowed all three of us to cover each other's tables as needed.

At 1 PM, Lisa, I,

lindadee, and representatives of Worldcons and bids for Worldcons went to the Future Westercons and Worldcons panel, where we each extolled the virtues of our various events. Then it was back to the table for the rest of the afternoon until it was time for the Loscon/Westercon Opening Ceremony at 5 PM.

Sally Wohrle, who was the original chair of Westercon 73 before the Seattle committee was obliged to disband for various reasons, mostly related to not being able to, in their view, hold the Westercon in Washington due to COVID constraints back in early July, came down to Loscon. As most of you reading this should know by now, LASFS, owner of the Westercon service mark, elected to use its authority under the Westercon Bylaws to combine Westercon 73 with Loscon 47. Sally addressed the Opening Ceremony briefly as shown here, with guest of honor Jeff Sturgeon at left, Loscon chair Scott Beckstead center, and guest of honor Greg Benford at right.

Sally then presented the Gavel of Westercon to Scott Beckstead for his use as the chair of this combined Loscon/Westercon.

Scott then officially called Westercon 73 (combined with Loscon 47) to order before continuing with the rest of the opening ceremonies.

I borrowed the Gavel of Westercon back from Scott after the Opening Ceremony for use as the presiding officer of the Westercon Business Meeting.

Then it was back to the Fan Tables for a short time, but I did manage to do something other than sell Westercon and otherwise engage in smoffing.

There were only a few people in costume on this first day of Loscon, but one of them was this lovely and wonderfully well-done Wonder Woman. Lisa and I were particularly taken by how her earrings and mask were coordinated with the rest of her costume. She graciously allowed me to take this picture of her. This is the only costumed member whose picture I had a chance to shoot today.

Lisa and I closed down our fan table for the evening and walked down to Carl's Jr. to get some burgers and bring them back to the hotel room and eat there. Besides safety reasons, we're not that interested with much of anything on the hotel restaurant's menu, and the dining options in the immediate vicinity of the hotel are limited.

After eating, I went back to Site Selection and relieved

lindadee to allow her to go have dinner with Sally Wohrle. I held down Site Selection until it closed at 8 PM. There were no last-minute bids or indeed last-hour voters. This is not that surprising. With no actual bids on the ballot, very few people cast ballots at all.

When Linda came back from dinner shortly after I closed Site Selection, we went up to her room and counted the ballots. The unofficial results, which trigger a Business Meeting site selection, are in my previous entry.

Linda and I swapped hot-water machines. She isn't planning on making in-room coffee or tea, and her machine produces clean hot water, so that works out, and the machines are otherwise identical, so the hotel need not fret.

Lisa and I learned that, with the surface parking lot full, that the hotel had allowed people to self-park in the garage. She and I were able to move the minivan from the awful location in the surface lot to a significantly better location in the garage not far from the ballroom level exit. This will make it much easier to move stuff back to the van when we leave on Monday.

We sold some memberships in Westercon 74 today, and talked to lots of people about the convention, answering many questions. We have sign-up sheets for planned walking tours for which some people have signed up. It was a productive day.

Tomorrow will be full of diversions, starting with the Site Selection Business Meeting at 11:30 AM, and ending with Match Game SF at 6 PM, both of which are in California 4, and both of which are probably in rooms that are too small, but we'll manage as best we can. One thing that I won't get that I got last night was a lot of sleep.