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kevin_standleeThe First Main Business Meeting was held at DisCon III on Friday morning, starting shortly after 10 AM. Prior to the meeting proper, we took a photograph of the 2021 Business Meeting staff.
The staff of the 2021 WSFS Business Meeting are, from left to right: Martin Pyne (floor manager), Kent Bloom (deputy chair), Todd Dashoff (timekeeper), Donald Eastlake III (chair), Janice Murray (secretary), Linda Deneroff (assistant secretary), and Lisa Hayes (videographer). Taken with permission of the subject of the photo prior to the start of the first Main Business Meeting.
Lisa (as always, assisted by Kuma Bear) recorded the meeting. The technical problem with the direct feed from the main sound board was corrected, so we had both the direct sound board feed and the camera's built-in microphone. However, we had a different issue today, as the room tech team had difficulty with the two floor microphones, and people were impatient and did not wait for microphones and instead just kept talking. This meant that it was hard for other people to hear them, and the people watching online probably couldn't hear them at all. I could get them (most of the time), albeit with lower quality, by switching audio feeds in the recording, but doing that video editing took hours. While we were finished by 12:30, what with little things like having lunch and all the time it took to do the editing, it was hours before I was even ready to compile the video in Adobe Premiere. Now that compilation takes more than an hour as well, even on this good gaming laptop, so I was able to let it sit there and spin (and the laptop got noticeably warmer), while Lisa and I went down to the Exhibit Hall where I hung around the Site Selection area until the final ballots were cast at 6 PM today. We then went back to the room and I set the video to uploading. While the actual upload was not too bad (the internet speed in this hotel being pretty decent), the YouTube processing also took more than an hour for this video, which runs a few seconds longer than two hours.
This First Main Business Meeting confirmed the ratification of the Best Series Hugo Award and of the Lodestar Award. (See the WSFS agenda for details.)
At this point, things did get interesting when Site Selection Administrator Tim Szczesuil asked and was granted permission to introduce a privileged resolution addressing Site Selection.
I am only speculating here because I did not discuss it with Chair Donald Eastlake, but the way I interpreted why this motion could be introduced today, rather than being pushed to the back of the agenda, was that it was introduced as a Question of Privilege, which is a particular kind of parliamentary motion that has a high rank and can sometimes interrupt other business. In this case, the chair ruled that because the subject was the site selection election being held at this Worldcon, and because the election ended today, time was of the essence, and thus it could be considered immediately. This ruling was not appealed, and thus after the re-ratification votes, we got a new piece of business not on the agenda.
Copies of the proposal were distributed. (As required by rule, if you submit something after the deadline, you have to make your own copies.) The original wording got neeped over, mostly IMO non-substantively, but in one case it might be important. As I understood it, the final version was:
Short Title: Required Site Selection Information
Resolved, That it is the sense of the WSFS Business Meeting that any Site Selection ballot that does not contain a Membership Number, Name, Signature, and Address that meets the country of origin's requirements should be counted as "No Preference."
"No Preference" is the same as an abstention or a blank ballot. Any ballot cast as "No Preference" does not count toward the total for determining a majority. The person casting the ballot still gets the supporting membership in the subsequent Worldcon, but their ballot is counted as an abstention. For example, if there were 100 No Preference votes, 5 for Luna City, and 3 for Tonopah, Luna City would win 5-3, with 8 votes cast that have a preference, and thus 5 votes (a majority of 8) needed to win.
Also note that "None of the Above" is not the same thing as "No Preference." NOTA means the voter doesn't like any of the bids on the ballot and wants the Business Meeting to decide. NOTA does count toward the total number of votes cast for the purpose of determining a majority. I harp on this because I find people in every election who get the choices confused.
After a debate, the Business Meeting passed this resolution on a 47-36 vote. This is a non-binding resolution and is advisory only. Except in certain extraordinary cases (detailed in the Constitution), the Business Meeting cannot bind the site selection administrator. Any rulings on cases active with the current election are administered by the current convention.
After the excitement, we got back to grinding through business. The meeting ratified all nine of the constitutional amendments passed on from last year's Worldcon. (These amendments were initially passed in Ireland, then technically rejected and then re-passed in New Zealand, in order to evade the problem that hardly any WSFS members could actually get to the meeting in Wellington.) It did help that many of the motions were minor technical corrections, but because some people have difficulty understanding that, some of them got debated anyway.
Conveniently, we got through the last of the eleven pending ratification votes at 12:15 PM, which meant we were able to adjourn before the hard stop required at 12:30 by the tech team needing to turn the room for 1 PM items.
Saturday's Site Selection Business Meeting will start with the results of the 2023 Worldcon Site Selection, followed by the initial presentation from the 2023 Worldcon, followed by Question Time for the other seated Worldcons, and potentially Question Time for bids for 2024. After that, we'll start considering the seven new constitutional amendments introduced this year. If we get through all of them on Saturday, we will not need a Sunday "overflow" meeting, but these seven are not quite as simple as most of today's eleven, so I'm still expecting a Sunday morning meeting.
The staff of the 2021 WSFS Business Meeting are, from left to right: Martin Pyne (floor manager), Kent Bloom (deputy chair), Todd Dashoff (timekeeper), Donald Eastlake III (chair), Janice Murray (secretary), Linda Deneroff (assistant secretary), and Lisa Hayes (videographer). Taken with permission of the subject of the photo prior to the start of the first Main Business Meeting.
Lisa (as always, assisted by Kuma Bear) recorded the meeting. The technical problem with the direct feed from the main sound board was corrected, so we had both the direct sound board feed and the camera's built-in microphone. However, we had a different issue today, as the room tech team had difficulty with the two floor microphones, and people were impatient and did not wait for microphones and instead just kept talking. This meant that it was hard for other people to hear them, and the people watching online probably couldn't hear them at all. I could get them (most of the time), albeit with lower quality, by switching audio feeds in the recording, but doing that video editing took hours. While we were finished by 12:30, what with little things like having lunch and all the time it took to do the editing, it was hours before I was even ready to compile the video in Adobe Premiere. Now that compilation takes more than an hour as well, even on this good gaming laptop, so I was able to let it sit there and spin (and the laptop got noticeably warmer), while Lisa and I went down to the Exhibit Hall where I hung around the Site Selection area until the final ballots were cast at 6 PM today. We then went back to the room and I set the video to uploading. While the actual upload was not too bad (the internet speed in this hotel being pretty decent), the YouTube processing also took more than an hour for this video, which runs a few seconds longer than two hours.
This First Main Business Meeting confirmed the ratification of the Best Series Hugo Award and of the Lodestar Award. (See the WSFS agenda for details.)
At this point, things did get interesting when Site Selection Administrator Tim Szczesuil asked and was granted permission to introduce a privileged resolution addressing Site Selection.
I am only speculating here because I did not discuss it with Chair Donald Eastlake, but the way I interpreted why this motion could be introduced today, rather than being pushed to the back of the agenda, was that it was introduced as a Question of Privilege, which is a particular kind of parliamentary motion that has a high rank and can sometimes interrupt other business. In this case, the chair ruled that because the subject was the site selection election being held at this Worldcon, and because the election ended today, time was of the essence, and thus it could be considered immediately. This ruling was not appealed, and thus after the re-ratification votes, we got a new piece of business not on the agenda.
Copies of the proposal were distributed. (As required by rule, if you submit something after the deadline, you have to make your own copies.) The original wording got neeped over, mostly IMO non-substantively, but in one case it might be important. As I understood it, the final version was:
Short Title: Required Site Selection Information
Resolved, That it is the sense of the WSFS Business Meeting that any Site Selection ballot that does not contain a Membership Number, Name, Signature, and Address that meets the country of origin's requirements should be counted as "No Preference."
"No Preference" is the same as an abstention or a blank ballot. Any ballot cast as "No Preference" does not count toward the total for determining a majority. The person casting the ballot still gets the supporting membership in the subsequent Worldcon, but their ballot is counted as an abstention. For example, if there were 100 No Preference votes, 5 for Luna City, and 3 for Tonopah, Luna City would win 5-3, with 8 votes cast that have a preference, and thus 5 votes (a majority of 8) needed to win.
Also note that "None of the Above" is not the same thing as "No Preference." NOTA means the voter doesn't like any of the bids on the ballot and wants the Business Meeting to decide. NOTA does count toward the total number of votes cast for the purpose of determining a majority. I harp on this because I find people in every election who get the choices confused.
After a debate, the Business Meeting passed this resolution on a 47-36 vote. This is a non-binding resolution and is advisory only. Except in certain extraordinary cases (detailed in the Constitution), the Business Meeting cannot bind the site selection administrator. Any rulings on cases active with the current election are administered by the current convention.
After the excitement, we got back to grinding through business. The meeting ratified all nine of the constitutional amendments passed on from last year's Worldcon. (These amendments were initially passed in Ireland, then technically rejected and then re-passed in New Zealand, in order to evade the problem that hardly any WSFS members could actually get to the meeting in Wellington.) It did help that many of the motions were minor technical corrections, but because some people have difficulty understanding that, some of them got debated anyway.
Conveniently, we got through the last of the eleven pending ratification votes at 12:15 PM, which meant we were able to adjourn before the hard stop required at 12:30 by the tech team needing to turn the room for 1 PM items.
Saturday's Site Selection Business Meeting will start with the results of the 2023 Worldcon Site Selection, followed by the initial presentation from the 2023 Worldcon, followed by Question Time for the other seated Worldcons, and potentially Question Time for bids for 2024. After that, we'll start considering the seven new constitutional amendments introduced this year. If we get through all of them on Saturday, we will not need a Sunday "overflow" meeting, but these seven are not quite as simple as most of today's eleven, so I'm still expecting a Sunday morning meeting.
