The Future of Westercon
Nov. 11th, 2023 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeAs I hope most people following me know, Westercon has fallen on hard times. While Tonopah was successful and fun for most of the 158 people who attended, it was affected by COVID and by BayCon moving its dates onto the 4th of July Weekend, apparently just ignoring that Tonopah's Westercon existed. The 2021 SeaTac and 2023 Anaheim Westercons dissolved, handing in their franchises to LASFS (which owns the Westercon service mark), and LASFS held both Westercons 73 and 75 in conjunction with Loscon. We once again this year have no bids filed to host the two-years-hence Westercon, although anyone could show up before the voting ends on the Friday evening of Loscon 49/Westercon 75. Assuming that doesn't happen, the Westercon 75 Business Meeting at Loscon 49 will have to decide what to do about site selection. However, I tend to think that before that, the meeting needs to give some thought to the future of Westercon.
It appears to me that there are two scenarios: Retire Westercon or make some changes to given a chance to restart, perhaps in a different form. I therefore have prepared a Google doc with two scenarios. You should be able to read this document without needing a Google account.
Scenario 1 is to Retire Westercon, and is simply a motion to repeal the Westercon bylaws.
Scenario 2 makes five separate changes to the Westercon Bylaws to disconnect it from the US Independence Day Weekend (even loosely), removes the Westercon zone restrictions (but retains the 104°W longitude eastern boundary in North America), and changes all of the hard-coded dates to dates relative to the date of the administering Westercon. This would at least allow in theory Westercon to be awarded to various conventions in Western North America who wanted to host it, or also allow "independent" Westercons to be organized.
Before asking questions, please read the document, where I've tried to address such questions. You may also want to read the current Westercon Bylaws for context.
I think that once the Business Meeting decides which path it wants to follow, it will make it easier to make a decision on what to do about Westercon 77.
It appears to me that there are two scenarios: Retire Westercon or make some changes to given a chance to restart, perhaps in a different form. I therefore have prepared a Google doc with two scenarios. You should be able to read this document without needing a Google account.
Scenario 1 is to Retire Westercon, and is simply a motion to repeal the Westercon bylaws.
Scenario 2 makes five separate changes to the Westercon Bylaws to disconnect it from the US Independence Day Weekend (even loosely), removes the Westercon zone restrictions (but retains the 104°W longitude eastern boundary in North America), and changes all of the hard-coded dates to dates relative to the date of the administering Westercon. This would at least allow in theory Westercon to be awarded to various conventions in Western North America who wanted to host it, or also allow "independent" Westercons to be organized.
Before asking questions, please read the document, where I've tried to address such questions. You may also want to read the current Westercon Bylaws for context.
I think that once the Business Meeting decides which path it wants to follow, it will make it easier to make a decision on what to do about Westercon 77.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-12 06:01 am (UTC)Is it okay to share these elsewhere? SwanCon (Western Australia) doesn't have some of the restrictions you do, but hasn't successfully appointed a committee two years out in some time. There might be something in your document that will spark discussion about how we are addressing things. Sadly, we don't have your advantage on other regional conventions that can be combined.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-12 12:45 pm (UTC)Various questions
Date: 2023-11-12 07:14 am (UTC)Were there sites trying to monopolise holding Westercon, to put into place the 500m/800km rule? Would it be terrible to have it held in the same place every year, or at least until anyone came up with an interest to make a bid elsewhere?
Could there be a third possibility of handing it back for a few years? Or suspending it for a few years until people feel more safe traveling on a regular basis and more financially able?
It would be sad to lose Westercon, but I do understand the reasoning behind retiring it. I hope a way can be found to keep it running.
Re: Various questions
Date: 2023-11-12 12:40 pm (UTC)There used to be a lot more bids for Westercon. I recall an election with three sites bidding. There was a perception that the convention needed to move around, and in addition there was a perception that people would vote for "whatever is nearby" rather than evaluating the bids. That was the origin of the 500m/800km exclusion area that Worldcon adopted when it scrapped its previous system.
(Worldcon used to divide North America into three zones -- west, central, east -- and in any given year, only bids from one zone were eligible. Sites outside of North America were eligible at any time. If a non-North American site won, the North American zone was skipped. Thus, for example, 1987 and 1990 skipped the western zone in favor of the UK and the Netherlands.)
Westercon has never used the broad distance-based system that Worldcon uses. I mentioned it only as a possibility should people want to create some alternative to the zonal system currently in place.
Note that for the past three elections at least, the Westercon zonal system has been moot, because nobody filed bids at all before January 1 of the election year. Read the old system carefully. The zones only restricted bids until January 1. If no bids filed, all of the restrictions were lifted. That's why Tonopah was able to bid when it did, even though it was in the same zone as Layton.
For your scenario of the same place hosting it every year: it's not bad in and of itself, but assume that it was held in site A for several years and then site B from a fair distance away announced a bid, but the voters just re-elected A again because it was in their backyard and then proceeded to always vote down anything other than A no matter what. That's what Worldcon's current system discourages.
If Scenario 1 passes, LASFS would take direct control of its service mark. They would have to decide what to do with it. They could re-establish it in the future. They could abandon the service mark, in which case anyone who wanted to establish a new Westercon could do so. However, one thing they could not do is not use it and also not allow anyone else to use it; that would be effectively abandoning the service mark.
If you think that interest will restart in a few years, and if you expect that LASFS would be content for any year with no bids to be attached to Loscon, then you would want Scenario 2. Assuming that any bid-less year becomes Westercon at Loscon like this year and two years ago, when someone actually produces a bid, the members could vote for it if they so choose. So I think that Scenario 2 is the closest thing to "handing it back for a few years" that you could get.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-12 08:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-11-12 12:43 pm (UTC)Scenario 2 removes a bunch of technical issues that have caused combined Loscon-Westercons to not be able to accept bids for the ballot unless they're filed all the way back in April, which is too early for a late-November-based convention.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-12 05:45 pm (UTC)If they were having trouble getting hotels, they should have selected a different weekend. I would think there's enough overlap in membership between BayCon and WesterCon that having both on the same weekend would weaken both. I went to LosCon once, and I never want to go to a con on Thanksgiving weekend again. That's one of the few times I see my family, now that we're all aging and some are dead. Easter weekend, too, is for church, but obviously that only applies to Christians who are active in their church.
Could WesterCon move to Memorial weekend?
no subject
Date: 2023-11-12 06:27 pm (UTC)Westercon isn't a single convention. It's an ongoing series of one-shots, just like Worldcon. Even now, it's not a requirement than the convention be held over the US Independence Day weekend, only a tradition. Anyone who wanted to organize a Memorial Day Westercon could launch a bid. Indeed, if someone did so right now and showed up at Loscon, they'd probably be handed the convention without a peep.
There are SF/F genre conventions across Western North America right now where it would not be all that difficult to "attach" Westercon to any of them, assuming those conventions wanted to have it happen. Norwescon is held on Easter Weekend. LepreCon (assuming it restarts) is in March. OryCon is Veterans Day weekend. BayCon is (alas) US Independence Day weekend. Loscon is Thanksgiving Day weekend. That's just those that come to mind at the moment.
The real issue is whether anyone wants to organize it.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-13 10:42 pm (UTC)As we're a four-day event, there's only so many three-day weekends we could use. Given our time constraints in choosing a new site in 2023 (I was on the hotel team and negotiated the deal personally), our current facility only had the 4th available to use and we had to make the decision quickly. In order to keep room rates as low a possible, we signed a three year deal.
While I do feel for Westercon, my priority is always going to be BayCon, because it's my fiduciary responsibility to do so.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-15 01:28 pm (UTC)I don't know that we'd want to do it that way every year, but it worked for us once.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-13 05:38 am (UTC)Scenario 4 would be to merge Westercon with the Eastercon. Maybe the solution we need now is thinking way outside the box.