The Future of Westercon

[kevin_standlee]

As 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.

Comments

[fred_mouse]

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.

Various questions

[belak]

Why were the site restrictions put into place and so specific? Were they to exclude other Con potential sites? Why the 42nd parallel distinction?

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.

[a_cubed]

I think now is a poor time to be making plans to shelve something like Westercon completely. The impact of the pandemic and the financial aftermath is still very much with us. I suspect having Westercon as part of Loscon for two or three years wouldn't be a huge burden for LASFS and would allow the motion to end Westercon to come up at a future Loscon-Westercon, while also allowing for new bids to come along.

[wild_patience]

I don't understand why BayCon moved their traditional Memorial weekend date. I know a bunch of Bay Area folks were going to WisCon, that same weekend, but I would think there would be enough locals not wanting to travel that would still make it an attractive date.

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?

[voidampersand]

The proposed amendments in scenario 2 look like common-sense administrative improvements. Should be non-controversial.

Scenario 4 would be to merge Westercon with the Eastercon. Maybe the solution we need now is thinking way outside the box.