Psst! Want to Run a Westercon?
Jan. 8th, 2024 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeIf you follow me regularly, and particularly if you read my account of the Westercon 75 Business Meeting held at Loscon 49, the following news is not a surprise.
Committee Formed to Select Site of 2025 Westercon
The "Caretaker Committee" (a name coined by Lisa Hayes, and I think it fits well) was officially awarded Westercon 77 under the provisions of the Westercon Bylaws dealing with cases when no site is selected by the normal election process. I know this has previously caught people by surprise, but there are multiple precedents for committees transferring their convention to other committees and moving their conventions to sites other than the ones for which they bid.
While I have contacted (or attempted to contact) all of the people/groups who discussed the prospect of hosting the 2025 Westercon since Loscon 49, we did not make an official announcement on the Westercon website until after the holiday period. From previous experience, we have found that it is nearly impossible to get anything done in December between the US Thanksgiving weekend and the week of New Year's Day. The holiday period is over, so we're now asking people who would be interested in hosting either a stand-alone Westercon or to incorporated it within an existing convention to contact our committee with their proposal. While we're calling these "bids," they aren't the same as what you produce to participate in the election process. This is not an election where members of Westercon vote for a site. All you have to do is convince Lisa and me that you are serious and that you can put on a Westercon.
Your site doesn't have to be a Huge Hotel in a Gigantic Major City (as it appears that some people appear to think that unless you're in a city with at least a million people in it, you're not a "real" city). After all, the only stand-alone Westercon held since 2019 was Tonopah. Now if you're one of those people who think it's not a "real" convention unless it has at least 50,000 people and you have to queue six months in advance to get into a program item, I doubt Westercon is going to be of interest to you. But I think we showed that it doesn't have to be Monster Giant Super MegaCon to be a good experience to its members, and if you have a proposal that we think will be good to the convention's members, we're willing to listen to you.
We would really like to make a decision sooner rather than later. In 2022, we left the decision (under similar circumstances) so late that the selected committee didn't have enough time to promote themselves to get enough members to be economically viable, leading to it having to throw in the sponge.
Again, don't approach this thinking that you need to be huge and to spend $100K or more. Westercon 74 in Tonopah cost around $15K, and it would have been considerably less if we hadn't been able to scratch up some grants to cover things we didn't otherwise plan to have, like guests of honor. Lisa and I were prepared to backstop the convention up to $5000 had it been necessary to do so (it was not, thank goodness). So approach this realistically, and think outside the box.
There are only two restrictions. The convention has to be sometime during calendar year 2025 (not necessarily over the US Independence Day weekend). It has to be held somewhere in North America west of 104° west longitude (the eastern boundary of New Mexico; you might want to consult a map to see where that is) or in Hawaii. That's it.
There are plenty of viable sites. What you need is a committee of people willing to organize it. And if you're worried about Westercon's two official functions (Business Meeting and Site Selection), don't be. If you want me to do so (it's not a requirement!), I'll help you with those. So all you have to do is provide the people points.
Lisa and I hope that we see some interesting proposals from people who think they can hold a Westercon. I'm personally interested in possibly hearing from some of those people who have complained about other conventions and think that they can do it better. Here's your chance!
Committee Formed to Select Site of 2025 Westercon
The "Caretaker Committee" (a name coined by Lisa Hayes, and I think it fits well) was officially awarded Westercon 77 under the provisions of the Westercon Bylaws dealing with cases when no site is selected by the normal election process. I know this has previously caught people by surprise, but there are multiple precedents for committees transferring their convention to other committees and moving their conventions to sites other than the ones for which they bid.
While I have contacted (or attempted to contact) all of the people/groups who discussed the prospect of hosting the 2025 Westercon since Loscon 49, we did not make an official announcement on the Westercon website until after the holiday period. From previous experience, we have found that it is nearly impossible to get anything done in December between the US Thanksgiving weekend and the week of New Year's Day. The holiday period is over, so we're now asking people who would be interested in hosting either a stand-alone Westercon or to incorporated it within an existing convention to contact our committee with their proposal. While we're calling these "bids," they aren't the same as what you produce to participate in the election process. This is not an election where members of Westercon vote for a site. All you have to do is convince Lisa and me that you are serious and that you can put on a Westercon.
Your site doesn't have to be a Huge Hotel in a Gigantic Major City (as it appears that some people appear to think that unless you're in a city with at least a million people in it, you're not a "real" city). After all, the only stand-alone Westercon held since 2019 was Tonopah. Now if you're one of those people who think it's not a "real" convention unless it has at least 50,000 people and you have to queue six months in advance to get into a program item, I doubt Westercon is going to be of interest to you. But I think we showed that it doesn't have to be Monster Giant Super MegaCon to be a good experience to its members, and if you have a proposal that we think will be good to the convention's members, we're willing to listen to you.
We would really like to make a decision sooner rather than later. In 2022, we left the decision (under similar circumstances) so late that the selected committee didn't have enough time to promote themselves to get enough members to be economically viable, leading to it having to throw in the sponge.
Again, don't approach this thinking that you need to be huge and to spend $100K or more. Westercon 74 in Tonopah cost around $15K, and it would have been considerably less if we hadn't been able to scratch up some grants to cover things we didn't otherwise plan to have, like guests of honor. Lisa and I were prepared to backstop the convention up to $5000 had it been necessary to do so (it was not, thank goodness). So approach this realistically, and think outside the box.
There are only two restrictions. The convention has to be sometime during calendar year 2025 (not necessarily over the US Independence Day weekend). It has to be held somewhere in North America west of 104° west longitude (the eastern boundary of New Mexico; you might want to consult a map to see where that is) or in Hawaii. That's it.
There are plenty of viable sites. What you need is a committee of people willing to organize it. And if you're worried about Westercon's two official functions (Business Meeting and Site Selection), don't be. If you want me to do so (it's not a requirement!), I'll help you with those. So all you have to do is provide the people points.
Lisa and I hope that we see some interesting proposals from people who think they can hold a Westercon. I'm personally interested in possibly hearing from some of those people who have complained about other conventions and think that they can do it better. Here's your chance!
