![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeLinda Deneroff, Lisa, and I drove to Perkins Family Restaurant this morning for a better-value breakfast than the hotel buffet. (The hotel puts what Lisa calls a "cheese-like substance" on the eggs, which neither Lisa nor I like.) It looks like it is close enough that we can walk there by walking in the bike lanes that flank the roads (there are no sidewalks), so we probably will have breakfast there again tomorrow.
Linda opened Site Selection from 10 AM to Noon, then closed it so we could do a panel and then have lunch. She reopened Site Selection at 2 PM.
Today was the first full day of Westercon (yesterday didn't start until Noon), which by the terms of the Westercon Bylaws meant that there needed to be a program item for the benefit of bids. There being just the one write-in bid, we combined this with the more general topic of the Future of Westercon.
Scott Sanford helpfully took this photo of Charles Galway, Kuma Bear, Lisa Hayes, me, and Linda Deneroff, who were the panelists (Kuma crashed the panel) for The Future of Westercon.
I forgot to take a picture of the audience, but we had a decent turnout of around I guess 20-30 people, most of whom were what I would consider Westercon regulars.
We first talked about how BayCon was awarded Westercon 77 (2025) directly, and how they were bidding for Westercon 78 (2026) as a write-in with no filed opposition, and how site selection would reopen this afternoon. The official business having been satisfied, we continued into some related territory.
There has been some talk about dissolving both NASFiC and Westercon in favor of a US National SF Convention ("AmeriCon" for short). We spent around one-third of the time talking about the pros and cons of such an approach. I was not taking notes because I was moderating the panel. There seemed to be good points, but most people didn't seem enthusiastic about the idea.
The last third of the hour covered what Westercon can do to revive its fortunes. Pending changes to the Westercon Bylaws, if ratified, would make it easier for the convention to be combined with other convention held on dates other than the US Independence Day period. This might lead to other genre conventions in western North America bidding to host Westercon and thus encouraging "regional" fans to come to various "local" conventions.
While people who have given up on Westercon seem to want it to die, and die quickly, there was essentially no interest from the people attending this panel in officially dissolving the convention and turning the charter back over to the service mark owner, LASFS. While there are not a whole lot of people attending Westercon now (I heard that 120 badges had been collected by this afternoon, with the weekend left to go), those who are attending still want it to continue.
After lunch, Linda reopened site selection and I sat there with her helping with the voting. Lisa took these photos.
I also dealt with questions about the Montreal in 2027 Worldcon bid, and acted as agent for BayCon 2025 (Westercon 77), selling conversions to those people who voted at last year's Westercon held during Loscon, now that BayCon 2025 / Westercon 77 has announced early-bird pricing of $60 for attending memberships. Conversions to attending include a $20 credit for the money the voters paid, and I collected conversions from those voters. This is unrelated to any site selection result.
Site Selection voting closed for this year as of 6 PM. Linda and I went back to her room and counted the ballots. The results were no surprise, which was a relief to me, and will be officially announced at the Business Meeting on Saturday morning.
Martin Pyne, Linda Deneroff, Mike Willmoth, Lisa Hayes, and I went to an Asian restaurant across the street from the WinCo Foods where I took Linda yesterday morning. I found this a good value meal, and it was a real pleasure to dine out with friends with no time pressure, as none of us had responsibilities this evening now that Site Selection is finished.
Martin, Lisa, and I went over to WinCo after dinner and got a few more groceries. As Lisa and I are driving, the non-perishable items that are left over when we leave Utah can just go home with us.
Lisa and I pointed out the Caltrain EMUs parked at the Stadler Rail factory to Martin as we went out to dinner. He wanted to get a few pictures of them, so on our way back, we turned west onto I-80, went one exit, then returned. There is a wide shoulder on the eastbound off-ramp, and both Martin and I got photos.
In the dying light of "golden hour" while the sun slipped below the horizon, I got this photo of one of the EMU sets awaiting shipment to the Bay Area to start work on Caltrain in just a couple of months.
Then it was back to the hotel, where I settled down to upload photos and write about our day. Tomorrow, our fifst responsibility is the Westercon Business Meeting, which is scheduled for 11 AM. As there should not be any significant issues with Site Selection, our only business on the agenda is the ratification of the bylaw amendments first passed last year, followed by new business, if there is any. While I prepared a draft proposal due to what I though might be a plan to trigger a wind-down of Westercon, I'm unsure whether anyone is actually going to introduce it.
I hope to sleep well tonight, as for the first time in several years, we do not expect a controversial site selection that needs to be adjudicated by the Business Meeting.
Linda opened Site Selection from 10 AM to Noon, then closed it so we could do a panel and then have lunch. She reopened Site Selection at 2 PM.
Today was the first full day of Westercon (yesterday didn't start until Noon), which by the terms of the Westercon Bylaws meant that there needed to be a program item for the benefit of bids. There being just the one write-in bid, we combined this with the more general topic of the Future of Westercon.
Scott Sanford helpfully took this photo of Charles Galway, Kuma Bear, Lisa Hayes, me, and Linda Deneroff, who were the panelists (Kuma crashed the panel) for The Future of Westercon.
I forgot to take a picture of the audience, but we had a decent turnout of around I guess 20-30 people, most of whom were what I would consider Westercon regulars.
We first talked about how BayCon was awarded Westercon 77 (2025) directly, and how they were bidding for Westercon 78 (2026) as a write-in with no filed opposition, and how site selection would reopen this afternoon. The official business having been satisfied, we continued into some related territory.
There has been some talk about dissolving both NASFiC and Westercon in favor of a US National SF Convention ("AmeriCon" for short). We spent around one-third of the time talking about the pros and cons of such an approach. I was not taking notes because I was moderating the panel. There seemed to be good points, but most people didn't seem enthusiastic about the idea.
The last third of the hour covered what Westercon can do to revive its fortunes. Pending changes to the Westercon Bylaws, if ratified, would make it easier for the convention to be combined with other convention held on dates other than the US Independence Day period. This might lead to other genre conventions in western North America bidding to host Westercon and thus encouraging "regional" fans to come to various "local" conventions.
While people who have given up on Westercon seem to want it to die, and die quickly, there was essentially no interest from the people attending this panel in officially dissolving the convention and turning the charter back over to the service mark owner, LASFS. While there are not a whole lot of people attending Westercon now (I heard that 120 badges had been collected by this afternoon, with the weekend left to go), those who are attending still want it to continue.
After lunch, Linda reopened site selection and I sat there with her helping with the voting. Lisa took these photos.
I also dealt with questions about the Montreal in 2027 Worldcon bid, and acted as agent for BayCon 2025 (Westercon 77), selling conversions to those people who voted at last year's Westercon held during Loscon, now that BayCon 2025 / Westercon 77 has announced early-bird pricing of $60 for attending memberships. Conversions to attending include a $20 credit for the money the voters paid, and I collected conversions from those voters. This is unrelated to any site selection result.
Site Selection voting closed for this year as of 6 PM. Linda and I went back to her room and counted the ballots. The results were no surprise, which was a relief to me, and will be officially announced at the Business Meeting on Saturday morning.
Martin Pyne, Linda Deneroff, Mike Willmoth, Lisa Hayes, and I went to an Asian restaurant across the street from the WinCo Foods where I took Linda yesterday morning. I found this a good value meal, and it was a real pleasure to dine out with friends with no time pressure, as none of us had responsibilities this evening now that Site Selection is finished.
Martin, Lisa, and I went over to WinCo after dinner and got a few more groceries. As Lisa and I are driving, the non-perishable items that are left over when we leave Utah can just go home with us.
Lisa and I pointed out the Caltrain EMUs parked at the Stadler Rail factory to Martin as we went out to dinner. He wanted to get a few pictures of them, so on our way back, we turned west onto I-80, went one exit, then returned. There is a wide shoulder on the eastbound off-ramp, and both Martin and I got photos.
In the dying light of "golden hour" while the sun slipped below the horizon, I got this photo of one of the EMU sets awaiting shipment to the Bay Area to start work on Caltrain in just a couple of months.
Then it was back to the hotel, where I settled down to upload photos and write about our day. Tomorrow, our fifst responsibility is the Westercon Business Meeting, which is scheduled for 11 AM. As there should not be any significant issues with Site Selection, our only business on the agenda is the ratification of the bylaw amendments first passed last year, followed by new business, if there is any. While I prepared a draft proposal due to what I though might be a plan to trigger a wind-down of Westercon, I'm unsure whether anyone is actually going to introduce it.
I hope to sleep well tonight, as for the first time in several years, we do not expect a controversial site selection that needs to be adjudicated by the Business Meeting.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 10:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 12:57 pm (UTC)The Montréal in 2027 Worldcon bid website is at https://bid.montreal2027.ca/ and you can support us at a variety of levels to help pay the cost of bidding for Worldcon. You can also help a great deal by joining the 2025 Worldcon and voting for us in the site selection election next year to choose the site of the 2027 Worldcon.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 07:09 pm (UTC)WSFS members may vote in site selection, although they still have to purchase the advance membership (often called a "voting fee") to vote. That purchases a WSFS membership in the winning Worldcon, regardless of who wins. This is the same as what supporting members used to be able to do.
Nothing actually changed other than the name, which changed from "supporting membership" to "WSFS membership," plus the prohibition of transferring the WSFS (supporting) membership to another person.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 09:16 pm (UTC)I’m still confused. Are you saying even though I have a WSFS membership, I would need to pay an additional fee to vote in the site selection?
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad
no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 11:21 pm (UTC)Yes, which buys you a WSFS membership in whatever the winning convention is (regardless of how you voted). This is how it worked before; members of the voting Worldcon paid an additional site selection fee and received supporting memberships in the winner. (That's how I wound up with a membership for Chengdu.)
no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 11:33 pm (UTC)Example: Assume you are at least a WSFS (used to be called supporting) member of the 2025 Worldcon (Seattle). Members of the 2025 Seattle Worldcon are eligible to vote on the site of the 2027 Worldcon. However, WSFS requires you to commit to being at least a WSFS member of the 2027 Worldcon in order to be allowed to vote. So you would then have to pay the "advance WSFS membership" in the 2027 Worldcon when you cast your ballot. That advance membership goes to whoever wins the election. It does not go to the 2025 Worldcon; it's turned over to the winner of the election, no matter which site it is.
I became a member of the 2024 Worldcon two years ago when I voted in 2022. This year, I bought an advance WSFS membership to the 2026 Worldcon being selected this year. I don't have to pay for a membership to the current Worldcon because I bought it two years ago when I voted.
If you are a member of the 2024 Worldcon, you had the right to nominate and vote on the Hugo Awards (and to nominate next year) without paying anything else, but you do have to pay that advance membership to the 2026 Worldcon when you vote.
I hope this helps. You're not really paying double, except when you first get into the game. If you vote in site selection every year, you're always paying two years in advance.