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kevin_standleeThis morning started the same as yesterday, with breakfast at Perkins, although this time we walked the approximately 1 km. Because we did not have Site Selection to run and with the Business Meeting not until 11 AM, we relaxed over breakfast, and I was happy for the time and conversation with friends. Lisa decided that extra sleep was more valuable than food, and that was understandable.
Returning to the hotel, I changed into my business suit and helped Lisa carry camera gear to the Business Meeting room. It was not a large room, and I was worried that we would not have enough space, but we managed, barely. There was no difficulty obtaining the 12-member quorum. Here is the video of the entire meeting, which lasted nearly 90 minutes.
Site Selection wasn't a problem this year. There were only 18 votes cast (surprisingly, one less than last year when there were no candidates at all), and 13 of them voted for BayCon 2026's write-in bid. Even the ratification of the five pending Westercon Bylaw amendments wasn't too difficult. What got us into the weeds was trying to compose a replacement to the repealed Section 1.1.
The repealed section had both the name of Westercon and the traditional-but-not-obligatory dates in a single sentence. After much dinking around, the meeting came up with two sentences, each of which passed separately:
1. The official name is given as Westercon (the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference). Prior to this, it was the other way around: the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (Westercon). This is perhaps subtle, but it is reflects the fact that Westercon is the registered service mark, and the long-form name is not currently a registered mark.
2. A suggested, but not obligatory, range of dates for Westercon was provided: anytime in May, June, and/or July. This is not a requirement, but a suggestion. The prior 4th of July weekend wasn't required, either, although it appears that nearly everyone thought that it was. This is a suggestion, but a committee could bid for any other dates in the calendar year if they wanted.
Regarding the "calendar year," the Chair (me) stated not as statutory advice but as strongly-worded guidance that a Westercon bid must be held in the calendar year in which it was bid. Someone said, "But what about the Westercon Two-Step," when Westercons 73 and 74 moved their dates ahead by one year. I admitted that this was ironic given that I chaired Westercon 74, but did point out that Westercons 73 and 74 did consult with LASFS, owner of the Westercon service mark, before taking the drastic COVID-induced step of delaying both conventions by one year. Personally, I think that the service mark owner can authorize such actions in extraordinary circumstances, but that it should not be something that committees should do routinely.
I thought these proposals would be simple, but as Ben Yalow pointed out, trying to hash out new proposals on the floor of the meeting is fraught with problems, even with a small meeting of between twenty and thirty members present. In retrospect, what we should have done is to go into Committee of the Whole and have Martin Pyne more informally guide the members to work out the wording, then present that wording to the main meeting. I will try not to make that mistake again.
After much more time than I expected, we got the wording to everyone's satisfaction and passed on to next year. Technically, Westercon currently only implicitly has a name at the moment, but I don't really see this as an issue.
There was no rancor in this meeting, only a lot of neepery and some humor. I did not object to that, although at one point I did have to reign people in who seemed to forget that this was a deliberative assembly, not a bull session in the con suite.
Chairing a long meeting like that is quite tiring, particularly running on less than six hours of sleep. I went back to our room, changed out of my suit, and then Linda D., Lisa, and I went to the hotel's "International" lunch buffet. I enjoyed the roast beef, tilapia, rice, and other offerings.
After lunch it was back to the Info Table for Montreal and for BayCon 2025-26/Westercon 77-78. I sold several BC 25/WC 77 conversions and new memberships. I can't sell BC 26-WC 78 memberships other than $20 supporting memberships until they set attending membership rates, but it did not appear to be something that troubled people.
I spent most of the afternoon sitting along Fan Table row talking with people, which is just fine by me. I did get the video from Lisa's camera and assembled the four files the camera produced into a single file, and Adobe Premiere reduced the roughly 13.3 GB of raw video down to around 5.5 GB. I set the video to uploading, and to my surprise, the hotel wi-fi could handle it.
At 7 PM, seven of us (the five who went out last night plus two additions) went back to the Asian restaurant where we ate last night. Lisa and I repeated our orders, and found the food as good as yesterday. By the time we got back to the hotel, the video upload was done, so I updated the Westercon website and sent out some announcements of the site selection and business meeting results.
Besides the BayCon/Westercon memberships, we ended up selling one Oopik (super friend of the bid) for Montréal here at Westercon 76, and I sent that back tonight with someone leaving tomorrow morning who will pass it on to one of the bid committee members who can get the money deposited and the member recorded.
I have one last responsibility tomorrow, which is to act as the agent for receiving the handover of the Gavel of Westercon at the Closing Ceremony at 4 PM. After the ceremony, Lisa and I will need to make tracks back to Elko. We will check out in the morning and leave as soon as we can.
Thank you to everyone who helped us with the Business Meeting and with our fan table.
Returning to the hotel, I changed into my business suit and helped Lisa carry camera gear to the Business Meeting room. It was not a large room, and I was worried that we would not have enough space, but we managed, barely. There was no difficulty obtaining the 12-member quorum. Here is the video of the entire meeting, which lasted nearly 90 minutes.
Site Selection wasn't a problem this year. There were only 18 votes cast (surprisingly, one less than last year when there were no candidates at all), and 13 of them voted for BayCon 2026's write-in bid. Even the ratification of the five pending Westercon Bylaw amendments wasn't too difficult. What got us into the weeds was trying to compose a replacement to the repealed Section 1.1.
The repealed section had both the name of Westercon and the traditional-but-not-obligatory dates in a single sentence. After much dinking around, the meeting came up with two sentences, each of which passed separately:
1. The official name is given as Westercon (the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference). Prior to this, it was the other way around: the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (Westercon). This is perhaps subtle, but it is reflects the fact that Westercon is the registered service mark, and the long-form name is not currently a registered mark.
2. A suggested, but not obligatory, range of dates for Westercon was provided: anytime in May, June, and/or July. This is not a requirement, but a suggestion. The prior 4th of July weekend wasn't required, either, although it appears that nearly everyone thought that it was. This is a suggestion, but a committee could bid for any other dates in the calendar year if they wanted.
Regarding the "calendar year," the Chair (me) stated not as statutory advice but as strongly-worded guidance that a Westercon bid must be held in the calendar year in which it was bid. Someone said, "But what about the Westercon Two-Step," when Westercons 73 and 74 moved their dates ahead by one year. I admitted that this was ironic given that I chaired Westercon 74, but did point out that Westercons 73 and 74 did consult with LASFS, owner of the Westercon service mark, before taking the drastic COVID-induced step of delaying both conventions by one year. Personally, I think that the service mark owner can authorize such actions in extraordinary circumstances, but that it should not be something that committees should do routinely.
I thought these proposals would be simple, but as Ben Yalow pointed out, trying to hash out new proposals on the floor of the meeting is fraught with problems, even with a small meeting of between twenty and thirty members present. In retrospect, what we should have done is to go into Committee of the Whole and have Martin Pyne more informally guide the members to work out the wording, then present that wording to the main meeting. I will try not to make that mistake again.
After much more time than I expected, we got the wording to everyone's satisfaction and passed on to next year. Technically, Westercon currently only implicitly has a name at the moment, but I don't really see this as an issue.
There was no rancor in this meeting, only a lot of neepery and some humor. I did not object to that, although at one point I did have to reign people in who seemed to forget that this was a deliberative assembly, not a bull session in the con suite.
Chairing a long meeting like that is quite tiring, particularly running on less than six hours of sleep. I went back to our room, changed out of my suit, and then Linda D., Lisa, and I went to the hotel's "International" lunch buffet. I enjoyed the roast beef, tilapia, rice, and other offerings.
After lunch it was back to the Info Table for Montreal and for BayCon 2025-26/Westercon 77-78. I sold several BC 25/WC 77 conversions and new memberships. I can't sell BC 26-WC 78 memberships other than $20 supporting memberships until they set attending membership rates, but it did not appear to be something that troubled people.
I spent most of the afternoon sitting along Fan Table row talking with people, which is just fine by me. I did get the video from Lisa's camera and assembled the four files the camera produced into a single file, and Adobe Premiere reduced the roughly 13.3 GB of raw video down to around 5.5 GB. I set the video to uploading, and to my surprise, the hotel wi-fi could handle it.
At 7 PM, seven of us (the five who went out last night plus two additions) went back to the Asian restaurant where we ate last night. Lisa and I repeated our orders, and found the food as good as yesterday. By the time we got back to the hotel, the video upload was done, so I updated the Westercon website and sent out some announcements of the site selection and business meeting results.
Besides the BayCon/Westercon memberships, we ended up selling one Oopik (super friend of the bid) for Montréal here at Westercon 76, and I sent that back tonight with someone leaving tomorrow morning who will pass it on to one of the bid committee members who can get the money deposited and the member recorded.
I have one last responsibility tomorrow, which is to act as the agent for receiving the handover of the Gavel of Westercon at the Closing Ceremony at 4 PM. After the ceremony, Lisa and I will need to make tracks back to Elko. We will check out in the morning and leave as soon as we can.
Thank you to everyone who helped us with the Business Meeting and with our fan table.
