2024 Worldcon Day 3: Grinding the Agenda
Aug. 10th, 2024 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeBandwidth continues to be an issue. While I can get faster connections from the public areas of the hotel, I don't think I should be obliged to sit all night in the lobby rather than from my hotel room. Thus I have temporary discontinued cross-posting (which has to be done manually) to LiveJournal.
We started today's First Main Business Meeting on time at 10:00. Because we didn't get through the entire agenda at the Preliminary Business Meeting, we continued to grind through it, picking up where we left off.
A significant and unwanted development was that at least three Business Meeting attendees, including one member of the BM tech team and the BM Secretary, are down with COVID. Linda Deneroff is the Emergency Holographic Secretary after Alex Acks tested positive at lunchtime. More masks have appeared. Lisa and I took COVID tests after the meeting and are clear for now, but we'll test again after tomorrow's meeting.
Once again, consult the WSFS Agenda on the Glasgow 2024 website for the agenda items in the list below, where I'll list what happened to what we did consider. That link points at a PDF of the agenda. That means if you want to read the motions and the makers' statements, etc., you have to download the PDF.
Items with numbers earlier in this list were dealt with yesterday. See that post for details.
Votes "by show of hands" are uncounted. Counted votes are by "serpentine" standing vote, and yes, there is a provision for people who cannot stand to vote when a serpentine is called.
After meeting was called to order with introductory comments, it went into Executive Session to discuss D.11 and D.12. Cameras were turned off. Lisa put a bag over her camera so it was obvious that she wasn't recording. I cannot discuss what happened there. Official reports will eventually be published.
Having finally gotten through all of the resolutions, we could move on to constitutional amendments. For this, we proceeded through a special process called "First Pass" that allowed the meeting to do only a limited number things: Object to Consideration, Postpone Indefinitely, or refer to committee. This doesn't apply to constitutional amendments up for ratification passed on from last year. After First Pass, we'll go back through everything and set debate times, and then we can actually start full-blown debate including amendment. This may sound confusing, but it does look like it's having the desired result of clearing a lot of stuff off of the agenda.
Everything in Section E was skipped and we did not have enough time to set debate time limits. That should happen on Sunday.
In the following list, "no action taken" means that when we complete First Pass, we'll go back and set debate time limits, and then once Section E is done, we'll consider these Section F new constitutional amendments.
We ran out of time and adjourned at 15:00 after working on F.11. That leaves F.12 through F.20 pending First Pass.
Sunday's meeting will start with Site Selection business, which we expect to be expedited so we can get back to deliberating on business. Also, I received a notice that the Worldcon Chairs Photo Session will happen at 09:30 before the 10:00 Site Selection Business Meeting. We obviously still have to grind out nine more new Constitutional amendments and then set debate time limits before we can actually debate ratifications and then initial votes. That' why we're still scheduled to run from 10:00 to 15:00.
I am fairly confident that we can complete Site Selection and the twelve ratification items. Having booted a lot of motions to committees to report next year means we have a chance to consider at least some of the new Constitutional amendments. I'm not sure if we'll get through everything. However, once we get through Site Selection and Ratifications, we can adjourn sine die anytime thereafter. If we do so, or if we run completely out of time on Monday, anything not finally resolved "falls to the floor," i.e. it dies. Anything that dies the dead of end-of-session can be reintroduced as a new item next year.
I spend most of the rest of the day and most of the evening (except when I went to dinner) trying to figure out some way to get Lisa's Business Meeting videos uploaded. I gave it a shot in the SEC, where I was allowed to use the office in the "Boneyard" (where boxes and such are stored, and also where the Sign Shop is located. However, it took more than an hour to upload just the first of seven segments of the Friday meeting. I'm taking a shot and combining all of the files for each of the first two days into a single file per day in Adobe Premier and trying to compile it down to a size small enough to have a chance to actually upload in a reasonable amount of time. I know that people who weren't watching the meeting live are probably interested in seeing this, given that (as far as I can tell) the convention has not posted their own copies. If I can get the video uploaded, it will be on my personal YouTube channel as neither Lisa nor I are part of the official Business Meeting recording/tech team.
We started today's First Main Business Meeting on time at 10:00. Because we didn't get through the entire agenda at the Preliminary Business Meeting, we continued to grind through it, picking up where we left off.
A significant and unwanted development was that at least three Business Meeting attendees, including one member of the BM tech team and the BM Secretary, are down with COVID. Linda Deneroff is the Emergency Holographic Secretary after Alex Acks tested positive at lunchtime. More masks have appeared. Lisa and I took COVID tests after the meeting and are clear for now, but we'll test again after tomorrow's meeting.
Once again, consult the WSFS Agenda on the Glasgow 2024 website for the agenda items in the list below, where I'll list what happened to what we did consider. That link points at a PDF of the agenda. That means if you want to read the motions and the makers' statements, etc., you have to download the PDF.
Items with numbers earlier in this list were dealt with yesterday. See that post for details.
Votes "by show of hands" are uncounted. Counted votes are by "serpentine" standing vote, and yes, there is a provision for people who cannot stand to vote when a serpentine is called.
After meeting was called to order with introductory comments, it went into Executive Session to discuss D.11 and D.12. Cameras were turned off. Lisa put a bag over her camera so it was obvious that she wasn't recording. I cannot discuss what happened there. Official reports will eventually be published.
- D.9. Business Meeting Study Group. There was an attempt to add additional scope to this study group, but that failed. Had it passed, I would have volunteered for it. The original, unchanged motion passes on a vote by show of hands.
- D.13. Apology. This motion was significantly modified, with the entire preamble (the "Whereas" clauses) removed, and a modified version of the Resolved clauses considered. The portions that declared certain people/works retroactively to be Hugo Award finalists (the last two clauses of the original resolution) were struck out due to the overlap with D.14. The modified resolution was adopted by a show of hands.
- D.14. Make Them Finalists. As originally introduced, this would have attempted to retroactively declare certain people/works to be Hugo Award or Astounding Award finalists. It did appear that this was heading toward being ruled unconstitutional, on the grounds that no single Business Meeting has such a right. Donald Eastlake III introduced a substitute in the form of a constitutional amendment that would allow the Business Meeting to make such declarations by a 3/4 vote, and that would allow a companion resolution passed affecting the 2023 or 2024 Hugo Awards to apply if the amendment is ratified at the 2025 Worldcon. Don's constitutional amendment got first passage and will be submitted to Seattle for ratification, and the companion resolution that retroactively added the specified finalists was adopted by the necessary 3/4 vote. This does not add those finalists unless the constitutional amendment is ratified in Seattle.
Having finally gotten through all of the resolutions, we could move on to constitutional amendments. For this, we proceeded through a special process called "First Pass" that allowed the meeting to do only a limited number things: Object to Consideration, Postpone Indefinitely, or refer to committee. This doesn't apply to constitutional amendments up for ratification passed on from last year. After First Pass, we'll go back through everything and set debate times, and then we can actually start full-blown debate including amendment. This may sound confusing, but it does look like it's having the desired result of clearing a lot of stuff off of the agenda.
Everything in Section E was skipped and we did not have enough time to set debate time limits. That should happen on Sunday.
In the following list, "no action taken" means that when we complete First Pass, we'll go back and set debate time limits, and then once Section E is done, we'll consider these Section F new constitutional amendments.
- F.1 through F.4: No action taken.
- F.5. Transparency in Hugo Administration: Referred to Hugo Process Study Committee.
- F.6. Independent Hugo Administrator: Referred to Hugo Process Study Committee.
- F.7. No Illegal Exclusions: Referred to Hugo Process Study Committee.
- F.8. Irregular Disqualifications and Rogue Administrators: Referred to Hugo Process Study Committee.
- F.9. And the Horse You Rode In On: An Objection to Consideration (3/4 vote required) failed. Referred to Hugo Process Study Committee.
- F.10. Make the Change: Divided into four separate proposals because it was a sort of grab-bag of unrelated changes. Parts of it were then referred to Hugo Process Study Committee while others were Postponed Indefinitely. Yes, this was complicated.
- F.11. Hugo Administration and Site Selection Monitoring: An attempt to Postpone Indefinitely failed, as did an attempt to Refer it to Hugo Process Study Committee.
We ran out of time and adjourned at 15:00 after working on F.11. That leaves F.12 through F.20 pending First Pass.
Sunday's meeting will start with Site Selection business, which we expect to be expedited so we can get back to deliberating on business. Also, I received a notice that the Worldcon Chairs Photo Session will happen at 09:30 before the 10:00 Site Selection Business Meeting. We obviously still have to grind out nine more new Constitutional amendments and then set debate time limits before we can actually debate ratifications and then initial votes. That' why we're still scheduled to run from 10:00 to 15:00.
I am fairly confident that we can complete Site Selection and the twelve ratification items. Having booted a lot of motions to committees to report next year means we have a chance to consider at least some of the new Constitutional amendments. I'm not sure if we'll get through everything. However, once we get through Site Selection and Ratifications, we can adjourn sine die anytime thereafter. If we do so, or if we run completely out of time on Monday, anything not finally resolved "falls to the floor," i.e. it dies. Anything that dies the dead of end-of-session can be reintroduced as a new item next year.
I spend most of the rest of the day and most of the evening (except when I went to dinner) trying to figure out some way to get Lisa's Business Meeting videos uploaded. I gave it a shot in the SEC, where I was allowed to use the office in the "Boneyard" (where boxes and such are stored, and also where the Sign Shop is located. However, it took more than an hour to upload just the first of seven segments of the Friday meeting. I'm taking a shot and combining all of the files for each of the first two days into a single file per day in Adobe Premier and trying to compile it down to a size small enough to have a chance to actually upload in a reasonable amount of time. I know that people who weren't watching the meeting live are probably interested in seeing this, given that (as far as I can tell) the convention has not posted their own copies. If I can get the video uploaded, it will be on my personal YouTube channel as neither Lisa nor I are part of the official Business Meeting recording/tech team.
