Calgary

[kevin_standlee]

It now looks like the CWSFA (Calgary Westercon parent) will hold their board meeting on November 19. I'm trying to work out travel arrangements. Because of the airline schedules between the Bay Area and Calgary, I have to take the Friday off from work -- there are no flights early enough in the morning that arrive before Noon in Calgary.

Being the only American on the CWSFA board has been an, shall we say, interesting experience. I'm flattered that so many people have been willing to talk to me when they won't talk to anyone else, or that they rely upon me to be relatively impartial. I don't know if I'm really impartial; I have my own biases. I am quite opinionated on some things, and I will hold forth at great length about them upon sufficient provocation, such as in this message on the ConVersion BBS. (It's a longish message, but not flame-bait, talking about differences between the funding of ongoing (Loscon, BayCon, OryCon) and series-of-one-shot (Westercon, Worldcon) conventions.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me that people assume that Westercon, Worldcon, etc. are one single organization run by some central body who keeps the money and uses it from year to year. People probably think the International Olympic Committee actually runs the individual Olympic Games, and takes on all of the finanical risk and reward, too.

Still, thinking about to what use we will put the Westercon 58 surplus, should we be considering setting up a Pass-Along Funds program for Westercons?

Comments

[bovil.livejournal.com]

It works for WorldCon, it works for Costume-Con (tho it's even more informal there)...

[jbriggs.livejournal.com]

It certainly would help the semi-perpetual funding crisis for Westercon, but I fear its too late to get WC out of its tailspin. Something like it might help NASFiC, but then that isn't even a series of one-shots, its only an ocassional one shot.

[jbriggs.livejournal.com]

thinking about to what use we will put the Westercon 58 surplus

And what would that surplus have been without the Conadian grant?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I think the surplus would have been either one-half or three-quarters the size it actually is; I haven't seen the exact way it was accounted for in the convention's records.

[lyzard13.livejournal.com]

Has the Calgary Westercon started sending out reimbursements? I know that you had mentioned they were going to - and I was just wondering the status... seeing as neither Ed nor I have received a check yet :)

Reimbursements

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

No; as far as I can tell, only a few reimbursements have actually been paid, and those were those where Randy met the people in person. SFSFC has agreed in principle to act as agent for generating USD reimbursements (so those of us in the US are stuck with checks we can't cash), but I have not yet worked out the details with Randy and the Due North Treasury on who gets what, nor have we made the necessary transfer of funds from Due North to SFSFC.

When the payments go out, I expect we'll issue a formal announcement.

[lunarvixen.livejournal.com]

oh boy.. that's the same day Con-Version is having their next meeting... hmmm.. there's going to be some conflict there I think... well.. I hope you're able to make it to Calgary without too much hoopla..

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Not much of a conflict; none of the CWSFA directors are Con-Version committee members that I'm aware of.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

Pass Along funds for Westercon make a great deal of sense-- in the same way that it works for both Worldcon and Costumecon -- one shots can use the help and staying a non-profit is a *good* thing -- so after costs and reimbursements, the Pass Alongs make all kinds of sense...