kevin_standlee: Kevin after losing a lot of weight. He peaked at 330, but over the following years got it down to 220 and continues to lose weight. (Montreal)
[personal profile] kevin_standlee
Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal, has published its first progress report in PDF from the Anticipation web site.

Now, while I'm one of Anticipation's parent non-profit corporation's directors, I didn't know exactly when the PR was coming out myself until I saw the announcement, so it's mostly as new to me as anyone else. I'm biased, of course, but it looks like it has a good mix of convention information, including a clear statement of how many rooms are blocked in the main/party hotel (500 peak night) and that they plan to use a housing bureau rather than have people book directly with each hotel. (There are pros and cons to both systems.) Room booking will be available early next year.

(Speaking not from any inside information but from years of personal experience, I still think it's best to be there on Day 1 booking your room for your Worldcon stay. I know I'll be doing so.)

I have a minor nit to pick with how they printed the site selection results. (They're required to print them by WSFS rules, and I'm glad they did so.) It's a common enough error. A cursory reading of the results would lead you to think that they've miscalculated the number of votes required to elect. That's because the number to elect is properly calculated as a majority of votes with a preference, but the votes for No Preference (which doesn't count toward that total because they are the equivalent of abstentions or blank ballots) are listed "above the line" and shown as part of the total votes cast. When I report vote totals, I usually do it in this form:

Total with preference: X
Needed to elect (majority): Y
No preference/blank: Z
Total ballots: AA

As I said, it's a minor thing, but it's the sort of thing that rules geeks like me think about.

Now we Americans can but hope that the US dollar doesn't fall even more against the Canadian dollar. At the moment, the two currencies are roughly at par, after many years of trips to Canada being "20% off." At least the tax rebate scheme is still in place, so we'll get a refund of any GST paid on hotel rooms or larger (>CA$50 before tax) purchases as long as we fill out a simple form and save our receipts.

Date: 2008-03-19 06:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jbriggs.livejournal.com
I'm pleased to see Monster Island got 50% of the write-in votes (^:

Date: 2008-03-27 02:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] marahsk.livejournal.com
You probably know this, but people reading here should know that you have to spend a certain amount to be eligible for the tax rebate. I believe it was $600 or $650 a few years ago; I don't know if the amount has changed recently.

And since each receipt has to be over $50, it's often worthwhile to buy one more thing to bring your total to $50, or for people to combine their purchases.

Date: 2008-03-27 03:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kevin-standlee.livejournal.com
Whoops, never mind: The GST refund program has been cancelled.

Date: 2008-03-27 03:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] marahsk.livejournal.com
It's a good thing you looked it up, then. :)

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