SMOFS in a Room

[kevin_standlee]

It appears that the Westercon 63 committee has decided to file a write-in bid to host the 2010 NASFiC as part of Westercon 63. That is, if they win, the 2010 West Coast Science Fantasy Conference in Pasadena would also be the 2010 North American Science Fiction Convention. The filing deadline for the ballot having passed, Pasadena's bid can only run as a write-in against Raleigh, the only group that filed a bid before the deadline.

Comments

[bovil.livejournal.com]

ala_mokita has chaired a Worldcon (2005) and a NASFiC (1999) before. He's crazy, but not clueless.

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

I am not saying he is clueless, but you have to try to succeed. You have to at least have posters and/or a party at Worldcon to get a 200-300 people to vote for it. They have their fannish backs against the wall because Worldcon site selection closes in 33 days.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

NASFiC is a strange animal. A lot of people just don't care about it, even people who care enough to vote in Worldcon site selection and Hugos.

I haven't been able to find the ballot details for the past NASFiC site selections, so I can't say what the average ballot count is, but it's going to be lower than Worldcon site selection. Uncontested Worldcon site selections have, in some cases, had far less than 1,000 total ballots.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a social experiment. How many people are really going to vote in a contested NASFiC race? How many votes is a serious write-in candidate without a campaign going to get?

Remember, they've already got a convention in the works. If they lose, they've still got a convention. If they win, they've got most of their groundwork laid.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

I remember "Vote for Both!" (It might have won, and I suspect it did.)

It isn't necessary to do much to get votes, if fans think your idea is a wonderful hack.