Return to 1999 Business Meeting Minutes
1.1. Mark Protection Committee
See the World Science Fiction Society Constitution, Sections 1.7 and 1.8, and Standing Rules 11 and 12.
The committee is to present its report at this meeting.
There are three vacancies on the committee. Nominees for this year’s elections are: Stephen Boucher (overseas), Gary Keith Feldbaum (Eastern) Sue Francis (Central) and Kent Smookler (Central). The election will be held at this meeting and there are no zonal restrictions.
1.2. Nitpicking & Flyspecking Committee
A written report was presented to the Preliminary Business Meeting.
1.3. Worldcon Runners' Guide Editorial Committee
This committee was established by the 1989 WSFS Business Meeting, and has been continued ever since. A new edition of the Worldcon Runners' Guide was submitted at the 1996 Business Meeting.
Saul Jaffe (Chair) will present his report (attached) to the Main Business Meeting.
Items under this heading have been given first passage, and will become part of the Constitution if ratified at Aussiecon 3.
3.1 Tidying Site Selection (6 minutes debate time allowed)
MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution as follows:
In Section 4.1: replace "Voting shall be by mail or ballot cast at the current Worldcon with run-off ballot as described in Section 3.11" with "Voting shall be by written ballot cast either by mail or at the current Worldcon with tallying as described in Section 3.11".
In Section 4. 1: replace "administer the mail balloting" with "administer the voting".
Replace Section 4.3 with the following new Section:
Section 4.3: Non-natural Persons. Corporations, associations, and other non-human or artificial entities may cast ballots, but only for "No Preference". "Guest of" memberships may only cast "No Preference" ballots. Memberships transferred to individual natural persons may cast preferential ballots, provided that the transfer is accepted by the administering convention.
In Section 4.5.1, replace "with two (2) witnesses from each bidding committee allowed to observe." with ". Each bidding committee should provide at least two (2) tellers."
Delete Subsection 4.5.3, and insert the following new Subsections:
4.5.3: "None of the Above" shall be treated as a bid for tallying, and shall be the equivalent of "No Award" with respect to Section 2.9.
4.5.5: If "None of the Above" wins, the duty of site selection shall devolve on the Business Meeting of the current Worldcon. If the Business Meeting is unable to decide by the end of the Worldcon, the Committee for the following Worldcon shall make the selection without undue delay.
4.5.6: Where a site and Committee are chosen by a Business Meeting or Worldcon Committee, they are not restricted by region or other qualifications, and the choice of an out-of-rotation site shall not affect the regional rotation for subsequent years.
Moved by the Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee
3.2 No-Zone Rotation (20 minutes debate time allowed)
Moved: To amend Article IV by:
1. Deleting all of section 4.7 except the last sentence.
2. Replacing "sixty (60) miles" with ""five hundred (500) miles or eight hundred (800) kilometres" in the last sentence of section 4.7
3. Replacing "the North American region eligible" with "North America" in the first sentence of Section 4.9
4. Deleting the first sentence of 4.9.2
Provided that any site which would have been eligible under the old rules will also be eligible in the first three races conducted under these eligibility rules.
Moved by Ben Yalow and Bruce Pelz
Effect:
Section 4.7: Site Eligibility A site outside North America is eligible for selection in any year. A Site within North America is eligible for selection if it is within the appropriate region as defined below. The North American regions shall rotate in the order Western, Central, Eastern region. A site shall be ineligible if it is within sixty (60) five hundred (500) miles or eight hundred (800) kilometres of the site at which selection occurs.
Section 4.9: NASFiC
If the selected Worldcon site is not in North America, there shall be a NASFiC in the North American region eligible North America that year. Selection of the NASFiC shall be by the identical procedure to the Worldcon selection except as provided below or elsewhere in this Constitution:
4.9.1: Voting shall be by written ballot administered by the following year’s Worldcon, if there is no NASFiC in that year, or by the following year’s NASFiC, if there is one, with ballots cast at the administering convention or by mail, and with only members of the administering convention allowed to vote.
4.9.2: Bids are restricted to sites in the appropriate region. NASFiC Committees shall make all reasonable efforts to avoid conflicts with Worldcon dates.
4.9.3: The proposed NASFiC voting fee supporting membership rate can be set by unanimous agreement of the prospective candidates that file with the administering Committee the administering Committee and all bidding committees who have filed before the ballot deadline.
4.9.4: If "None of the Above" wins, or if no eligible bid files by the deadline, then no NASFiC shall be held and all voting fees any supporting membership payments collected for the NASFiC site selection shall be refunded by the administering convention without undue delay.
Items under this heading have not been given first passage, and will become part of the Constitution only if passed at Aussiecon 3 and ratified at Chicon 2000.
4.1 The Long and Short of It (20 minutes debate time allowed)
MOVED, To amend portions of Article III of the WSFS Constitution to have the effect of splitting the existing Best Dramatic Presentation category into two categories, Long Form and Short Form, to regulate the administration of such categories, and for other purposes, as follows.
1. Strike out existing Section 3.3.6, "Best Dramatic Presentation."
2. Insert the following section after existing Section 3.3.5:
3.3.x: BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM: Any production in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects, which has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during the previous calendar year, with a complete running time of more than 100 minutes.
3. Insert the following section before existing Section 3.3.7
3.3.x: BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM: Any production in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects, which has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during the previous calendar year, with a complete running time of 100 minutes or less.
4. Insert the following section after existing Section 3.2.5:
3.2.x: The Worldcon Committee shall not consider previews, promotional trailers, commercials, public service announcements, or other extraneous material when determining the length of a work.
5. Insert the following section after existing Section 3.2.6:
3.2.x: The Worldcon Committee may relocate a dramatic presentation work into a more appropriate category if it feels that it is necessary, provided that the length of the work is within the lesser of twenty (20) minutes or twenty percent (20%) of the new category limits.
Moved by Chris Barkley, Kevin Standlee and Lew Wolkoff
4.2 Return to two-year bidding (12 minutes debate time allowed)
MOVED: to amend the WSFS constitution as follows:
In Section 4.1: replace "WSFS shall choose the location and Committee of the Worldcon to be held three (3) years from the date of the current Worldcon" with "WSFS shall choose the location and Committee of the Worldcon to be held two (2) years from the date of the current Worldcon".
Moved by Vincent Docherty and Kevin Standlee
Discussion: The move back to two-year bidding for Worldcon site-selection reflects the historic evidence that three-year bidding has not been effective as a means of ensuring the viability of bids in obtaining and keeping their site (contracts) against competition from professional convention organisers. In addition the extra year after winning the bid causes additional work and strain for the convention organisers with little benefit for the members.
If this amendment is adopted, the timing of its implementation must be agreed - which Worldcon will 'skip' hosting site selection?
4.3 Rest-of-the-World Hugo Eligibility
This proposal was referred to a committee chaired by Vincent Docherty to report to the Main Business meeting.
[to be conducted at the Site Selection meeting on 5 September 1999]
5.1 Report of the 2002 Site Selection & Presentation by Winners
5.2 Reports by seated Worldcons
5.3 Presentation by bidders for 2003
Return to 1999 Business Meeting Minutes
Pat McMurray pat@cooky.demon.co.uk