2000 Business meeting Minutes: Saturday Business Meeting

1 Call to order

The meeting was called to order at 9.10 am.

The Chair explained that attempts to move the meeting to a later time had actually resulted in the meeting being moved to a different location but at the same time, such being the vagaries of Worldcon programming.

The Chair announced that coffee would be provided. There was rapturous applause (followed by complaints from those who prefer to obtain their caffeine in other ways.)

Johnny Carruthers requested a recess to allow members to obtain coffee. The Chair said that this would take too long and that he would recess only long enough to allow the podium staff to obtain coffee.

2 Committee Reports

2.1 Mark Protection Committee

Ballots were distributed during the meeting by Rick Katze and Sam Pierce. The ballots were to be counted overnight and the results reported at the Sunday meeting. The Chair appointed Mr. Standlee, Mr. Illingworth and Ms. Morgan as tellers. The Chair also announced that there would be no zoning restrictions in the ballot as no combination of electoral results could breach the zoning regulations.

The Chair announced that minutes from Thursday's meeting of the Mark Protection Committee, and the minutes from the Australia meeting, were available but had not yet been reproduced. By unanimous consent the presentations of these minutes were postponed until Sunday when copies would be available.

3 Worldcon reports

The Chair changed the order of the agenda so as to allow discussion of hopefully non-contentious issues while members were obtaining coffee.

3.1 Conucopia

No report was presented (and none was required as Conucopia is a NASFiC).

3.2 Aussiecon Three

A report was presented by Stephen Boucher and is attached. The Secretary thanked Aussiecon Three for making a copy of their report available in electronic form thus allowing it to be easily incorporated into the minutes. She asked that other Worldcons might consider presenting electronic versions of their reports in future.

3.3 Chicon

A lengthy financial report in the form of taxation filings was made available to the Meeting.

3.4 The Millennium Philcon

Todd Dashoff presented a report to the podium staff. Mr. Dashoff said that copies of the report would be available to members at the Sunday meeting. He added that a financial report was in their Progress Report 3, available from their bid table.

2 Committee Reports Continued

2.2 Nitpicking & Flyspecking Committee

Moved, to amend Section 3.10 of the WSFS Constitution as follows:

3.10.1: Final Award voting shall be by mail balloting in advance of the Worldcon, with ballots sent only to WSFS members. Only WSFS members may vote. Final Award ballots shall include name, signature, address, and membership-number spaces to be filled in by the voter.

This motion had been passed forward from the Friday meeting with a debate time limit of 2 minutes.

Rick Katze moved to amend that the lack of a membership number should not disqualify a ballot. The Chair ruled that this was outside the scope of the amendment.

The motion passed by unanimous consent.

Mr. Standlee said that the NP&FS committee would consider the issue of membership numbers.

Moved, To amend the WSFS Constitution by replacing all occurrences of "Worldcon" in Sections 2.8 and 2.9 by "Worldcon or NASFiC" or effectively similar wording, as follows:

Section 2.8: Financial Openness. Any member of WSFS shall have the right, under reasonable conditions, to examine the financial records and books of account of the current Worldcon or NASFiC Committee, all future selected Worldcon or NASFiC Committees, and the two immediately preceding Worldcon Committees and the Committees of any NASFiCs held in the previous two years.

Section 2.9: Financial Reports.

2.9.1: Each future selected Worldcon or NASFiC Committee shall submit an annual financial report, including a statement of income and expenses, to each WSFS Business Meeting after the Committee's selection.

2.9.2: Each Worldcon or NASFiC Committee shall submit a report on its cumulative surplus/loss at the next Business Meeting after its Worldcon.

2.9.3: Each Worldcon or NASFiC Committee should dispose of surplus funds remaining after accounts are settled for the current Worldcon or NASFiC for the benefit of WSFS as a whole.

2.9.4: In the event of a surplus, the Worldcon or NASFiC Committee, or any alternative organizational entity established to oversee and disburse that surplus, shall file annual financial reports regarding the disbursement of that surplus at each year's Business Meeting, until the surplus is totally expended or an amount equal to the original surplus has been disbursed.

This motion had been passed forward from the Friday meeting with a debate time limit of 10 minutes.

Ben Yalow spoke against on the grounds that the amendment would add further solidity to concept of NASFiCs.

Perrianne Lurie spoke in favor, saying that she was opposed to the concept of NASFiCs but supported forcing them to report while they existed.

Seth Breidbart added that forcing NASFiCs to make reports would discourage people from wanting to run them.

The motion passed on a show of hands by many to few.

2.2.3 Awaken the Sleeping Dogs

Moved, To renew all Continuing Resolutions included in the Nitpicking & Flyspecking Committee Report.

This motion had been postponed from the Friday meeting.

Richard Russell inquired as to whether the Continuing Resolutions would cease to continue if motion to formally continue them failed. The Chair said that he did not think that they would, although this could be debated.

Mark Olson moved to suspend the rules and postpone the motion indefinitely. This motion is not debatable. It requires a 2/3 vote to pass, and obtained the required support on a show of hands.

The Parliamentarian explained that as the motion had not been voted on (and therefore neither approved nor rejected) this meant that Mr. Russell's point was not relevant.

2.3 Rest of the World Hugo Eligibility Committee

The Chair appointed Kevin Standlee (standlee@lunacity.com) to chair this committee. Ordinary members appointed were: Saul Jaffe, Ben Yalow, Rick Katze, Tim Illingworth, Vince Docherty, Mark Olson, George Flynn, Perrianne Lurie, Chris Barkley, Cheryl Morgan, Sharon Sbarsky. The chair of the Committee has the right to appoint new members. Subsequent to the Meeting Mr. Standlee renamed the Committee as the Hugo Eligibility Rest Of World Committee (HEROW).

2.4 Dramatic Presentation Committee

The Chair appointed John Lorentz (jlorentz@spiritone.com) to chair this committee. Ordinary members appointed were: Johnny Carruthers, Chris Shuldiner, Chris Barkley, Richard Russell, Gayle Surrette, Paul Haggerty, Brenda Daverin, Lew Wolkoff, Michael Mason, Skip Morris, Tim Illingworth, Vince Docherty, Geoffrey Surrette, Cheryl Morgan, Tom Schaad, Kevin Standlee, Mary Morman. The chair of the Committee has the right to appoint new members.

Mr. Russell announced that he would create an e-mail discussion list for the committee that would be open to all persons.

4 Constitutional Amendments

4.1 Return to 2-year lead-time

Moved, To Amend Section 4.1.1 of the WSFS Constitution to shorten the lead-time for selection of future Worldcons from three years to two years, as follows:

4.1.1. WSFS shall choose the location and Committee of the Worldcon to be held three (3) two (2) years from the date of the current Worldcon.

Provided that this amendment shall not take effect until the conclusion of the 2004 Worldcon; that there shall be no Worldcon site selection election at the 2005 Worldcon; and that the 2006 Worldcon shall select the site of the 2008 Worldcon.

This motion had been passed forward from the Friday meeting with a debate time limit of 20 minutes.

John Pomeranz spoke against the motion on the grounds that the extra year gave Worldcon committees time to recover after their bids.

Mr. Olson spoke in favor, saying that taking a vacation as Mr. Pomeranz suggested is a mistake.

Gary Feldbaum spoke against, saying that the Millennium Philcon has found the extra time useful.

Rick Katze said that as a member of the Millennium Philcon he found that the extra year only allowed committee to go round in circles for a year.

Perrianne Lurie (a member of both the Millennium Philcon and Bucconeer committees) said the extra year was useful for sorting out staffing. She also said that WSFS should take time to get used to current changes (i.e. No Zone) before changing things again.

Mr. Carruthers asked why WSFS had originally switched from 2-year to 3-year lead-times.

Mr. Yalow explained that at time the decision was taken hotels required a 3-year lead time. Hotels now book 8 to 10 years in advance so it is no longer sensible to have the extra year. Mr. Yalow added, in support of Mr. Olson, that halting work and restarting again later was bad for committees.

Rick Kovalcik said he understood that hotel policies were changing back towards 3-year booking.

Mr. Standlee said that bidding time related to lead-time. 3-year bidding was too long. Shortening lead-time would shorten bid time and reduce bidding cost.

Ken Smookler (Toronto) said he wanted a 3 year lead-time. He added that people will work hard if they want so he did not think that shortening the lead-time would affect bid time scales.

Vince Docherty (Intersection, UK2005) said that places with a limited number of available volunteers cannot afford to risk burning people out and that therefore a 2-year lead-time was preferable.

Ruth Sachter asked about the effect the motion would have on NASFiC bidding. The Chair said it would go to a 1-year time scale. He added that the situation is explained in more detail in the Preliminary Agenda.

Dave Ratti said that it would be better to have 3 years and not need them than to not have them and need them.

Mr. Breidbart noted that those people who have work under both 2 and 3 year lead-times all prefer 2 years.

Alexander von Thorn said that committees need the extra time to set up their organization. He added that in his experience hotels are not comfortable with a 2-year lead-time.

Kent Bloom said that a 3-year lead-time increases costs. In addition more people are tied up in committees running future Worldcons and are therefore not available to work on the current Worldcon.

Gary Blog said people are exhausted after bidding and need time to rest.

Bruce Pelz said he had worked under both 2-year and 3-year systems and he felt that committee planning could be done during the bid.

Lew Wolkoff said that in contested races committees would be too busy trying to win.

Sam Pierce said that a 2-year lad time would force us to try other venues, which might be a good thing.

Bob Hillis said hotels would laugh at us if we could not commit to contracts until 2 years out.

Mr. Docherty said that committees have to negotiate with hotels during bid anyway so relations with hotels take place over a much longer time scale.

Following a serpentine count the motion failed 38-51.

5 Other Business

5.1 Further lead-time motions

Mr. Carruthers asked if the lead-time question can be stopped from coming up again. The Chair said that a standing rule could be adopted if that was the desire of the Meeting. However, no one proposed such a rule.

5.2 Archiving of panel tapes

Louis Epstein moved a resolution:

Moved, to encourage Worldcons who tape their sessions to make copies available to the Worldcon history exhibit.

The motion passed by unanimous consent.

Subsequent to the Meeting Steven Silver announced on behalf of Chicon 2000 that they had complied with this request.

5.3 Start time for Sunday meeting

Mr. Yalow proposed to set a start time of 10pm for the Sunday meeting due to lack of business. This was passed by unanimous consent.

6 Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 10:38 in honor of Ross Pavlac.