2000 Business meeting Minutes: Sunday Business Meeting

1 Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 10.01am

2 Site Selection

2.1 Report of site selection committee

Tim Szczesuil presented the site selection results. Toronto won. Details are:

Mr. Standlee asked what the count time had been. Mr. Szczesuil said no official time had been recorded he understood that it was less than 1 hr. In the absence of firm data Aussiecon Three still holds the record for the shortest count.

2.2 Questions to the winning bid

Larry Hancock (bid chair) and Peter Jarvis (con chair) for Toronto made a presentation. Progress Report #0 was made available to members. The Toronto table would be opening for membership sales and conversions from 12.00 am. The Guests of Honor will be George R.R. Martin, Kelly Freas, Mike Glyer and Toastmaster Spider Robinson. The Ghost of Honor will be Robert Bloch. The name of the convention will be Torcon III.

The dates for the convention will be August 28^th to September 1^st 2003. The following membership rates are good until March 31^st 2001.

A member asked if sales taxes applied to membership fees. Torcon III replied that this was not the case.

Torcon III will use the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Royal York Hotel, Crowne Plaza Hotel and, especially for baseball fans, the Renaissance Toronto Hotel at the Sky Dome.

Payment was currently acceptable in cash, checks or by Visa card. Mastercard facilities would be available soon. Members were warned that credit card payments would be processed in Canadian funds and may therefore be liable to currency exchange charges.

Asked if their organization was a non-profit, Torcon III replied that it was, but under Canadian Law, not US law. Rick Katze asked whether this would affect pass along funds. He was assured that it would not. Perrianne Lurie asked if Torcon III would be making pass along payments. Mr. Jarvis said that no official decision had been taken but that he supported doing so. Linda Ross Mansfield said that if there was any problem getting Torcon III funds out of Canada then Conadian could process them because it had successfully made pass along payments.

Mr. Katze asked about any data protection laws that may affect data transfer for the purpose Hugo nominations and so on (2). Ken Smookler said that Ontario has no such law, nor is there a Canadian federal law.

Johnny Carruthers asked what would happen if a law were passed between now and the convention. Would Torcon III mail nomination ballots for the subsequent year's Worldcon themselves? Mr. Hancock said that no such law was likely.

2.3 Ballots and thanks

The Chair asked for permission to destroy the ballots. This was agreed by unanimous consent.

The Chair moved to thank site selection staff. This was passed by unanimous consent.

2.4 Questions for seated Worldcons

Todd Dashoff was available to answer questions. He noted that the current membership level is 2800, not counting sales at table during Chicon 2000.

Ruth Sachter asked when hotel information would be available. Mr. Dashoff said it would be in the next Progress Report, along with nomination ballots for the Hugos. The Progress Report was expected to be published in January.

John Addams asked about handicapped access. Mr. Dashoff said that hopefully this would also be in the next Progress Report, along with information on childcare.

Perrianne Lurie asked permission to remind audience that there would be a Millennium Philcon programming brainstorm meeting that day. Details were in the Chicon newsletter.

Mr. Dashoff reminded members that Progress Report #3 was available from the Millennium Philcon table.

Ms. Sachter was available to answer questions, but there were none.

2.5 Questions for future bids

Irv Koch of the Charlotte bid announced that they had letters of agreement for 1905 rooms with 600+ more available. There would be a free shuttle bus and trolley system. There was plenty of space for dealers and the art show, both with good loading access. Good, inexpensive food would be available in the convention center. The ballroom theoretically seats 4200 but the effective capacity would probably be nearer 3000. Charlotte intends to pipe video of major events to hotel bedrooms. The committee is 100% Internet based so help from anywhere is welcome. The con intends to provide for self-registration online. Good meeting space would be available, including a special garden plaza for smokers (smoking being prohibited except in designated areas). Transport is easy both from outside and within city. A trolley service(3) connects the convention center to the city facilitating restaurant trips.

Mr. Katze asked about shuttle times. They run 24 hours a day.

Mr. Smookler asked about the weather. It is comparable to Washington DC.

Tim Illingworth asked what the dates of the convention would be. It will be the week before Labor Day.

Deb Geisler spoke on behalf of the bid. The facilities would be similar to those used for Noreascon 3. Hotel negotiations are complete. The average temperature in Boston at that time of year is 76F. The convention would be on Labor Day weekend. The two main hotels connect directly to the convention center. There are 100 restaurants within 1/3 of a mile of the site. The committee is 2/3 from Boston, others from all over the place.

Louis Epstein asked about seating for major events. Ms. Geisler said that the largest theatre seated about 4000 in auditorium style.

Mr. Smookler asked about hotel rates. Ms. Geisler said they would be in the region of $129.

In response to questions about local transit Ms. Geisler said that the Boston subway system is very good, as are the buses. Driving in Boston is survivable, if you have a killer edge.

Rick Kovalcik asked about the distance from the facilities to subway. It is about 100 yards.

3 Committee Reports

3.1 Mark Protection Committee

Mr. Illingworth reported on the election. Donald Eastlake III, Scott Dennis, and Ruth Sachter were elected to three-year terms. The results in detail are as follows.

First Seat

Donald Eastlake III	28	34	45
Scott Dennis	26	27	36
Ruth Sachter	14	20	-
Martin Hoare	13	-	-
Invalid	1	-	-
Total With Preference	82	81	81
Needed To Elect (majority)	42	41	41
No (Further) Preference	-	1	1

Second Seat

Scott Dennis	36	42
Ruth Sachter	23	38
Martin Hoare	22	-
Invalid	1	-
Total With Preference	82	80
Needed To Elect (majority)	42	41
No (Further) Preference	-	2

Third Seat

Ruth Sachter	46
Martin Hoare	34
Invalid	1
Total With Preference	81
Needed To Elect (majority)	41
No (Further) Preference	1

The Chair announced that a meeting of the Mark Protection Committee would take place following the Business Meeting if time allowed.

The Chair moved to destroy the ballots. This passed by unanimous consent.

Minutes and a financial report from the Mark protection Committee were made available to members. It was noted that the Committee had passed a resolution honoring the late Robert Sacks.

3.2 Worldcon reports

Mr. Dashoff noted that the copies of the financial report promised on Saturday were now available.

4 New Business

4.1 Dramatic Presentation Committee

Richard Russell made an appeal for help with backup storage for committee email list.

4.2 New motion

Mr. Smookler presented a motion regarding Constitutional wording associated with the voting fee. The Chair requested and received unanimous consent to refer the motion to the Nit Picking & Fly Specking Committee. Mr. Smookler had not formulated precise wording for the motion and therefore none is recorded here. The matter is expected to be raised in the NP&FS Committee Report at The Millennium Philcon.

4.3 Other Presentations

It is not normal for bids beyond the coming year's race to make presentations at the Sunday Business Meeting. However, some wished to do so and as time remained the Chair asked them to proceed.

Vince Docherty and KIM Campbell made a presentation on behalf of the bid for the UK in 2005. The bid will be for Glasgow. New facilities have been added since 1995 - the so-called "Armadillo". There will be proper meeting rooms, with walls and ceilings. The theatre seats 3000. A new Glasgow Science Centre and IMAX cinema have been built close to site. There is an additional hotel on site and the train service is now working again. John Lorentz & Mark Olson have been added to the list of US agents. Progress Report #-3 is now available. Current pre-support prices are $8 but these will go up to $20 at the end of September. Baby haggis were given out to members.

Mr. Russell asked if university housing would once again be available. He was told that it would.

Alex von Thorn asked how many hotel rooms would be available. The main hotel has 600 beds and the new hotel 520 beds. Prices would be approximately $60 per person per night. A global corkage agreement will be negotiated.

Dates for the convention have not yet been fixed. The UK has a Bank Holiday the weekend before Labor Day. However, the convention could go earlier. The Edinburgh festival runs through all of August.

Mr. Yalow (wearing his SCIFI hat) gave notice of a bid for Los Angeles in 2006. A formal announcement is due to be made at LosCon in November.

Mr. Yalow was asked why the bid was not for a Year of Rat? He said that the date had been chosen based on the pattern of future Worldcons. On facilities he said that the bid was looking at Anaheim once again. The dates would probably be Labor Day weekend.

5 Acknowledgements

The Parliamentarian gave thanks to the Chicon newsletter for help given in printing Business Meeting materials.

The Secretary thanked the Chicon web site for help in publishing agendas. She announced that Business meeting minutes would be available on WSFS web site sometime after the convention.

6 Adjournment

The meeting adjourned in memory of Ross Pavlac at 10:57.

Cheryl Morgan
Emergency Holographic Secretary

Footnotes