2001 Business meeting Minutes: Preliminary Business Meeting
Preliminary Business Meeting
Friday September 1st 2001
Call to Order
The Preliminary WSFS Business Meeting was called to order at 10:10 AM. An attendance sign-up list was distributed. Similar lists were made available at subsequent meetings and a copy of the final list is attached.
1. Committee Reports
1.1. Mark Protection Committee
The scheduled meeting of the Mark Protection Committee (MPC) the previous night proved inquorate. The MPC report was postponed until Saturday. A meeting of the MPC will be held after this Business Meeting session if time is available. Mr. Illingworth, Mr. Standlee & Mr. Yalow are up for re-election. All zones are eligible. Johnny Carruthers nominated all three members for re-election. Mr. Illingworth, who is not at the convention, had previously submitted his willingness to be re-nominated. There being no other nominees, The Chair declared nominations closed. There will need to be a ballot as write ins are allowed.
1.2. Nitpicking & Flyspecking Committee
Kevin Standlee presented the report (see Appendix C).
1.2.1. Short Title: 1776 And All That
Resolved, That Someone Ought To Open Up A Window!
The Chair ruled the motion out of order as dilatory; besides which, the windows to room 103C could not be opened.
1.2.2. Short Title: Committees
Moved, To insert the following new Standing Rules in Group 7:
Rule 7.x: Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee. The Business Meeting shall appoint a Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee. The Committee shall:
(1) Maintain the list of Rulings and Resolutions of Continuing Effect
(2) Codify the Customs and Usages of WSFS and of the Business Meeting.
Rule 7.y: Worldcon Runners’ Guide Editorial Committee. The Business Meeting shall appoint a Worldcon Runners’ Guide Editorial Committee. The Committee shall maintain the Worldcon Runners’ Guide, which shall contain a compilation of the best practices in use among those who run Worldcons.
Ben Yalow raised a Point of Order that he believed the Business Meeting has no right to create committees by resolution. The Chair ruled the Point of Order not well taken, ruling that the Business Meeting could create standing committees of the Business Meeting by standing rule, but could create standing committees of WSFS only by constitutional amendment. There being no objection, the resolution was carried.
1.2.3. Short Title: Continue NP&FSC
Resolved, That the WSFS Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee is continued as previously constituted.
Louis Epstein made an interesting observation. The resolution was adopted without objection.
1.3. Worldcon Runners' Guide Editorial Committee
Saul Jaffe asked to present the report on Saturday. There was no objection to the postponement.
1.4. Hugo Eligibility Rest of the World Committee
Mr. Standlee presented the report (see Appendix D).
1.4.1. Short Title: Throw a Blanket Over It
Moved, To extend for one year, based on limited availability, as authorized by section 3.4, the eligibility of all works that:
1: Would otherwise qualify for a "specific work" 2001 Hugo Award (sections 3.3.1 through 3.3.6 inclusive);
2: Did not receive sufficient nominations to appear on the Final Ballot for the 2001 Hugo Awards;
3: Have not been published in the USA as of 31 January 2001; and
4: Have not previously had their eligibility extended by resolution of WSFS;
William Heaton asked if works had to meet all four criteria. The Chair said yes.
The motion was passed by unanimous consent.
1.4.2. Short Title: We Need Another HEROW
Moved, To continue the Hugo Eligibility for the Rest of the World (HEROW) Committee as previously charged, with a new Chair and members appointed by the Chair of the Business Meeting, and with the Chair of the HEROW Committee authorized to add additional members to the committee.
The resolution was adopted without objection. People interested in serving on the committee were asked to contact the Chair personally, or via Business Meeting mailbox. The composition of the committee will be announced on Sunday.
1.4.3. Short Title: Perpetual Motions
Moved, To amend portions of Article III of the WSFS Constitution to regularize the current practice of extending an extra year of eligibility for the Hugo Award to works first published outside the USA, and to administer this change, as follows:
Delete the final sentence of section 3.2.2:
3.2.2: A work originally appearing in a language other than English shall also be eligible for the year in which it is first issued in English translation. A work, once it has appeared in English, may thus be eligible only once.
Insert the following after existing subsection 3.2.2:
3.2.x:The Business Meeting may by a 3/4 vote provide that works originally published outside the United States of America and first published in the United States of America in the current year shall also be eligible for Hugo Awards given in the following year.
3.2.y:A work shall not be eligible if in a prior year it received sufficient nominations to appear on the final Award ballot.
Tom Beck asked if "published" included media. The Chair said yes.
Richard Russell asked if "a prior year" meant "any prior year". The Chair said yes.
Pat McMurray asked what the purpose of amendment might be. Mr. Standlee explained that it broadens and regularizes current practice.
The Chair set the debate time limit to 12 minutes.
Linda Deneroff asked if this motion affected the need for a further renewal of the HEROW committee. The Chair said that any constitutional amendment needed two years to pass so a HEROW committee would certainly be needed in the coming year should the Business Meeting wish to keep the subject alive during the ratification period.
Mr. Yalow asked if the motion would allow a work that was published outside the USA more than one year earlier than its US publication to get an extension. The Chair said yes.
Perrianne Lurie added that, for example, a work published in French in 2002, translated into English in Australia in 2004, then published in US in 2006, would be eligible three times (in 2003, 2005, and 2007).
Mr. Jaffe, on a Question of Privilege, asked for speakers from the floor to use the microphone provided.
No further debate took place. Discussion was postponed until Saturday, as constitutional amendments cannot be directly voted on at the preliminary meeting.
1.5. Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo Award Study Committee
John Lorentz presented the report (see Appendix E).
Winton Matthews asked what happened regarding treatment of individual episodes. The Chair explained that it is up to administrators as to whether episodes are serialized parts of a long form or individual short works.
Tom Beck asked about 2-hour TV specials. The Chair said that administrators have flexibility and that members should bear in mind that the existence of advertisements meant that two hours is not always two hours running time.
Alex von Thorn asked Mr. Lorentz to summarize discussion on the committee’s email thread. Mr. Lorentz said that would take ages, but he addressed the issue of 2-hour episodes. He said that the committee felt that a 2-hour episode would be about 100 minutes actual running time.
Mr. Jaffe asked about movies re-released on DVD with extra time. The Chair said that was up to the judgement of administrators.
Rick Kovalcik asked the propriety about Disney movies competing against TV shows. The Chair said he considered this a speech against.
Ms. Deneroff asked to whom Hugo would be presented. The Chair said it goes to the works. (This is the current situation with the existing Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo.)
Mr. Yalow asked if the committee had considered whether a director’s cut might be eligible in a different category in a later year. Mr. Lorentz said it was not discussed.
Mr. Russell spoke in favor. He explained that the committee had found vast amounts of ambiguities that could not be eliminated. He felt that the motion is the best that the committee could do, but that it cannot be perfect and that administrators would need to use judgement.
Mr. Matthews asked if the HEROW resolution would be needed to extend eligibility for media productions premiered outside the USA. The Chair said HEROW applies to all Hugos.
Mark Olson spoken against. He said that dividing the categories by time was good, but that 100 minutes was bad because it was right in the middle of the grey area. He felt that the limit should be lower. The Chair explained that it is in order to amend the break point at the current meeting.
Mr. Kovalcik asked if it would be in order to amend to state that anything first released theatrically would automatically be long form. The Chair said yes.
Mr. Carruthers spoke in favor. He said the 100-minute break makes 20% variability easy to calculate.
Ms. Deneroff asked if radio production, etc, were still included in the definition of "dramatic presentation". The Chair said yes.
Don Timm spoke against. He said that additional Hugos should be well justified and he saw no pressing need for this one.
Mr. Yalow moved to amend to change 100 minutes to 70 minutes and to change 20%/20 minutes to 40%/40 minutes. Martin Hoare seconded.
Dr. Lurie moved to divide the question into a length amendment and a variability amendment. This was agreed, so the meeting first took up the matter of the break point.
Mr. Yalow spoke in favor. He wanted the short form to be no longer than a 2-part TV episode. The greater flexibility would still allow 2-hour TV shows to be included.
Dr. Lurie said that big grey zones were bad as they placed too much pressure on administrators.
Chris Barkley spoke against. He said that the committee had carefully considered the 100 minute break.
Mr. M. Olson said that with too much flexibility reasonable people would find it difficult to judge which way things should fall. The category would result in a never-ending series of controversies.
Dan Kimmel (who wished it to be known that he works as a movie critic) said that most movies run closer to 2 hours. 100 minutes was the best value for splitting movies from TV.
Mr. Kovalcik spoke against. More flexibility was necessary, but the time should stay at 100 minutes.
Sharon Sbarsky moved to create a blank with an option of 90 minutes. Gay Ellen Dennett seconded. The motion to create a blank passed on a show of hands. No other alternatives were suggested, so the potential times to fill the blank were 70, 90, and 100 minutes.
Tom Beck spoke in favor of a 90 minute break.
Debate time was now exhausted.
Mr. Kovalcik asked to change the order of the amendments because the amount of flexibility was more important than the break point. He did this by moving to lay the 100-minute to 70-minute amendment on the table. The motion required a 2/3 vote and was approved on a show of hands.
The pending question was now the amendment to strike out "twenty (20) minutes or twenty percent (20%)" and insert "forty (40) minutes or forty percent (40%)".
Mr. M. Olson moved to extend debate by 20 minutes. This was approved on a show of hands.
Margene Bahl spoke against greater flexibility because TV shows might get into the long form category.
Rick Katze offered to provide a breakdown of items that were nominated this year that would fall into each category by Saturday.
Victoria Smith spoke in favour of expanded flexibility on the grounds of vox populi, vox dei.
Seth Breidbart moved to create a two-dimensional blank. (This would have effectively re-split the amendment so that the absolute number of minutes and the percentage were separate questions.) This was defeated 19 for, 37 against on a serpentine count.
Mr. Russell spoke against greater flexibility on the grounds that 20% is the same amount as is allowed for written fiction. He also said that 20% worked well with all works that the committee had studied. Flexibility is to deal with exceptions; it should not be the norm. Worldcon committees should not have the leeway to fundamentally change the nature of the award from year to year. The rules needed sufficient flexibility to keep Disney 70-minute made-for-video movie a movie, but a 2-part TV episode a TV episode.
Beth Morson spoke in favor: "we know it when we see it, even if we can’t define it".
Mr. Carruthers moved to postpone debate and further consideration of the proposal and any amendments adhering to it until Saturday so that the Hugo information promised by Mr. Katze can be presented. This passed: 31 for, 29 against. Debate was postponed. The Chair set a time limit of 20 minutes for the Saturday debate.
2. Worldcon Reports
2.1 Past Worldcons and NASFiCs
2.1.1. ConAdian (1994)
See attached report.
2.1.2. L.A.con III (1996)
See attached report.
2.1.3. LoneStarCon 2 (1997)
In 1999, LoneStarCon 2 made what may have been intended as a Final Report, but it included an entry of "Transfer to ALAMO" of $45,000. The WSFS Constitution requires that "any alternative organizational entity established to oversee and disburse that surplus" also provide reports. It is unclear whether transferring the remaining surplus to ALAMO ends the reporting requirement.
Mr. Standlee asked if WSFS should pursue this.
Kent Bloom said that we should.
Mr. Yalow said we should have acted last year.
The Chair established this as a motion ("That WSFS requests that ALAMO report to the Business Meeting the disposition of the remaining surplus of LoneStarCon 2."), with one speech each way having happened so far. A 10 minute time limit was set.
Mr. M. Olson said that: 1. We want to know where the money is going. 2. We want to know what the money is used for. For example, Magicon tranferred money to FANAC, which is very clear because money is spent on fan history. We want to know what ALAMO will do with the money. It is probably not worth chasing ALAMO at this stage.
Mr. Kovalcik said that we should not let this happen again, but, due to the time lag, we can let the current occurrence lie.
Don Timm said that you don’t go back 15 years, but can go back 1 year.
The Chair suggested that it was the sense of the Business Meeting that we should enquire as to the actual use of the funds. This was passed by a substantial majority.
2.1.4. Bucconeer (1998)
See attached report.
2.1.5. Conucopia (1999 NASFiC)
No report is yet available. Note that Conucopia is not obliged to file a report under WSFS rules, but space has been made available in the agenda should it wish to do so. See also the Business Passed On from Chicon 2000, which includes a Constitutional Amendment requiring NASFiCs to file financial reports in the same way as Worldcons. This amendment, if ratified, would not apply to Conucopia.
2.1.6. Aussiecon Three (1999)
See attached report.
Mr. McMurray asked if Aussiecon Three was closed out. Stephen Boucher said no.
2.1.7. Chicon 2000
A report was received by email this morning but the attachment cannot be read.
2.2. Seated Worldcons
2.2.1. The Millennium Philcon (2001)
One report was received but the numbers did not add up. The convention has promised to present something soon.
2.2.2. ConJosé (2002)
See attached report.
2.2.3. Torcon III (2003)
See attached report.
3. Business Passed On from Chicon 2000
The following Constitutional Amendments were approved at Chicon 2000 and are passed on to The Millennium Philcon for ratification. If ratified, they will become part of the Constitution at the conclusion of The Millennium Philcon.
3.1. Hugo Voting Clarification
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 would clarify that it is the intent of WSFS that balloting for the Hugo Awards is open only to members of WSFS (defined elsewhere in the Constitution as at least the Attending and Supporting members of the current Worldcon), and that balloting is to take place prior to the Worldcon.
Debate limit set to 4 minutes for Saturday.
3.2. NASFiC Reporting
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 would subject all future North American Science Fiction Conventions (NASFiCs) to the same financial requirements imposed on Worldcons, including requiring them to submit annual financial reports to the WSFS Business Meeting. It would not apply to NASFiCs held prior to the ratification of the amendment, even if such conventions still have a remaining surplus.
Debate time limit of 8 minutes set for Saturday.
4. New Business
4.1. Resolutions
Items under this heading may be voted upon and final action taken by the Preliminary Business Meeting.
4.1.1. Hugo Eligibility Extension: The Man on the Ceiling
Moved, To extend for one year the eligibility of The Man on the Ceiling, by Steve Rasnic and Melanie Tem, a novelette published as a chapbook in 2000 by American Fantasy, based on limited availability, as authorized by Section 3.4.
Moved by Perrianne Lurie and Joni Brill Dashoff.
This motion extends eligibility for the Hugo Award; therefore it requires a ¾ vote.
Dr. Lurie spoke in favor. The book was published at the World Fantasy Convention and was sold over the World Wide Web.
Mr. Yalow asked how many copies were printed. Dr. Lurie said under 1000, and not all of them have been sold.
Mr. Yalow spoke against: 1000 is too high to count as limited distribution. World Fantasy Convention has a very high number of potential Hugo nominators attending.
Mr. Breidbart asked for a quick poll to see how many people had heard of the book before hearing of the motion. Dr. Lurie was the only person who had.
George Flynn asked if the book had received any nominations. Mr. Jaffe said that he could not remember any. Dr. Lurie said she had nominated it. Mr. Jaffe said that the number of nominations was probably less than 5.
Mr. Kovalcik said 1000 was a big print run for a book sold through Borders but was small if the work was not widely distributed.
Gary Blog spoke against because it was not certain if more issues would be published.
On a serpentine vote of 21 for, 29 against, the motion failed.
4.2. Standing Rules Amendments
Items under this heading may be voted upon and final action taken by the Preliminary Business Meeting. Standing rules amendments take effect at the conclusion of the 2001 Business Meeting unless given earlier effect by specific provision and a two-thirds vote. In all amendments, new text is shown in underline type and stricken text is shown in strikethru type.
No Standing Rule amendments (other than those contained in the NP&FSC Report earlier) were submitted.
4.3. Constitutional Amendments
Items under this heading have not yet received first passage, and will become part of the constitution only if passed at The Millennium Philcon and ratified at ConJosé. The Preliminary Business Meeting may amend items under this heading, set debate time limits, refer them to committee, and take other action as permitted under the Standing Rules.
4.3.1. Short Title: Scoring More Points
Moved, To amend the WSFS Constitution by adding the following to Article 2:
Section 2.10: Membership Badges. Each Worldcon shall provide each attending member with a name badge containing at least the member’s name and membership number. Pre-registered members’ names shall be printed on the badge in no less than 24-point bold type.
Moved by Bruce Pelz, Mike Glyer, Kathryn Daugherty and Johnny Carruthers.
David Ratti proposed creating a blank for the specification of one or more typefaces. This failed.
Mr. Kovalcik moved object to consideration. The Chair ruled that as an amendment had been moved, and objection to consideration was not in order.
Mr. Russell asked if "member name" included badge name. The Chair said yes.
Mr. Matthews moved to strike "pre-" so that all names will be large.
Rich McAllister said that we want to be able to hand-write badges for walk-ins without falling foul of point size rules.
Mr. Briedbart asked whether "printed on a badge" included "printed on a piece of tape to be stuck to badge included". The Chair said yes.
Mr. McMurray asked if "print" included hand printing. The Chair said yes.
Mr. Kovalcik spoke against. The motion could cause problems for a convention in cases of hardware breakdown. We should not over-legislate.
Lynn Anderson asked if this should just go in Worldcon Runners Guide. The Chair said that the mover of the motion obviously felt that it could not.
John Hawkinson repeated that we should not over-legislate and moved to close debate on the amendment. A 2/3 vote was required and obtained. Debate was closed. The motion passed on show of hands. The word "pre-" was therefore struck.
Returning to the main motion, Mr. M. Olson spoke in favour. Years ago this was discussed. He felt that it should not be necessary, but it is. He asked about the Westercon rule of this type. He yielded the floor to Bruce Pelz who said the Westercon rule doesn’t always work but it helps.
Alexis Layton? Said the motion was too detailed: for example the use of bold type raises potential problems with long names. Mr. Layton moved to strike work "bold".
Leslie Turek said that when doing WFC badges she found that bold makes names too long and that you can get better visibility with non-bold larger font.
Mr. M. Olson said that the less fiddly detail in the motion the better.
Gary Blog said we should give badge designers as much leeway as possible.
The motion to strike "bold" passed on a show of hands.
Mr. Russell moved to amend to strike "attending".
Mr. M. Olson asked if this amendment was germane, as it could be interpreted to require badges to be mailed to supporting members. The Chair ruled the amendment to be germane.
Mr. Russell said that people liked to collect badges, even if they were only supporting members.
Mr. Matthews said that he had never heard of any convention that gave badges to supporting members. There was a chorus of noises from the floor regarding conventions that do.
Mr. McMurray said that the use of "attending" discriminates against people who live far away from the Worldcon.
Mr. Epstein asked if "attending member" meant "member in attendance". The Chair said no, "’attending member’ is defined in the WSFS Constitution".
Mr. Yalow said that the whole thing is a waste of time, we should cease debate.
Mr. Blog said that he was very pleased to get a badge from LoneStarCon 2 even though he was just a supporting member.
Mr Breidbart said that it was a good thing for conventions to mail badges but a bad thing to require them to do so.
Mr Kovalcik said that including a personalized badge may disqualify the mailing from using US Postal Service bulk mail rates.
On a show of hands the amendment to strike "attending" was overwhelmingly defeated.
Mr. Yalow moved to change the motion from a Constitutional Amendment to a sense of the meeting resolution. He wishes to strike up to "membership badges" and replace by "It is the sense of the Business Meeting that…"
Mr. M. Olson asked if the motion could be changed to a Standing Rules amendment. The Chair ruled that the Standing Rules only govern the conduct of the Business Meeting, not the Worldcon, and that therefore an amendment to change the proposal into a Standing Rule amendment would not be in order.
Mr. M. Olson moved to extend debate by 6 minutes. This was passed.
Mr. Yalow said that such rules should not be in the Constitution. They could be a resolution or a standing rule.
Mr. Kovalcik said that name badges are very important
Mr. Bloom spoke in favour. Approximately 50% of Westercons ignore the font size rule.
Mr. M. Olson said that resolutions were not strong enough. The motion needs to be a standing rule. Mr. M. Olson said that no one cares about resolutions of continuing effect.
Mr. Kovalcik said that making the motion a resolution means that we can get rid of it this year and not have to discuss it again next year.
Mr. Breidbart said that you don’t need a constitutional amendment; the members are very good at beating up Worldcon committees.
On the amendment to change the proposal from a constitutional amendment to a sense-of-the-meeting resolution, a serpentine vote produced a count of 29 for, 28 against. The Chair voted against, making the vote a 29-29 tie, so the amendment failed.
Erik Olson moved to amend to strike the last sentence and replace it with "The member name on the badge shall appear in a font equal to or larger than the convention name".
Mr. Kovalcik said "how silly can we get?"
Mr. E. Olson spoke in favor.
Mike Pins said that convention names can be made unobtrusive even if large.
Mr. McMurray said that the rule will concentrate some attention on the badge name issue.
Mr. Yalow said that Worldcons often make the convention name part of a decorative element making its font size difficult to determine.
Debate time was exhausted.
The amendment failed on a show of hands.
Time having expired, further debate was postponed until to Saturday. The Chair set a time limit of 12 minutes.
5. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 11:54 am.