The World Science Fiction Society

Minutes of the Business Meeting 1988

1988 NolaCon II
Preliminary Business Meeting
Friday, September 2nd, 1988 New Orleans Sheraton Hotel

Chairman: Bruce E. Pelz
Parliamentarian: Ben Yalow
Secretary: Elayne F. Pelz

[Scanned and converted by Pat McMurray and Tim Illingworth in December 1999]

The meeting was called to order at 10:15 am. An announcement regarding the hours of site selection was made - Site Selection would be between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m, on both Friday and Saturday.

A sign-up sheet was passed around. See attached. Copies of the agenda were handed out.

The first order of business was a Motion of Censure against the 1987 World Science Fiction Convention -Conspiracy. An Objection to consideration failed and the final wording was:
"Whereas Conspiracy 1987 did not conduct the site selection for the 1990 Worldcon in a manner consistent with the Constitution in that the mail ballot option was not universally available to voters outside of Britain, resolved that they be censured." Signed: Robert E. Sacks, Lance C. Oszko, Andre Lieven, Glen P. Boettcher, Mike Resnick, Mike Glyer.

This was passed and there was discussion on how to get future conventions to handle problems like these properly. Robert Sacks was appointed a committee to cure future mail ballot problems and to report back to the Main Business meeting on Saturday.

The second order of business was Financial Reports of Worldcon Committees. As per the constitution, past and future Worldcons are to give financial reports to the current Business Meeting. Noreascon III (1989) and Confiction (1990) turned in reports. Conspiracy (1987) sent a letter, stating that a preliminary report would be turned in by the end of the weekend. See attached.

The third order of business was to set debate limits on business carried forward from the 1987 Business Meeting. This business was published in the Nolacon II Program Book, pp. 158-160. (Text to be included in Main Business Meeting minutes).

• Item 1: Business Meeting Quorum - 1 minute time limit for debate passed
• Item 2: Question Time - 6 minute time limit for debate passed
• Item 3: Broaden Hugo Nominations - 6 minute time limit for debate passed
• Item 4: NASFiC Selection amendment - 6 minute time limit for debate passed
• Item 5: Availability of Supporting Membership - 10 minute time limit for debate passed
• Item 6 of passed-on Business was the report from the WSFS Mark Registration and Protection Committee. After reviewing its history and members of its staff, the report was given, (see attached), and the following resolution was passed:
  RESOLVED, that every Worldcon Committee is requested to include the following additional notice in each of its publications: "The World Science Fiction Society and the World Science Fiction Convention are not related to 'World SF, The International Association of Science Fiction Professionals'."

A WSFS Constitutional amendment regarding the terms of office for members of the Mark Registration and Protection Committee was put forth and was given a 1 minute time limit for debate (wording in Main Business Meeting minutes). Section 5 of the report was given, which proposed a new standing rule on how the nominations and elections of the Mark Registration and Protection Committee were to be handled. Much discussion, and confusion ensued, which was stopped when the Chairman moved to postpone the wording of the amendment and the actual vote until the Main Business Meeting, when he would propose clearer wording.

The next order of Business was the report of the Special Committee to Codify Business Meeting Resolutions. Donald Eastlake presented the report (see attached). A motion to remove one of the resolutions was postponed until the Main Business Meeting. The Committee will continue next year.

The next order of business was the nominations for Election to the Mark Registration & Protection Committee. The following persons were nominated and accepted the nomination: Ben Yalow (East), Jim Gilpatrick (East), Scott Dennis (Central), Donald Eastlake (East), Rick Katze (East) and Kees van Toorn (non-North America).

After discussion, the WSFS Membership motion was given a 1 minute time limit for debate (wording in the Main Business Meeting minutes).

After discussion, the separation of the NASFiC from the WSFS Constitution was given a six minute time limit for debate (wording in the Main Business Meeting minutes).

After a Special Order of Business was declared, many motions were put forth to change the site-selection rotation plan. A 12 year rotation plan was amended by substitution down to a "no double skipping of Regions" amendment. A four-zone rotation plan was presented as an amendment by substitution after a second similar motion was withdrawn from consideration in favor of the first (all are attached). After much discussion, the four-zone plan was rejected and the "Double Skipping of Regions" proposal was accepted. It was given a 6 minute time limit for debate.

The meeting recessed at 11:56 a.m. until the next day.

Main Business Meeting
Saturday, September 3, 1988 New Orleans Sheraton Hotel

The meeting was called to order at 10:10 arm..

Financial reports were submitted by Nolacon II, Conspiracy and Confederation.

The following are the motions passed on from Conspiracy to Nolacon II which needed to be ratified and what happened to each.

• MOVED, to AMEND Article IV, Section 4: The quorum for the Business Meeting shall be twelve members of the Society physically present. Delete the first two sentences of Standing Rule 18

  PASSED

• MOVED, to insert the following new section to Article IV: Each future selected Worldcon Committee shall designate an official representative to the Business Meeting to answer questions about their Worldcon. Add to Standing Rule 19:
  At the Site Selection Meeting fifteen (15) minutes shall be allotted to each of the future selected Worldcons. During the first five (5) minutes, their representative may make such presentations as they wish. The remaining time shall be available for questions to be asked about the representative's Worldcon. Questions may be submitted in writing at any previous session of the Business Meeting and if so submitted shall have priority (if the submitter is present at Question Time and still wishes to ask the question) except that under no circumstances may a person ask a second question as long as any person wishes to ask their first question. Questions are limited to 15 seconds and answers to two minutes. Any of these time limits may be adjusted for any presentation or question by majority vote.

  PASSED

  An amendment to remove the original "three future worldcons" was accepted and the above was passed.

• MOVED, to AMEND Article II, Section 18 to strike "WSFS member" and insert in the place thereof "member of either the administering or the immediately preceding Worldcon". Add to Article I, Section 4: Within ninety (90) days after a Worldcon, the administering Committee shall, except where prohibited by local law, forward its best information as to the names and postal address of all of its Worldcon members to the Committee of the next Worldcon.

  PASSED

• MOVED to AMEND Article III, Section 4 by replacing the words "no later than the end of the calendar year before voting" with "as set by the administering convention, but no earlier than the close of the corresponding Worldcon voting."
  MOVED to AMEND Article III, Section 6 to strike the words "either by mail or" and "before the calendar year in which selection occurs".

  PASSED

  A motion to split this motion failed.

• MOVED to substitute the following for Article I, Section 5: Members of WSFS who cast a site-selection ballot with the required fee shall be supporting members of the selected Worldcon. The rights of supporting members of a Worldcon include the right to receive all of its generally distributed publications. Voters have the right to convert to attending membership in the selected Worldcon within ninety (90) days of its selection, for an additional fee set by its committee. This fee must not exceed the minimum voting fee and not exceed the difference between the voting fee and the fee for new members. The rights of attending members of a Worldcon include the rights of supporting members plus the right of general attendance at said Worldcon and at the WSFS Business Meeting held thereat. Other memberships and fees shall be at the discretion of the Worldcon committee, except that they shall make provision for persons to become supporting members for no more than l25% of the site-selection fee, or such higher amount as has been approved by the Business Meeting, until a cutoff date no earlier than ninety (90) days before their Worldcon.

  PASSED

  Amendments to this failed and it was passed as written with the proviso that it shall affect only Worldcons after 1991.

• A motion to rescind Resolution BM 78-01 of the Report of the Special Committee to Codify Business Meeting Resolutions was taken up. The text concerns the resolutions to investigate the possibility of the incorporation of the WSFS. After discussion the motion was defeated. The resolution will stay in the listing.

Ballots were collected for the Election of the Mark Registration and Protection Committee members and C. Chapman, T. Harvia and B. Pelz were appointed to count the ballots after the Business Meeting.

• MOVED, to substitute the following for Article I, Section 4: The Membership of WSFS shall consist of all persons for whom timely payment of membership dues has been made to any Worldcon. Membership under this provision may be resigned. Only natural persons who hold attending memberships in the current Worldcon have the right to attend or vote at the Business Meeting at said Worldcon.
  MOVED, to substitute "member of the administering Worldcon" and "members of the administering Worldcon" for "WSFS member" and "WSFS members" in Articles II and III.

  PASSED

• MOVED to amend by adding the following to Article IV:
  Upon adoption and ratification of a separate set of governing documents for the NASFiC, all references to the North American Science Fiction Convention or NASFiC shall be removed from the WSFS Constitution, and the NASFiC mark shall be transferred to the new organization. The governing documents shall be adopted by any Business Meeting for a NASFiC or a Worldcon in North America, and ratified by a Business Meeting for the next NASFiC or the next Worldcon in North America.

  There shall be a NASFiC Separation and Drafting Committee which shall propose a set of governing documents for the NASFiC, together with any other necessary plans to implement the separation of the NASFiC from the WSFS. The Committee shall consist of one (1) member appointed to serve at the pleasure of each future selected NASFiC or Worldcon Committee in North America and each of the Worldcon Committees in North America for the preceding three (3) years, and between three (3) and six (6) members selected from time to time by the Business Meeting of Worldcons in North America. Of the three to six selected members, at least one and at most two may be residing, at the time of selection, in any single North American region, as defined in Article III, Section 5, and at least one shall be a citizen or resident of Canada. If vacancies occur in selected memberships in the committee, the Committee may temporarily fill the vacancies. The Committee shall determine and elect its own officers.

  FAILED

  This generated much debate, but was defeated 57 to 29.

• MOVED to add the following to Article III, Section 6, Sentence 1: unless the North American region which would be skipped was skipped in its last turn in the rotation.

  PASSED

• MOVED to insert in Article IV, Sect ion 5: Newly appointed members take their seats, and the term of office ends for elected and appointed members whose terms expire that year, at the end of the Business Meeting.

  PASSED

• MOVED to replace Standing Rule 3 with: The first seat filled will be filled by normal preferential ballot procedures. That person's votes, as well as votes for any other nominee who has now become ineligible (because a zone's quota is filled) will be eliminated, and the procedures will be restarted from the beginning. This continues until all places are filled.

  PASSED

The next order of business was the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Solving the Problem, which presented this resolution:

RESOLVED that the Business Meeting endorses the proposal that a Worldcon Procedures Guide be created, as discussed in The Mad 3 Party.

PASSED

The committees of the 1989 and 1990 Worldcons were asked to answer any questions by the audience. Mark Olson, Boston, and Kees van Toorn, Holland, made statements and answered questions on their conventions.

A motion was presented to suspend Standing Rule 19 and allow bidders for 1992 make their presentations at this time. Washington, D.C. and Orlando, Fl. both made presentations.

The meeting was recessed at 12:15 p.m. until Sunday, at 10:00 am, when the site selection announcement would be made for the 1991 Worldcon.

Elayne Pelz

September 20, 1989

Site Selection Business Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 10:03 a.m.

The chairman announced the new members of the Mark Registration and Protection Committee:

Kees van Toorn - Holland
Scott Dennis - Central USA
Don Eastlake III - Eastern USA

The chairman announced that Chicago will hold the 1991 Worldcon. The balloting was as follows:

Chicago announced their guests to be:
GoH: Hal Clement
Art: Richard Powers
Editor: Martin Harvey Greenberg
Fans: Jon and Joanie Stopa

The meeting was adjourned at 10:13 a.m.

Elayne Pelz
September 21, 1988

Report to the 1988 WSFS Business Meeting of the Mark Registration and Protection Committee

1. Contributions

   The Committee wishes to express its appreciation to Nolacon II for a contribution of $ 1,800, to ConFiction for a contribution of $ 1,375, and to ConFederation for an additional contribution of $ 1,000. The contributions of Nolacon and ConFiction continue the tradition of contributing $1 per vote in the site selection by which that Worldcon was chosen. The total ConFederation contributions have been what they consider to be an appropriate amount, which has been significantly above this guideline. ConFiction's contribution is under protest due to Conspiracy's problems in getting the site selection voting fees to them.

2. Activities

   During the past year, the application for registration of WORLDCON in the United Kingdom has been refiled due to an error in the original filing and WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION has been registered in the Benelux countries. The registration of our marks in the United Kingdom is still in process. If registration is achieved in the United Kingdom, changes in law to be effective in 1992 may give protection throughout the European Economic Community.

   In addition, the committee has contacted "World SF, The International Association of Science Fiction Professionals" and has requested that they include a disclaimer in their publications, to the effect that they are not associated with the World Science Fiction Society or the World Science Fiction Convention.

3. World SF Resolution

   To reciprocate the above mentioned request to World SF, the committee requests the following resolution be adopted by the Business Meeting:

   RESOLVED, that every Worldcon Committee is requested to include the following additional notice in each of its publications:
   The World Science Fiction Society and the World Science Fiction Convention are not related to "World SF, The International Association of Science Fiction Professionals."
4. WSFS Constitutional Amendment

   To clarify when new members take their seats on the committee, a matter about which some controversy arose last year, the committee recommends the adoption of the following amendment to the WSFS Constitution:

   MOVED, to insert in Article IV, Section 5, the following:
   Newly elected members take their seats, and the term of office ends for elected and appointed members expiring that year, at the end of the Business Meeting.
5. WSFS Standing Rules Amendment

   The current Standing Rules for the Governance of the WSFS Business Meeting give procedures for handling nominations and election to the Mark Registration and Protection Committee that are incorrect because they ignore the zonal restrictions on elected membership now in the Constitution. The committee suggests that the following be adopted to rectify this situation. It is complicated, but that is because the zonal restrictions in the Constitution are complicated to enforce, particularly when you take into account situations that will occur when there are nominees from outside North America, extra vacancies on the Committee due to resignation, death, etc. Since the required procedures are inherently complicated, in the general case, it seems best to have each Business Meeting figure out something that will work and write it down once rather than staff have to figure it out each year.

   MOVED to replace Standing Rule 3 with the following:
   (a) Nominations from the floor for election to the Mark Registration and Protection Committee shall be allowed at each Preliminary Business .Meeting. To be listed on the ballot, a nominee must, before the end of the last Preliminary Business Meeting, submit to the Presiding Officer, in writing, their consent and place of residence.
   (b) Elections to the Committee shall be a special order of business at a Main Business Meeting. Voting shall be by preferential ballot with write-ins allowed. Write-in candidates who do not submit their written consent and place of residence before the ballots are collected shall be ignored. The ballot shall list, with each nominee, their place of residence and shall omit all nominees who can not be elected due to the zonal residence restrictions in the Constitution. In interpreting said zonal residence restrictions, a member of the Committee shall represent their zone of residence at the time of their election for their entire 3 year term, i.e., the phrase "at the time of election" in the Constitution means "at the time at which they were elected".
   (c) All vacancies for elected memberships in the Committee shall be filled by one sequence of preferential eliminations divided into two stages. During the first stage the ballots shall be grouped into four categories based on the highest remaining candidate on each ballot, one category for each zone and one for outside North America; within each category, those with fewer votes shall be eliminated until there are as many candidates left who reside in each zone as the maximum number that could be elected from that zone and no more candidates left residing outside of North America than the total number of vacancies. If the number of candidates remaining after this first stage exceeds the number of vacancies, the elimination process shall proceed to the second stage, where the remaining candidates with fewest votes shall be successively eliminated regardless of residence until the number of candidates remaining is reduced to the number of vacancies. During both stages, invalid candidates shall be automatically eliminated and, of tied candidates, the candidate most recently having fewer votes during earlier eliminations shall be eliminated or, if the tie has existed at all earlier eliminations, one of the tied candidates shall be eliminated by lot.
6. Finances

   The financial report of the committee will be submitted as a supplement to this report

7. Membership

   A list of the committee membership for the past year is attached

Donald E. Eastlake, III
Chairman, Mark Registration and Protection Committee

Financial Report to the membership of the WSFS Mark Registration and Protection Committee

Bank Account balance at the end of ConSpiracy 640.6 8

Contributions received:
from ConFederation 1000.00
from Nolacon II 1683.00

Payments made:
to Marks and Clerk re British trademark filing 1432.42
To Jim Gilpatrick expenses reimbursement 10.92

Bank Account Balance at the beginning of Nolacon: 2071.26

Contribution received, not yet deposited:
ConFiction 1375.00

Available Funds, 3 September 1988 3446.26

Scott C. Dennis

Short Title: WSFS Membership

MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution as follows:

(1) substitute the following for Article I, Section 4:

The Membership of WSFS shall consist of all persons for whom timely payment of membership dues has been made to any Worldcon. Only natural persons who hold attending membership in the current Worldcon have the right to attend or vote at the Business Meeting held at said Worldcon.

(2) substitute "member of the administering Worldcon" and "members of the administering Worldcon" for "WSFS member" and "WSFS members" in Articles II and III.

Moved by Donald E. Eastlake, III
Seconded by Rick Katze

The current provision in the WSFS Constitution provides that the membership shall only be those who have paid dues for the current Worldcon. This does not make much sense with the three year lead time in site selection projecting into the future and with past Worldcons required to make financial reports up to two years after their con. Since WSFS is an unincorporated association, WSFS only exists as its members and a broad membership in WSFS avoids a number of procedural difficulties. Rather than trying to pick an exact time bracket, it seems simpler and shorter to just make everyone who ever paid dues to any Worldcon a member of WSFS.

This amendment has no net effect on who can nominate or vote for the Hugo Award or who can vote on site selection.

It also makes it crystal clear who can attend the Business Meeting. The many persons who would be added to WSFS "membership" by the first part of this amendment are specifically denied the right to attend or vote at the Business Meeting unless they are also an attending member of the Worldcon at which the Business Meeting is held.

Separation of the NASFiC

Whereas the presence of the North American Science Fiction Convention or NASFiC in the WSFS Constitution is a source of controversy, and

Whereas no other local, regional, national, or continental convention is regulated in the WSFS Constitution,

Therefore, be it resolved

TO AMEND THE WSFS CONSTITUTION by adding two sections to Article IV:

"Upon the adoption and ratification of a separate set of governing documents for the NASFiC, all references to the North American Science Fiction Convention or NASFiC shall be removed from the WSFS Constitution, and the NASFiC mark shall be transferred to the new organization. The governing documents shall be adopted by any Business Meeting for a NASFiC or a Worldcon in North America, and ratified by a Business Meeting for the next NASFiC or the next Worldcon in North America."

There shall be a NASFiC Separation and Drafting Committee which shall propose a set of governing documents for the NASFiC, together with any other necessary plans to implement the separation of the NASFiC from the WSFS. The Committee shall consist of one (1) member appointed to serve at the pleasure of each future selected NASFiC or Worldcon Committee in North America and each of the Worldcon Committees in North America for the preceding three (3) years, and between three (3) and six (6) members selected from time to time by the Business Meeting of Worldcons in North America. Of the three to six selected members, at least one and at most two may be residing, at the time of selection, in any single North American region, as defined in Article III, Section 5, and at least one shall be a citizen or resident of Canada. If vacancies occur in selected memberships in the committee, the Committee may temporarily fill the vacancies. The Committee shall determine and elect its own officers.

Robert E Sacks
Bruce ??

Short Title: Four Zone Rotation

• To amend Article 3 of the WSFS Constitution as follows:
  1. Australia, New Zealand and Japan shall be added to the Western Zone. A NASFiC shall be held in the Western Zone in North America when a trans-Pacific Western Zone Worldcon is held.
  2. Europe (including Iceland, the British Isles, Turkey, and European Russia) shall form a fourth rotation zone. Rotation is Western, Central, European, Eastern. A NASFiC may be held anywhere in North America when the European Zone is scheduled to hold a Worldcon.

  This amendment will not serve to invalidate any existing bid.

  Robert E Sacks
  ??

• Moved, to amend Article III, Section 6 of the WSFS Constitution by replacing the first sentence with the following:
  "Every four years, starting in 1995, the North American region for that year's Worldcon is pre-empted, in order to allow the selection of a worldcon site outside of North America. Only if no non-North American bids qualify to be on the ballot will qualified bids from the pre-empted region be accepted."

  Moved by Gavin Claypool
  Seconded by R Laurraine Tutihasi

• MOVED to amend Article III of the WSFS Constitution by:
  1. Deleting the first sentence of Section 6 (allowing any non-North-American site to bid in any year); and
  2. Replacing the present Section 5 with the following:

  To promote the accessibility of the Worldcon to all fans, and to encourage bids by reducing the element of chance, sites are divided into four (4) regions, as follows (islands, ocean areas and Antarctic sites are in the same region as the continental sites with. which they are most naturally associated):
  (1) Pacific: Baja California, Arizona and New Mexico, and states, provinces and territorial districts to their north and west, Australasia, and Asia excluding the Middle East.
  (2) Central: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and states, provinces and territorial districts to their north; and Mexico (except for Baja California) and Central and South America.
  (3) Atlantic: Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and sites not in any other region.
  (4) Eastern: Florida, and states, provinces and territorial districts to its north and east.

  The WorldCon shall be held in the first region above (Pacific) in 1993, and shall rotate sequentially through the regions in the order listed; PROVIDED THAT the WorldCon may be held any year at any site, if there has been no WorldCon within five thousand (5000) kilometers of that site in the preceding ten (10) years; and PROVIDED THAT the following bids active when this amendment was enacted shall be permitted to bid in their declared years, as if they were in the appropriate regions for those years: Perth in 1994.

  Maker of motion: Erwin Strauss,

  Seconder: Lloyd Penney

  [Note that there are both maps and a very detailed specification of these proposed zones attached to this motion, neither of which scanned very well. – Pat McMurray 29 December 1999]