The World Science Fiction Society

Noreascon Treasurer's Report as of June 30, 1990

ASSETS

Current Assets Current Total
Cash in Framingham Savings Bank 8706.28
Cash in Bulk Mailing account 137.28
Cash in ConFiction account 16.60
Cash in Australian account 182.26 (1)
Cash in Canadian account 9722,28 (1)
Cash in Dutch account 886.44 (1)
Cash in Bank of Boston 26792.21
Cash in Noreascon Cash Bank 2033.26
Advance accounts (aggregate):
personal advances +2,988.93
NESFA +20298.94
Net advances 23,287.87
Capital Equipment 6143.72
(Depreciation 7162.23)

Total Assets 77908.20

Note 1. Subject to change due to currency conversion

NET WORTH TOTAL (since 1986)
General N3 Income 17918.70
Membership Income (2) 388835.38
Art Show Fees (3) 23229.50
Artists’ Income and taxes (remaining undisbursed) 3319.08
Mad 3 Party Income 4310.00
Dealer Income 32012.50
Over/Under Account +862.75
Program Book Income 8390.00
Donation Income 1111.00
Closed Income (Progress Reports 1 through 7) 4296.00
Brunch Banquet, Party Supplies and Comped Room Income 32030.05
Sales to Members and Taxes 37440.10

Total Income 553755.06

Administration/General/Officers’ Division Expenses
General 65376.05
Staff Reimbursements 4119.98
ConFiction 434.31
Magicon 0.00
Extravaganzas Division Expenses:
General 98721.59
Louis Wu’s Birthday Party 3637.25
Facilities Division Expenses 149688.45
Hynes 89 Division Expenses 58923.98
Program Division Expenses 10624.89
Services Division Expenses 74161.28
WSFS and Art Show Division Expenses
WSFS Expense 3169.48
Art Show Expense 6989.60

Total Expenses 475846.86

Note 2. Income reduced by membership refunds.

Note 3. Income reduced by payments to artists

Saturday, Aug. 25, 1990.

The meeting was called to order at 10:03 A.M. Mr. Katze was late so the Chair appointed Judy Bemis as timekeeper pro tem.

Business Passed On from Noreascon III:

• ITEM 1 No discussion. The question was called, and the amendment was ratified many-few.
• ITEM 2 Mr. Standlee moved to strike the second half ("In the event of a surplus..." to the end). Over Mr. Sacks' point of order, the Parliamentarian ruled that this would create a lesser change and was thus a permissible amendment. Mr Standlee’s amendment failed, few-many. -- The word "filled" (Souvenir Book, p. 137) was corrected to "filed". -- (At 10:12 Mr. Katze arrived.) The amendment was ratified, many-few.
• ITEM 3 An amendment was proposed to change "December 31st of the previous calendar year" to "January 31st of the same calendar year". This was ruled to be a lesser change and was passed. -- The amendment as amended was ratified many-few. [The Secretary subsequently changed "same calendar year" to "current calendar year" for clarity.]
• ITEM 4 Mr. Berry moved to change the default voting fee from $20 to $15; this was ruled out of order, as constituting a greater change. The amendment was ratified, many-few.

[Items 1 through 4, having been passed by two consecutive Business Meetings, are now part of the WSFS Constitution.]

Committee Report (out of order)

Mr. Hillis orally delivered a supplement to the Mark Registration and Protection Committee report (q.v.): Work is also being done on Canadian registration; this involves a problem as to whether WSFS is a "society" or an "association" under Canadian law. -- He also promised that Mr. Dennis would file a financial report; this was done, and the report is included here:

Financial Report, Mark Registration Committee

Balance close of Noreascon III 3910.84
Check to Don Eastlake, office expenses 128.54
Check to Attorneys, US filing expenses 2200.00
Balance opening of ConFiction, 1582.30
All amounts are in US$

The committee will soon be paying $980.00 to our British Patent Attorneys for UK filings. We anticipate contributions will be received this year from Noreascon III. We hope to limit expenses in Canada by doing some of the filings ourselves.

Submitted by Scott Dennis, 25 August 1990

New Business Submitted to ConFiction:

• ITEM 5 Mr. Standlee moved to extend debate time by 5 minutes; defeated. -- The four-year lead time amendment failed, 23-26. -- Mr. Sacks proposed a committee to study the site-selection lead-time problem; the Chair expressed his belief that a committee wouldn’t help.
• ITEM 7. -- Mr. Katze (1990 Hugo Administrator) read letters of endorsement from Don Maitz, David Cherry, and David Lee Anderson. He reported that the best-artwork category received the lowest number of votes on the nominating ballot, but was somewhere in the middle on the final ballot. -- It was ruled that a new cover on a previously-published book would be eligible. -- Mr. Russell moved to strike the last two sentences (beginning "It may have...") - passed many-few. -- A change of "piece of artwork" to "piece of science fiction or fantasy work" was accepted by all. -- Mr. Sacks proposed inserting "and distributed" after "published". This was ruled out of order, time having expired; Mr. Sacks appealed, then withdrew his appeal; a motion to extend debate time by 5 minutes was then passed. Mr. Sacks attempted to change his amendment’s wording to "distributed in a literary form", but this was not accepted by the seconders. Mr. Katze pointed out that "published and distributed" would exclude 3-D art. Mr. Sacks’ amendment failed.

  At this point the Chair requested 3 minutes to informally explore the meeting’s wishes. He thereby ascertained that the meeting wished to have such an award; that they did not want it limited to 2-D art; and they did not want to restrict the manner of the art’s appearance. -- Mr. Sacks objected forcefully to the manner in which the Chair stated these questions. The Chair threatened to eject Mr. Sacks. Mr. Sacks accused the podium staff of being biased. The Chair apologized to Mr. Sacks for his threat. The Secretary was requested to summarize these statements in the minutes.

  The motion as amended was then passed, 40-10, with the proposed new section as follows:

  Best Original Artwork: Any original piece of science fiction or fantasy artwork first published during the previous calendar year.

• ITEM 8A (Master of SF and Fantasy). Mr. Russell moved to strike "or if they are ...awards.": failed overwhelmingly. -- Ms. Bemis moved to delete "or closely associated team of individuals": failed. Someone moved to strike "professional": failed. It was ruled that the award would not be limited to living people. The amendment failed, 21-29.
• ITEM 8B (Secret Master of Fandom). Mr. Dashoff moved the previous question, which passed. The amendment failed, 9-many.
• ITEM 9 It was ruled that all the costs of such an examination would have to be paid by the enquirer. Mr. Fine moved the previous question, which passed. The amendment passed, 30-20.
• ITEM 10 The committee submitted the following new text:
  MOVED, to insert a new section in Article III.
  Only human beings shall be allowed to cast site-selection ballots for other than "No Preference", and no individual shall cast more than one such ballot. (this shall not be interpreted to delivery of ballots cast by other eligible voters.) "No Preference" ballots may be cast by corporations, associations, and other non-human or artificial entities. "Guest of" memberships must be transferred to individual human beings before being cast for other than "No Preference", with such transfers accepted by the administering convention

  It was ruled that the amendment would apply only to site selection, not to Hugo voting. -- Mr. Russell moved to postpone consideration: failed. -- Default time limit, 20 minutes; no other value was proposed. -- Mr. Bloom proposed replacing both appearances of "human beings" by "natural persons": accepted. -- Mr. Hoare noted that British law requires that corporations have full voting rights; it was ruled that the provisions of the amendment would apply (as always) to the extent permitted by civil law. -- The question was called, and the amendment, as amended, passed 41-10.

Mr. Standlee moved to adjourn: passed overwhelmingly at 11:47 A.M. -- 47 people other than the officers signed Saturday’s attendance list.

Sunday, Aug. 26. 1990

The meeting was called to order at 10:02 A.M. -- 74 people other than the officers signed Sunday’s attendance list.

SITE SELECTION (special order of business)

Roelof Goudriaan reported the results of the site-selection voting for the 1993 Worldcon:

Total mail-in ballots: 329
Total at-con ballots: 759
Total ballots cast: 1088

San Francisco was thus the winner. The committee distributed Progress Report 0, and Terry Biffel gave a brief report, listing the Guests of Honor. -- Of the losing bids: Zagreb had no statement, Hawaii released balloons ("The bid is dead; Long live the bid!"). For Phoenix, Mr. Berry stated that they would not protest the pink ballots [the ballots distributed by Hawaii with a vote for Hawaii already written in], but strongly urged the meeting to reevaluate the role of write-ins in the voting process. ("I hope you get what you voted for.")

• ITEM 11, election of new members to the Mark Registration and Protection Committee. Ballots were distributed and collected. Mr. Standlee moved to let the tellers report after the meeting adjourned: no objection. The tellers subsequently appointed were Ben Yalow, Sharon Sbarsky, and John Sapienza. The results were as follows:

  1st place
  Bloom	6	6	6
  Feldbaum	10	10	11	12	12	12	14
  Fine	13	13	13	16	19	22	25	29	35
  Francis	13	13	13	14	15	15	19	25	32
  Gross	1
  Hillis	8	9	9	10	10	12	14	18
  Hoare	6	6	6	6
  Katze	9	9	10	10	11	11
  Miller	8	8	8	8	8
  Ward	2	2
  (3 invalid ballots, 1 invalid candidate) (write-ins omitted here)

  2nd place
  Bloom	7	7
  Feldbaum	10	11	12	13	18	21
  Francis	15	15	18	18	18	25	35
  Gross	1
  Hillis	8	9	10	12
  Hoare	13	13	14	16	20	24	33
  Katze	12	13	13	14	16
  Miller	8	8	9
  Ward	2

  3rd place
  Bloom	17	17	17	18	25	33
  Feldbaum	10	12	13	18	20
  Gross	2
  Hillis	8	9	11
  Hoare	15	16	17	20	23	30
  Katze	12	13	14	16
  Miller	9	9
  Ward	3

  Colin Fine, Sue Francis, and Kent Bloom were thus elected to the committee. Sasha Miller was later appointed as the San Francisco representative.-- At the committee's later meeting, Donald Eastlake III was elected President and secretary, Scott Dennis as treasurer.

• ITEM 12A -- The Parliamentarian ruled that this would make no substantive difference. The amendment passed many-few.
• ITEM 12B -- The Parliamentarian said that this would have no effect, since we can never act counter to local law. The amendment failed few-many.
• ITEM 12C -- The Parliamentarian ruled that this would have a substantial effect, since there would be no means of knowing what awards are referred to. -- The amendment failed 1-many.
• ITEM 12D -- The Parliamentarian ruled that this would have no effect, but might be confusing. -- Mr. Standlee moved to insert "by a simple majority" after the words "passed" and "ratified": passed unanimously. -- The amendment as amended passed many-few.

[Items 7, 9, 10, 12A and 12D have been given first passage, and will become part of the WSFS Constitution if ratified at Chicon.]

The following new item, with the short title "Technical Correction: Foreign Language Transactions", was submitted by Robert Sacks, Colin Fine, Judith Bemis, and Richard Spellman:

MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution, Article II, Section 2, by changing in the second sentence "in the year" to "for the year".

The Chair ruled that this could be accepted as a housekeeping change and that there was no need to ratify it.

Other Business:

Mr. Standlee moved to amend Standing Rule 1 by changing "meeting" to "session" and "Annual Meeting" to "Annual Session". An objection to consideration was made, and prevailed by a vote of 41 (plus a t/e/d/d/y/ b/e/a/r/ Hoka) to 12.

QUESTION TIME: Chicon V had no presentation, but noted that their financial report appeared in their Progress Report. Magicon had no presentation, but turned in their financial report, which appears below. Confrancisco had no further presentation, and received no questions.

WORLDCON REPORTS: Noreascon III’s financial report appears earlier. ConFiction’s finances are in flux. See above for Chicon V. Magicon’s financial report is as follows:

Income to July 31, 1990 90104.94
(primarily from voting fees and memberships)
Expenses to July 31, 1990 16703.62
Current Balance in all accounts 73401.32

A more complete balance sheet will be made available in the near future.

Current attendance figures as of 20 Aug 1990:
Attending Members: 2128
Child Admissions: 73
Kid-In-Tow Admissions: 4
Named Convention Guests: 7
Supporting Members: 217
2429
JoeD Siclari, Co-Chairman
Judith C Bemis, Finance Div. Manager

1994 BIDDERS: Louisville and Winnipeg both invited people to come to their bidding tables, but had no other presentations. (A motion to thank them was made and passed.) -- In response to Mr. Berry’s concern, it was announced that Chicon and the bidders planned to reach a consensus on the question of write-in ballots.

Mr. Sacks moved to adjourn sine die: -- passed unanimously at 10:47 A.M.

According to the attendance lists, the following people attended one or more sessions of the Business Meeting: Margaret Austin, Judith Bemis, David Berry, Terry Berry, Richard Bertelsen, Terry Biffel, Kent Bloom, Alex Boster, Ann Broomhead, Jeff Canfield, Gavin Claypool, Chris Cooper, Andy Croft, Joni Brill Dashoff, Todd Dashoff, Jane Dennis, Scott Dennis, Paul Dormer, Chris Logan Edwards, Louis Epstein, Moshe Feder, Gary Feldbaum, Colin Fine, George Flynn, Janice Foss, Richard Foss, Steve Francis, Sue Francis, Doug Friauf, Penny Frierson, Mike Glyer, Jean Goddin, Peter Grace, Liz Gross, Eric Hanson, Bob Hillis, Martin Hoare, Tim Illingworth, Saul Jaffe, M.J. Jewell, Rick Katze, Morris Keesan, Deborah King, Russel Klop, Evelyn Leeper, Gary Louie, Perrianne Lurie, J.R. Madden, John Maizels, Jurgen Marzi, Charles Matheny, Kathleen Meyer, Ben Miller, Sasha Miller, A.N.G. Mittenshaw-Hodge, Judith Morman, Mary Morman, Fuzzy Niven, Gene Olmsted, Chris O'Shea II, Tony Parker, R. Parkins, Arwel Parry, Sara Paul, Peggy Rae Pavlat, Bruce Pelz, John Pomeranz, Theresa Renner, Gary Robe, Linda Ross-Mansfield, Richard Russell, Robert Sacks, M. Sandberg, Sharon Sbarsky, Mike Scott, Joe Siclari, Fran Skene, Dick Smith, Leah

[The page with the remainder of the names is missing from my copy of the minutes. TI.]

Report to the 1990 WSFS Business Meeting of the Mark Registration and Protection Committee

1. US Registration

   All of the WSFS marks that are registered in the US, except for "NASFiC" which comes up next year, have had the five year affidavits of continuing use filed. Thus they have all achieved "incontestable" status, which really just means that are very difficult to contest.

2. UK Registration

   The effort to register the marks, except for "NASFiC", in the United Kingdom is progressing. The UK Registrar has raised various objections to various of the marks, most of which have been overcome by providing additional information or by minor changes in the working of the services claimed. For example, they wanted to know something about the gross revenue of Worldcons held in the UK to be convinced they were really noticeable business activities.

   It now appears that "WSFS" and "WORLDCON" will be registerable only in Part B of the UK Register, which affords slightly less protection. This is because they will not give marks consisting of four or fewer non-distinctive letters full registration and because WORLDCON is considered descriptive of running world wide conventions.

   Because of multiple communications with the UK Registrar required, it looks like it will end up costing a little under $500 a mark to get to the point where they can finally be registered.

3. Finances

   A separate financial report will be filed but it should be noted that the surplus which the committee has had for a couple of years will be more than exhausted by the US re-registration and the UK registration efforts.

4. Membership

   A list of the committee membership is on the reverse hereof.

Donald E. Eastlake, Ill
Secretary, Mark Registration and Protection Committee

89/90 Chairman:
Robert L. Hillis (elected through 1990)

89/90 Secretary:
Donald E. Eastlake, III (elected through 1991)

89/90 Treasurer:
Scott Dennis (elected through 1991)

Other Members:

Jim Gilpatrick ( appointed by Nolacon 2 through 1990)

Liz Gross (elected through 1990)

Tim Illingworth, (elected through 1992)

Morris Keesan (appointed by ConFiction through 1992)

Sean M. McCoy (appointed by ConDiego through 1992)

Ross Pavlac (appointed by Chicon V through 1993)

Bruce Pelz (elected through 1992)

Fran Skene (elected through 1992)

Kees van Toorn (elected through 1991)

Leslie J. Turek (elected through 1990):

Tom Veal (appointed by MagiCon through h 1993)

Benjamin Yalow (appointed by Noreascon 3 through 1991):

Report of the WSFS Resolution and Rulings of Continuing Effect Compilation Committee

Background

The WSFS Mark Registration and Protection Committee (then called the Standing Committee), at a meeting held at the 1984 Worldcon, voted unanimously to produce a compilation of the resolutions and rulings of continuing effect that have been adopted at WSFS Business Meetings. When the matter was brought up the following year at the 1985 WSFS Business Meeting, the assembly, however, voted to give this task to a special committee consisting of a named individual who was not present and was never formally notified. At the 1986 WSFS Business Meeting, the assembly then voted to give this task to a special committee appointed by the chair to report back to the 1987 Business Meeting. The committee has presented reports to the 1987 and all subsequent Business Meetings at each of which it has been continued. This is its fourth report and covers 1976 through 1989.

Contents

This compilation consists of resolutions adopted by the WSFS Business Meeting that declare some policy or rule and are of indefinite effect along with rulings and directives by the chair that are either similar to such resolutions or seem as if they might be useful precedents. Business Meeting actions are indicated by the letters BM and rulings or directives of the chair by CH.

The following were excluded:
1) Anything which has become incorporated in an amendment to the WSFS Constitution or the Standing Rules for the Governance of the WSFS Business Meeting.
2) Any resolutions of praise or censure.
3) Anything which has subsequently been reversed, repealed, or annulled by the adoption of a contrary resolution or ruling.
4) Any resolution or portion thereof which, although initially of indefinite effect, has been fully executed or otherwise expired or become inoperative.

In addition, the text of the resolutions and ruling has been updated to reflect changes in the Constitution and Standing Rules. Rulings by the chair have in some cases been generalized to avoid naming particular individuals or organizations

Sources

This material was compiled from the written minutes of the 1978 through 1988 WSFS Business Meetings (excluding 1979 for which minutes are not available) and from notes provided by Bob Hillis, after consultation with Larry Smith, concerning the 1976 and 1977 Business Meetings. These minutes and notes vary considerably in style and completeness which influences the amount and type of material for each year in this compilation.

Recommendations

The committee believes that this compilation task should continue so as to include material from this 1990 Business Meeting and from Business Meetings before 1976, if only as a compendium of the expressed sentiments of the Society. It therefore recommends the following motion:

Short Title: Rules Compilation Committee Continuation
RESOLVED, That the committee to compile WSFS Resolutions and Rulings of Continuing Effect is continued and directed to report to the 1991 Business Meeting.

In addition, while going over the Constitution with regard to the effects of or conflicts with various standing rules, the committee has noticed some fat in the Constitution. Therefore, although perhaps not strictly within the mandate of the committee, it wishes, with the consent of the assembly, to introduce the following motion:

Short Title: Liposuction Amendment

RESOLVED, That the Constitution of the World Science Fiction Society be amended as follows:
1. Replace all occurrences of "Mark Registration and Protection Committee" with "Mark Protection Committee".
2. In Article I, Section 4, delete "except where prohibited by local law".
3. Delete Article II, Section 1.
4. Replace Article IV, Section 1, with the following: "The WSFS Constitution may be amended by a motion passed at any Business Meeting but only to the extent that such motion is ratified at the Business Meeting of the subsequent Worldcon."

Comments:

1. Registration is merely one type of protection. By making the committee name less redundant this will save 14 words. (The committee name occurs seven times in the Constitution.)

   2: The deleted qualification is superfluous. Local law would always prevail over the WSFS Constitution, at least as far as a local Worldcon was concerned. It was originally adopted because it was thought that British law concerning computerized data might prohibit transfer of this information to the subsequent Worldcon. However, as is usually the case, British law specifically exempts printed data (unless the data is printed for the purpose of re-entering it in a computer system), which is all that would be needed. Saves 6 words.

2. This section adds nothing to the meaning of the Constitution. Deleting it saves 23 words and one entire section.
3. The current wording of this section is in a highly redundant style which tries to say the same thing several different way and to include various rules of procedure in the Constitution on the theory that no one knows or can refer to Robert's Rules. The result is generally complicated and confusing. All the current text about "majority" and those "present and voting" for example, is unnecessary as these are the default under Robert's Rules. Saves 48 words.

Note: Some of these changes will produce further savings in the Standing Rules.

Donald E. Eastlake, III