Text

Commentary

Group 1: Meetings

Rule 1.1: Meeting and Session.

The Annual Meeting of the World Science Fiction Society shall consist of one or more Preliminary Business Meetings and one or more Main Business Meetings.

The first meeting shall be designated as a Preliminary Business Meeting.

All meetings at a Worldcon (preliminary, main, or otherwise) shall be considered a single "session" as defined in the Parliamentary Authority (see section 5.1 of the WSFS Constitution), regardless of whether such gatherings are called "meetings" or "sessions."

The last sentence clarifies a potential ambiguity in the rules caused by the common practice of interchanging "meeting" and "session." A "session" is the period of time during which business cannot be reintroduced after being dealt with, except under very specific rules. For example, if an amendment to the Constitution was defeated at the Saturday meeting, it would not be in order to re-introduce it as a new item of business at the Sunday meeting. However, the terms "meeting" and "session" are commonly used interchangeably. For a thorough discussion of the distinction between "meeting" and "session," see RONR, § 38 (pp. 82-89). This change makes it clear that all of our meetings at the same Worldcon are the same parliamentary session.

Rule 1.2: Preliminary Business Meeting(s).

The Preliminary Business Meeting may not directly reject, pass, or ratify amendments to the Constitution; however, all motions adhering to a Constitutional amendment are in order if otherwise allowed.

This rule cannot be suspended because it protects the rights of absent members, who might not attend the PBM because they presume the "real" debate is at the Main Meeting.

The Preliminary Business Meeting may not refer a Constitutional amendment to a committee unless the committee’s instructions are to report to the Main Business Meeting.

It is common to refer proposals to committees to perfect wording; such committees generally report back to the main meeting.

The Preliminary Business Meeting may not postpone consideration of a Constitutional amendment beyond the last Preliminary Business Meeting.

The Preliminary Business Meeting may not amend a Constitutional amendment pending ratification.

Added by 2000-08.

The Preliminary Business Meeting may consider any business not expressly forbidden to it by the Standing Rules or expressly reserved to the Main Business Meeting.

Rule 1.3: Main Business Meeting(s).

The Main Business Meeting may reject, pass, or ratify amendments to the Constitution.

The PBM can do almost anything except pass or ratify Constitutional amendments and a few things reserved to the Main Meeting. The Main Meeting can do anything which can properly come before WSFS. The main difference between the PBM and the Main BM is that the PBM cannot directly vote on Constitutional Amendments. Also, site-selection business and elections to the MPC are reserved to the Main BM.

One Main Meeting shall be also be designated as the Site-Selection Meeting, where Site-Selection business shall be the special order of business.

The wording about the site selection business is significant. When something is THE special order of business, it takes priority over everything else in the agenda. In practice, the Main Meeting usually held on Sunday of Worldcon is where the site selection results are formally announced. Because most of the people attending that meeting don’t want to hang around for the actual business but do want to hear the results, we make site selection business THE special order of business so that it comes first. After site selection business is settled, we return to the agenda at the point where we were interrupted.

Rule 1.4: Scheduling of Meetings.

The first Main Meeting shall be scheduled no less than eighteen (18) hours after the conclusion of the last Preliminary Meeting.

Note that it is common practice for the first PBM to be on the second day of the Worldcon, usually starting sometime between 10 am and Noon. (Historically the meeting has been as early as 9 am.) This allows the Podium Staff sufficient time to prepare the agenda. A devious or clueless committee could cause parliamentary havoc by scheduling the first PBM less than two hours after their opening ceremonies, and while there are parliamentary remedies for such problems, there is no need to create the situation in the first place.

No meeting shall be scheduled to begin before 10:00 or after 13:00 local time.

Chicon 2000 scheduled an 8:30am start to the Business Meeting… Added by 2000-07.

Rule 1.5: Smoking.

If smoking is allowed in the place where the Business Meeting is held, the Presiding Officer shall divide the room into smoking and non-smoking sections at the beginning of each meeting.

Group 2: New Business

Rule 2.1: Deadline for Submission of New Business.

The deadline for submission of non-privileged new business to the Business Meeting shall be two (2) hours after the official opening of the Worldcon or eighteen (18) hours before the first Preliminary Meeting, whichever is later.

Even if the Presiding Officer does not want to consider a new item, the meeting can vote to suspend the rules and consider it (2/3 vote required). Note that business arising from a committee report is considered "privileged new business" (a class of business not mentioned in RONR), and is therefore not subject to the time limit.

The Presiding Officer may accept otherwise qualified motions submitted after the deadline, but all such motions shall be placed at the end of the agenda.

Rule 2.2: Requirements for Submission of New Business.

Two hundred (200) identical, legible copies of all proposals for non-privileged new business shall be submitted to the Presiding Officer before the deadline in Rule 2.1 unless such proposals are distributed to the attendees at the Worldcon by the Worldcon Committee.

Some of the terms in this rule may need explanation. The phrase "distributed to the attendees by the Worldcon Committee" has been held to mean that the proposal was included in the Official Papers or as part of the text of the official agenda.

All proposals must be legibly signed by a maker and at least one seconder.

In practice, meetings may wish to entertain new motions without having the 200 copies on hand. The meeting can consider such items by suspending this rule.

Rule 2.3: Short Title.

Any item of new business considered by the Business Meeting shall contain a short title.

In practice, the Secretary assigns short titles to motions that do not include them.

Rule 2.4: Interpretation of Motions.

The Presiding Officer shall reject as out of order any proposal or motion that is obviously illegal or hopelessly incoherent.

In a way, this rule is redundant, for RONR (and parliamentary law generally) says that the chair should do these things; however, so many frivolous items get introduced at WSFS meetings that this rule makes it completely clear to anyone who bothers to read the instructions.

In the absence of the maker of a motion or instructions to the contrary, the Presiding Officer shall be free to interpret the meaning of any motion.

Group 3: Debate Time Limits

Rule 3.1: Main Motions.

The Presiding Officer shall designate the default debate time for main motions.

WSFS practice (with justification in parliamentary law) is that debate time limits are per day. That is, if a motion was limited to eight minutes of debate and was referred to a committee on Saturday after six minutes of debate, when the committee reports back on Sunday, the motion has the full eight minutes back. Amended by 1997-10.

The Business Meeting may, by majority vote, set the initial debate time limit for any motion to any positive whole number of minutes.

Note that the motion to limit/extend limits of debate normally requires a 2/3 vote, and it still does after the initial debate time limit has been set. After the time limit is set, the BM can only change it by the motion to Limit/Extend Limits of Debate. In effect, this rule sets a temporary restriction on Limit/Extend Limits of Debate in limited circumstances.

Rule 3.2: Allotment of Time.

If a question is divided, the time limits applicable to the question before it was divided shall apply to each portion of the divided question.

Debate time shall be allotted equally to each side of a question.

Time spent on points of order or other neutral matters arising from a motion shall be divided equally and charged to each side.

Rule 3.3: Amendments.

Debate on all amendments to main motions shall be limited to five (5) minutes, allotted equally to each side.

Time spent on debate of an amendment shall be charged against the time for the main motion.

Rule 3.4: Motions Allowed After Expiration.

Motions that adhere to the main motion shall not be out of order because of the expiration of debate time, but shall be undebatable.

This makes it explicit that you can still make subsidiary motions after debate time has expired. The National Association of Parliamentarians has a rule that says when the debate-time limit expires, all motions are out of order and the only thing allowed is an immediate vote. While the NAP approach has the virtue of speeding up disposition of business, this wording is consistent with WSFS practice.

Rule 3.5: Minimum Substantive Debate.

If the debate time expires before either or both sides of the question have had an opportunity for substantive debate, any side that has not had such an opportunity shall have two (2) minutes to be used solely for the purpose of substantive debate.

The purpose of the rule is to allow a certain minimum period of substantive debate. Without this rule, the entire debate time could be (and historically has been) used by procedural discussions. Added by 1996-14.

Group 4: Official Papers

Rule 4.1: Indicating Revisions.

The Business Meeting staff shall clearly indicate all changes (including deletions) from the previous year’s version when they provide the Constitution and Standing Rules for publication prior to the following Worldcon.

However, the failure to indicate such changes shall not affect the validity of the documents.

This is a "no harm, no foul" provision.

Rule 4.2: Corrections.

Any correction of fact to the Minutes or to the Constitution or Standing Rules as published should be brought to the attention of the Secretary of the Business Meeting in question and of the next available Business Meeting as soon as they are discovered.

Rule 4.3: Numbers, Titles, References, and Technical Corrections.

Numbers and titles of the various parts of the Constitution and Standing Rules are for the sake of easy reference only.

5. Sections should be arranged in approximately chronological order within articles, as should subsections within sections, and items within lists.

They do not form a substantive part of these documents nor of any motion to amend these documents.

In particular, BM-2000-2 means that the names of the Hugo Awards are part of the Constitution, not "titles".

The Business Meeting Secretary shall incorporate into these documents appropriate changes as required by newly adopted amendments.

When making any such adjustments required by this section, the Business Meeting Secretary shall change article and section numbers, titles, and internal cross-references as necessary to maintain a consistent, parallel structure, which shall not be altered unless the Business Meeting explicitly so directs.

The Business Meeting Secretary may change punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and other wording in the Constitution and Standing Rules only insofar as such changes clarify meaning and enhance consistency, and only insofar as such changes do not modify the substantive meaning of the documents.

Group 5: Rules and Variations

Rule 5.1: Nonstandard Parliamentary Authority.

If a Worldcon Committee adopts for the governance of the Business Meeting a parliamentary authority other than that specified in the Constitution, the Committee must in timely fashion publish information about how to obtain copies of the authority in question.

This rule regulates the constitutional provision that clarifies the order of precedence of WSFS documents and clarifies the authority of an administering Worldcon to declare an alternate parliamentary authority than RONR. The above rule does not directly reference RONR, but instead refers to whatever parliamentary authority is in the constitution.

Rule 5.2: Constitutional and Standing Rule Amendments.

Motions to Amend the Constitution, to Ratify a Constitutional Amendment, and to Amend the Standing Rules shall be considered ordinary main motions, except as otherwise provided in the Standing Rules or Constitution.

Added by 1999-01.

An Objection to Consideration shall not be in order against ratification of a constitutional amendment.

Added by 1999-01.

Rule 5.3: Postpone Indefinitely.

The motion to Postpone Indefinitely shall not be allowed.

Postpone Indefinitely is used under ordinary parliamentary procedure to reopen debate, and sometimes to test a side’s support; WSFS practice frowns on such delaying tactics. Members of WSFS seem to have settled on Objection to Consideration as the preferred method of squashing a motion. However, even after the debate has started, one can still make a motion to Suspend the Rules and Postpone Indefinitely, which requires a 2/3 vote and is not debatable.

Rule 5.4: Amend; Secondary Amendments.

Secondary amendments (amendments to amendments) are not allowed except when the primary amendment is to substitute.

Most people attending the meetings do not realize that constitutional amendments are not "amendments" in the sense of the subsidiary motion amend, but are actually the incidental main motion amend something previously adopted. As a result, these people probably consider what is technically a secondary amendment as a tertiary (third-order) amendment. Third-order amendments are not allowed under any parliamentary authority.

Rule 5.5: Previous Question.

A person speaking to a motion may not immediately offer a motion to close debate. The motion for the Previous Question (also known as the motion "close debate," "call the question," and "vote now") shall not be in order when there is less than one minute of debate time remaining, nor when either or both sides of the debate have yet to speak to a question.

The first sentence prohibits a speaker from ending his/her remarks by attempting to close debate. Such a practice, while not prohibited under RONR, is considered rude by many authorities. The American Institute of Parliamentarians suggests that some societies might want to adopt an even broader version of the first sentence above and prohibit a member from making any undebatable motion at the conclusion of his/her remarks. Amended by 1996-16.

Before voting on the motion for the Previous Question, the Presiding Officer shall, without debate, ask for a show of hands of those persons who still wish to speak to the matter under consideration.

By the way, it is not necessary to close debate if everyone who wishes to speak has had their say. If everyone stays quiet, the Chair will put the question to a vote even if there is debate time remaining. In other words, if you want the debate to end, stop talking.

Rule 5.6: Lay on the Table.

The motion to Lay on the Table shall require a two-thirds (2/3) vote for adoption.

In American English, "to table" means "to set aside temporarily." In British English, "to table" means "to bring up for consideration." Because the same phrase has opposite meanings in American and British English, parliamentarians prefer to use the full technical name "Lay on the Table.". In societies such as WSFS , which meet only once a year, if a matter is laid on the table and not removed before the final adjournment, the matter dies. This motion is rarely used in WSFS. It is sometimes incorrectly used to attempt to kill a motion. The Presiding Officer should rule such attempts as out of order.

Rule 5.7: Adjournment.

The incidental main motion to adjourn sine die shall not be in order until all Special and General Orders have been discharged.

Kevin Standlee would like to call this the "Heinlein Was Wrong" rule because he first encountered the phrase "a motion to adjourn is always in order" in Time Enough For Love. A motion to adjourn sine die ("without date") means "end the current session" and when it passes, any pending business immediately dies. Also, unlike the privileged motion to adjourn, motions to adjourn sine die may not interrupt pending business. (A qualified motion to adjourn is never a privileged motion.) Special orders are Site Selection Business, Elections to the Mark Protection Committee, and any other item established as a special order by a 2/3 vote (postpone and make a special order is a special case of the motion Postpone Definitely). General orders, also known as "privileged business," or "unfinished business" are pending constitutional amendments and other resolutions passed on from a previous Worldcon and anything else postponed and made a general order by a majority vote (postpone and make a general order is a special case of the motion Postpone Definitely). According to Ben Yalow, Committee Reports are considered "Privileged New Business," a class of business not recognized by RONR. It is uncertain whether Committee Reports would be protected by this rule. Naturally, such a rule cannot be suspended, because it protects absent members.

Rule 5.8: Suspension of Rules.

Rules protecting the rights of absentees, including this rule, may not be suspended.

Added by 1996-17.

Group 6: Mark Protection Committee Elections

Rule 6.1: Nominations.

Nominations for election to the Mark Protection Committee shall be allowed from the floor at each Preliminary Business Meeting.

To be listed on the ballot, each nominee must submit to the Secretary of the Business Meeting the nominee’s consent to nomination and the nominee’s current region of residence.

A nominee shall be ineligible if the nominee could not be elected due to the regional residence restrictions.

The deadline for submitting such consent to nomination shall be set by the Secretary.

In practice, the Secretary usually sets a deadline of later the same day, in order to give absent nominees an opportunity to accept nomination. If the meeting does not like the deadline imposed by the Secretary, the meeting can vote to suspend this rule by a 2/3 vote.

Rule 6.2: Elections.

Elections to the Mark Protection Committee shall be a special order of business at a designated Main Business Meeting.

Voting shall be by written preferential ballot with write-in votes allowed.

Votes for write-in candidates who do not submit written consent to nomination and region of residence to the Presiding Officer before the close of balloting shall be ignored.

The ballot shall list each nominee’s name and region of residence.

The first seat filled shall be by normal preferential ballot procedures.

Preferential balloting was not defined by RONR until the 9^th edition. For what RONR has to say about preferential balloting, see pp. 418-421. Ties for the final position are handled in different ways depending on circumstances. If there are as many vacant seats as there are tied candidates and all tied candidates are eligible, then all the tied candidates are elected. If there are fewer tied seats than there are tied candidates or not all tied candidates could be elected simultaneously, then first-place votes are the first tie breaker. In WSFS practice, if there is still a tie, random selection (coin flip or other mutually acceptable method) is used to break the tie. This is not a purely theoretical discussion; there were tied votes on MPC elections in 1991 and 1993.

After a seat is filled, votes for the elected member and for any nominee who is now ineligible due to regional residence restrictions shall be eliminated before conducting the next ballot.

Note that if this rule did not clearly state that each seat must be filled separately, RONR says that you would go through preferential balloting until three candidates remained, and then all three would be elected simultaneously. This might not work for the Mark Committee, inasmuch as the residency requirements might make it impossible for two or three people from the same region to be elected simultaneously

This procedure shall continue until all seats are filled.

Should there be any partial-term vacancies on the committee, the partial-term seat(s) shall be filled after the full-term seats have been filled.

Group 7: Miscellaneous

Rule 7.1: Question Time.

During the Site-Selection Meeting, fifteen (15) minutes of program time shall be allocated to each future seated Worldcon committee.

During the first five (5) minutes, each committee may make such presentations as they wish.

The remaining time shall be allocated for questions to be asked about that committee’s Worldcon.

Questions may be submitted in writing at any previous meeting.

Questions submitted in writing shall have priority over other questions if the person who submitted the question is present and still wishes to ask the question.

No person may ask a second question as long as any person wishes to ask a first question.

Questions are limited to fifteen (15) seconds and responses to two (2) minutes.

If time permits at the Site-Selection Meeting, committees bidding for the right to host any Worldcon whose selection will take place in the next calendar year shall be allocated five (5) minutes of program time to make such presentations as they wish.

The time limits in this rule may be modified by majority vote.

Rule 7.2: Dilatory Actions; Misuse of Inquiries.

The sole purpose of a "point of information" or "parliamentary inquiry" is to ask the Presiding Officer for an opinion of the effect of a motion or for guidance as to the correct procedure to follow.

The Presiding Officer shall treat as dilatory any attempts to circumvent the rules of debate under the guise of points of information, parliamentary inquiries, or other queries and requests.

Rule 7.3: Counted Vote.

The Presiding Officer shall take a counted vote upon the request of ten percent (10%) of those members attending the meeting.

Rule 7.4: Carrying Business Forward.

Motions other than Constitutional amendments awaiting ratification may be carried forward from one year to the next only by being postponed definitely or by being referred to a committee.

RONR does not allow business to be postponed definitely beyond the end of a session in groups like the WSFS Business Meeting. (The BM falls into a group called "groups with sessions less often than a quarterly time interval.") Parliamentary law holds that a session may not tie the hands of future sessions other than through the Constitution and Standing Rules. Postponing an item beyond the following year’s session would tie the hands of the intervening session. Note that the motion "postpone indefinitely" does not actually postpone action forever; it only postpones it through the end of the current session. Postpone indefinitely is highly restricted under WSFS procedures.

Rule 7.5: Continuing Resolutions.

Resolutions of continuing effect ("continuing resolutions") may be repealed or amended by majority vote of subsequent Business Meetings without notice, and shall be automatically repealed or amended by applicable amendments to the Constitution or Standing Rules or by conflicting resolutions passed by subsequent Business Meetings.

Note that under RONR, Continuing Resolutions that conflict with or repeal those from previous years would require a 2/3 vote; WSFS practice has been that new Continuing Resolutions automatically override old ones, and require only a majority vote. Continuing Resolutions are a neglected area of WSFS lore, and were for many years nearly completely forgotten. In recent years, the Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee (a.k.a. the Committee to Compile Resolutions and Rulings of Continuing Effect) has issued an annual report of such Continuing Resolutions and rulings by BM Presiding Officers.

Rule 7.6: Committees.

All committees are authorized to organize themselves in any lawful manner and to adopt rules for the conduct of their business, which may include conducting balloting by mail and limiting debate, subject to any contrary provisions of the Constitution, the Standing Rules, or instructions given to the committee by the Business Meeting.

Rule 7.7: Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee.

The Business Meeting shall appoint a Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee. The Committee shall:

Set up in 1985, and incorporated in the Standing Rules in 2001 (2001-01).

(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 7.8: 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.

Set up in 1988, and incorporated in the Standing Rules in 2001 (2001-01).