Tag Archives: Kent Bloom

CoNZealand Business Meeting Plan

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CoNZealand Business Meeting Presiding Officer Kent Bloom has explained how this year’s WSFS Business Meeting will be handled, one of the events that can’t be shifted online.

CoNZealand, the 78th World Science Fiction Convention, announces that the Business Meeting of the World Science Fiction Society will be held in the CBD of Wellington, NZ, at 10 am on Saturday, August 1st, 2020 (exact location to be announced when finalised). Darusha Wehm has agreed to be Acting Presiding Officer for the meeting.

Because of travel and meeting restrictions imposed by the Government of New Zealand due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, many members of WSFS will be unable to be present in Wellington. We plan to have a very minimal meeting to satisfy the requirements of the World Science Fiction Society Constitution. We plan to take only actions which are time-constrained to the 2020 meeting, specifically extensions of eligibility for Hugo Awards under Section3.4.3 of the WSFS Constitution.

All business, including committee reports and financial statements, must be submitted to CoNZealand on or before July 2nd, 2020 and should be submitted to [email protected]. We encourage members to submit business to the DisCon III business meeting ([email protected]) instead of the CoNZealand meeting, as we plan to defer all business to 2021, when we hope more members of WSFS will be able to attend.

None of the sections of the WSFS Constitution requiring re-ratification fall due in 2020. They come up in 2021 or 2022 —

  • 2021: (3.3.18) Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book; (3.81) Tallying of Nominations [the provision for six finalists]; (3.8.3) provides that only the version of a series which received the most nominations can be a Best Series finalist
  • 2022: (3.9.4) provides after the initial Award ballot is generated, if any finalist(s) are removed for any reason, they will be replaced by other works in reverse order of elimination.

WSFS Division Head Colette Fozard said they intend to record the CoNZealand business meeting for later viewing.

Colorado Fans Evacuate

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Waldo Canyon fire. (Denver Post)

Kent Bloom and Mem Morman evacuated their home in Colorado Springs on June 26 to escape the Waldo Canyon fire.

Morman told fans they have gone to live with her daughter across town.

Their house is not on the burned out list, so they are cautiously hopeful. The Waldo Canyon fire has burned 347 homes and is only 30% contained at this time, reports the Denver Post.   

Google Maps shows Kent and Mem live approximately a mile east of the fire-ravaged Mountain Shadows neighborhood. (See details in the local government’s preliminary damage assessment  [PDF file].)

Bloom chaired Denvention 3, the 2008 Worldcon.

Westword Ho!

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Denver’s alternative newspaper Westword has started its coverage of Denvention 3.

The new issue’s wonderfully funny comic strip “Worst Case Scenario” features a side-by-side comparison of the Worldcon and Democratic National Convention, both happening in Denver this month. Chairman Kent Bloom gets equal face-time with Nancy Pelosi for the first and last time ever.

The final set of comparisons poses Michael Chabon accepting the Hugo for Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and Barack Obama accepting the Democratic Presidential nomination. Say you heard it first in Westword!

[Thanks to David Klaus for the link. Also covered by Geri Sullivan’s LiveJournal.]