Tag Archives: Renovation

Hugo Voting Still Not Open

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LoneStarCon 3 announced this year’s Hugo Awards nominees on March 30 but has yet to open the voting. Is 30 days and counting a long delay or not? How does this performance compare with other recent Worldcons?

The answer: It does not compare very well.

Last year, Chicon 7 announced it was ready to take votes 2 days after the nominees came out – meaning paper ballots. Online voting opened 11 days after, according to publicity.

Renovation (2011) said paper and online voting was open in a press release issued 5 days after the nominee announcement.

Aussiecon 4 (2010) reported voting open 30 days after the nominee announcement.

Anticipation (2009) wasn’t taking votes until the 60th day after.

Denvention 3 (2008) is a little harder to pinpoint because the information came in a progress report the month after the nominees were announced. The interim could have been as short as 9 days and as long as 39, and the true figure presumably lies somewhere in between.

Conclusion: The past two Worldcons got voting opened pretty quickly, and at 30 days LoneStarCon 3 is falling behind the curve.

Worldcon

(Year)

Nominees

Announced

Voting

Available

 

Packet

Available

Chicon 7 (2012)

4/7/2012

4/9/2012

  

5/18/2012

Renovation (2011)

4/24/2011

4/29/2011

  

5/20/2011

Aussiecon 4 (2010)

4/4/2010

5/4/2010?

  

5/4/2010

Anticipation (2009)

3/19/2009

5/19/2009

  

4/22/2009*

Denvention 3 (2008)

3/21/2008

4/2008

 

4/10/2008*

(*) In these years the packet was created by John Scalzi.

Sources for the dates are listed after the jump.

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2013 Hugo Nominations Break Record

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For the fifth consecutive year Worldcon members have cast a record-breaking number of Hugo nominating ballots. LoneStarCon 3 received 1,343 valid nominating ballots, exceeding the 1,101 received by Chicon 7 last year. Prior to that, Renovation received 1,006 in 2011, Aussiecon 4 received 864 in 2010 and Anticipation received 799 in 2009, each a record-setting figure at the time.

This record-setting trend likely gained momentum from a rules change effective in 2012 which broadened the voting base. Since last year, members in the forthcoming Worldcon have been allowed to nominate too, just as members of the current and previous Worldcon have long been able to do. LonCon 3 in 2014 is a European Worldcon, and I would guess has many members who don’t typically join when the con is in North America, making the universe of potential Hugo nomination voters that much larger than it was in 2012 when the pool consisted of members of three U.S. Worldcons (Renovation, Chicon 7, LoneStarCon 3).

The 2013 Hugo Award nominees will be announced on Saturday, March 30, starting at 3 p.m. CDT.

The nominations announcement will be made simultaneously at four conventions in the United States and United Kingdom, with the shortlists being published through the LoneStarCon 3 website immediately afterwards.

Conventions taking part in the announcement are:

  • Norwescon 36, in Seatac, WA (1 p.m. PDT)
  • Minicon 48, in Bloomington, MN (3 p.m. CDT)
  • Marcon 48, in Columbus, OH (4 p.m. EDT)
  • EightSquaredCon, the British National Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon), in Bradford, England (8 p.m. GMT).

Nominations will also be released category by category via the LoneStarCon 3 Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LoneStarCon3 and the LoneStarCon 3 Twitter feed at twitter.com/LoneStarCon.

The full press release follows the jump.

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Follow 2012 Hugos Online

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Chicon 7 reports that members cast 1,922 valid final ballots for the 2012 Hugo Awards, second only to Renovation’s record-setting tally of 2,100 last year.

The Hugo winners will be announced Sunday evening, September 2, at the Worldcon. The ceremony begins at 8 p.m. (Central) and will be broadcast live via Ustream (www.ustream.tv/channel/worldcon1.)

The official Hugo Awards site will deliver live text coverage via CoverItLive. Past Worldcon co-chair Kevin Standlee and Campbell Award Nominee Mur Lafferty will host that broadcast.

Chicon 7 will take a step forward by having Hugo base designer Deb. Kosiba reveal and discuss her work during the Chicon 7 Opening Ceremony, rather than delaying until the night of the Hugo ceremony was done for many years.

The full press release follows the jump.

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Chicon 7 Program App Available

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Chicon 7 is offering app that lets users access convention information via handheld devices. Developed in partnership with Viafo, it is an enhanced version of the software used at last year’s Worldcon.

The version usable on Android phones, and tablets through Google Play, is already available. The one for iPhone and iPad will be offered soon via the iTunes App Store. Visit the Chicon 7 website to get instructions for downloading the app.

The app includes a full program schedule with item descriptions, times, and locations; a linked program participant list; social media integration; and hotel maps.

An upgrade last year is an integrated version of the program database, so information can be used offline. Members can resynchronize with the updated schedule at any time.

The full press release follows the jump.

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Chicon 7 Overflows Its Hotel

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Running a Worldcon means managing tradeoffs and, honestly, every chair hopes to face the “problem” of filling the main hotel room block and needing to dispatch people to an overflow hotel.

That’s what Chicon 7 chairman Dave McCarty started doing today:

We are delighted to have filled our room block at the Hyatt Regency. We have taken almost 2000 rooms in total, reflecting the popularity and anticipation for the Worldcon returning to Chicago. We are equally delighted to have the Sheraton Chicago joining us as our second hotel partner, ensuring that all members can stay within a few minutes of the convention site.

From a public relations standpoint he’s also fortunate that the Hyatt sold out gradually enough that fans could be given plenty of warning, in contrast to last year when Renovation’s main hotel sold out the first day.

The full press release follows the jump.

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Chicon 7 Sets Hugo Nominating Vote Record

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The 2012 Hugo Award nominees will be announced simultaneously at five conventions in the United States and Europe on April 7. Arrangements are also being made to broadcast all five convention presentations via Ustream.

This is the fourth consecutive year Worldcon members have cast a record-breaking number of Hugo nominating ballots. Chicon 7 received 1,101 nominating ballots, exceeding the 1,006 received by Renovation last year. Prior to that Aussiecon 4 received 864 in 2010 and Anticipation received 799 in 2009, each a record-setting figure at the time.

Conventions taking part in the announcement are:

  • Norwescon 35, a Pacific Northwest sf convention, at Seatac, WA (1 p.m. PDT)
  • Leprecon 38, an annual Arizona sf convention, at Tempe, AZ (1 p.m. MST)
  • Minicon 47, Minnesota’s longest-running sf con, at Bloomington, MN (3 p.m. CDT)
  • Marcon 47, an annual Midwest sf con, at Columbus, OH (4 p.m. EDT).
  • Olympus 2012, the British Eastercon, (9 p.m. BST).

The final ballot voting deadline will be July 31, 2012, midnight PDT. The winners will be announced at the Hugo Awards Ceremony on Sunday, September 2.

The full press release follows the jump.

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Pass-Along Funds

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Two Worldcons distributed pass-along funds last year but the good deed seems to have gone unpublicized. The pass-along policy is a commitment to distribute at least one-half of a Worldcon’s surplus to the next three Worldcons that make the same promise.

Renovation, the 2011 Worldcon, gave $20,000 each to LoneStarCon 3 and Chicon 7. John Lorentz says they have another $20,000 in hand to give the 2014 site selection winner. And, adds John, “We expect that there will be a few thousand more for each of them once our final numbers are a little firmer later this spring.”

AussieCon 4 also sent pass-along funds to LoneStarCon 3, another $5,000 check on top of the amount already paid, making a total of $8,400 given to LSC3 from the 2010 Worldcon surplus.

Then, Renovation chair Patty Wells revealed the 2011 Worldcon made its first donation of surplus funds besides the pass-along. They gave $20,000 to the Susan C. Petrey Foundation to fund scholarships and fellowships to Clarion and Clarion West. The Petrey Foundation is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Other donations will follow. For example, Wells said she is working with the Illustration Master Class as a possible recipient of funds for use in encouraging artist talent.

Deadline for Hugo Nominating Rights is 1/31

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People who join Chicon 7 by January 31 will be eligible to cast nominating ballots for this year’s Hugo Awards.

So will those who have joined LoneStarCon 3 by the deadline, and so already are all who held supporting or attending memberships in last year’s Worldcon, Renovation. 

Eligible voters have until Sunday, March 11, 2012, 23:59 PDT to submit nominations.

The full press release follows the jump.

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Harris: Renovation Kiva Reaches Goal

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[This is an update about the Kiva team started by members of the Renovation Worldcon committee. Kiva provides financial services such as small loans to low-income individuals and those without access to typical banking services, often in the Third World.]

By Colin Harris: Since you enquired before, I thought you might like to know that the Kiva lending team I set up for Renovation has just achieved its original objective of lending over $10,000. We didn’t quite make our original target of hitting that number by the convention – but that was deliberately a stretch target, and this was also unknown territory in terms of knowing what to expect as a response. I am really grateful to the 20 people who’ve joined the team and consistently loaned and re-loaned their money to individuals around the world over the last two years. In total we have made 284 separate loans in over 40 countries. See http://www.kiva.org/team/renovationsf for details.