Dublin 2019 WSFS Business Meeting Day 3

Corina Stark provided full notes of the Sunday session in “WSFS Business Meeting 2”, which can be read on Alex Acks’ blog.

Once video of the meeting has been uploaded, it will be available at Worldcon Events on YouTube.

The agenda is available here. The references (e.g. “D7”) refer to items in it.

Site Selection: Washington D.C.’s unopposed bid to hold the 2021 Worldcon is officially voted in. (See File 770 post “Site Selection Confirms Washington DC” for vote count and GoH info.)

Seated Worldcon: CoNZealand made a short presentation. Membership price goes up October 1. Program signups are available now. CoNZealand.nz is the website.

Pass-On Funds: Kevin Roche passes along some funds from Worldcon 76 to Dublin 2019, CoNZealand, and DisCon III.

Continued New Business: Resumed with D8, No Deadline for Nominations Eligibility.

Martin Pyne offered an amendment to add a 2024 sunset clause. Nicholas Whyte, one of the makers of the motion, opposed it because either it [D8] is a good idea or it is not, and a sunset clause would be counterproductive. A vote was called and the amendment failed.

Kevin Standlee said there was an “entryism” problem which is why there originally was a January deadline., and he moved to amend to reinstate January 31 as the deadline. The amendment passed.

A vote was called and D8 passed as amended. It will be forwarded to next year’s agenda for ratification.

D13, Best Game or Interactive Experience. Ira Alexandre, a maker of the motion, spoke in favor. (See Spark’s full notes for argument.)  There was a motion to refer the motion to a committee to report back next year. Ultimately, the business meeting voted to refer D13 to a dedicated subcommittee in the Hugo Awards Study Committee.  The proponents of the proposal were invited to join the committee as part of this consideration.

D7, Five and Five. Rafe Richards moved to amend the motion so it does not subtract six or add five to rule 3.8.1 – which the chair explained would keep the number of finalists at 6 but still get rid of the existing sunset clause (reversing the intent of the original motion.)  

When the meeting voted on the amendment (to keep 6, and to get rid of the sunset clause) it passed. The amended main motion also passed, keeping 6 and removing the sunset clause. It will be forwarded to next year’s agenda for ratification.

Then the meting considered B4, Suspend 5 and 6 for 2020, and the voters rejected the motion, keeping 5 and 6 for 2020.

D11 is Clear Up the Definition of Public in the Artist Category Forever. An attempt to refer the proposal to committee failed. The main motion passed. It will be forwarded to next year’s agenda for ratification.

Proposed Resolution: The meeting next took up B.5, Credit to Translators of Written Fiction. B5 would award a Hugo to the credited translator of a novel, novella, novelette, and short story, when the original text is not in English. Kent Bloom argued against, confused about what this is trying to do – it is within the authority of the administering Worldcon or dealt with as a constitutional amendment depending on what they are trying to do, so is not appropriate as a resolution. The meeting voted against the resolution.

Standing Rules Change. As a result of a handout being distributed at the business meeting this weekend, there was a proposed B.6 Standing Rule Change, which would require someone making a written response to new business to submit it 14 days before the business meeting so the originators of the new business can have a chance to respond in the same (written) fashion.

Don Eastlake III moved to refer the rule change to the Nitpicking and Flyspecking for next year. The proposal was referred to committee.

Business carried over: Items D9 and D10 will be considered at Monday’s business meeting.