The 2020 and 2021 Westercon committees have agreed to roll their events forward a year. They announced the decision today on the Westercon.org site:
Due to government orders prohibiting large gatherings having been extended into July 2020, Westercon 73 in SeaTac WA has been obliged to postpone their event. After consultation with Westercon 74 in Tonopah NV and with the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, the two conventions have agreed to postpone both of their events for one year. Westercon 73 will now be held in 2021 and Westercon 74 in 2022. There will be no Westercon held in 2020.
Sally Woehrle, chair of Westercon 73 SeaTac, said that Westercon 73 could not take place as originally scheduled in 2020 due to Washington state’s COVID-19 restrictions on large group events. The SeaTac Doubletree Hotel has agreed to move Westercon 73 to 2021. Current hotel reservations have been cancelled and can be rebooked after July 20, 2020. Westercon 73’s new dates are Thursday, July 1 through Sunday, July 4, 2021.
Westercon 74’s new dates are Friday, July 1 through Monday, July 4, 2022 at the Tonopah Convention Center, Mizpah and Belvada Hotels, and other area hotels in Tonopah, Nevada. Hotel reservations were not yet open for the convention’s original dates. Westercon 74 will announce plans for hotel reservations later. Membership rates previously announced as increasing in July 2020 will be frozen at their current level until July 2021.
No bids filed the necessary documents to appear on the ballot for Westercon 75 by the original April 15, 2020 deadline. Site Selection for Westercon 75 will now be for the year 2023 and will be still be conducted by Westercon 73. All deadlines for site selection for Westercon 75 will be postponed one year from the originally published dates.
Kevin Standlee, chair of Westercon 74 Tonopah, said that Tonopah’s facilities were very flexible and were willing to reschedule Westercon 74 to take place a year later. He cited the town’s flexibility regarding hosting Westercon as a major factor in allowing both conventions to be rescheduled.
The two seated Westercons consulted with the LASFS Board of Directors (owners of the Westercon service mark), who agreed that the “Westercon Two-Step” was the best plan for ensuring continuity of Westercon operations and minimizing overall disruption to both seated conventions.
Both conventions will contact their members directly with additional details about their respective postponements. For questions about specific impacts upon each convention, contact Westercon 73 through their web site, www.westercon73.org, and Westercon 74 through their web site, www.westercon74.org.
[Thanks to Kevin Standlee for the story. And for rapidly updating the Tonopah logo!]
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Kudos to the Tonopah facilities for being willing to roll on a year; I wouldn’t have expected them not to say “Everything will be safe by our scheduled dates” and decline to budge.
Chip Hitchcock: Kudos to the Tonopah facilities for being willing to roll on a year; I wouldn’t have expected them not to say “Everything will be safe by our scheduled dates” and decline to budge.
I think it’s great that they agreed to slip back a year, but honestly, if I were the chair I’d have welcomed that. I’m not at all convinced that things will be back to normal a year from now, or that DisCon III is going to take place.
I’ve just realized that the service-mark bug shifted sideways when I redid the logo. (The SM should be next to “Westercon” not “74” as the former is the service mark.) Good thing I haven’t ordered any new signs or merchandise yet! I’ll fix it soon.
My attitude toward Discon II is that we will see. I am, given the situation, prepared to be disappointed. Even in that circumstance, however, there are functions a Worldcon committee is obliged to perform, such as administer the Hugos and site selection. For anything additional, I think what CoNZealand does will serve as a guide and at least a partial blueprint of what a Worldcon does in this new reality.
I don’t see CoNZealand and, should things not come back enough to allow a live convention, Discon III, as cancelled Worldcons, but residing in their proper place in the list with an asterisk.
An elegant solution and kudos all around to those who came up with it, and to the hotels and venues for adjusting to the needed changes.
Of course, this means I’ll be spending my 56th birthday in Tonopah. Party at the Clown Motel!
@JJ: no disagreement — today’s paper has interesting news on a possible synthetic vaccine, but at this point my most coherent thought is an un-PC Pangborn line about the unpredictability of everything. But after all the news about knuckleheads — even in Massachusetts — demanding that the lockdown *END* *NOW* I’m just happy to see a mundane business in a purple-to-red area acting with some care.
Several comments here from fans who, like me, can now be described as “old codgers,” or “geezeratti”—who will have to think seriously about the possibility that going to a con might in fact kill you…
@Andrew Porter – I’ve been dealing with that fact for many years, what with a compromised immune system and some serious lung damage. But it’s a matter of existing versus living. At some point, you have to live.
Take all reasonable precautions, of course, but I am not missing Tonopah!
Mike: Thanks for fixing the logo when I sent the new version that has the service mark bug in the right place.
Doug: As I recall, the Clown Motel has one suite, and it costs less than typical regular rooms at most convention hotels. It might suit you. But OTOH, you might have to fight Christopher Garcia for it!
Add the throwdown between me and Chris to the schedule. I’ll bring the Star Trek fight music.
Or we could have a showdown at high noon with Nerf guns.
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The logo’s keming is still giving me a … squinty eye.
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