The Chengdu Worldcon’s Chinese-language website has added posts inviting people to recommend program topics and telling members how to submit items to the business meeting. At this time the English-language site has not published corresponding posts.
Computer-translated texts of the two posts follow – which may be imprecise.
[Description of Chicon 8 program omitted]
…In the program of the 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention, there will be more than 200 events involving more than 800 Issues. The types of topics include but are not limited to literature, science, film, art, manga, animation, clothing, rice circle culture, music, games, new media, parties, podcasts, community organizations, writing, miscellaneous; The forms include but are not limited to small seminars (Panel), interview (Interview), signing (Autographing), reading (Reading), and Table Talk, combining international elements and local characteristic elements to achieve diversified and wonderful interaction.
At present, we have received more than 100 questions from overseas members, and now, the 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention Process Activity Department is collecting questions for Chinese science fiction fans. Sci-fi fans come and show off your sci-fi ideas! In the 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention Program, you are the organizer and creator, come and leave your wonderful imagination world!
Participants: All fans (individual or group participation)
Deadline for submission: March 31, 2023
Submission method: Fill in the questionnaire below
Contact Inquiry Email:
Note: This activity is the first phase of the collection, and if there is any adjustment according to the collection situation, the notice of the Executive Committee of the 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention shall prevail.
According to the World Science Fiction Association Bylaws, only World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) members can participate in proposals, including:
1. Supporting member of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention in Washington
2. Supporting member of the 2022 World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago
3. 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention newly registered support member
To participate in the topic proposal of the affairs meeting, you must log on to the official website www.chengduworldcon.com purchase the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) support member to obtain the corresponding benefits.
If two or more members jointly initiate the issue, the member must provide the membership number and send the issue to the designated email address
[email protected]。 After the proposed topics are reviewed and approved by the panel of the conference, they will become the official topics of the 2023 World Science Fiction Convention Affairs Conference, and will be debated and resolved during the conference.
The Council proposed a deadline of 30 days before the opening of the World Science Fiction Convention.
The business meeting is expected to last for 4 days and is divided into preparatory meetings, issue debate resolution meetings, financial reporting meetings and 2025 site selection results announcement meetings.
Proposed amendments to the Existing Rules shall take effect immediately after they are voted on at the Panel; The proposed amendments to the Constitution of the World Science Fiction Association shall be voted on again at the World Science Fiction Convention Conference of the following year after being voted and passed at the affairs meeting of the World Science Fiction Convention in the following year.
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Has anybody found a link to apply for participating in the program yet?
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FYI, although I am Deputy Chair of the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting, I was unaware of this planned announcement until I saw it here. My comments below are my personal opinion and do not represent an official statement from the Chengdu 2023 Worldcon.
I assume this is a translation issue, and it would be better worded as “to propose changes to the Constitution of the World Science Fiction Society.”
I have a hard time criticizing anyone from calling it “association” instead of “society,” given how may people who have attended lots of Worldcons make the same mistake. The Washington Science Fiction Association regularly has to deal with people confusing their acronym for that of Worldcon’s “parent organization.”
No, unless a 2023 WSFS member. Membership in the 2021 Worldcon conveys no rights to participate in the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting.
No, unless a 2023 WSFS member. Membership in the 2022 Worldcon conveys no rights to participate in the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting.
Possibly whoever wrote this may have been confused by the courtesy extended to members of the 2022 Worldcon to nominate, but not vote, in the 2023 Hugo Awards.
Yes, but misleading.
The only people who can submit proposals to the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting are those people with 2023 WSFS memberships. This includes:
A. Anyone who voted (including those who purchased voting tokens but did not actually cast a ballot) in the 2023 Worldcon Site Selection held in 2021.
B. Anyone who purchased a WSFS membership (what used to be called a Supporting membership) after Chengdu won the 2021 Site Selection.
Any two or more WSFS members can submit proposals to the WSFS Business Meeting. Only those members present in person at the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting can debate or vote on proposals. Inasmuch as apparently Chengdu has set the Attending Supplement price at zero, anyone who has a 2023 WSFS membership can attend the convention and participate in the Business Meeting.
Incidentally, while it’s not explicit in the WSFS rules that absentee members may submit/sponsor proposals, it is traditional practice, and it’s implied by Standing Rule 2.3.
If China permits me to enter their country (this is not at all certain, and I currently give it a less than 50% chance given current conditions), I intend to be at the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting as Deputy Chair.
Not that just this detail mattered much, but the 6 Chinese characters the web uses just before the parenthesised English explanation “(The World Science Fiction Society […] WSFS)” is, at least judging from Wikipedia, indeed the standard translation..
So yes, at least they take the trouble to get the name right; any “Association” is merely an artifact of a machine translation, and its careless use by editors who should know better. (But I, to, get “Optimise” in the title; perhaps it’s a polite form of “improve”?)
As Chair of the Chengdu Business Meeting, all of Kevin’s comments are good. I would also point out that “Affairs” appears in the press release where I would expect “Business” and “Affairs Conference” where I would expect “Business Meeting” probably also a result of machine translation. Donald Eastlake
Yes, as I indicated in the introduction, computer translation is imprecise. It’s what we have to resort to since the Chengdu Worldcon committee isn’t keeping the English-language website updated with posts that appear on the Chinese-language site.
Don’t forget that the Site Selection for the 2024 NASFiC must also occur at Chengdu.
No, it must NOT; the WSFS Constitution Article 4.8.1 (or however the third-level paragraphs are known) specifies that if (another) NASFiC is held in the site selection year, it takes precedence over the Worldcon. Makes sense…
Lew Wolkoff: The site selection for the 2024 NAFiC will be run by the Winnipeg 2023 NASFiC under the rule cited in the previous comment.
Lew: What Jan said. The net effect of section 4.8.1 and the current site selection lead time is that (barring certain unlikely but technically possible events), a non-North American Worldcon cannot select a NASFiC site:
This is not unprecedented. It happened most recently at SpikeCon, the 2019 NASFiC in Layton, Utah (Worldcon in Dublin IE), which selected Columbus, Ohio as the 2020 NASFiC (Worldcon in Welllington NZ). But possibly COVID has wiped most people’s memories, considering that I have also seen people complaining that Chengdu’s date/venue change is unprecedented and that no Worldcon has ever changed dates or moved venues.
And this time I am speaking officially, as the WSFS division manager of Pemmi-Con, the 2023 NASFiC in Winnipeg, and as Chair of the 2023 NASFiC Business Meeting. (Yes, really: see section 4.8.5, which was ratified this year. This year will be the first ever NASFiC Business meeting, which I hope will be relatively short and free of drama, as only one bid has filed to host the 2024 NASFiC.)