Chair Donald Eastlake III has posted a report of the Chengdu Worldcon Site Selection Business Meeting on Facebook. (The Business Meeting Agenda is online — download the English-language version here and the Chinese-language version here.)
SITE SELECTION. The Seattle bid for 2025 was announced as the winner. See voting figures, GoHs and links to their website and PR0 here.
The Glasgow 2024 committee spoke, as did a representative of the Los Angeles in 2026 bid.
Finally, Yasser Bahjatt spoke briefly on the “Cairo” (formerly Jeddah) bid which is now suspended because they cannot get permission from the Egyptian government.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. The remaining proposals to amend the WSFS Constitution, including several which had been sent to committee at a previous session, were brought to the floor.
The initials/numbers (“F.10”) identify agenda items (see the full original English text here.)
F.10 “Best Game Category”.
It failed to pass.
F.5 “Best Fancast Not Paying Compensation”. Eastlake explains that it —
had been referred to the two Presiding Officers to adjust the English wording to more closely parallel the Chinese version originally submitted. They reported back that the last line of new text being added (point 2) should be “was a paid professional creation”. However it was pointed out that non-professional is already a requirement from the first line of Constitution Section 3.3.15 and it was voted to revert the wording to the original English wording in the agenda.
The motion was then passed for the first time.
F.7 “Clarifying Language Requirements” and F.8 “Remove Regional Limitation”. Both proposals had been referred together to a committee that reported back a single motion (see the committee report here).
The revised motion amends 3.4.1 by striking out “English” and replacing it with “the main languages of the countries of the administering and previous year Worldcons”.
The revised motion amends 3.4.2 by striking out “United States” in two places and replacing the first instance with “countries of the administering and prior year Worldcons” and the second with a similar phrase.
The motion was then passed for the first time.
F.9 “Establishment of ASFiC”. The motion to create an Asian counterpart of the NASFiC had been referred to a committee. They returned a majority report, “Establishing RSFiC”, proposing a mechanism for creating multiple Regional Science Fiction Conventions, and also a minority report to create only the originally proposed ASFiC. (See the 3-page committee report at the links: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3.)
The minority report was accepted over the majority Committee Report.
The motion to create an ASFiC was then passed for the first time.
CONCLUSION. The Business Meeting adjourned. On Sunday the WSFS Mark Protection Committee held their annual organizational meeting.
Minutes and videos of the meetings will appear later.
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I like the NASFiC. Spinning off the NASFiC doesn’t mean it is bad, or non-viable, or that it will be shut down. It just is the best answer to the request to run an ASFiC. We should say that WSFS will not run regional conventions like the NASFiC, and that includes the NASFiC. That makes it simple, consistent and fair.
There is nothing offensive about North Americans having their own regional convention. But it is difficult to understand why North America, and only North America, should get special treatment for this from the WSFS constitution, and why small events with only a couple of hundred people need to be overseen by the WSFS processes.
I’m not opposed to Americans having as much fun as they want at their regional con. I just don’t think the WSFS should have anything to do with it. In fact, I actually want them to have more fun, as described here:
https://file770.com/if-you-love-the-nasfic-set-it-free/
Mm as a European (and far be it from me really to wish to “interfere” in what can be described as a purely N/American matter), I remember at the Loncon 3 / London / 2014 Business Meeting, asking re NASFiC (and why it should instead be called the US National SF Con). That idea was shot down in flames!! Remember almost every other SF-active country has a NatSFCon [ eg UK-Eastercon; Ireland-Octocon; Sweden-Swecon; Finland-Finncon, Canada-CanCon, Germany-SFCDCon, etc etc etc () ] so why not the good old US of A?? To be fair (and I think it was Kevin Standlee who mentioned this to me) that any such action might make the replacement USNatSFCon (prev NASFiC) large with any thereafter US-overseas attendance, heavily reduced. My 2 pennies worth here!!
[ * And overseas fen are always VERY WELCOME at any non-local-to-them SF Con. If travelling on business or vacation, try to include (if one has flexibility) such in one’s itinerary… There is also the possibility of “added value” (esp where two Cons follow one another and are nearby, to each other) by combining one with the other, with other tourism and/or one’s own business activities, in between them. Examples here in Europe : (1) in Aug 2024: LocationCon (seperately, more on this (my own Con) soon: 3-7), Glasgow Worldcon (8-12), Rotterdam Eurocon (16-19); (2) later, in Oct 2024 : Octocon / Dublin (4-7), then UK Fantasycon/Chester (nearby, by ferry/train across the Irish Sea: 11-13); (3) and finally in late Oct/early Nov 2025*, there are (probably) 3 following one after the other: BristolCon/Bristol (S W England : 24-26 Oct), World FantasyCon/Brighton (S of England: 29 Oct-2 Nov) and Novacon 54 (2nd oldest SF+F Con in the UK)/Buxton (N W England : 7-9 Nov). And re (3) there will be additional optional items (to fill in the in-between days) eg visit to Elstree (UK’s Hollywood) etc. ]
Zimozi Natsuco on October 22, 2023 at 6:25 pm said:
I will try to work with the Chinese head table staff (Secretary, Chair) to see what we can do about getting the videos posted on a site easier for Chinese fans to see. In addition, I would like to see a translation of the meeting videos. While we had simultaneous translation on site, there was no mechanism for including that with the videos.
Point of information: The Asia Science Fiction Society does not exist!
It appears to have been established in 2018 with a website that has since expired (not even the domain name has been preserved) and its Facebook page which has a last post dated 2019.
There really does not seem to be much traction for an Asian SF Convention other than China wanting a soft power play (hence sponsorship of Chengdu).
WSFS should stay well clear.
Re Dave Lally:
CanCon, which is an annual fan run literary SF con in Ottawa, is NOT a Canadian national SF convention.
There is a Canvention function, but Canvention is a function that is awarded to a con for that specific year. Canvention is not itself s stnad alone con.
Thanks for that clarification re CanCon…(ahem..please remember: I’m a European resident..)