Tag Archives: Lisa Padol

LoneStarCon 3 Preliminary Business Meeting

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Voters at LoneStarCon 3’s Preliminary Business Meeting on Friday morning struck down motions to eliminate the Fan Hugos, to create a YA category Hugo, and to add a third Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo.

Thanks to Kevin Standlee, Rachael Acks and others for livetweeting the proceedings.

Members voted “object to consideration” to this year’s motion to create a YA Hugo called Best Youth Book. Actually, the maker of the motion asked to withdraw it, but was prevented by another member’s objection, so it had to be put to a vote. YA Hugo proponents kept hope alive, in spite of the defeat, by getting the Business Meeting to form a YA Hugo study committee.

Members also voted to “object to consideration” of Milt Steven’s proposal to repeal the Fan Hugos and Eemeli Aro’s idea for expanding Best Dramatic Presentation to include a third Hugo for short length works of less than 15 minutes. Also failing were two motions to extend eligibility of certain items for the 2014 Retro Hugos (which will be given at Loncon 3 for works published in 1938).

However, members agreed they will take up the Joshua Kronengold/Lisa Padol motion expanding eligibility for the Best Fan Artist Hugo at Saturday’s Main Business Meeting. Under their revised definition “An artist or cartoonist working in any visual or performance medium whose work has appeared through publication in semiprozines or fanzines or through other public, non-professional, display (including at a convention or conventions) during the previous calendar year” will be eligible in the category.

Hugo Multiplication Tabled

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An impassioned march on the Worldcon Business Meeting is expected Friday morning to make sure no Hugos are subtracted. Then, depending on how much of the agenda survives the preliminary meeting, members may get a chance on Saturday to play Santa by adding two new Hugos and radically expanding eligibility for another.

For the third consecutive year voters will be asked to create a YA Hugo category. This time called Best Youth Book, the Hugo would be given to “a science fiction or fantasy book published in the previous calendar year for young adults, middle readers, or children.”

The 2012 motion to create a Best Young Adult Fiction Hugo failed 51-67, however, losing a relatively close vote represented an improvement from the year before when the YA Hugo motion never made it to the floor, being disposed of by a vote to object to consideration.

Attendees of this year’s Business Meeting will also be invited to further subdivide the Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo by adding a category for short length works.

Proposed by Eemeli Aro and seconded by James Bacon, John Coxon, and Jesi Pershing, this new Hugo would be given to a “video, audio recording or other production, with a complete running time of less than 15 minutes, in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related subjects.”

They say an extra category will “provide a more even ground for the promotion and popularization of both more and less professional short films, filk songs, commercials, and even acceptance speeches” which are now being overwhelmed by episodes of TV shows.

The existing Long Form category would continue to cover work more than 90 minutes in length, but be renamed “Best Dramatic Presentation, Feature Length Long Form.” The Short Form category would become “Best Dramatic Presentation, Mid-Length Short Form” and cover works 15 to 90 minutes in length.

Lastly, Joshua Kronengold and Lisa Padol want to transform the Best Fan Artist Hugo into something that can also be won by “musical, dance, jewelry and costuming artists.”

The new eligibility definition would be — “An artist or cartoonist working in any visual or performance medium whose work has appeared through publication in semiprozines or fanzines or through other public, non-professional, display (including at a convention or conventions) during the previous calendar year.”

Illustrators and cartoonists appearing in fanzines and semiprozines would remain eligible. Kronengold and Padol, in a commentary, say animators and artists working in special effects would also be eligible. But the motion’s fate could depend on wooing votes from costumers and filkers onsite at LSC3. Saturday is also the day of the masquerade, so costumers might need to juggle the demands on their schedules if they want to vote for the change.