INTRODUCTION. The deadline to submit proposals to the Glasgow 2024 Business Meeting was July 10. The formal agenda will be out soon, but in the meantime the movers of 15 submitted items have provided copies for publication and discussion on File 770. This is the final post in the series.

“No, We Don’t Like Surprises, Why Do You Ask?” adds to the Standing Rules a restriction that “No business may be submitted to the Business Meeting without prior notice for consideration at the same meeting of the Business Meeting without unanimous consent.”

“Strike 1.4” deletes the Standing Rule that limits when the Business Meeting may start and which requires a specific time gap between the Preliminary Business Meeting and the Main Business Meeting.

“Magnum P.I.” changes the Standing Rules to permit a “Motion to Postpone Indefinitely” to be made not just at the Preliminary Business Meeting but also the first time a main motion is brought before a Main Business Meeting.

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SHORT TITLE: “NO, WE DON’T LIKE SURPRISES, WHY DO YOU ASK?”

Add rule 2.2.1 to the Standing Rules, as follows:

Rule 2.2.1: Emergency Business.  No business may be submitted to the Business Meeting without prior notice for consideration at the same meeting of the Business Meeting without unanimous consent. Any business which is submitted with unanimous consent for immediate consideration and adopted shall be subject to a motion to reconsider at the next day’s meeting of the Business Meeting, and said motion may be made and/or seconded by any member who voted against its passage or who was not present at the time.  No business may be brought up under this section on the final scheduled day of the Business Meeting.  Excepted from this shall be business presented to the Business Meeting by the Site Selection Administrator pertaining to that year’s Site Selection process and motions pertaining to the resolution of a disputed or failed Site Selection process.  Except as provided within, this rule shall not be subject to a suspension of the rules.

SPONSORS: Cliff Dunn, Kristina Forsyth, Erica Frank

DISCUSSION: This is a minimal change, but it is aimed at preventing a “surprise rules change” by the Preliminary Business Meeting, as happened in Chengdu.  The concept of “Notice to Absentees” is important, especially in the context of a convention with multiple conflicting tracks of business.  Basically, this would force any such business to the next day.  The sole carve-out is for Site Selection business — both for the potential adjudication of disputed ballots and the resolution of a disputed or failed Site Selection process.  The former is necessarily time-sensitive and the latter should be considered potentially noticed in the form of the “Site Selection Business Meeting”.

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SHORT TITLE: “STRIKE 1.4”

Standing Rule 1.4 shall be struck in its entirety.

Rule 1.4: Scheduling of Meetings. The first Main Meeting shall be scheduled no less than eighteen (18) hours after the conclusion of the last Preliminary Meeting. No meeting shall be scheduled to begin before 10:00 or after 13:00 local time.

SPONSORS: Cliff Dunn, Kate Secor

DISCUSSION: Standing Rule 1.4 is the Standing Rule which both limits when the Business Meeting may start and which requires a specific time gap between the Preliminary Business Meeting and the Main Business Meeting.

We find Standing Rule 1.4 overly prescriptive in its constraints on the Business Meeting.  While it might be preferable to schedule meetings according to the directions contained in Standing Rule 1.4, as the last few Worldcons have shown, facility availability and business volume may not always align with this.  Whether it is the necessity of the Preliminary Business Meeting spilling into a second day’s session or the possibility that space availability might require “non-conventional” scheduling (e.g. an earlier start or split sessions within a single day with a planned break), Rule 1.4 doesn’t anticipate anything but “vanilla” scheduling.  We therefore propose eliminating it so as to remove those constraints.

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SHORT TITLE: MAGNUM P.I.

Rule 5.3: Postpone Indefinitely. The motion to Postpone Indefinitely shall not be allowed at the Main Business Meeting, but shall be allowed at the Preliminary Business Meeting and the first time a main motion is brought before a Main Business Meeting. This motion shall have four (4) minutes of debate time and shall require a two-thirds (2/3) vote for adoption.

SPONSORS: Cliff Dunn, Jared Dashoff

DISCUSSION: At Discon in 2021, the Business Meeting was subject to heavier time constraints than usual across its first three days.  At Chicon in 2022, the business of the Preliminary Business Meeting spilled over into the first day of the Main Business Meeting due to a large amount of business being presented.  Combined with the wave of business this year, the possibility that business which might be respectfully but swiftly disposed of via Postpone Indefinitely might be unable to be disposed of thusly for no other reason than the Preliminary Business Meeting either being cut short or running over has emerged. Therefore, we propose to adjust the rules surrounding Postpone Indefinitely to allow it to be brought up at the “first pass” of any item of business.

Our hope is that this will be adopted with a 2/3 vote for immediate effect, given this year’s Business Meeting circumstances.

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