[WorldCon] Quick Summary: WSFS Preliminary Business Meeting and Business Meeting 1

Liveblog of the preliminary meeting here.

Liveblog of business meeting 1 here.

Preliminary Business Meeting Summary

• Standing Committess gave their reports and were re-appointed for the following year. If you’re curious about the reports, find them here.
• Special committees also gave their reports.
  • The subcommittee that was supposed to address fan artist/professional artists did not turn in a report and was dissolved, to be folded back into the Hugo study committee, at request of the chair.
  • No report from the remote participation committee, with a promise that shit will be gotten together in the coming year, as shit was most definitely not together this past year. On that understanding, committee was re-appointed for another year.
• San Jose WorldCon gave a brief report and brought pass-along funds to be distributed. They will be holding more funds in reserve pending the resolution of the lawsuit. Current status of that is four of the five claims have been dismissed with prejudice (leaving only the defamation claim), and all those named in the complaints except the WorldCon itself have been freed from this mess as well.
  • My opinion, which does not in any way reflect what was said by the WorldCon chair, who was very circumspect and remarkably restrained: JDA remains, miles ahead of the depressingly robust competition, science fiction’s most pathetic piece of shit, and I hope he ends up having to pay every penny of legal fees for this frivolous nonsense.
• A standing rules change is made to allow the Committee of the Whole to extend its discussion/debate time without having to ask the meeting for permission, to save us from the absolute mess we had last year.
• Eligibility of the films Prospect and Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin were extended via resolution.
• Resolution to suspend 5 and 6 for 2020 was definitely postponed until after we deal with the proposed amendment (“Five and Five”) that would render it moot.
• Debate time is set for all of the many new constitutional amendments. Mostly.
  • “Best Translated Novel” is postponed indefinitely.
  • An attempt is made to postpone “Five and Five” indefinitely, which fails.
  • An attempt is made to postpone “Best Game or Interactive Experience”  indefinitely also fails, possibly due to the argument that even if the amendment might fail, it deserves the courtesy of debate.
• Serpentine Count: 1

Business Meeting 1 Summary

• Two amendments passed on from last year are ratified: “Adding Series to the Series” and “Comic Books and Graphic Stories”
• The third amendment passed on from last year, “Notability Still Matters,” fails to be ratified on a Serpentine, 41 for to 44 against. There is also an explosion of parliamentary wrangling and total confusion.
• The broadside of Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee amendments proceeds:
  • “Clarification of WorldCon Powers,” “A Problem of Numbers,” and “The Needs of the One” are unanimously passed on to the next business meeting for ratification.
  • “Disposition of NASFiC ballot” and “That Ticket Has Been Punched” are passed on to the next business meeting after some wrangling about wording and meaning.
  • “The Forward Pass” is referred back to the Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee after a series of amendments ate all of the debate time. (Leaving me clutching my stopwatches and unable to scream, “You have now made this completely noncompliant with GDPR!”)
    • Cue more parlimentary confusion during this item, though not nearly as severe as what we had during “Notability Still Matters.”
• After the absolute mess that was “The Forward Pass,” the business meeting wisely conceded that maybe “Five and Five” was going to be a little too rough to try to get through in one day… so after failing to adjourn, we decided to take up “No Deadline for Nominations Eligibility” instead, because that was definitely going to be a cause for much less emotional debate*. Debate was started, and then the meeting was adjourned after a motion to amend the amendment with a sunset clause was offered, because the wordsmithing needed to be done. Debate will resume with its time refreshed tomorrow.
  • * yes, sarcasm.
• As a note, the “Best Game or Interactive Experience” amendment will be taken up as the Business Meeting 2 immediately after Site Selection is finished and we clean up the mess we started and didn’t finish on “No Deadline for Nominations Eligibility,” as the creator of that amendment will not be able to attend on Monday.
• Serpentine Count: 2