The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) Business Meeting at L.A.con III, the 1996 Worldcon, consisted of one preliminary meeting and two main meetings. All the meetings were held in the Pacific Ballroom A of the Anaheim Hilton and Towers, Anaheim, California. The podium staff for all meetings were: Donald E. Eastlake III, Presiding Officer; George Flynn, Secretary; Kevin Standlee, Parliamentarian and Deputy Presiding Officer; and Zanne Labonville, Timekeeper.

1. Preliminary Business Meeting, Friday, August 30, 1996

o Business Passed On from Intersection

o Committee Reports

o New Business Submitted to L.A.con III

2. First Main Business Meeting, Saturday, August 31, 1996

o Business Passed On from Intersection

o Committee Reports

o New Business Submitted to L.A.con III

o Committee Reports (redux)

3. Second Main Business Meeting, Sunday, September 1, 1996

o Site-Selection Business

o Committee Reports

o New Business Submitted to L.A.con III

o Committee Reports (redux)

4. Disposition of Business

5. Agenda for Next Year

6. Attendance List

[References to page A3 and SRWG 3 or the like refer to an appendix and to the Standing Rules Working Group report which are not included with or linked to this copy.]

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Friday, August 30, 1996

Business Passed On from Intersection

Committee Reports

New Business Submitted to L.A.con III

The meeting was called to order at 10:16 A.M.

7. Report of Worldcon Runners Guide Editorial Committee

Mr. Pavlac (who said he was dressed as a "shy con") asked that Item 7 on the agenda be considered out of order, as he had to leave. There being no objection, he submitted the following report:

Report of the Worldcon Runners Guide Project

Submitted by Ross Pavlac

August, 1996

Work accomplished since Intersection:

The 1996 edition of the Worldcon Runners Guide now runs more than 150 pages.

New material includes:

1. Kees van Toorn has written a chapter on running nonNorth American Worldcons. With this chapter, the document truly becomes a Worldcon Runners Guide.

2. My cousin, Peggy Rae Pavlat, provided a lot of detailed feedback to last years Guide. As a result, a number of sections have been rewritten or clarified, and several of the Guides checklists have been expanded.

3. The Guide enters the electronic age with the introduction of a chapter that begins to address the subject of how Worldcons can make use of the Internet,

4. The other computer-related sections have been modified. Due to the rapid change of technology, recommendations that were sound and reasonable only a couple of years ago are now hopelessly outdated.

Again, my concept of adding a bit more each year (rather than trying to do it all at one time) continues to work reasonably well.

Distribution:

I have printed 20 copies of the manual at my personal expense.

Copies are hereby distributed to the podium staff. In addition, I will be giving copies to the chairs of the 1997, 1998, and (on Sunday) the 1999 Worldcons. Perhaps I can even interest the 2000 bidders in a copy.

The remainder are available for US $15. If I run out, additional copies are available for this cost plus $3 postage.

With this edition, the Guide enters the late 1990s by being available on the Internet. A self-extracting .EXE of the manual in WordPerfect for Windows 6.1 format is available for downloading on my World Wide Web site. Size of the download is approximately 200K. The address of my web page is: <http://www.enteract.com/~rpavlac/home.htm>

Recommendations:

I feel there is still much work to do and I am interested in taking on the responsibility for another year. I therefore request that the Business Meeting re-appoint me as Editor for another year, to report back again in San Antonio.

If I am re-appointed, my goals for next year include:

1. I have recently purchased a scanner. With a scanner in-house, I intend to scan in a lot more of the forms that are in use at Worldcons.

2. Chaz Baden and Bruce Farr have offered to write chapters for next years edition.

3. With permission, add relevant material from George Scithers Worldcon guide (from 1965).

4. Continue to solicit contributions on the various aspects of running a Worldcon. Several people volunteered last year to submit material, but were not able to; I would encourage them to try again.

Ross Pavlac

PO Box 816, Evanston, IL 60204-0816. (312) 764-4583. Internet: <76636.1343@compuserve.com>.

Without objection, the committee was continued.

(Items 1 through 14 were given first passage at Intersection, and would become part of the WSFS Constitution if ratified. The explanations in italics are those published in the L.A.con III Souvenir Book, etc. Here and elsewhere, the numbers assigned to motions are those used in the printed agenda.)

1. Elimination of a Hugo

MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution by deleting Section 2.2.9, "Best Original Artwork".

[This motion would eliminate the Best Original Artwork Hugo.]

The default debate time was 6 minutes; 4, 2, and 3 minutes were also proposed; 6 minutes was voted.

2. Clarification of Fanzine and Semiprozine Eligibility

MOVED, to amend Sections 2.2.10 and 2.2.11 of the WSFS Constitution by in both cases inserting "by the close of the previous calendar year" after the first "which", so as to make the clauses in question read "which by the close of the previous calendar year has published four (4) or more issues, at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year,"

[The current Fanzine and Semiprozine rules specify that at least one issue must appear in the previous year, but do not give a deadline for satisfying the four-issue-total requirement; this motion would correct the omission.]

Default debate time 20 minutes; 5, 2, 7, and 10 minutes also proposed; 10 minutes voted.

3. Now Just What Rules Take Precedence?

MOVED, to replace the third sentence of Section 4.1 of the WSFS Constitution with the following:
Meetings shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions of (in descending order of precedence) the WSFS Constitution; the Standing Rules; such other rules as may be published in advance by the current Committee (which rules may be suspended by the Business Meeting by the same procedure as a Standing Rule); and Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised.

[This motion would clarify the order of precedence among the governing documents, and would make it possible for nonNorth American Worldcon Committees to adopt a parliamentary manual other than Roberts. (The new Standing Rule 25 was designed to regulate this authority.)

Default debate time 20 minutes; 2, 5, and 10 minutes also proposed; 5 minutes voted.

4. Extending Dramatic Presentation Eligibility to Related Subjects

MOVED, to amend Section 2.2.6 of the WSFS Constitution by changing "science fiction or fantasy" to "science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects".

[There is currently a dispute (triggered by the film Apollo 13) as to just which works are eligible for the Dramatic Presentation Hugo: must such works be themselves science fiction or fantasy, and if so, how does one define "science fiction or fantasy"? This motion would make the argument moot, by specifying the eligibility of works that are merely "related" to science fiction or fantasy.

Default debate time 6 minutes; 8, 20, 2, and 10 minutes also proposed; 10 minutes voted.

5. Report of WSFS Mark Protection Committee

Mr. Bloom reported orally, and submitted the following written minutes of the committees Thursday

meeting:

Excerpts from the Meeting of the Mark Protection Committee

A motion was passed that unless the Business Meeting objects, the Mark Protection Committee will proceed with the investigation of the Hugo rocket as a logo to designate an award.

A motion was introduced in writing by Robert Sacks on behalf of L.A.con III as follows:

The Mark Protection Committee will defer to the administrating committee on all decisions on licensing the Worldcon and WSFS marks for merchandise relating to that Worldcon.

Examples: With respect to 1996, 1996 Worldcon t-shirts, paraphernalia & book, & 1996 WSFS t-shirts would be covered; left over 1995 Worldcon paraphernalia, 1998 & 1999 bid paraphernalia, & the Past Hugos or Best of the Hugo book would not be covered.

Donald Eastlake introduced a motion by substitution, which was the subject of debate and amendment. The following motion was adopted in lieu of Mr. Sacks motion:

The Mark Protection Committee shall not license any of the marks of the World Science Fiction Society, for merchandise relating to a particular Worldcon, in violation of the wishes of that Worldcon committee, provided that those wishes have been communicated in writing to the Mark Protection Committee at its designated address.

(The current designated address of the Mark Protection Committee is PO Box 1270, Kendall Square Station, Cambridge, MA 02142.)

Submitted (but not yet approved by the MPC)

Gary Keith Feldbaum

Secretary, Mark Protection Committee

Nominations for Elected Members of Mark Protection Committee

Nominations were called for, and received for the following: Stephen Boucher (outside North America), Gary Keith Feldbaum (Eastern region), Sue Francis (Central), Linda Ross-Mansfield (Central), Glen Boettcher (Central), and Mark Olson (who declined). The Secretary announced a deadline of 6 PM for the receipt of acceptances [and in fact received all five acceptances before the end of the meeting].

6. Report of Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee

Mr. Eastlake asked to postpone his report until Sunday; no objection.

8. Report of Standing Rules Working Group

Mr. Standlee submitted the SRWG report (which is appended to these minutes, along with the minority report of Robert Sacks on p. A1), consisting of a base document (a complete new set of Standing Rules) with a number of separate amendments. He then moved adoption of the base document. Mr. Standlee suggested, and the Chair recommended, the following procedure: consider the base document as a whole, then consider the amendments separately.

Mr. Sacks made the point of order that the proposed Standing Rules 5 and 30 were invalid (on grounds explicated in the minority report). On SR5, the Chair ruled that the proper time to raise a point of order would be if there were an attempt to suspend it. On SR 30, the Chair asked Mr. Standlee whether the names of the Hugo categories and site-selection regions were "titles" or part of the substance of the respective sections; Mr. Standlee felt that the Business Meeting officers would do the right thing. The Chair then ruled that the names in question were not titles in the sense of SR30.

There was no objection to considering a motion on the floor to adopt the special procedure as described above. Ms. Dashoff asked when the new rules would take effect if adopted: At the end of this years Business Meeting. Mr. Yalow moved to close debate and immediately vote on adopting the proposed procedure and adopting the base document. Debate was closed (by a vote greater than 2/3). The base document was then passed overwhelmingly.

Mr. Standlee announced a planned open meeting of the SRWG immediately following this session of the Business Meeting. Mr. Olson suggested proceeding with the rest of the agenda; there was no objection.

After nudging by the Secretary, Mr. Standlee moved to suspend the rules to waive the requirement (in SR20) for publication of the complete old Standing Rules: Passed unanimously.

[Note: Numerical references to the new Standing Rules, here and elsewhere in these minutes, refer to the numbering as given in the attached SRWG report. After the subsequent passage of amendments, the numbering is somewhat different in the text later submitted to LoneStarCon and others for publication.]

9. Report of Special Committee on Extending Dramatic Presentation Eligibility to Entire Seasons

Ms. Sbarsky reported that she had been too busy to carry out the committees duties, and asked that it be continued for another year: No objection.

10. Worldcon Reports

Financial reports had been received from ConFrancisco, ConAdian, and Bucconeer; later in the meeting, one was received from LoneStarCon 2.

(The explanations in italics accompanying some motions are those submitted by the makers of the motions. In the motions themselves, capitalization and formatting have been regularized. The Secretarys suggested additions to the text are indicated in square brackets [thus], and suggested deletions in curly brackets {thus}. These alterations were not part of the texts considered by the Business Meeting.)

11. Calling a Spade a Spade and Not a Shovel

MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution as follows:
In Section 3.1, delete the sentence starting "The minimum voting fee".
In Section 3.2, delete the first sentence.
Insert a new section between Secs. 3.1 and 3.2 as follows:
"Voting shall be limited to WSFS members who have purchased at least a supporting membership in the Worldcon whose site is being selected. The supporting membership rate shall be set by agreement of the current Worldcon Committee and all bidding committees who have filed before the ballot deadline. If agreement is not reached, the supporting membership rate shall be twenty U.S. dollars ($20.00) or the equivalent."
In Section 1.5.2, replace "voting fee" by "site-selection fee" (twice).
In Section 3.3, replace "minimum fee in force" by "supporting membership rate".
In Section 3.8.3, replace "voting fee" by "supporting membership rate".
In Section 3.8.4, replace "voting fees" by "supporting memberships".
(submitted by Tim Illingworth and Mark Olson)

[This motion is intended to clarify the voting fee system by calling it "a supporting membership in the selected Worldcon" throughout the Constitution. It does not make any substantive change to current practice. Section 1.5.1 winds up a bit clumsy, however.

All the substantial changes are in the first part, which takes the current wording out of Sections 3.1 and 3.2 and combines them into a new section. The amendments in Secs. 1.5, 3.3, and 3.8 are merely wording changes.]

The proposed revised wording of Sections 3.1 & 3.2 is:

3.1: WSFS shall choose the location and Committee of the Worldcon to be held three (3) years from the date of the current Worldcon. Voting shall be by mail or ballot cast at the current Worldcon with run-off ballot as described in Section 2.9. The current Worldcon Committee shall administer the mail balloting, collect the advance membership fees, and turn over those funds to the winning Committee before the end of the current Worldcon. The site-selection voting totals shall be announced at the Business Meeting and published in the first or second Progress Report of the winning Committee, with the by-mail and at-convention votes distinguished.

3.2: Voting shall be limited to WSFS members who have purchased at least a supporting membership in the Worldcon whose site is being selected. The supporting membership rate shall be set by agreement of the current Worldcon Committee and all bidding committees who have filed before the ballot deadline. If agreement is not reached, the supporting membership rate shall be twenty U.S. dollars ($20.00) or the equivalent.

3.3: "No Preference" ballots may be cast by corporations, associations, and other non-human or artificial entities. "Guest of" memberships must be transferred to individual natural persons before being cast for other than "No Preference", with such transfers accepted by the administering convention.

The Chair expressed the opinion that the motion would make no substantive change. Default debate time 20 minutes; 5, 2, and 7 minutes also proposed; 5 minutes voted.

12. Let the NASFiC Administrator Administrate

MOVED, to amend Section 3.8.3 of the WSFS Constitution by replacing "the prospective candidates that file with the administering Committee" by "the administering Committee and all bidding committees who have filed before the ballot deadline".
(submitted by Tim Illingworth and Mark Olson)

[The NASFiC voting fee/membership rate is set by the bids only, without the involvement of the administering convention. I presume that there is no real reason why the administering committee is included in Section 3.1 but excluded in Section 3.8.

This fixes that problem.]

[Secretarys Note: The original wording of Item 12 called for simply inserting "the administering Committee and" before "the prospective candidates"; at my suggestion, the sponsors agreed to substitute language matching that in Sec. 3.1.]

(This would be a substantive change.) Mr. Beach asked whether Items 12 and 20 were independent: Yes. Default debate time 6 minutes; 10 and 3 minutes also proposed; 6 minutes voted.

13. Tally-Ho!

MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution as follows:
In Section 3.1, replace "Section 2.9" by "Section 3.4".
In Section 3.4.3, delete "and shall be the equivalent of No Award with respect to Section 2.9".
In Section 3.4.4, replace ", and tallying shall proceed according to normal preferential-ballot procedures." by ". If no majority is then obtained, the bid which places last in the tallying shall be eliminated and the ballots listing it as highest remaining preference shall be redistributed on the basis of those ballots highest remaining preference. This process shall be repeated until a majority-vote winner is obtained."
(submitted by Tim Illingworth and Mark Olson)

[In Article 3, there is more text explaining how the Site Selection count is different from the Hugo count than would be used in defining the Site Selection count separately. This amendment defines the site-selection voting system separately.

This motion would have the effect of eliminating the run-off between the winner and "None of the Above" from the site-selection count. Since we usually get a first-ballot winner in Site Selection, this is of little practical importance, but it will reduce the number of nightmare outcomes by one.

Actually, the first two parts of this motion will do the trick perfectly well by themselves, but I've included the amendment to Section 3.4.4 as its easier to strike wording from a motion at the Business Meeting than it is to insert it.]

The Chair expressed the opinion that the explanation was correct. Mr. Sacks objected to consideration; the objection failed few to many. Default debate time 20 minutes; 5, 2, 10, and 12 minutes also proposed; 10 minutes voted.

14. An Alligator Sandwich

MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution as follows:
Move Section 1.5.5 to become Section 1.8.2. Replace the remainder of Section 1.5 with the following new sections:

1.5.1: Each Worldcon shall offer supporting and attending memberships.

1.5.2: The rights of supporting members of a Worldcon include the right to receive all of

its generally distributed publications.

1.5.3: The rights of attending members of a Worldcon include the rights of supporting members plus the right of general attendance at said Worldcon and at the WSFS Business Meeting held thereat.

1.5.4: Members of WSFS who cast a site-selection ballot with the required fee shall be supporting members of the selected Worldcon.

1.5.5: Voters have the right to convert to attending membership in the selected Worldcon within ninety (90) days of its selection, for an additional fee set by its committee. This fee must not exceed two (2) times the site-selection fee and must not exceed the difference between the site-selection fee and the fee for new attending members.

1.5.6: The Worldcon Committee shall make provision for persons to become supporting members for no more than 125% of the site-selection fee, or such higher amount as has been approved by the Business Meeting, until a cutoff date no earlier than ninety (90) days before their Worldcon.

1.5.7: Other memberships and fees shall be at the discretion of the Worldcon Committee.
(submitted by Tim Illingworth and Mark Olson)

[I believe that this makes no change to existing practice but is a lot easier to follow.

This incorporates the changes of "voting fee" to "site-selection fee" that are in "Calling a Spade a Spade..." Section 1.5.1 is new text, but has no effect.]

Mr. Sacks asked whether we could do something about short titles with no meaning: Not under the current rules. Default debate time 20 minutes; 5, 2, 10, 6 minutes also proposed; 6 minutes voted. The Chair expressed the opinion that this motion would entail no substantive change.

15. Its a Worldcon, Dammit

MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution as follows:
Delete Section 3.7 and insert a new section before 3.6 as follows:

3.x: A site outside North America is eligible for selection in any year. A site within North America is eligible for selection if it is within the appropriate region, as defined below. The North American regions shall rotate in the order Western, Central, Eastern region. An site shall be ineligible if it is within sixty (60) miles of the site at which selection occurs.
In Section 3.6, replace "sites, North America" by "sites within North America, it".
In Section 3.8: Delete the first sentence. Replace the second sentence by "If the selected Worldcon site is not in North America, there shall be a NASFiC in the North American region eligible that year."
(submitted by Tim Illingworth and Ben Yalow)

[This amendment makes no change to current practice. It changes the Constitutional view of the Worldcon from being a North American convention which occasionally happens elsewhere to being a worldwide convention with special provisions for North America.]

Default debate time 20 minutes; 2, 3, 10, and 5 minutes also proposed; 3 minutes voted. It was pointed out that "An site" in the last sentence of the new section should read "A site".

16. Best Related Book

MOVED, to replace Section 2.2.5 of the WSFS Constitution ("Best Non-Fiction Book") by the following:

Best Related Book. Any work whose subject is related to the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom, appearing for the first time in book form during the previous calendar year, and which is either non-fiction or, if fictional, is noteworthy primarily for aspects other than the fictional text.

[submitted by George Flynn and Mark Olson]

The Non-Fiction Book category was originally intended as a means of honoring "miscellaneous" books, i.e., any book that was not a novel or a story collection. The imprudent choice of the term "non-fiction" has led to repeated arguments over whether particular works are fictional or not, and books with much voter support have sometimes been ruled ineligible. This motion would replace "non-fiction" by "related", in an attempt to make the category’s definition match the kinds of works that people have actually tended to nominate. (Note that the term "related" is already included in the Best Fanzine definition, and its inclusion in Best Dramatic Presentation is up for ratification.)

The "noteworthy primarily for aspects other than the fictional text" clause is intended to embrace art books like Dinotopia, in which the fictional text is primarily a vehicle to support the art (and which would otherwise be orphaned if the Best Original Artwork category is abolished). Here and elsewhere, the intent is for the voters, not the administrators, to decide which works are appropriate.

Item 22 was in direct conflict with this motion, so both could not be passed. The Chair suggested that Item 22 be treated as an amendment by substitution to Item 16:

22. Revised Best Non-Fiction Hugo

[MOVED, to] amend Section 2.2.5 of the WSFS Constitution by substituting the phrase "history, biography, autobiography, or critical study" for "non-fictional work", as follows:

Best Non-Fiction Book. Any history, biography, autobiography, or critical study whose subject is the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom appearing for the first time in book form during the previous calendar year.

[submitted by Lew Wolkoff, Sara Paul, Rebecca Kaplowitz, and Ira A. Kaplowitz]

Mr. Ruh objected to consideration of Item 22; the objection failed by a vote of approximately 19 to 30. Mr. Yalow suggested that Item 22 be treated as an amendment by replacement (no objection), and that it be acted on immediately. The Chair suggested the procedure of perfecting each version, then voting between them; there was no objection to this procedure.

Ms. Dashoff moved to amend Item 16 by striking the word "non-fiction" and substituting "history, biography, autobiography, or critical study" [from Item 22]. In response to an inquiry, the Chair ruled that this wording would make many art books ineligible, and at least some general encyclopedias.

Mr. Feldbaum moved to postpone the whole stack of motions to Saturday. Mr. Wolkoff expressed the wish to postpone the matter to next year. Mr. Feldbaum made the point of order that the Standing Rules prohibited this [old SR 13]; the Chair agreed that Mr. Wolkoffs amendment was out of order. Mr. Illingworth asked whether it would be in order to move to refer both motions to a committee to report Saturday: Yes. Mr. Yalow moved to suspend the rules to permit postponement until next year (pointing out that such an action could be reconsidered on Saturday); the Chair ruled that such a suspension was out of order, since the rule in question protects absentees. Ms. Hertel moved the previous question: Passed. The motion to postpone to Saturday was then passed.

The matter to be considered Saturday was thus the choice between Items 16 and 22, with an amendment pending on Item 16 (5 minutes debate time on the latter). Since no debate time had been set for the main motion, the 20-minute default time would remain in effect.

17. Which Deadline?

MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution as follows:

In Sec. 3.8.4, replace "deadline" by "deadline for the printed ballot"; and replace "all voting fees collected" by "any voting fees collected".

In Sec. 3.1, replace "deadline" by "ballot deadline".

[submitted by George Flynn and Mark Olson]

The Constitution (in Sec. 3.5) now mentions two site-selection "deadlines": the 180-days-out deadline to file for the printed ballot, and the close-of-the-voting deadline to file as a write-in bid. This clarification would eliminate a possible source of misinterpretation. In particular, it would make clear that no NASFiC election is to be held if no bidders file in time for the printed ballot. Thanks to Covert Beach for suggesting the change from "all" to "any", making clear that voting fees don't have to be collected. (The change in Sec. 3.1 here is also included in Tim Illingworths "Calling a Spade a Spade . . ." motion.)

Default debate time 6 minutes; 1, 2, and 3 minutes also proposed; 2 minutes voted.

18. [New Article III]

MOVED, to amend Article III of the WSFS Constitution by deleting the entire present text and substituting the following:

Section 1: Manner of Selection. WSFS shall choose the location and Committee of the Worldcon to be held three (3) years from the date of the current Worldcon. Voting shall be by {by} ballots cast by mail or at the current Worldcon by those individual WSFS members who have paid at least twenty-five U.S. dollars ($25.00) or equivalent, or such other minimum voting fee as may be unanimously agreed by the current Worldcon Committee and all bidding committees filing before the deadline, towards membership in the Worldcon whose site is being selected. Tallying shall be as described in Section 2.9. The current Worldcon Committee shall administer the mail balloting, collect the advance membership fees, and turn over those funds to the winning Committee before the end of the current Worldcon. The site-selection voting totals shall be announced at the Business Meeting and published within a year by the winning Committee, with by-mail and at-convention votes distinguished.

Section 2: Ballots. Site-selection ballots shall include name, signature, address, and membership-number spaces to be filled in by the voter. Each site-selection ballot shall list the options "None of the Above" and "No Preference" and provide for write-in votes, after the bidders and with equal prominence, and indicate the minimum voting fee.

Section 3: Counting of Ballots. The name and address information shall be separated from the ballots and ballots counted only at the Worldcon with two (2) witnesses from each bidding committee allowed to observe. Each bidding committee may make a record of the name and address of every voter.

A ballot voted with first or only choice for "No Preference" shall be ignored for site selection, and a ballot with lower than first choice for "No Preference" shall be ignored if all higher choices on it have been eliminated in preferential tallying; however, in the event of a tie between two nominees other than "No Preference", the next choices ranked after "No Preference" on ballots may be used to break the tie.

"None of the Above" shall be treated as a bid for tallying and shall be the equivalent of "No Award" with respect for Section 2.9. If it wins, the duty of site selection shall devolve upon the Business Meeting of the current Worldcon. If the Business Meeting is unable to decide by the end of the Worldcon, the Committee for the following Worldcon shall make the selection without undue delay.

All ballots shall be initially tallied by their first preferences, even if cast for a bid that the administering Committee has ruled ineligible. If no eligible bid receives a majority on the first round of tallying, then on the second round all ballots for ineligible bids shall be redistributed to their first eligible choices, and tallying shall proceed according to normal preferential-ballot procedures.

Section 4: Bidding Committee Eligibility. To be eligible for site selection, a bidding committee must present adequate evidence of an agreement with its proposed facilities, such as a conditional contract or letter of agreement; and must state the rules under which the World[con] Committee will operate, including a specification of the means of selection and replacement of their chief executive officer or officers. Written copies of these rules must be made available to any member of WSFS on request. For a bid to be allowed on the printed ballot, the aforementioned rules and agreements, along with an announcement of intent to bid, must be filed with the Committee that will be administering the voting no later than 180 days prior to the opening of the administering convention; to be eligible as a write-in, a bid must file these documents by the close of the voting. If no bids meet these qualifications, the sel[e]ction shall proceed as though "None of the Above" had won.

Section 5: Site Eligibility. To ensure equitable distribution of sites, no site shall be eligible for selection if it is within three hundred (300) miles of the site at which selection occurs, or of that then planned for any subsequently selected Worldcon; or if it is in the same metropolitan area, in the opinion of the administering Committee, as more than one of the preceding ten (10) Worldcons. A Committee decision against a bid's eligibility under this section may be appealed to the Business Meeting of the administering Worldcon.

Section 6: NASFiC Selection. In the event of a Worldcon site outside North America being selected, a NASFiC shall be held, and its site shall be selected by the identical procedure to the Worldcon selection except as provided below or elsewhere in this Constitution:

(a) Voting shall be by written ballot administered by the following year's Worldcon, with ballots cast thereat or by mail, and with only its members allowed to vote.

(b) If "None of the Above" wins, or no eligible bid files by the deadline, then no NASFiC shall be held and all voting fees collected for NASFiC site selection shall be refunded by the administering Worldcon without undue delay.

Section 7: Future Bidder Presentations. Each Worldcon Committee shall provide a reasonable opportunity for bona fide bidding committees for the Worldcon to be selected at the following Worldcon to make presentations.

Section 8: Contingency on Collapse of Committees. With sites being selected three (3) years in advance, there are at least three selected current or future Worldcon Committees at any time. If one of these should be unable to perform its duties, the other selected current or future Worldcon Committee whose site is closest to the site of the one unable to perform its duties shall determine what action to take, by consulting the Business Meeting or by mail poll of the WSFS if there is sufficient time, or by decision of the Committee if otherwise.

[submitted by Louis Epstein and Linda Fitzpatrick]

[The Secretary contemplates the desirability of a rule requiring that motions over a certain length be submitted on disk. Or maybe charging a fee by the word . . .]

Mr. Illingworth objected to consideration; the objection was approved many to 1, so item 18 was killed.

19. Obit or Dictum

WHEREAS (1) The Science Fiction Field, begun approximately in the 1930s, is demonstrably aging; and

WHEREAS (2) The founding members of the Science Fiction Field are dying in ever-increasing numbers; and

WHEREAS (3) The subsets of the Science Fiction Field Science Fiction films, comics, tv shows, etc. aren't doing any better; and

WHEREAS (4) The Memorial List in the Worldcon Program Book/Souvenir Book/Whatever Its Called is getting longer and extending deeper [The Chair will please rule out of order any allegedly jocular side remarks involving Six Feet of Depth!] into the Field year by year; and

WHEREAS (5) The cut-off date for inclusion in such a list is usually no later than 1 July of the Worldcon year; and

WHEREAS (6) Persons who would otherwise be included on the Memorial List, who die after July 1 but before September 10, are very easily missed for inclusion on the list for either the World[c]on of their Death Year or that of the succeeding year; and

WHEREAS (7) The Omission of Important People from the ML reflects badly on the Worldcon Committees of both years; and

WHEREAS (8) People keep doing it anyway, no matter HOW inconsiderate it is;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

The World Science Fiction Convention, its Society[,]and its Business Meeting{,} do hereby Strongly Urge and Admonish all persons connected in any way, past or present (or future), to the Science Fiction Field or its subfields, NOT to die between July 1 and September 10, NOR permit the notice of their passing to be first publicized to the Science Fiction Field and/or its subfields during that ten-week period

[submitted by Bruce E. Pelz, Seth Breidbart, Tim Illingworth, Mark Olson, Ed Green, and Richard H. E. Smith]

Numerous objections to consideration were made; the vote being about even (less than two-thirds), the objection failed. Mr. Sacks made the point of order that the motion was beyond the competence of the assembly. The Chair ruled that the point was well taken, in that the matter was outside the purposes of the Society; but added that the motion could be considered if two-thirds wished to do so. Mr. Olson appealed the ruling of the Chair (with the intent of allowing consideration by a majority vote): The Chair was overruled. Mr. Dashoff moved to divide the question at the "NOR"; the motion failed. Mr. Olson moved to recommit the motion to a committee consisting of Mr. Pelz, to report back at his earliest convenience with a version including a penalty clause. Ms. Kaplowitz moved the previous question, which was passed. The motion to refer to a committee then passed.

20. Median of the Track

MOVED, to replace the last sentence of Section 3.2 of the WSFS Constitution with

If agreement is not reached, the default fee for WSFS Site Selections shall be the Median (Middle Value) of the US$ fees used in the previous three Worldcon Site Selections.

The attached working document represents a complete rewrite of the existing Standing Rules for the Governance of the WSFS Business Meeting. In the opinion of the Working Group, changes to the Base Document do not substantially change the effect of the old Standing Rules. The attached report includes a base document with no substantive changes, a set of proposed standing rules amendments, a set of proposed constitutional amendments, and a proposed resolution.

Reservations: Various members of the Standing Rules Working Group raised reservations against portions of the Base Document and proposed amendments. These reservations were submitted to a vote of the group. A 2/3 vote of "not persuasive" indicated that the SRWG felt the reservation was not persuasive. Reservations as raised are included in the commentary text, along with the vote considering the reservation. (See appendix, pp. 11-12, for key to initials.)

For a summary of the committee’s history and technical material relating to WSFS and Parliamentary Law and Procedure, see the technical appendix, pp. 11-12.

SR 1: Meeting and Session. The Annual Meeting of the World Science Fiction Society shall consist of one or more Preliminary Business Meetings and one or more Main Business Meetings. The first meeting shall be designated as a Preliminary Business Meeting. All meetings at a Worldcon (preliminary, main, or otherwise) shall be considered a single "session" as defined in the Parliamentary Authority (see section 4.1 of the WSFS Constitution), regardless of whether such gatherings are called "meetings" or "sessions."

Add the following Standing Rule after new SR 24:

Amend; Friendly Amendments. A member may modify or withdraw a motion made by the member until substantive debate has begun. Such modifications shall be limited to minor changes or to those which the maker deems acceptable to the assembly, and may be amended by vote of the meeting as if the modification had been part of the original motion.

A substantial minority of the membership of the SRWG suggests the following as an amendment:

Amend; Friendly Amendments. A member may, on his own initiative or at the suggestion of another member, modify or withdraw a motion he has made until substantive debate has begun the motion has been put to a vote. Such modifications shall be limited to minor changes or to those which the maker deems acceptable to the assembly, and may be amended by vote of the meeting as if the modification had been part of the original motion.

Add the following Standing Rule after new SR 16:

Debate Time Limits; Minimum Substantive Debate. If the debate time expires before either or both sides of the question have had an opportunity for substantive debate, any side that has not had such an opportunity shall have the lesser of two (2) minutes or half of the total debate time set by the meeting for the motion, such time to be used solely for the purpose of substantive debate.

A Standing Rule amendment that would require "voting cards" for members who are unable to stand was referred to the SRWG:

Voting Cards. The administering convention shall provide members who are unable to stand to vote with brightly colored cards to indicate when they wish to vote.

The SRWG recommends the following as an amendment by substitution (although the SRWG recommends against passage of the overall proposal, as noted below):

Accommodating Disabilities. The Business Meeting Staff shall provide a practical alternative for people unable to rise (or raise hands) to seek recognition or vote.

NEGATIVE RECOMENDATION: By a vote of 8-1, the SRWG voted to recommend against passage of either version of this proposal. The Standing Rules Working Group believes that the rights of all members of WSFS are fully secured by the Question of Personal Privilege as defined in the parliamentary authority (Robert’s Rules Of Order, Newly Revised, pp. 223-229) and that this motion is wholly redundant, and recommends against its passage in either form.

Amend SR 26 by striking words as shown:

Amend SRs 1, 2, and 28 by adding the sentence "This rule may not be suspended" to each rule:

The Standing Rules Working Group recommends the adoption of the following amendments to the WSFS Constitution (except as noted). These amendments generally move language from the SR to the Constitution, and therefore the amendments include language which removes the corresponding standing rule once the amendment is ratified.

Moved, to amend the third sentence of section 4.4 of the WSFS Constitution to read:

Of the nine elected members, no more than three may be residing, at the time of election at the time they are elected, in any single North American region, as defined in Section 3.6.

Provided That upon ratification of this amendment, Standing Rule 13 shall be repealed.

Add a new section to Article V (probably after current section 5.4):

Standing Rules. Standing Rules for the Governance of the Business Meeting and related activities may be adopted or amended by a majority vote at any Business Meeting. Amendments to Standing Rules shall take effect at the close of the Worldcon where they are adopted; this rule may be suspended by a two-thirds (2/3) vote.

Provided That upon ratification of this amendment, Standing Rule 32 shall be repealed.

Add a new section to article V (probably before current section 5.5):

Numbers, Titles, References, and Technical Corrections. Numbers and titles of the various parts of the Constitution and Standing Rules are for the sake of easy reference only. They do not form a substantive part of these documents nor of any motion to amend these documents. The Business Meeting Secretary shall incorporate into these documents appropriate changes as required by newly adopted amendments. When making any such adjustments required by this section, the Business Meeting Secretary shall change article and section numbers, titles, and internal cross-references as necessary to maintain a consistent, parallel structure, which shall not be altered unless the Business Meeting explicitly so directs. The Business Meeting Secretary may change punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and other wording in the Constitution and Standing Rules only insofar as such changes clarify meaning and enhance consistency, and only insofar as such changes do not modify the substantive meaning of the documents.

Provided That upon ratification of this amendment, Standing Rule 30 shall be repealed.

The Standing Rules Working Group, by a vote of 8-2, recommends the adoption of the following resolution if the Base Document is approved. If the Base Document fails to be adopted, this motion will be withdrawn.

Resolved, That Kevin Standlee is authorized to form a Constitutional Revision Working Group (CRWG) for the purpose of drafting a revision of the WSFS Constitution;

Resolved, That the CRWG is instructed to produce a series of "base documents" rewriting the existing constitution for clarity without changing its effect, and proposed amendments for the improvement of the constitution, on a schedule of one article of the Constitution per year during its existence;

Resolved, That the CRWG is instructed to make reasonable efforts to publicize their activities in such media as are apt to be concerned with the project, including APA:WSFS;

Resolved, That the CRWG is instructed to submit a report to the Business Meeting of the 1997 WSFS Business Meeting with a proposed revision of Article I of the WSFS Constitution, and if continued by that meeting, to proceed to Article II in the following year, then Article III, and so forth as long as the CRWG is continued; and,

Resolved, That any unqualified motion to continue the CRWG adopted by a future WSFS Business Meeting shall be presumed to refer to this resolution and incorporate it by reference.

As of 8 August 1996, the following people were on the SRWG Chairman’s List of Members. There may be other people following the discussion on the electronic mailing list.

Members who "signed" the report (actual physical signatures could, of course, not be obtained in advance of the convention; these "virtual signatures" were submitted by electronic or postal mail). Members signing the report endorse the base document and agree that the report substantially reflects the results of the SRWG deliberations, but do not necessarily endorse any of the proposed amdendments or resolutions.

Members of SRWG who did not respond when asked if they would "sign" report. Failure to sign does not necessarily imply opposition to the report.

The "Official Papers" of WSFS consist of a Constitution, a set of Standing Rules for Governance of the Business Meeting, and the Business Passed On from one Worldcon to the next. Many people think that the Standing Rules are in need of revision to clarify their meaning. The 1994 WSFS BM, held at ConAdian, the 1994 Worldcon, voted to create a Standing Rules Working Group (hereafter called SRWG) to study the Standing Rules of WSFS and to report a consistent set of revised rules for consideration by the 1995 WSFS Business Meeting. A number of proposed Standing Rules revisions were referred to the SRWG for consideration. Because the 1994 BM referred new rules to the SRWG, the SRWG Chairman interpreted the charge of the committee as: (1) rewrite the existing rules for consistency, incorporating actual practice of WSFS; and (2) propose changes to improve the rules. Mark Olson, who later joined the SRWG, urged that the SRWG report the revision (which should have no substantive changes) separately from any changes.

At the time the committee was created, Mr. Standlee, who styled himself Chairman of the SRWG, took the names of those people who expressed an interest in the matter. The SRWG was continued by the 1995 Business Meeting with instructions to report to the 1996 Business Meeting at L.A.con III.

Version 1 was mailed to members of the SRWG in June 1995. Version 1A was distributed at Westercon 48 in Portland OR, and members of the SRWG met there on July 1, 1995. Version 2 was published in APA:WSFS. Version 3 was distributed at the WSFS Business Meeting at Intersection, the 1995 World Science Fiction Convention, in Glasgow, Scotland, on August 25, 1995. Version 4 was distributed via APA:WSFS 96.1. Version 5 was a Final Draft and Call for Votes. After Version 5, many members expressed reservations regarding the document, and the Chairman felt it best to return these reservations to the membership before completing the document. Version 6, a Revised Final Draft and Second Call For Votes, mailed in early June 1996, contained those reservations and a way to vote on them. Version 7 was the Second Revised Final Draft, and is intended to be the version submitted to the WSFS Business Meeting as the Final Report. Version 8 was supposed to be the actual final report to the WSFS Business Meeting, but a few more changes were made after it was published. Version 9 is the actual final report to the WSFS Business Meeting.

Various members raised reservations against portions of the Base Document and proposed amendments. These reservations were submitted to a vote of the group. A 2/3 vote of "not persuasive" indicated that the SRWG felt the reservation was not persuasive. Reservations as raised are included in the commentary text, along with the vote considering the reservation. Key to initials: LB=Leroy Berven GB=Glen Boettcher LE=Louis Epstein GF=George Flynn TI=Tim Illingworth SJ=Saul Jaffe MO=Mark Olson RS=Robert Sacks KS=Kevin Standlee MVB= Mike Vande Bunt BY=Ben Yalow.

"World Science Fiction Society", "WSFS", "World Science Fiction Convention", "Worldcon", "NASFiC", and "Hugo Award" are registered service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society. We presume that readers of this document already know what these service marks mean, and furthermore that they know about the WSFS Business Meeting (hereafter BM, despite the unfortunate double entendre). We presume that the reader has at least a general familiarity with the operations of the WSFS BM. If the reader does not understand the terms used in this document, we suggest you contact the Chairman of the Standing Rules Working Group for clarification.

The parliamentary authority of WSFS is The Scott, Foresman Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, 9^th Edition, (ISBN 0-673-38734-8), hereafter RONR. Consistent with provisions of parliamentary law, RONR is the authority except where the provisions of the WSFS Constitution, Standing Rules, or Special Rules established by the hosting Worldcon supersede it.

Please note that there are several different books that say "Robert’s Rules of Order" on their cover. Most of them are reprints of earlier editions of the rules, going back to before 1900. Only the current edition listed above is current and authoritative. Page references to RONR are to the 9^th Edition. In 1970, the book that most people know as Robert’s Rules of Order, which is the 6^th (1951) edition, was completely rewritten into the current Newly Revised. The 7^th (1970), 8^th (1981), and 9^th (1990) editions are substantially the same version of RONR, with only minor differences between them.

Covert Beach, after reading a pre-release draft of this document, expressed the concern that these Standing Rules are too closely tied to RONR and that the revision would make it practically impossible for a host committee to establish a different parliamentary authority. (The current Constitution and Standing Rules appear to imply that the host committee could establish a different authority.) The Chair of the SRWG disagrees with this opinion. This revision removes some of the specific references to RONR in the old rules. It is impossible to remove all connections between the Standing Rules and RONR, because American parliamentary procedure as codified in RONR is the basis for the structure of the WSFS Business Meeting. However, the SRWG has endeavored to make the references as general as possible. Mr. Beach submitted a constitutional amendment at the 1995 meeting which clarifies the relationship between the various authorities; this amendment received first passage at Intersection and is pending ratification as of this writing.

RONR makes a distinction between "Standing Rules" and "Special Rules of Order." Standing Rules are rules for order and conduct of business. Special Rules of Order are parliamentary rules that supersede the parliamentary authority. In studying the current WSFS Standing Rules (hereafter SR), it becomes clear that some of the existing rules are Standing Rules, while others are Special Rules of Order. However, RONR also points out that some organizations, particularly annual conventions, combine their Standing Rules and Special Rules of Order. In the pre-release draft of this document, the SRWG Chair tried to separate the two pieces. Upon further consideration, he finds it rather difficult to keep them separate. Therefore, this report keeps a single document, called "Standing Rules," that also includes certain "Special Rules of Order." For further discussion of the distinction between the two kinds of documents, see RONR, pp. 15 passim.

Members of the Standing Rules Working Group met after the Preliminary Business Meeting on Friday, August 30, to disucss the proposed standing rule amendments, constitutional amendments, and proposed resolution. This meeting, with the consent of the SRWG Chairman, has revised this portion of Discussion Document 9 as shown herein. Material stricken by the Friday SRWG meeting is in strikethrough bold italic type. Material added by the Friday SRWG meeting is in double underline bold italic type. This document is intended to substitute for the material on pages 7 through 10 (except for new SR 31 on p. 7) of Discussion Document 9 distributed on Friday.

Add the following Standing Rule after new SR 24:

Amend; Friendly Amendments. A member may modify or withdraw a motion made by the member until substantive debate has begun. Such modifications shall be limited to minor changes or to those which the maker deems acceptable to the assembly, and may be amended by vote of the meeting as if the modification had been part of the original motion.

A substantial minority of the membership of the SRWG suggests the following as an amendment:

Amend; Friendly Amendments. A member may, on his own initiative or at the suggestion of another member, modify or withdraw a motion he has made until substantive debate has begun the motion has been put to a vote. Such modifications shall be limited to minor changes or to those which the maker deems acceptable to the assembly, and may be amended by vote of the meeting as if the modification had been part of the original motion.

Add the following Standing Rule after new SR 16:

Debate Time Limits; Minimum Substantive Debate. If the debate time expires before either or both sides of the question have had an opportunity for substantive debate, any side that has not had such an opportunity shall have the lesser of two (2) minutes or half of the total debate time set by the meeting for the motion, such time two (2) minutes to be used solely for the purpose of substantive debate.

A Standing Rule amendment that would require "voting cards" for members who are unable to stand was referred to the SRWG.

The SRWG recommends the following as an amendment by substitutionThe SRWG recommends the following wording (although the SRWG recommends against passage of the overall proposal, as noted below):

Accommodating Disabilities. The Business Meeting Staff shall provide a practical alternative for people unable to rise (or raise hands) to seek recognition or vote.

NEGATIVE RECOMENDATION: By a vote of 8-1, the SRWG voted to recommend against passage of either version of this proposal. The Standing Rules Working Group believes that the rights of all members of WSFS are fully secured by the Question of Personal Privilege as defined in the parliamentary authority (Robert’s Rules Of Order, Newly Revised, pp. 223-229) and that this motion is wholly redundant, and recommends against its passage in either form.

Amend SR 26 by striking words as shown:

Amend SRs 1, 2, and 28 by adding the sentence "This rule may not be suspended" to each rule:

The Standing Rules Working Group recommends the adoption of the following amendments to the WSFS Constitution (except as noted). These amendments generally move language from the SR to the Constitution, and therefore the amendments include language which removes the corresponding standing rule once the amendment is ratified.

Moved, to amend the third sentence of section 4.4 of the WSFS Constitution to read:

Of the nine elected members, no more than three may be residing, at the time of election at the time they are elected, in any single North American region, as defined in Section 3.6.

Provided That upon ratification of this amendment, Standing Rule 13 shall be repealed.

Add a new section to Article V (probably after current section 5.4):

Standing Rules. Standing Rules for the Governance of the Business Meeting and related activities may be adopted or amended by a majority vote at any Business Meeting. Amendments to Standing Rules shall take effect at the close of the Worldcon where they are adopted; this rule may be suspended by a two-thirds (2/3) vote.

Provided That upon ratification of this amendment, Standing Rule 31 shall be repealed.

Add a new section to article V (probably before current section 5.5):

Numbers, Titles, References, and Technical Corrections. Numbers and titles of the various parts of the Constitution and Standing Rules are for the sake of easy reference only. They do not form a substantive part of these documents nor of any motion to amend these documents. The Business Meeting Secretary shall incorporate into these documents appropriate changes as required by newly adopted amendments. When making any such adjustments required by this section, the Business Meeting Secretary shall change article and section numbers, titles, and internal cross-references as necessary to maintain a consistent, parallel structure, which shall not be altered unless the Business Meeting explicitly so directs. The Business Meeting Secretary may change punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and other wording in the Constitution and Standing Rules only insofar as such changes clarify meaning and enhance consistency, and only insofar as such changes do not modify the substantive meaning of the documents.

Provided That upon ratification of this amendment, Standing Rule 30 shall be repealed.

The Standing Rules Working Group, by a vote of 8-2, recommends the adoption of the following resolution.

1. Resolved, That Kevin Standlee is authorized to form a Constitutional Revision Working Group (CRWG) for the purpose of drafting a revision of the WSFS Constitution;

2. That the CRWG is instructed to produce a series of "base documents" rewriting the existing constitution for clarity without changing its effect, and proposed amendments for the improvement of the constitution, on a schedule of one article of the Constitution per year during its existence;

3. That the CRWG is instructed to make reasonable efforts to publicize their activities in such media as are apt to be concerned with the project, including APA:WSFS;

4. That the CRWG is instructed to submit a report to the Business Meeting of the 1997 WSFS Business Meeting with a proposed revision of Article I of the WSFS Constitution, and if continued by that meeting, to proceed to Article II in the following year, then Article III, and so forth as long as the CRWG is continued; and,

5. That any unqualified motion to continue the CRWG adopted by a future WSFS Business Meeting shall be presumed to refer to this resolution and incorporate it by reference.