This it was on to New Business, where six proposals had made it from the Preliminary Business Meeting. Four of them passed, two of them in different forms than they were originally proposed.
- Popular Ratification: This was my proposal, sent to an ad hoc committee for revision by the Preliminary Meeting. The "Arithmetic Committee" reported a recommended substitute that replaced the original "1+1" proposal (amendments passed in one year are submitted to the members of the following year for ratification) with a "2+1" version (amendments are passed by one Business Meeting, ratified by the second year's meeting, then submitted to the members of the third Worldcon for ratification). After debating between the two versions, the meeting selected 2+1 as the preferred alternative, then after still more debate on whether popular ratification in any form is a good idea, the meeting voted 52-39 to pass it.
- Hugo Nominating for NASFIC Members: After a debate over whether WSFS's other convention should convey some voting rights to WSFS, the meeting rejected it on a vote by show of hands. It appears that the major objections were from those people who dislike the concept of NASFIC and those who considered the proposal a "power grab" by Americans to ensure than even more Americans dominate the Hugo Awards.
- A Story by Any Other Name: This proposal from Colin Harris and Mary Robinette Kowal clarifies the status of audiobooks relative to the "story" categories such as Novel, Novella, etc. There were attempts to amend it that failed, and the original proposal passed by a vote by show of hands.
- Performers Are Fans Too: This proposal to create a Best Fan Performer category was first amended into a "Best Fan Performance" (awarding specific works, not people), but then the amended proposal was rejected on a vote by show of hands.
- Hugo Finalists: The Nitpicking & Flyspecking Committee recommended this proposal to relabel those works or people who appear on the Hugo Award Shortlist "finalists" instead of "nominees." This passed on a vote by show of hands.
- Membership Types and Rates: The "Selling Votes" committee returned a substitute version that attempted to clarify an apparent ambiguity in the original. The substitute was adopted, but then I brought up some points about how the wording ignored NASFIC, and that there are conditions where NASFICs have a WSFS voting right (electing future NASFICs). After further neepery, we ended up with a version that passed by unanimous consent.
The four items that got first passage this year will be submitted to next year's Worldcon for ratification. Anything ratified there, including the revised version of Popular Ratification, will take effect at the end of the 2015 Worldcon, first affecting the 2016 Worldcon. In other words, if Popular Ratification gets through the 2015 Business Meeting, anything first passed at the 2016 WSFS BM will have to be first ratified by the 2017 WSFS BM and then approved by a referendum of the 2018 Worldcon's members.
Here are the three videos that make up the 2014 WSFS Main Business Meeting held on Saturday morning of the 2014 Worldcon, Loncon 3.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Note: It's many hours after these videos go up that I have time to format them into entries like this. If you want to know things a little faster (not that there's much more news to report), follow my Twitter Feed (@KevinStandlee). To see the Business Meeting videos as they post (as opposed to when I announce them here), follow my YouTube channel.