exhausted
jared_dashoff's handling of the parts where he had to preside, including the Committee of the Whole. The main reason we're running so long is that we have about twice the usual attendance, and most of the new attendees have not attended before, and everyone wants to talk. I admit that my requiring people to come to the front of the room to speak slows things down, but it does make it a lot easier for everyone else to hear what's being said, and it means the recordings are clear.After the meeting, the head table had a second "What Just Happened" panel, and when that ended, I met up with Lisa and with
scott_sanford, who had just finished uploading the last of the Friday Business Meeting videos to the YouTube Worldcon Events channel. We stored our gear in the minivan and met up with lindadee, then walked the short distance to Luigi's a block away.
The smoke around Spokane is awful. This is the worst I can ever remember experiencing, and I've lived on US Forest Service bases that were themselves menaced by wildfires. Smoke smell is everywhere, and there are intermittent ash falls. Eyes burn and it can be hard to breathe. Even indoors it gets difficult.
Luigi's was as good as we remembered. The owner served us, and we filled him in on the schedule, including warning him of a potential for a late rush of patrons after the Hugo Awards Ceremony tomorrow night.
After lunch, I got the good camera and used the back side of the Match Game SF sign as a backdrop for photographing the 2015 Hugo Award trophy on display in the exhibits area. (The photo is now online on The Hugo Awards web site.) By having me take the photo, there is no question about us having the right to use the photo and make it available for public use.
I took the computer over to the INB Theatre and confirmed that I can get online (not with as much bandwidth as I would like, but I can get it) to do the Saturday night Hugo Ceremony.
By the time that was all done, and with the amount of time it takes to get up and down the elevators at the Doubletree Hotel, it was time to meet up with the rest of the bidders (I'm part of the Montreal in 2017 crew) for the close of Site Selection and to repair to the Davenport Grand Hotel for the 2017 Site Selection ballot count.
John Mansfield, one of the Canadian Crew, quipped that thanks to the Spokane fires, we really would be counting the ballots in a smoke-filled room. Here are the teams arranged at tables before we had a meal break followed by the actual process of separating out and counting the ballots.
I'll post the (unofficial) site selection results in a separate entry.
Once again I have many more photos than I can post because I can't take the time to process them and publish them. I have to get a few hours of sleep, after all.
