Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

I haven't written up the results of today's meeting yet, but I was able to set the videos to uploading before going to lunch, and they are now online:

There was a lot less material today, and the meeting lasted a lot less time than on Friday, but that's because the Preliminary Business Meeting disposed of so much of the material originally submitted.

Part 1: Constitutional Amendments in Agenda Section 4 (Publications, Membership Costs and Rights, WSFS Accountability Act, Expand Best Fan Artist)

Part 2: Constitutional Amendments in Agenda Section 2 (From the HEROW Committee: Reducing 3/4 majorities to 2/3 for eligibility extensions; Making the non-US Works eligibility extension permanent.)

My thanks to gerisullivan and the people who donated cash to help pay for the $16/day high-speed internet connectivity. It's all covered now, thanks to those donations and pledges from Cheryl and Lisa and from LSC3 to cover the rest.

This year's WSFS Main Business Meeting had a smaller turnout than the Preliminary Business Meeting. That is in my opinion primarily because the PBM did its designed job of weeding out those proposals that had no chance of passing, and also dealing with a lot of the routine business of receiving financial reports and managing resolutions. There are surely going to be people who also say it's part of the Great SMOF Conspiracy to prevent Real Fans from attending. It may just also be that there were a whole lot of single-issue voters at the PBM who didn't care about anything other than their own proposals.

As with yesterday, references here are to the WSFS Business Meeting Agenda on the LoneStarCon 3 web site.

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In summary: everything that made it to the Main Business Meeting passed (sometimes in significantly amended form) except the minimum membership proposals that were referred to committee. A new proposal striking the zone-residency requirements for MPC members also passed.

Remember, everything passed here must be ratified by next year's Worldcon before it goes into effect. Nothing here becomes part of the WSFS Constitution until ratified by the Loncon 3 WSFS Business Meeting.

A view of the YA Hugo issues at the Preliminary Business Meeting from the POV of the motion's advocate.

I'm flattered. And those people rushing to defend poor defenseless females from the Evil Old White Male Patriarchy ought to read this before going off to take offense on behalf of other people.

As I wrote elsewhere, the Main Business Meeting was much calmer than the Preliminary Meeting. It also lasted less time, and I had no immediate commitments after the meeting, so Linda Deneroff, Lisa, and I went to the Italian restaurant next to the Marriott Rivercenter and had lunch. I had set the Business Meeting videos to uploading before going to lunch, and they were done when we got back. I then did my Business Meeting writeup, and Lisa and I decided that we could actually spend a few hours looking at the convention.

I donned my Colonel Chinstrap uniform, and was accompanied by Lieutenant Hayes and Private Kuma. We were able to look through the exhibits without rush, and part of the dealers' room, and finished up in the Fan Tables, where Lisa was able to do a good turn for the Luna Society table while I walked around and chatted with people.

We had to leave about 5:30 because I'd agreed to act as part of the administrative crew for the Worldcon and NASFiC Site Selection ballot counts, and that was just enough time to go back and change out of my uniform and then get back over to the Convention Center.

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By the time I felt even vaguely like going out and being sociable, it was after 11:30 PM, and I decided that I unfortunately would have to take the rest of Saturday night, the peak night of Worldcon, off because I have to be busy tomorrow night covering the Hugo Awards for TheHugoAwards.org, and also have to be up early once again to help Lisa record the Site Selection Business Meeting. We do hope Lisa will feel well enough tomorrow to be able to get to the meeting.

So while the rest of you are out there partying around us (literally; we're smack-dab in the Party Zone as buffer rooms), we're trying to marshal our energies for Sunday.