contemplativeBeing the only American on the CWSFA board has been an, shall we say, interesting experience. I'm flattered that so many people have been willing to talk to me when they won't talk to anyone else, or that they rely upon me to be relatively impartial. I don't know if I'm really impartial; I have my own biases. I am quite opinionated on some things, and I will hold forth at great length about them upon sufficient provocation, such as in this message on the ConVersion BBS. (It's a longish message, but not flame-bait, talking about differences between the funding of ongoing (Loscon, BayCon, OryCon) and series-of-one-shot (Westercon, Worldcon) conventions.
I guess it shouldn't surprise me that people assume that Westercon, Worldcon, etc. are one single organization run by some central body who keeps the money and uses it from year to year. People probably think the International Olympic Committee actually runs the individual Olympic Games, and takes on all of the finanical risk and reward, too.
Still, thinking about to what use we will put the Westercon 58 surplus, should we be considering setting up a Pass-Along Funds program for Westercons?