The Tonopah in 2012 Westercon bid held its one and only bid party on Thursday night of Westercon 63. We rented the Con Suite for the night (and our thanks to
hazelchaz for letting us use the Con Suite's ice chests and ice supply for our sodas), put up our signs over the Con Suite signs, brought in our own food and beverage, and opened just before 9 PM.There were people queued up waiting for us to open, especially as the only parties on Thursday night were the two Westercon 2012 bids (Tonopah and Seattle).
It was really bustling for most of the evening, and we did a business in pre-supporting memberships and explaining where Tonopah is and how we could possibly hold a Westercon in the Nevada high desert. People keep trying to convince us that our chance of winning is high. Well, I'd set it at maybe a little higher than it was before we got here and started setting up our bid, but there are still a lot of barriers in the way, including the fact that even if Tonopah gets the majority of the votes, the final decision would be placed before the Westercon Business Meeting, which could decide to set aside the voters' expressed will and award the bid to any group it wants. We'll see what happens.