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Now that Site Selection is definitively over, its time for another episode of “Terri’s Unpopular Opinions!”
In this special SMOF edition, we will discuss how while Worldcon is like the Olympics, WSFS has no resemblance to the IOC, with a side digression into How To Hugo.
In this special SMOF edition, we will discuss how while Worldcon is like the Olympics, WSFS has no resemblance to the IOC, with a side digression into How To Hugo.
First, some definitions.
SMOF stands for Secret Master of Fandom. SMOFs are the people who enable those of us who like a good fan run convention to attend one that runs as smoothly as a fandom event ever can.
SMOF stands for Secret Master of Fandom. SMOFs are the people who enable those of us who like a good fan run convention to attend one that runs as smoothly as a fandom event ever can.
Fan Run Con: this would be a SF/F convention that is not run by a for-profit corporation (NYCC and a number of other cons are run by Reedpop, this is aboveboard and they do their best). Very few aspects of a fan con are pay to play once you have a membership.
WSFS: the World Science Fiction Society. I’m going to use a screenshot to explain what exactly they are because I can do the alt text with sufficiently more characters than Twitter lets me.
An important note: WSFS technically doesn’t exist outside of a currently running Worldcon. Right now, anyone with a membership to @CoNZealand is a member of WSFS. Once the convention ends, WSFS will cease to exist until @worldcon2021 convenes in DC.
Worldcon: a fan run SF/F convention held at a different place every year. A Worldcon is staffed by unpaid volunteers and is put together by a bid committee, who then transitions to a concom if they win. The Hugo Awards and the WSFS Business Meeting are the core of a Worldcon.
Are we all on the same page? Please ask me to define any terms you don’t understand. I’ll do my best to answer.
Ok, so people are legitimately angry at the Jeddah bid for Worldcon. Saudi Arabia isn’t an awesome place to go for most of us. The problem is that the anger is directed in the wrong place and muddying the waters.
Anyone can put a bid for Worldcon together. You need the following 3 things for your bid to be a ‘qualified’ bid:
1. an announcement of intent to bid
2. adequate evidence of an agreement with the proposed site’s facilities, such as a conditional contract or a letter of agreement
1. an announcement of intent to bid
2. adequate evidence of an agreement with the proposed site’s facilities, such as a conditional contract or a letter of agreement
3. the rules under which the Worldcon Committee will operate, including a specification of the term of office of their chief executive officer or officers, and the conditions and procedures for the selection and replacement of such officer or officers.
This was copied directly from http://Worldcon.org
That’s it. That’s all you need. You need to say you’re going to do it, have evidence that you have a space, and rules for how you plan to do it.
That’s it. That’s all you need. You need to say you’re going to do it, have evidence that you have a space, and rules for how you plan to do it.
I could come up with a bid involving a contract with the closest Motel 6 and a list of how I planned to run my MotelCon. It is equally as valid as the bids that have multi-facility contracts, a full staff roster and bid tables at every convention.
No one would vote for this bid, as it barely qualifies as a Minimum Viable Worldcon (more on that in a bit), and those crazy kids with the fan tables and brochures for tourism in their host city look a hell of a lot more attractive than my party in the aforementioned Motel 6.
A Minimum Viable Worldcon, for the curious, is a Worldcon held in a facility large enough to convene a quorum for the Business Meeting (12 humans IIRC), the ability to administer and award the Hugos (fancy ceremony optional) and the means to vote on the next Site Selection.
No one does this (although this year was a good one to consider it), because while the BM and Hugo Awards are why we have a Worldcon, the programming, parties and aforementioned fancy ceremony are what people expect of a Worldcon.
So, back to the Jeddah bid.
People wrote an open letter to WSFS asking for some sort of censure process or the ability to invalidate the bid based on human rights abuses, terrible government and the inability of large chunks of fandom to attend safely.
People wrote an open letter to WSFS asking for some sort of censure process or the ability to invalidate the bid based on human rights abuses, terrible government and the inability of large chunks of fandom to attend safely.
That’s a great idea, in theory, except for one problem. WSFS is NOT the IOC. It is not a standing body that exists outside of any given Worldcon in which it has convened to administer the Hugos, etc. Until Wednesday of this week, there was no WSFS to ask anything of.
In order to make any changes to how bids are seated, you’re going to need to write a proposal! @seananmcguire has covered this in detail here.
https://twitter.com/seananmcguire/status/1288214213417000960?s=21 https://twitter.com/seananmcguire/status/1288214213417000960
https://twitter.com/seananmcguire/status/1288214213417000960?s=21 https://twitter.com/seananmcguire/status/1288214213417000960
This, incidentally, is also how you change the rules for how the Hugo Awards work. You don’t like how the WSFS Constitution defines a category? You sit down, write an amendment and present it at 2 years worth of Business Meetings. You can also propose new categories, etc.
This is how we got EPH, the Lodestar Award, and Best Series. People spent time working on proposals, and then devoted many hours to sitting a meeting governed by parliamentary procedure to get it criticized and possibly voted down.
Ok, so now you know how the bid process works and how to make changes to a Worldcon. Great! But you also want to know how we can hold bids to higher standards, how we can get predators out of conventions, and just Do Worldcon Better, right?
This is essentially impossible. Fandom doesn’t have that kind of stable hierarchical governance and probably shouldn’t.
There are a few ways you, J Random Fan can help though!
There are a few ways you, J Random Fan can help though!
You can show up to various forums in which the active bids are being questioned and make sure that if they don’t answer your question to your satisfaction, you can tell everyone why they shouldn’t vote for that bid!
How do you get in these forums? You get memberships to Worldcons!
Remember that line from #TheWestWing? “Decisions are made by those who show up.” You want your voice heard, you have to start showing up.
Remember that line from #TheWestWing? “Decisions are made by those who show up.” You want your voice heard, you have to start showing up.
If you hold a bid’s feet to the fire, future bids will see you and have better answers to those questions.
How do you Make Worldcons Better? Again, by showing up! It takes 300-700 volunteers to make a Worldcon happen. Be one of them! Start with #Chicon https://chicon.org/home/for-members/volunteers/
How do you Make Worldcons Better? Again, by showing up! It takes 300-700 volunteers to make a Worldcon happen. Be one of them! Start with #Chicon https://chicon.org/home/for-members/volunteers/
Or better yet, @worldcon2021! https://discon3.org/get-involved/volunteer/volunteering-opportunities/
Oh, and if you want to determine where we have Worldcon? YOU VOTE IN SITE SELECTION. There were 4500+ registered members of @CoNZealand at various tiers as of 7/25. Less than 600 votes were cast for site selection.
Yes, it costs money to vote, which is a barrier to access. That money does magically turn into a Supporting Membership to the winning bid’s Worldcon (even if you voted for someone else, wrote in Old Zealand, or voted for None Of These Bids Thank You).
Open letters to a body that has the permanence of Brigadoon will only make you feel better in the short term. Real change occurs, for better or worse, in the Business Meeting, at Question Time and The Fannish Inquisition. So start showing up and we can make change together.
I won’t pretend it’s easy. But I’d rather show my love by fixing what’s broken than show performative anger than doesn’t solve anything.
I could have thrown a massive online temper tantrum when we found out that the #LadyAstronaut print wasn’t Hugo eligible.
I could have thrown a massive online temper tantrum when we found out that the #LadyAstronaut print wasn’t Hugo eligible.
I could have solicited fellow artists to write an open letter to WSFS.
What I did was take a good hard study of the eligibility rules, note their ability to be interpreted vastly differently by different Hugo Admins, and figure out a written way to fix that.
What I did was take a good hard study of the eligibility rules, note their ability to be interpreted vastly differently by different Hugo Admins, and figure out a written way to fix that.
And I sat in the Business Meeting and did what I had to do. And right now, there’s a constitutional amendment waiting to be ratified.
We can make change! But you have to be part of the process to do it.
We can make change! But you have to be part of the process to do it.
