Nippon 2007 WSFS Business Meeting Report

Kevin Standlee

The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) is governed by its Constitution and Standing Rules, which may be found at www.wsfs.org/bm/rules.html. The 2007 WSFS Business Meeting took the following actions during Nippon 2007, this year's Worldcon in Yokohama, Japan:

• Ratified the constitutional amendment, "Best Artist Hugo Eligibility," approved at L.A.con IV and passed on to Nippon 2007 for ratification. The Business Meeting changed "must" to "should," and therefore the following sentence has been added to Section 3.9: "In addition, in the Best Professional Artist category, the acceptance should include citations of at least three (3) works first published in the eligible year." This change became part of the WSFS Constitution at the end of Nippon 2007 and first affects the Denvention 3 Hugo Awards nomination process in 2008.
• Adopted "Gaughan Gone," which removes the restriction prohibiting people from being nominated as Pro Artist and Fan Artist in the same year.
• Adopted "One-Vote Wonders," which adds words to the end of Section 3.9 so that the last sentence reads: "During the same period the nomination voting totals shall also be published, including in each category the vote counts for at least the fifteen highest vote-getters and any other candidate receiving a number of votes equal to at least five percent (5%) of the nomination ballots cast in that category, but not including any candidate receiving fewer than five (5) votes."

These two constitutional amendments will be forwarded to Denvention 3 for ratification.

• Referred "Best Web Site," a proposal to create a new Best Web Site Hugo Award, to an existing WSFS committee (Taming the Digital Wilderness Committee) for study, with instructions to report to Denvention Three.
• The Business Meeting renewed the Blanket Eligibility Extension resolution for non-US-published works as proposed by the Hugo Eligibility Rest of the World (HEROW) Committee. This gives an extended period of Hugo Award eligibility to works previously published outside the USA if they receive first publication in 2007.

The Business Meeting also reappointed various WSFS committees, adopted a number of technical proposals from those committees, and received financial reports from past Worldcons and NASFiCs, including a report from the Nippon 2007 committee. The Business Meeting on Sunday confirmed the results of the Site Selection elections and announced Anticipation in Montréal as the 2009 Worldcon.

Montréal Wins 2009 Worldcon Site Selection

Montréal has won the right to host the 67th Annual World Science Fiction Convention. "Anticipation" will take place August 6 -10, 2009 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal convention centre in downtown Montréal in la belle province ("the beautiful province") of Quebec, Canada.

The Guests of Honour will be Neil Gaiman (GoH), Elisabeth Vonarburg (Invitée d'honneur), Taral Wayne, (Fan GoH), David Hartwell (Editor GoH), and Tom Doherty (Publisher GoH). Julie Czerneda will act as Master of Ceremonies.

A full schedule of the convention's membership rates, including discounts for voters and pre-supporters, is available on their Web site. Current rates will be valid until December 31, 2007. Inquiries may be sent to Information.

A total of 902 members of Nippon 2007 voted in the site selection election. Montreal won on the first ballot. Site Selection Administrator Tim Szczesuil provided the detailed results as follows:

Kansas City in 2009

The Kansas City in 2009 Bid Committee would like to congratulate Anticipation on their winning the privilege of hosting the 67th World Science Fiction Convention in Montréal. Bidding for a WorldCon is a long and sometimes arduous process, but having so many friends as part of the friendly competition made it much easier.

We would also like to thank everyone who supported our bid, especially those who chose to become Friends of the Library and Patrons. Your generosity was vital to our efforts over the past two years. Our biggest regret is that we were unable to reward your confidence in us with a WorldCon.

The committee will be holding a "thank you" party at Denvention, and we look forward to seeing you all there for one last K.C. Party. Thanks again to everyone.