Chris Cooper, Site Selection Administrator
The Worldcon or, to give it its proper name, World Science Fiction Conventio
is a continuing tradition—Bucconeer will be the 56th
annual Worldcon. However, each successive Worldcon is run by a different
group of people with no real connection with their predecessors apart from
a shared interest in science fiction, too much spare time on their hands,
and a desire to work very hard for several years. Amazingly, there are frequently
more than one such group who wish to bid to run the Worldcon in a particular
year. Which of these groups gets to suffer fulfil their
fantasy is decided by you, the prospective attendees of the Worldcon.
In an attempt to impose some order on the process, a set of rules has evolved to govern the selection of Worldcons. These rules have been incorporated into the constitution of WSFS (the World Science Fiction Society). Under these rules Bucconeer must administer the selection process for th 59th Worldcon (to be held in 2001, three years after Bucconeer). This article attempts to cover the submission of eligible bids by their organizing committees. A future article will describe the secon stage, the actual voting process, which will not start for at least six months.
The rules specify conditions, both geographic and procedural, which a prospective bid must satisfy to be eligible. Bids from outside North America are allowed in any year but to ensure equitable distribution of sites, North America is divided into three regions: Western, Central, and Eastern. North American bids are allowed from only one of those regions in any given year. For the 2001 Worldcon, bids from the Eastern region: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Quebec, and all states, provinces, and territories eastward including the District of Columbia, St. Pierre et Miquelon, Bermuda, and the Bahamas are allowe (but not from within 60 miles of Baltimore). Bids from the Western region: Baja California, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Saskatchewan, and all states, provinces, and territories westward including Hawaii, Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories are not allowed and neither are bids from the Central region: (Central America, the islands of the Caribbean, Mexico (except as above), and all states, provinces, and territories between the Western and Eastern regions.
A bid that is allowed geographically must also satisfy some procedural conditions in order to be included on the printed selection ballot paper. According to Section 3.5 of the Constitution:
To be eligible for site selection, a bidding committee must present adequate evidence of an agreement with its proposed site's facilities, such as a conditional contract or a letter of agreement; and must state 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. Written copies of these rules must be made available by the bidding committee to any member of WSFS on request. For a bid to be allowed on the printed ballot, the aforementioned rules and agreements, along with an announcement of intent to bid, must be filed with the Committee that will administer the voting no later than 180 days prior to the official opening of the administerin convention; to be eligible as a write-in, a bid must file these document by the close of the voting. If no bids meet these qualifications, the selection shall proceed as though "None of the Above" had won.
In the case of Bucconeer, for all practical purposes, the deadline for filing bids for the 59th Worldcon is Friday, February 6, 1998. (Special pleading for extra hours dependent on the yet to be decide exact time of the official opening of Bucconeer will be listened t with all the sympathy this level of pedantry can expect.) Experienced bidders (yes, some people do it more than once) should note that Bucconeer's dates mean this filing deadline is some weeks earlier than "usual". While ther is provision for bids submitted after the deadline to be eligible as write-ins (not named on the printed ballot but may be inserted in the space provided on the printed ballot), bids are strongly advised to file in plenty of time, to avoid any disadvantages this may incur.
Send bid filing documents and questions to: Chris Cooper, Site Selection Administrator, 20 Wheathampstead Road, Harpenden, Herts AL5 1ND, United Kingdom. (A U.S. mail address will be in place for the voting.) Even if you are not filing yet, please contact me at site.vote@bucconeer.worldcon.org as soon as possible (in confidence, if requested) to assist with planning and to ensure your involvement in any preliminary discussions. (Although no decisions can be taken, I intend to talk to interested bidders at LoneStarCon2 in San Antonio). After February 6th, formal discussions with all filed bids will take place.
All prospective bidders are strongly recommended to read the full WSFS Constitution in detail. Check www.worldcon.org or request one from us. Note that some relevant portions of the Constitution will be changed (e.g., those covering the default voting fee) if the amendments passed at L.A.con III last year are ratified in San Antonio.