The days and dates for Bucconeer, the 56th annual Worldcon are Wednesday through Sunday, August 5 through August 9th, 1998.
When the National Guard negotiated an event at the Baltimore Convention Center for the 1998 Labor Day Weekend, they could not possibly have imagined the repercussions! The impacts for the 56th World Science Fiction Convention are still being investigated!
Requiring the Baltimore group to change the dates for our World Science Fiction Convention (or drop out of the bidding process) continues to encourage detailed revisiting of fundamental planning issues: "Why do we do this? How should we do this? What else is affected by this decision?"
Weíre sure that we haven't identified all of the issues which will be affected by the Wednesday through Sunday (instead of Thursday through Monday) change or by the August 5 - 9 (instead of September 3 - 7) and therefore need to be addressed.
Some of the important issues we have identified, so far, are:
The best day(s) and time(s) for the Guest of Honor presentations, the Masquerade, the Hugo Ceremonies, and a host of other activities during the Worldcon itself, need to be explored.
Dates for numerous administrative activities - Hugo Nomination and Voting Ballot distribution, filing deadlines for the 2001 bidders, Site Selection Ballot distribution, the deadline for Site Selection Votingñare all affected by our convention dates.
The Site Selection Voting Deadline has been, for many years, at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday evening. The official release of the results has been at the Sunday WSFS Business Meeting. The newly elected Worldcon then processed conversions from supporting memberships to attending memberships during Sunday and Monday.
Family vacations to a Worldcon, which were impractical or impossible over the Labor Day Weekend, are now being seriously planned.
Educators and students will not be forced to choose between classes and the Worldcon.
The European "normal vacation time frame" encourages these fans to attend Bucconeer.
Arrangements for hotel rooms near the Smithsonian exhibits have been already requested by several members of BucConeer.
Requests for information about ground transportation between Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. are being received.
Obtaining business services (e.g., newsletter copying) during the convention may be easier and less costly than during the Labor Day Weekend.
Set-up and Tear-Down will be done during "normal business hours," rather than paying overtime during Labor Day.
We encourage you to share your ideas and recommendations by completing and returning the Member Questionnaire in this Progress Report. Additional ideas and comments are welcome!
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