Minutes of the 2002 Westercon Business Meeting

(Westercon 55, Los Angeles)

The meeting was called to order at 12:35PM on Friday, July 5, by Presiding Officer Ed Green. The rest of the podium staff were Kevin Standlee (Parliamentarian) and Ben Yalow (Secretary).

The Presiding Officer noted that the Chairman of the Convention, Bruce Pelz, has passed on. A Motion of sympathy passed by unanimous consent.

James Briggs (Site Selection Administrator) spoke. The voting will take place Friday and Saturday. Results will be announced Sunday morning.

One bid (Arizona) is on the ballot, and will make a presentation here. With the unanimous consent of the meeting, an unfiled bid which is campaigning as a write-in was given time to make a presentation.

The unfiled bid is for a location (Coober Pedy) in Australia, which would be eligible if annexation takes place as described in Section 3.1. An inquiry was made as to when the annexation must be complete in order for the site to be eligible. The Chair submitted the question of when the annexation must be complete to the meeting. Mr. Green yielded the Chair to Mr. Standlee, who treated the question as an filling a blank in an implied motion "That, in the opinion of this meeting, in order for a site in Australia to be eligible, the annexation referred to in Section 3.1 of the Westercon Bylaws must be complete by __________." The options listed were:

The proposed dates of the convention;
The Business Meeting of the intervening Westercon;
The filing deadline for the intervening Westercon;
The close of voting at the selecting Westercon

The blank was filled in with the filing deadline for the intervening Westercon (the first two options having failed). The motion (with the blank now filled) was then adopted. Therefore, the ruling of the meeting was that, in order for a site in Australia to be eligible to host a Westercon, the annexation referred to in Section 3.1 must be complete by the filing deadline of the intervening Westercon. (The "intervening Westercon" is the Westercon that takes place after the year in which the site was selected and before the year in which the Westercon in question is scheduled.)

Mr. Green resumed the Chair. Presentations were made for both bids.

The amendment to the Constitution awaiting ratification, amending Sections 4.1 and 4.2, was adopted and takes effect at the close of the 2002 Westercon. The text now reads (deletions in ~~strikethru type~~; additions in underline type):

4.1 Method of Adoption

Amendments to the Westercon Bylaws must be ratified by ~~a two-thirds (2/3) vote at any Westercon business meeting, or by~~ the majority vote of the business meetings in two consecutive years. Proposed amendments shall be read in full by the chairman of the business meeting immediately before being voted upon.

4.2 Primary and Secondary Ratification

~~In the event a proposed amendment receives a majority, but less than two-thirds (2/3) vote, the~~ The secretary of the business meeting at which ~~the proposed~~ an amendment receives primary (first year) ratification shall submit an exact copy of the amendment to the following year’s Westercon business meeting. The question of secondary (second year) ratification is debatable but not amendable.

New Business:

John Lorentz introduced a motion requiring US Westercon bids to be run by non-profit organizations. The final wording was worked out as:

Moved, To amend Section 3.4 by adding at the end of the final sentence:

and, for a sponsoring organization from within the United States of America, evidence that the sponsoring organization is a non-profit association or corporation within the applicable state law of the sponsoring organization.

An amendment was proposed to substitute a non-inurement requirement for this. The amendment failed.

The Constitutional amendment was adopted by a vote of 14-6. Since this is greater than 2/3, the amendment is adopted immediately and takes effect at the close of the 2002 Westercon.

On response to a parliamentary inquiry as to whether this requirement is binding on a Westercon bid that files between the time of adoption of this amendment and the time it takes effect at the end of this Westercon, the Chair ruled that all filings must comply with the rules as of the time of the filing deadline, so a filing between the end of the Business Meeting and the close of this Westercon does not remove the requirement that the evidence of compliance be provided by the filing deadline. The ruling was appealed, and the Chair’s ruling was sustained by a vote of 12-7.

The meeting was adjourned sine die in memory of Bruce Pelz at 1:45PM.

Submitted by

Ben Yalow

Secretary