Greetings from second-class fandom!
So today, my RSS fed me Scalzi and McGuire discussing some proposed constitutional amendments that will be voted on at Worldcon this year, during the Business Meeting.
I found the proposals themselves on the LoneStarCon website, at the bottom of the Business Meeting page, for reference. The ones in question at those two sites are "No cheap voting" and "Deleting Best Fanzine, Best Fan Writer, and Best Fan Artist from the WSFS Constitution", particularly the latter.
So there's plenty to say about that bullshit, but I've got two toddlers who are currently only distracted from cannonballing into my stomach and smashing berries in my face* by the fact that Wreck-It Ralph is currently attempting to get a medal so that Big Gene will finally let him on top of the cake with the rest of the Nicelanders, so I'm going to leave that part at what Scalzi and McGuire said and move straight on to the part that concerns me, which is:
The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) consists of every member of the current Worldcon. The WSFS rules, published in the Souvenir Book, consist of a Constitution containing the rules for the Hugo Awards and for the selection of future Worldcons, as well as The Standing Rules for the conduct of the Business Meeting. Every attending member of LoneStarCon 3 can attend the meeting, propose changes, debate those changes, and vote on them.
I nominated and voted on the Hugos last year, I nominated and voted on the Hugos this year, and I'm planning to nominate and vote on the Hugos next year. I am a supporting member of the current WorldCon; thus I am a member of the World Science Fiction Society. But I am not an attending member, on account of how cons are generally a long way and an expensive plane ticket from where I live.
So I'm not eligible to vote this bullshit out of town.
Even if I'd paid the attending member fee, I couldn't vote, because I didn't spring for the plane ticket, the hotel, the long weekend away from family and work. The absence of my physical presence is what prevents me from participating in this vote.
That is also bullshit. We live on the internet; why aren't we able to vote there?
* This is only a minor exaggeration. They have never done these two things at the same time. Yet.
I found the proposals themselves on the LoneStarCon website, at the bottom of the Business Meeting page, for reference. The ones in question at those two sites are "No cheap voting" and "Deleting Best Fanzine, Best Fan Writer, and Best Fan Artist from the WSFS Constitution", particularly the latter.
So there's plenty to say about that bullshit, but I've got two toddlers who are currently only distracted from cannonballing into my stomach and smashing berries in my face* by the fact that Wreck-It Ralph is currently attempting to get a medal so that Big Gene will finally let him on top of the cake with the rest of the Nicelanders, so I'm going to leave that part at what Scalzi and McGuire said and move straight on to the part that concerns me, which is:
The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) consists of every member of the current Worldcon. The WSFS rules, published in the Souvenir Book, consist of a Constitution containing the rules for the Hugo Awards and for the selection of future Worldcons, as well as The Standing Rules for the conduct of the Business Meeting. Every attending member of LoneStarCon 3 can attend the meeting, propose changes, debate those changes, and vote on them.
I nominated and voted on the Hugos last year, I nominated and voted on the Hugos this year, and I'm planning to nominate and vote on the Hugos next year. I am a supporting member of the current WorldCon; thus I am a member of the World Science Fiction Society. But I am not an attending member, on account of how cons are generally a long way and an expensive plane ticket from where I live.
So I'm not eligible to vote this bullshit out of town.
Even if I'd paid the attending member fee, I couldn't vote, because I didn't spring for the plane ticket, the hotel, the long weekend away from family and work. The absence of my physical presence is what prevents me from participating in this vote.
That is also bullshit. We live on the internet; why aren't we able to vote there?
* This is only a minor exaggeration. They have never done these two things at the same time. Yet.