On April 11, 2021, Westercon 73 (scheduled for July 1-4, 2021 in Sea-Tac, Washington) announced on their website and Facebook page that they are disbanding their committee. They are working with LASFS, owner of the Westercon service mark, to implement Section 1.9 of the Westercon Bylaws regarding a Westercon committee failure. Loscon 47, scheduled for November 26-28, 2021 at the Marriott Los Angeles Airport Hotel, will assume the mantle of Westercon 73, and has said that they will honor the memberships, both attending and supporting, of those members of Westercon 73 who do not request a refund from the Seattle committee. The 2021 Westercon Business Meeting will thus be held at Loscon 47, as will be the election to choose the site of the 2023 Westercon (Westercon 75).
The statement from the Seattle Westercon committee follows.
At Rustycon 2018, Sally Woehrle, James Stringer, and myself sat in the bar of the Marriott and formed the Westercon 73 Bid committee. We wanted to bring Westercon back to Seattle and we only had five months to do it in. We started attending what con’s we could and when we went to Denver CO to Westercon 71 we won. For the next year, until Westercon 72 in Utah, we promoted our great “Guests of Honor” and again at Westercon 72 we took over the honored Westercon gavel and brought it back to Seattle. Even though we were not at full staff we were doing pretty good and then Covid hit in March 2020, and the world stopped.
After waiting and watching it came to the point that we would not be having the con and working with Westercon 74 and our hotel we were able to shift the cons to the following years. So, we shifted and the longer this has gone on we started losing staff and panelist and in the last several months we have lost our chairman and I had to take over. Within the last couple months, we have talked about going virtual, but when I look back, we don’t have the pro’s or the staff to do a virtual convention. So, after talking to other convention runners and gathering opinions on the best course of action, it was decided that we will be shutting down Westercon 73 in Seattle as of now.
For all of you that have already purchased memberships we extend a heartfelt “Thank You” for supporting us! We appreciate you and hope to not disappoint with our online offerings. We are offering partial refunds to those who paid more than $35 for their memberships (but would be grateful if you would consider donating it instead). Please contact Westercon 73 for assistance.
For all of you that bought supporting and Friends of the bid memberships we thank you for your support but the only things we will be reimbursing is anyone that has bought memberships. We are a 501(c)3 so if you would like to donate your memberships we would be grateful, but if not, it will take us several months after you’re request a reimbursement to see the money returned. Since you have a paid membership with voting rights for Westercon 75 we will be working with Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society to make sure you will be getting your right to vote, unless you just want a full refund.
Now with shutting down the Westercon in Seattle the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society will take back Westercon and may do something at Loscon for a business meeting and voting.
Again, thank you all for supporting us and with the hopes that when the world gets back to normal we might try again.
Most Senerely,
Gene Armstrong
Westercon 73 Chair
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