1. Call
to Order
The meeting of the 68th West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (Westercon) was called to order at 11:03 a.m. on July 4, 2015 in San Diego, California, with a quorum present. The meeting officers were Kevin Standlee, Chairman; Linda Deneroff, Secretary; and Lisa Hayes, Videographer.
2. Committee
Reports
There were no active committees to report to
the Business Meeting.
3. Site
Selection Results
The announcement of site selection
results for Westercon 70 was made by Deidre Saoirse Moen, with the breakdown of
the vote is as follows:
|
Candidate |
Count |
|
|
|
60 |
|
|
Reno |
2 |
|
|
Both |
1 |
|
|
Oliver
Country |
1 |
|
|
None
of the above |
2 |
|
|
No
preference |
6 |
|
|
Total
votes cast |
72 |
|
|
Total
With Preference |
66 |
|
|
Needed
to Elect |
34 |
Majority |
|
|
|
|
There were no questions for the administrator, and at the conclusion of the site selection report, the chair instructed the administrator and her team to destroy the ballots.
Dee Astell, the new chair of
Westercon70, made a presentation. Westercon 70 will to be held Saturday-Tuesday,
July 1-4, 2017, in
Those who presupported and voted are now full attending members of Conalope. Those members who only voted or only presupported will need to upgrade their memberships if they wish to attend the convention. For members who voted but did not presupport, the conversion rate is $45 before the end of Westercon 68. For presupporters who did not vote, the conversion rate is $25 before the end of Westercon 68. The rates will rise after the conclusion of Westercon 68.
4. Pending
Bylaw Amendments
There were no amendments passed by the Westercon 67 Business Meeting.
5. New
Business
Ben Yalow introduced an amendment to amend Section 2.3 of the Westercon
Bylaws to reduce the quorum (the minimum number of members required to be
present to do business) from 15 to 7 members. Mr. Yalow spoke in favor of the
motion because every year we need to delay the start of the meeting until we
reach a quorum. He felt a quorum of seven members was sufficient to ensure we
don’t have changes to the Bylaws with a vote of something like 1-0.
Rick Kovalcik felt seven was too low and if we couldn’t get ten members
to attend, something is wrong. In the interim, smoffing continues anyway. He moved
to create a blank in lieu of a number, which was seconded by several people,
and there were no objections to doing so. The numbers eleven, ten, nine and
seven were suggested. [Note: The chair
spent a few minutes explaining how the “fill in the blank” system works, and
then voting commenced. This vote does not change the bylaws; it simply fills in
the blank before voting on the amendment itself.] The number eleven failed.
The number ten passed and, thus filled in the blank. There was no further
debate on the modified bylaw amendment.
In response to a query, the Chair explained that the quorum includes
every natural person physically present at the meeting who has been given
voting rights by the convention.
The final version of the motion as voted upon thus reads:
Moved, To amend Section 2.3 of the Westercon Bylaws
for the purpose of reducing the quorum from 15 to 10 members, as follows:
2.3 Quorum
For business other than
site-selection business, a quorum of fifteen (15) ten (10) attending
members of the current Westercon shall be required. For site-selection
business, the quorum shall be those attending members of the current Westercon
who attend the meeting. All those persons voting at any meeting must be
attending members of the current Westercon. Except as noted in these bylaws or
in such rules of order as may be adopted, all business requires a simple
majority to pass.
The question of amending the Section 2.3 of the Bylaws regarding the
quorum from 15 to 10 was adopted by a show of hands, and the amendment was passed
on to Westercon 69 for ratification.
6. Announcements
There were no announcements.
With no other business, the Westercon 68 business meeting adjourned sine die at 11:15 a.m.