bids.how - Things to think about when voting for a Worldcon Bid 04-Sep-1995 This file is available via ftp from ftp.netcom.com where the filename is /pub/ha/hazel/Smofs/bids.how Or by sending an email message to ftp-request@netcom.com subject doesn't matter, message should say send hazel/Smofs/bids.how Date: 18 Sep 94 14:04:02 EDT From: Ross Pavlac <76636.1343@compuserve.com> Chaz, You have my permission to keep and distribute my article on questions to ask worldcon bidders, with two caveats: 1. It is to be available free of charge 2. My net address (76636,1343@compuserve.com) and postal address (PO Box 816, Evanston, IL 60204-0816) are to be noted at the end of the article. Thanks for your interest, Ross Pavlac Copied from Voyageur #2, ConAdian newszine Wanna buy a Worldcon? Or, "why are all these people being so nice to me?" By Ross Pavlac As you may have noticed by now, a lot of groups are running around this convention frantically trying to convince you that their site should host the Worldcon for a particular year. As a member of the convention, you are eligible to vote for the 1997 site (no later than Saturday!). For later dates, the committees are trying to build support now, so that people will have made their minds up by the time of the vote (and maybe even get you to lay out some money for a pre-supporting membership). In order to convince you, the committees have bid tables set up; they will also hold social functions at which they will try to impress you with their hospitality. But how to choose between them? Assuming you have no particular friends (or enemies) on any of the committees that would sway your vote, most people's reasons for supporting a particular site fall into one of three categories: the city, the facilities, and the committee. And there are four basic ways of that people rank bids: 1. The "Economically Strapped" school of thought: these people vote for the closest city, regardless of other considerations. 2. The "Vacation Location" school of thought: these people vote for the city they would most like to visit that year, figuring that no matter how bad the convention might be, they can always enjoy themselves in City X. 3. The "Let's Not Get Ridiculous" school of thought: these people still think of vacation location first, but allow their preference to be vetoed if the proposed facilities are clearly inadequate or inferior to the competition, or if the committee is clearly inadequate to do even a so-so convention. 4. The "City outside? What city?" school of thought: This group is either hard-core convention-attenders, or people who have been to one or more badly run Worldcons and are terrified of going to another one. A superior committee is their first priority, followed by facilities. City choice is usually used as a tiebreaker here in cases where the committees and facilities are deemded to be roughly equal. My own recommendation is to lean towards the fourth school of thought. This is because I'v e been to several badly run Worldcons, and I am definitely terrified of them! But - the final choice will be yours, by whatever reasons or priorities you see fit. (My all-time favorite reason was one fan who said she was voting for a site because in a previous life she had lived in that city.) --Ross Pavlac 76636.1343@compuserve.com, PO Box 816, Evanston, IL 60204-0816 Taken from Voyageur #5, the ConAdian Newszine Wanna buy a Worldcon? (The Sequel) By Ross Pavlac Okay, it's the last day of voting on bids for the 1997 Worldcon. San Antonio and St. Louis are going head to head for your votes, and you've had the chance to check them out at their hospitality events and info tables. How do you gauge the quality of each? Here are some suggested questions to ask each of the bidders: CITY: Food! What kinds of interesting and/or ethnic restaurants (in fan price ranges) are there, particularly within a walk or short cab ride? Does the city have any specialty foods or ethnic areas? Tourism. Any interesting museums, art galleries, etc.? How close are they to the facilities? Any special shopping areas? If you arrive early or stay afterwards, what is there to do? FACILITIES: A Worldcon can need 2500-3000 sleeping rooms; has the committee got that many rooms on hold? If a convention center is being used, how long is the walk to the hotels? How expensive are they? A U.S. Worldcon needs more than 200,000 square feet of space; how many facilities do they have to use in order to cobble together that much function space? Have any of the hotels hosted SF conventions before? COMMITTEE: How large is the committee? Is it just a small bunch of friends or a more extended group? Are there local conventions that the committee work on? Are they experienced? Do they have people with Worldcon experience? If not, how do they know they can run a Worldcon properly? Where do the funds for bidding come from? A Worldcon's cash flow can be more than $500,000 - do any of the committee have real-world financial experience? A Worldcon is planned over a period of years and can have hundreds of people working on it - do any of the committee have real-world jobs that qualify them to manage projects of this complexity? If a past Worldcon at that site had problems, how does the committee intend to insure that the problems do not re-occur? Will the emphasis be primarily on literary, primarily on media, or a mix? Do their parties show that they are organized enough to put a party together? Are there any interesting gimmicks or neat stuff in their bidding materials or at their parties to show that the committee has a sense of fun, of imagination? If you ever hear the phrase, "running a Worldcon is just like running our local regional, only bigger" - run away screaming. Better yet, try this phrase on some bid committees and see what kind of answers you get. --Ross Pavlac 76636.1343@compuserve.com, PO Box 816, Evanston, IL 60204-0816 Some More Questions To Ask Bidders... - Who will be running the convention if the bid wins? Don't assume the bid chair will be the worldcon chair. --Chaz Baden * * * * * Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 02:07:53 -0500 (EST) From: Alexander von Thorn To: SMOFs mailing list Subject: Re: Con Hotel Booking Confirmation On Tue, 21 Mar 1995, Janice Gelb wrote: > Ah, but they didn't *have* the several hundred rooms in each hotel. If > you looked at the booking form carefully, there was a figure given for > each hotel for the number of rooms in the Intersection room block. I > believe for the Central it was something like 70... Sounds like a point discerning con-goers might wish to consider when voting on future Worldcon sites... Copyright 1995 Alexander von Thorn, (416) 608-7464 The Worldhouse * Toronto Trek 9 * Mensa Annual Gathering in Canada '95 finger -l vonthorn@io.org * URL: http://www.io.com/user/worldhse/