Author: Kevin Standlee

Announcements from Worldcon Intellectual Property

~ Kevin Standlee ~ 9 Comments

Worldcon Intellectual Property, whose board of directors is the members of the Mark Protection Committee of the World Science Fiction Society, has issued the following announcement:

Worldcon Intellectual Property

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

30 January 2024
Worldcon Intellectual Property
Post Office Box 61363
Sunnyvale CA 94088-1363 USA

Worldcon Intellectual Property (W.I.P.) is a California non-profit corporation that holds the service marks of the World Science Fiction Society (www.wsfs.org) including the mark “Hugo Award”. W.I.P. takes very seriously the recent complaints about the 2023 Hugo Award process and complaints about comments made by persons holding official positions in W.I.P. In connection with these concerns, W.I.P. announces the actions listed below. There may be other actions taken or to be taken that are not in this announcement.

  • Dave McCarty has resigned as a Director of W.I.P.
  • Kevin Standlee has resigned as Chair of the W.I.P. Board of Directors (BoD).
  • W.I.P. has censured or reprimanded the following persons, listed in alphabetic order, for the reason given:
    • Dave McCarty – censured for his public comments that have led to harm of the goodwill and value of our marks and for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon that he presided over.
    • Chen Shi – censured for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon that he presided over.
    • Kevin Standlee – reprimanded for public comments that mistakenly led people to believe that we are not servicing our marks.
    • Ben Yalow – censured for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon that he presided over.
  • Donald Eastlake has been elected Chair of the W.I.P. BoD.

Please note that each year’s World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) is run by a separate organization which administers the Hugo Awards for that year. The Chengdu 2023 Worldcon has asked that any specific questions about the administration of the 2023 Hugo Awards be sent to hugoteam@chengduworldcon.com.

(For media inquiries on topics related to W.I.P. other than the specifics of the 2023 Hugo Awards, you may contact info@thehugoawards.org.)

2023-24 WSFS Constitution and Standing Rules Posted

~ Kevin Standlee

The updated version of the WSFS Constitution for 2023-24 and the Standing Rules for governance of the 2024 WSFS Business Meeting have been posted to the WSFS rules page.

The 2023 WSFS Business Meeting minutes, Business Passed On to the 2024 WSFS Business Meeting, and updated Resolutions and Rulings of Continuing Effect as of the end of the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting are being prepared and we will post them as soon as they are made publicly available.

2023 WSFS Business Meeting Video Posted

~ Kevin Standlee

A playlist of video recordings of the three sessions of the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting in Chengdu, China, is now available on YouTube. The meeting was conducted in both English and Chinese, with simultaneous translation provided, but it was not possible to include the translation audio with this video. If alternative versions that include all of the translated material become available, we will post about them here.

2023 WSFS Business Meeting Agenda Published

~ Kevin Standlee

Chengdu Worldcon 2023 published the Agenda of the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting on their website on October 8, 2023. A Chinese-language version of the agenda is also available.

The 2023 WSFS Business Meeting will be held in the Meteor Museum at the World Science Fiction Park in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, meeting on October 19, 20, 21, and if necessary, 22, 2023, with each day’s meeting starting at 10:00 AM China Standard Time. All WSFS members present at the convention may attend, participate, and vote on matters before the meeting. The Business Meeting team plans to record the meetings and post them to the YouTube Worldcon Events channel as soon as possible; however, this is dependent upon bandwidth and technology available to the team, and the recordings may not be posted until after this year’s Worldcon concludes. We do not know if Chengdu 2023 intends to live-stream the Business Meeting.

Send inquires about the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting to wsfs_bm2023@wsfs.org.

2023 WSFS MPC Report Published

~ Kevin Standlee

The report of the WSFS Mark Protection Committee to the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting, including the report of the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee, is available on the MPC Reports page. While MPC reports are generally included in the WSFS Business Meeting minutes, we have decided to publish them on their on page as part of the Mark Protection Committee information because we have received separate inquiries about the MPC’s report.

2021-22 WSFS Constitution, Standing Rules, and Business Passed On Published

~ Kevin Standlee

The official versions of the 2022 WSFS Constitution, Standing Rules for the 2022 WSFS Business Meeting, and Business Passed on to the 2022 WSFS Business Meeting from the WSFS Business Meeting held at Worldcon 79, DisCon III in Washington DC are now available from the WSFS Rules page. This includes the Minutes of the 2022 WSFS Business Meeting, the updated Resolutions and Rulings of Continuing Effect as of the conclusion of the 2022 WSFS Business Meeting, and links to the video recordings of the 2022 WSFS Business Meeting.

The 2021 Business Meeting ratified all proposals passed on from the 2020 Worldcon (CoNZealand in Wellington, New Zealand). All of those proposals were originally adopted at the 2019 Worldcon (Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon) in Dublin, Ireland, but were effectively deferred to DisCon III for ratification. (See the 2020 Business Meeting minutes for details.)

Past years’ WSFS Business pages are available at the WSFS Rules Archive page.

2020 WSFS Business Meeting Update

~ Kevin Standlee

CoNZealand, the 78th World Science Fiction Convention, has updated their 2020 WSFS Business Meeting page to reflect adjustments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under WSFS rules, only members physically present at the Business Meeting may participate (make motions, debate, and vote). Because of the travel restrictions that have obliged the convention to move online-only, most members of WSFS will not be able to attend the meeting. Therefore, Acting Presiding Officer Darusha Wehm will chair a minimal meeting scheduled for 10 am (New Zealand Time) on Saturday, August 1st, 2020 in Room 1 of the West Plaza Hotel in Wellington, New Zealand. At this meeting, only time-constrained matters (primarily consideration of Hugo Award eligibility extensions for specific works) will be considered. All other business, including ratification of pending WSFS constitutional amendments, will be deferred to the 2021 WSFS Business Meeting at DisCon III.

The Agenda for the 2020 WSFS Business Meeting, including reports submitted to the meeting, is available from the WSFS Rules page.

CoNZealand encourages members who planned on submitting new business this year to instead submit proposals to the DisCon III Business Meeting.

2019-20 WSFS Constitution, Standing Rules, and Business Passed On Published

~ Kevin Standlee

The official versions of the 2020 WSFS Constitution, Standing Rules for the 2020 WSFS Business Meeting, and Business Passed on to the 2020 Business Meeting from the WSFS Business Meeting held at Dublin in 2019: An Irish Worldcon in Dublin are now available from the WSFS Rules page. This includes the Minutes of the 2019 WSFS Business Meeting, the updated Resolutions and Rulings of Continuing Effect as of the conclusion of the 2019 WSFS Business Meeting, and links to the video recordings of the 2019 WSFS Business Meeting.

Past years’ WSFS Business pages are available at the WSFS Rules Archive page.

2018-19 WSFS Constitution, Standing Rules, and Business Passed On Published

~ Kevin Standlee

The official versions of the 2019 WSFS Constitution, Standing Rules for the 2019 WSFS Business Meeting, and Business Passed on to the 2019 Business Meeting from the WSFS Business Meeting held at Worldcon 76 in San José are now available from the WSFS Rules page. This includes the Minutes of the 2018 WSFS Business Meeting and the updated Resolutions and Rulings of Continuing Effect as of the conclusion of the 2018 WSFS Business Meeting and links to the video recordings of the 2018 WSFS Business Meeting.

Past years’ WSFS Business pages are available at the WSFS Rules Archive page.

2018 Business Meeting Video Published

~ Kevin Standlee

Recordings of the 2018 WSFS Business Meeting, held over the second, third, and fourth days of Worldcon 76 San Jose, are available online in the 2018 WSFS Business Meeting (Higher Quality) playlist on the Worldcon Events YouTube channel. These recordings are higher quality than the “video thumbnails” published in short segments during the business Meeting itself, but take longer to generate and upload. Recent Business Meetings have uploaded the lower-quality videos relatively quickly (sometimes while the meeting was still going on), then published the higher-quality video later as bandwidth permits.

The minutes and official papers of the 2018 WSFS Business Meeting are in preparation. When they are complete, they will be published on the Constitution/Rules page.