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CONSTITUTION
of the World Science Fiction Society,
September 2002
[Secretary: The version of this document published
in Torcon 3 PR4 and on the 2003 Hugo Nominating Ballot has the subsections
of 3.2 in the wrong order. This makes no substantive difference and
has been corrected for this publication.]
Article
- Name, Objectives, Membership, and Organization
Section
- Name. The name of this organization shall be the World Science
Fiction Society, hereinafter referred to as WSFS or the Society.
- Objectives. WSFS is an unincorporated literary society whose
functions are:
- To choose the recipients of the annual Hugo Awards (Science
Fiction Achievement Awards).
- To choose the locations and Committees for the annual World
Science Fiction Conventions (hereinafter referred to as Worldcons).
- To attend those Worldcons.
- To choose the locations and Committees for the occasional
North American Science Fiction Conventions (hereinafter referred
to as NASFiCs).
- To perform such other activities as may be necessary or
incidental to the above purposes.
- Restrictions. No part of the Society's net earnings shall be
paid to its members, officers, or other private persons except
in furtherance of the Society's purposes. The Society shall not
attempt to influence legislation or any political campaign for
public office. Should the Society dissolve, its assets shall be
distributed by the current Worldcon Committee or the appropriate
court having jurisdiction, exclusively for charitable purposes.
In this section, references to the Society include the Mark Protection
Committee and all other agencies of the Society but not convention
bidding or operating committees.
- Membership. The Membership of WSFS shall consist of all people
who have paid membership dues to the Committee of the current
Worldcon.
- Memberships.
- Each Worldcon shall offer supporting and attending memberships.
- The rights of supporting members of a Worldcon include the
right to receive all of its generally distributed publications.
- The rights of attending members of a Worldcon include the
rights of supporting members plus the right of general attendance
at said Worldcon and at the WSFS Business Meeting held thereat.
- Members of WSFS who cast a site-selection ballot with the
required fee shall be supporting members of the selected Worldcon.
- Voters have the right to convert to attending membership
in the selected Worldcon within ninety (90) days of its selection,
for an additional fee set by its committee. This fee must
not exceed two (2) times the site-selection fee and must not
exceed the difference between the site-selection fee and the
fee for new attending members.
- The Worldcon Committee shall make provision for persons
to become supporting members for no more than one hundred
and twenty-five percent (125%) of the site-selection fee,
or such higher amount as has been approved by the Business
Meeting, until a cutoff date no earlier than ninety (90) days
before their Worldcon.
- Other memberships and fees shall be at the discretion of
the Worldcon Committee.
- Authority. Authority and responsibility for all matters concerning
the Worldcon, except those reserved herein to WSFS, shall rest
with the Worldcon Committee, which shall act in its own name and
not in that of WSFS.
- The Mark Protection Committee.
- There shall be a Mark Protection Committee of WSFS, which
shall be responsible for registration and protection of the
marks used by or under the authority of WSFS.
- The Mark Protection Committee shall submit to the Business
Meeting at each Worldcon a report of its activities since
the previous Worldcon, including a statement of income and
expense.
- The Mark Protection Committee shall hold a meeting at each
Worldcon after the end of the Business Meeting, at a time
and place announced at the Business Meeting.
- The Mark Protection Committee shall determine and elect
its own officers.
- Membership of the Mark Protection Committee.
- The Mark Protection Committee shall consist of:
- One (1) member appointed to serve at the pleasure of
each future selected Worldcon Committee and each of the
two (2) immediately preceding Worldcon Committees
- One (1) member appointed to serve at the pleasure of
each future selected NASFiC Committee and for each Committee
of a NASFIC held in the previous two years, and
- Nine (9) members elected three (3) each year to staggered
three-year terms by the Business Meeting.
- No more than three elected members may represent any single
North American region, as defined in Section 1.8.5. Each elected
member shall represent the region (if any) in which the member
resided at the time they were elected.
- Newly elected members take their seats, and the term of
office ends for elected and appointed members whose terms
expire that year, at the end of the Business Meeting.
- If vacancies occur in elected memberships in the Committee,
the remainder of the position's term may be filled by the
Business Meeting, and until then temporarily filled by the
Committee.
- To ensure equitable distribution of representation, North
America is divided into three (3) regions as follows:
- Western: Baja California, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming,
Montana, Saskatchewan, and all states, provinces, and
territories westward including Hawaii, Alaska, the Yukon,
and the Northwest Territories.
- Central: Central America, the islands of the Caribbean,
Mexico (except as above), and all states, provinces, and
territories between the Western and Eastern regions.
- Eastern: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,
Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Quebec,
and all states, provinces, and territories eastward including
the District of Columbia, St. Pierre et Miquelon, Bermuda,
and the Bahamas.
- Powers and Duties of Worldcon Committees
Section
- Duties. Each Worldcon Committee shall, in accordance with this
Constitution, provide for
(1) administering the Hugo Awards,
(2) administering any future Worldcon or NASFIC site selection
required, and
(3) holding a WSFS Business Meeting.
- Marks. Every Worldcon and NASFIC Committee shall include the
following notice in each of its publications:
"World Science Fiction Society", "WSFS", "World
Science Fiction Convention", "Worldcon", "NASFiC",
and "Hugo Award" are service marks of the World Science
Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.
- Official Representative. Each future selected Worldcon Committee
shall designate an official representative to the Business Meeting
to answer questions about their Worldcon.
- Distribution of Rules. The current Worldcon Committee shall
print copies of the WSFS Constitution, together with an explanation
of proposed changes approved but not yet ratified, and copies
of the Standing Rules. The Committee shall distribute these documents
to all WSFS members at a point between nine and three months prior
to the Worldcon, and shall also distribute them to all WSFS members
in attendance at the Worldcon upon registration.
- Bid Presentations. Each Worldcon Committee shall provide a reasonable
opportunity for bona fide bidding committees for the Worldcon
to be selected the following year to make presentations.
- Incapacity of Committees. With sites being selected three (3)
years in advance, there are at least three selected current or
future Worldcon Committees at all times. If one of these should
be unable to perform its duties, the other selected current or
future Worldcon Committee whose site is closer to the site of
the one unable to perform its duties shall determine what action
to take, by consulting the Business Meeting or by mail poll of
WSFS if there is sufficient time, or by decision of the Committee
if there is not sufficient time.
- Membership Pass-along. Within ninety (90) days after a Worldcon,
the administering Committee shall, except where prohibited by
local law, forward its best information as to the names and postal
addresses of all of its Worldcon members to the Committee of the
next Worldcon.
- Financial Openness. Any member of WSFS shall have the right,
under reasonable conditions, to examine the financial records
and books of account of the current Worldcon or NASFiC Committee,
all future selected Worldcon or NASFiC Committees, the two immediately
preceding Worldcon Committees, and the Committees of any NASFiCs
held in the previous two years.
- Financial Reports.
- Each future selected Worldcon or NASFiC Committee shall
submit an annual financial report, including a statement of
income and expenses, to each WSFS Business Meeting after the
Committee's selection.
- Each Worldcon or NASFiC Committee shall submit a report
on its cumulative surplus/loss at the next Business Meeting
after its convention.
- Each Worldcon or NASFiC Committee should dispose of surplus
funds remaining after accounts are settled for its convention
for the benefit of WSFS as a whole.
- In the event of a surplus, the Worldcon or NASFiC Committee,
or any alternative organizational entity established to oversee
and disburse that surplus, shall file annual financial reports
regarding the disbursement of that surplus at each year's
Business Meeting, until the surplus is totally expended or
an amount equal to the original surplus has been disbursed.
- Hugo Awards
Section
- Introduction. Selection of the Hugo Awards shall be made as
provided in this Article.
- General.
- Unless otherwise specified, Hugo Awards are given for work
in the field of science fiction or fantasy appearing for the
first time during the previous calendar year.
- A work originally appearing in a language other than English
shall also be eligible for the year in which it is first issued
in English translation. A work, once it has appeared in English,
may thus be eligible only once.
- The Business Meeting may by a 3/4 vote provide that works
originally published outside the United States of America
and first published in the United States of America in the
current year shall also be eligible for Hugo Awards given
in the following year.
- A work shall not be eligible if in a prior year it received
sufficient nominations to appear on the final award ballot.
- Publication date, or cover date in the case of a dated periodical,
takes precedence over copyright date.
- Works appearing in a series are eligible as individual works,
but the series as a whole is not eligible. However, a work
appearing in a number of parts shall be eligible for the year
of the final part.
- In the written fiction categories, an author may withdraw
a version of a work from consideration if the author feels
that the version is not representative of what that author
wrote.
- The Worldcon Committee shall not consider previews, promotional
trailers, commercials, public service announcements, or other
extraneous material when determining the length of a work.
Running times of dramatic presentations shall be based on
their first general release.
- The Worldcon Committee may relocate a story into a more
appropriate category if it feels that it is necessary, provided
that the length of the story is within the lesser of five
thousand (5,000) words or twenty percent (20%) of the new
category limits.
- The Worldcon Committee may relocate a dramatic presentation
work into a more appropriate category if it feels that it
is necessary, provided that the length of the work is within
the lesser of twenty (20) minutes or twenty percent (20%)
of the new category limits.
- The Worldcon Committee is responsible for all matters concerning
the Awards.
- Categories.
- Best Novel. A science fiction or fantasy story of
forty thousand (40,000) words or more.
- Best Novella. A science fiction or fantasy story
of between seventeen thousand five hundred (17,500) and forty
thousand (40,000) words.
- Best Novelette. A science fiction or fantasy story
of between seven thousand five hundred (7,500) and seventeen
thousand five hundred (1 7,500) words.
- Best Short Story. A science fiction or fantasy story
of less than seven thousand five hundred (7,500) words.
- Best Related Book. Any work whose subject is related
to the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom, appearing
for the first time in book form during the previous calendar
year, and which is either non-fiction or, if fictional, is
noteworthy primarily for aspects other than the fictional
text.
- Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. Any production
in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related
subjects which that has been publicly presented for the first
time in its present dramatic form during the previous calendar
year, with a complete running time of more than 90 minutes.
- Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Any production
in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related
subjects that has been publicly presented for the first time
in its present dramatic form during the previous calendar
year, with a complete running time of 90 minutes or less.
- Best Professional Editor. The editor of any professional
publication devoted primarily to science fiction or fantasy
during the previous calendar year. A professional publication
is one which had an average press run of at least ten thousand
(10,000) copies per issue.
- Best Professional Artist. An illustrator whose work
has appeared in a professional publication in the field of
science fiction or fantasy during the previous calendar year.
- Best Semiprozine. Any generally available non-professional
publication devoted to science fiction or fantasy which by
the close of the previous calendar year has published four
(4) or more issues, at least one (1) of which appeared in
the previous calendar year, and which in the previous calendar
year met at least two (2) of the following criteria:
- had an average press run of at least one thousand (1000)
copies per issue,
- paid its contributors and/or staff in other than copies
of the publication,
- provided at least half the income of any one person,
- had at least fifteen percent (15%) of its total space
occupied by advertising,
- announced itself to be a semiprozine.
- Best Fanzine. Any generally available non-professional
publication devoted to science fiction, fantasy, or related
subjects which by the close of the previous calendar year
has published four (4) or more issues, at least one (1) of
which appeared in the previous calendar year, and which does
not qualify as a semiprozine.
- Best Fan Writer. Any person whose writing has appeared
in semiprozines or fanzines or in generally available electronic
media during the previous calendar year.
- Best Fan Artist. An artist or cartoonist whose work
has appeared through publication in semiprozines or fanzines
or through other public display during the previous calendar
year. Any person whose name appears on the final Hugo Awards
ballot for a given year under the Professional Artist category
shall not be eligible in the Fan Artist category for that
year.
- Additional Category. Not more than one special category
may be created by the current Worldcon Committee with nomination
and voting to be the same as for the permanent categories.
The Worldcon Committee is not required to create any such
category; such action by a Worldcon Committee should be under
exceptional circumstances only; and the special category created
by one Worldcon Committee shall not be binding on following
Committees. Awards created under this paragraph shall be considered
to be Hugo Awards.
- Extended Eligibility. In the event that a potential Hugo Award
nominee receives extremely limited distribution in the year of
its first publication or presentation, its eligibility may be
extended for an additional year by a three fourths (3/4) vote
of the intervening Business Meeting of WSFS.
- Name and Design. The Hugo Award shall continue to be standardized
on the rocket ship design of Jack McKnight and Ben Jason. Each
Worldcon Committee may select its own choice of base design. The
name (Hugo Award) and the design shall not be extended to any
other award.
- "No Award". At the discretion of an individual Worldcon
Committee, if the lack of nominations or final votes in a specific
category shows a marked lack of interest in that category on the
part of the voters, the Award in that category shall be canceled
for that year.
- Nominations.
- The Worldcon Committee shall conduct a poll to select the
nominees for the final Award voting. Each member of either
the administering or the immediately preceding Worldcon as
of January 31 of the current calendar year shall be allowed
to make up to five (5) equally weighted nominations in every
category.
- The Committee shall include with each nomination ballot
a copy of Article 3 of the WSFS Constitution.
- Nominations shall be solicited only for the Hugo Awards
and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
- Tallying of Nominations.
- Except as provided below, the final Award ballots shall
list in each category the five eligible nominees receiving
the most nominations. If there is a tie including fifth place,
all the tied eligible nominees shall be listed.
- The Worldcon Committee shall determine the eligibility of
nominees and assignment to the proper category of nominees
nominated in more than one category.
- Any nominations for "No Award" shall be disregarded.
- If a nominee appears on a nomination ballot more than once
in any one category, only one nomination shall be counted
in that category.
- No nominee shall appear on the final Award ballot if it
received fewer nominations than five percent (5%) of the number
of ballots listing one or more nominations in that category,
except that the first three eligible nominees, including any
ties, shall always be listed.
- Notification and Acceptance. Worldcon Committees shall use reasonable
efforts to notify the nominees, or in the case of deceased or
incapacitated persons, their heirs, assigns, or legal guardians,
in each category prior to the release of such information. Each
nominee shall be asked at that time to either accept or decline
the nomination. If the nominee declines nomination, that nominee
shall not appear on the final ballot.
- Voting.
- Final Award voting shall be by balloting in advance of the
Worldcon. Postal mail shall always be acceptable. Only WSFS
members may vote. Final Award ballots shall include name,
signature, address, and membership-number spaces to be filled
in by the voter.
- Final Award ballots shall list only the Hugo Awards and
the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
- "No Award" shall be listed in each category of
Hugo Award on the final ballot.
- The Committee shall, on or with the final ballot, designate,
for each nominee in the printed fiction categories, one or
more books, anthologies, or magazines in which the nominee
appeared (including the book publisher or magazine issue date(s)).
- Voters shall indicate the order of their preference for
the nominees in each category.
- Tallying of Votes.
- In each category, votes shall first be tallied by the voter's
first choices. If no majority is then obtained, the nominee
who places last in the initial tallying shall be eliminated
and the ballots listing it as first choice shall be redistributed
on the basis of those ballots' second choices. This process
shall be repeated until a majority-vote winner is obtained.
- No Award shall be given whenever the total number of valid
ballots cast for a specific category (excluding those cast
for "No Award" in first place) is less than twenty-five
percent (25%) of the total number of final Award ballots received.
- After a tentative winner is determined, then unless "No
Award" shall be the winner, the following additional
test shall be made. If the number of ballots preferring "No
Award" to the tentative winner is greater than the number
of ballots preferring the tentative winner to "No Award",
then "No Award" shall be declared the winner of
the election.
- The complete numerical vote totals, including all preliminary
tallies for first, second, ... places, shall be made public
by the Worldcon Committee within ninety (90) days after the
Worldcon. During the same period the nomination voting totals
shall also be published, including in each category the vote
counts for at least the fifteen highest vote-getters and any
other candidate receiving a number of votes equal to at least
five percent (5%) of the nomination ballots cast in that category.
- Exclusions. No member of the current Worldcon Committee or any
publications closely connected with a member of the Committee
shall be eligible for an Award. However, should the Committee
delegate all authority under this Article to a Subcommittee whose
decisions are irrevocable by the Worldcon Committee, then this
exclusion shall apply to members of the Subcommittee only.
- Retrospective Hugos. A Worldcon held 50, 75, or 100 years after
a Worldcon at which no Hugos were presented may conduct nominations
and elections for Hugos which would have been presented at that
previous Worldcon. Procedures shall be as for the current Hugos.
Categories receiving insufficient numbers of nominations may be
dropped. Once retrospective Hugos have been awarded for a Worldcon,
no other Worldcon shall present retrospective Hugos for that Worldcon.
- Future Worldcon Selection
Section
- Voting.
- WSFS shall choose the location and Committee of the Worldcon
to be held three (3) years from the date of the current Worldcon.
- Voting shall be by written ballot cast either by mail or
at the current Worldcon with tallying as described in Section
3.11.
- The current Worldcon Committee shall administer the voting,
collect the advance membership fees, and turn over those funds
to the winning Committee before the end of the current Worldcon.
- The site-selection voting totals shall be announced at the
Business Meeting and published in the first or second Progress
Report of the winning Committee, with the by-mail and at-convention
votes distinguished.
- Voter Eligibility.
- Voting shall be limited to WSFS members who have purchased
at least a supporting membership in the Worldcon whose site
is being selected.
- The supporting membership rate shall be set by unanimous
agreement of the current Worldcon Committee and all bidding
committees who have filed before the ballot deadline. If agreement
is not reached, the default fee shall be the median (middle
value) of the US dollar fees used in the previous three (3)
Worldcon site selections.
- Non-Natural Persons. Corporations, associations, and other non-human
or artificial entities may cast ballots, but only for "No
Preference". "Guest of" memberships may only cast
"No Preference" ballots. Memberships transferred to
individual natural persons may cast preferential ballots, provided
that the transfer is accepted by the administering convention.
- Ballots. Site-selection ballots shall include name, signature,
address, and membership-number spaces to be filled in by the voter.
Each site-selection ballot shall list the options "None of
the Above" and "No Preference" and provide for
write-in votes, after the bidders and with equal prominence. The
supporting membership rate shall be listed on all site-selection
ballots.
- Tallying.
- The name and address information shall be separated from
the ballots and the ballots counted only at the Worldcon.
Each bidding committee should provide at least two (2) tellers.
Each bidding committee may make a record of the name and address
of every voter.
- A ballot voted with first or only choice for "No Preference"
shall be ignored for site selection. A ballot voted with lower
than first choice for "No Preference" shall be ignored
if all higher choices on the ballot have been eliminated in
preferential tallying.
- "None of the Above" shall be treated as a bid
for tallying, and shall be the equivalent of "No Award"
with respect to Section 3.11.
- All ballots shall be initially tallied by their first preferences,
even if cast for a bid that the administering Committee has
ruled ineligible. If no eligible bid achieves a majority on
the first round of tallying, then on the second round all
ballots for ineligible bids shall be redistributed to their
first eligible choices, and tallying shall proceed according
to normal preferential-ballot procedures.
- If "None of the Above" wins, the duty of site
selection shall devolve on the Business Meeting of the current
Worldcon. If the Business Meeting is unable to decide by the
end of the Worldcon, the Committee for the following Worldcon
shall make the selection without undue delay.
- Where a site and Committee are chosen by a Business Meeting
or Worldcon Committee, they are not restricted by exclusion
zone or other qualifications.
- Bid Eligibility.
- To be eligible for site selection, a bidding committee must
file the following documents with the Committee that will
administer the voting:
(1) an announcement of intent to bid;
(2) adequate evidence of an agreement with its proposed site's
facilities, such as a conditional contract or a letter of
agreement;
(3) the rules under which the Worldcon Committee will operate,
including a specification of the term of office of their chief
executive officer or officers and the conditions and procedures
for the selection and replacement of such officer or officers.
- The bidding committee must supply written copies of these
documents to any member of WSFS on request.
- For a bid to be allowed on the printed ballot, the bidding
committee must file the documents specified above no later
than 180 days prior to the official opening of the administering
convention.
4.6.4: To be eligible as a write-in, the bidding committee
must file the documents specified above by the close of the
voting.
4.6.5: If no bids meet these qualifications, the selection
shall proceed as though "None of the Above" had
won.
- Site Eligibility. A site shall be ineligible if it is within
five hundred (500) miles or eight hundred (800) kilometres of
the site at which selection occurs.
- NASFiC
If the selected Worldcon site is not in North America, there shall
be a NASFiC in North America that year. Selection of the NASFiC
shall be by the identical procedure to the Worldcon selection
except as provided below or elsewhere in this Constitution:
- Voting shall be by written ballot administered by the following
year's Worldcon, if there is no NASFiC in that year, or by
the following year's NASFiC, if there is one, with ballots
cast at the administering convention or by mail, and with
only members of the administering convention allowed to vote.
- NASFiC Committees shall make all reasonable efforts to avoid
conflicts with Worldcon dates.
- The proposed NASFiC supporting membership rate can be set
by unanimous agreement of the administering Committee and
all bidding committees who have filed before the ballot deadline.
- If "None of the Above" wins, or if no eligible
bid files by the deadline, then no NASFiC shall be held and
any supporting membership payments collected for the NASFiC
site selection shall be refunded by the administering convention
without undue delay.
- Powers of the Business Meeting
Section
- WSFS Business Meetings.
- Business Meetings of WSFS shall be held at advertised times
at each Worldcon.
- The current Worldcon Committee shall provide the Presiding
Officer and Staff for each Meeting.
- Standing Rules for the Governance of the Business Meeting
and related activities may be adopted or amended by a majority
vote at any Business Meeting. Amendments to Standing Rules
shall take effect at the close of the Worldcon where they
are adopted; this rule may be suspended by a two-thirds (2/3)
vote.
- Meetings shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions
of (in descending order of precedence) the WSFS Constitution;
the Standing Rules; such other rules as may be published in
advance by the current Committee (which rules may be suspended
by the Business Meeting by the same procedure as a Standing
Rule); the customs and usages of WSFS (including the resolutions
and rulings of continuing effect); and the current edition
of Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised.
- The quorum for the Business Meeting shall be twelve members
of the Society physically present.
- Continuation of Committees. Except as otherwise provided in
this Constitution, any committee or other position created by
a Business Meeting shall lapse at the end of the next following
Business Meeting that does not vote to continue it.
- Constitutional Pass-along. Within two (2) months after the end
of each Worldcon, the Business Meeting staff shall send a copy
of all changes to the Constitution and Standing Rules, and all
items awaiting ratification, to the next Worldcon Committee
- Constitution
Section
- Conduct. The conduct of the affairs of WSFS shall be determined
by this Constitution together with all ratified amendments hereto
and such Standing Rules as the Business Meeting shall adopt for
its own governance.
- Natural Persons. In all matters arising under this Constitution,
only natural persons may introduce business, nominate, or vote,
except as specifically provided otherwise in this Constitution.
No person may cast more than one vote on any issue or more than
one ballot in any election. This shall not be interpreted to prohibit
delivery of ballots cast by other eligible voters.
- Amendment. The WSFS Constitution may be amended by a motion
passed by a simple majority at any Business Meeting but only to
the extent that such motion is ratified by a simple majority at
the Business Meeting of the subsequent Worldcon.
- Commencement. Any change to the Constitution of WSFS shall take
effect at the end of the Worldcon at which such change is ratified,
except that no change imposing additional costs or financial obligations
upon Worldcon Committees shall be binding upon any Committee already
selected at the time when it takes effect.
The above copy of the World Science Fiction Society's Constitution is
hereby Certified to be True, Correct, and Complete:
Kevin Standlee, Chairman
Pat McMurray, Secretary
2002 Business Meeting
Standing Rules for the Governance
of the World Science Fiction Society Business Meeting
Group 1 - Meetings
Group 2 - New Business
Group 3 - Debate Time Limits
Group 4 - Official Papers
Group 5 - Variations of Rules
Group 6 - Mark Protection Committee Elections
Group 7 - Miscellaneous
Group 1: Meetings
Rule 1.1: Meeting and Session. The Annual Meeting of the
World Science Fiction Society shall consist of one or more Preliminary
Business Meetings and one or more Main Business Meetings. The first
meeting shall be designated as a Preliminary Business Meeting. All
meetings at a Worldcon (preliminary, main, or otherwise) shall be
considered a single "session" as defined in the Parliamentary
Authority (see section 5.1 of the WSFS Constitution), regardless of
whether such gatherings are called "meetings" or "sessions."
Rule 1.2: Preliminary Business Meeting(s). The Preliminary Business
Meeting may not directly reject, pass, or ratify amendments to the
Constitution; however, all motions adhering to a Constitutional amendment
are in order if otherwise allowed. The Preliminary Business Meeting
may not refer a Constitutional amendment to a committee unless the
committee's instructions are to report to the Main Business Meeting.
The Preliminary Business Meeting may not postpone consideration of
a Constitutional amendment beyond the last Preliminary Business Meeting.
The Preliminary Business Meeting may not amend a Constitutional amendment
pending ratification. The Preliminary Business Meeting may consider
any business not expressly forbidden to it by the Standing Rules or
expressly reserved to the Main Business Meeting.
Rule 1.3: Main Business Meeting(s). The Main Business Meeting may
reject, pass, or ratify amendments to the Constitution. One Main Meeting
shall be also be designated as the Site-Selection Meeting, where Site-Selection
business shall be the special order of business.
Rule 1.4: Scheduling of Meetings. The first Main Meeting shall be
scheduled no less than eighteen (18) hours after the conclusion of
the last Preliminary Meeting. No meeting shall be scheduled to begin
before 10:00 or after 13:00 local time.
Rule 1.5: Smoking. If smoking is allowed in the place where the Business
Meeting is held, the Presiding Officer shall divide the room into
smoking and non-smoking sections at the beginning of each meeting.
Group 2: New Business
Rule 2.1: Deadline for Submission of New Business. The deadline
for submission of non-privileged new business to the Business Meeting
shall be two (2) hours after the official opening of the Worldcon
or eighteen (18) hours before the first Preliminary Meeting, whichever
is later. The Presiding Officer may accept otherwise qualified motions
submitted after the deadline, but all such motions shall be placed
at the end of the agenda.
Rule 2.2: Requirements for Submission of New Business. Two hundred
(200) identical, legible copies of all proposals for non-privileged
new business shall be submitted to the Presiding Officer before the
deadline in Rule 2.1 unless such proposals are distributed to the
attendees at the Worldcon by the Worldcon Committee. All proposals
must be legibly signed by a maker and at least one seconder.
Rule 2.3: Interpretation of Motions. The Presiding Officer shall reject
as out of order any proposal or motion that is obviously illegal or
hopelessly incoherent. In the absence of the maker of a motion or
instructions to the contrary, the Presiding Officer shall be free
to interpret the meaning of any motion.
Rule 2.4: Short Title. Any item of new business considered by the
Business Meeting shall contain a short title.
Group 3: Debate Time Limits
Rule 3.1: Main Motions. The Presiding Officer shall designate
the default debate time for main motions. The Business Meeting may,
by majority vote, set the initial debate time limit for any motion
to any positive whole number of minutes.
Rule 3.2: Allotment of Time. If a question is divided, the time limits
applicable to the question before it was divided shall apply to each
portion of the divided question. Debate time shall be allotted equally
to each side of a question. Time spent on points of order or other
neutral matters arising from a motion shall be divided equally and
charged to each side.
Rule 3.3: Amendments. Debate on all amendments to main motions shall
be limited to five (5) minutes, allotted equally to each side. Time
spent on debate of an amendment shall be charged against the time
for the main motion.
Rule 3.4: Motions Allowed After Expiration. Motions that adhere to
the main motion shall not be out of order because of the expiration
of debate time, but shall be undebatable.
Rule 3.5: Minimum Substantive Debate. If the debate time expires before
either or both sides of the question have had an opportunity for substantive
debate, any side that has not had such an opportunity shall have two
(2) minutes to be used solely for the purpose of substantive debate.
Group 4: Official Papers
Rule 4.1: Indicating Revisions. The Business Meeting staff
shall clearly indicate all changes (including deletions) from the
previous year's version when they provide the Constitution and Standing
Rules for publication prior to the following Worldcon. However, the
failure to indicate such changes shall not affect the validity of
the documents.
Rule 4.2: Corrections. Any correction of fact to the Minutes or to
the Constitution or Standing Rules as published should be brought
to the attention of the Secretary of the Business Meeting in question
and of the next available Business Meeting as soon as they are discovered.
Rule 4.3: Numbers, Titles, References, and Technical Corrections.
Numbers and titles of the various parts of the Constitution and Standing
Rules are for the sake of easy reference only. They do not form a
substantive part of these documents nor of any motion to amend these
documents. The Business Meeting Secretary shall incorporate into these
documents appropriate changes as required by newly adopted amendments.
When making any such adjustments required by this section, the Business
Meeting Secretary shall change article and section numbers, titles,
and internal cross-references as necessary to maintain a consistent,
parallel structure, which shall not be altered unless the Business
Meeting explicitly so directs. The Business Meeting Secretary may
change punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and other wording in
the Constitution and Standing Rules only insofar as such changes clarify
meaning and enhance consistency, and only insofar as such changes
do not modify the substantive meaning of the documents.
Group 5: Variations of Rules
Rule 5.1: Nonstandard Parliamentary Authority. If a Worldcon
Committee adopts for the governance of the Business Meeting a parliamentary
authority other than that specified in the Constitution, the Committee
must in timely fashion publish information about how to obtain copies
of the authority in question.
Rule 5.2: Constitutional and Standing Rule Amendments. Motions to
Amend the Constitution, to Ratify a Constitutional Amendment, and
to Amend the Standing Rules shall be considered ordinary main motions,
except as otherwise provided in the Standing Rules or Constitution.
An object to consideration shall not be in order against ratification
of a constitutional amendment.
Rule 5.3: Postpone Indefinitely. The motion to Postpone Indefinitely
shall not be allowed.
Rule 5.4: Amend; Secondary Amendments. Secondary amendments (amendments
to amendments) are not allowed except when the primary amendment is
to substitute.
Rule 5.5: Previous Question. A person speaking to a motion may not
immediately offer a motion to close debate. The motion for the Previous
Question (also known as the motion "close debate," "call
the question," and "vote now") shall not be in order
when there is less than one minute of debate time remaining, nor when
either or both sides of the debate have yet to speak to a question.
Before voting on the motion for the Previous Question, the Presiding
Officer shall, without debate, ask for a show of hands of those persons
who still wish to speak to the matter under consideration.
Rule 5.6: Lay on the Table. The motion to Lay on the Table shall require
a two-thirds (2/3) vote for adoption.
Rule 5.7: Adjournment. The incidental main motion to adjourn sine
die shall not be in order until all Special and General Orders have
been discharged.
Rule 5.8: Suspension of Rules. Rules protecting the rights of absentees,
including this rule, may not be suspended.
Group 6: Mark Protection Committee Elections
Rule 6.1: Nominations. Nominations for election to the Mark
Protection Committee shall be allowed from the floor at each Preliminary
Business Meeting. To be listed on the ballot, each nominee must submit
to the Secretary of the Business Meeting the nominee's consent to
nomination and the nominee's current region of residence. A nominee
shall be ineligible if the nominee could not be elected due to the
regional residence restrictions. The deadline for submitting such
consent to nomination shall be set by the Secretary.
Rule 6.2: Elections. Elections to the Mark Protection Committee shall
be a special order of business at a designated Main Business Meeting.
Voting shall be by written preferential ballot with write-in votes
allowed. Votes for write-in candidates who do not submit written consent
to nomination and region of residence to the Presiding Officer before
the close of balloting shall be ignored. The ballot shall list each
nominee's name and region of residence. The first seat filled shall
be by normal preferential ballot procedures. After a seat is filled,
votes for the elected member and for any nominee who is now ineligible
due to regional residence restrictions shall be eliminated before
conducting the next ballot. This procedure shall continue until all
seats are filled. Should there be any partial-term vacancies on the
committee, the partial-term seat(s) shall be filled after the full-term
seats have been filled.
Group 7: Miscellaneous
Rule 7.1: Question Time. During the Site-Selection Meeting,
fifteen (15) minutes of program time shall be allocated to each future
seated Worldcon committee. During the first five (5) minutes, each
committee may make such presentations as they wish. The remaining
time shall be allocated for questions to be asked about that committee's
Worldcon. Questions may be submitted in writing at any previous meeting.
Questions submitted in writing shall have priority over other questions
if the person who submitted the question is present and still wishes
to ask the question. No person may ask a second question as long as
any person wishes to ask a first question. Questions are limited to
fifteen (15) seconds and responses to two (2) minutes. If time permits
at the Site-Selection Meeting, committees bidding for the right to
host any Worldcon whose selection will take place in the next calendar
year shall be allocated five (5) minutes of program time to make such
presentations as they wish. The time limits in this rule may be modified
by majority vote.
Rule 7.2: Dilatory Actions; Misuse of Inquiries. The sole purpose
of a "point of information" or "parliamentary inquiry"
is to ask the Presiding Officer for an opinion of the effect of a
motion or for guidance as to the correct procedure to follow. The
Presiding Officer shall treat as dilatory any attempts to circumvent
the rules of debate under the guise of points of information, parliamentary
inquiries, or other queries and requests.
Rule 7.3: Counted Vote. The Presiding Officer shall take a counted
vote upon the request of ten percent (10%) of those members attending
the meeting.
Rule 7.4: Carrying Business Forward. Motions other than Constitutional
amendments awaiting ratification may be carried forward from one year
to the next only by being postponed definitely or by being referred
to a committee.
Rule 7.5: Continuing Resolutions. Resolutions of continuing effect
("continuing resolutions") may be repealed or amended by
majority vote of subsequent Business Meetings without notice, and
shall be automatically repealed or amended by applicable amendments
to the Constitution or Standing Rules or by conflicting resolutions
passed by subsequent Business Meetings.
Rule 7.6: Committees. All committees are authorized to organize themselves
in any lawful manner and to adopt rules for the conduct of their business,
which may include conducting balloting by mail and limiting debate,
subject to any contrary provisions of the Constitution, the Standing
Rules, or instructions given to the committee by the Business Meeting.
Rule 7.7: Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee. The Business Meeting
shall appoint a Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee. The Committee
shall:
- Maintain the list of Rulings and Resolutions of Continuing Effect
- Codify the Customs and Usages of WSFS and of the Business Meeting.
Rule 7.8: Worldcon Runners' Guide Editorial Committee. The Business
Meeting shall appoint a Worldcon Runners' Guide Editorial Committee.
The Committee shall maintain the Worldcon Runners' Guide, which shall
contain a compilation of the best practices in use among those who
run Worldcons.
The above copy of the Standing Rules for the Governance of the WSFS
Business Meeting is hereby Certified to be True, Correct, and Complete:
Kevin Standlee, Chairman
Pat McMurray, Secretary
2002 WSFS Business Meeting
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