SMOF News, volume 3, issue 50
Worldcon news roundup, and news in brief.
Petréa Mitchell
News From Worldcon
Glasgow 2024, the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention was held in Glasgow on August 8-12.
Awards awarded
The Hugo Awards were presented with no further controversies beyond the fraudulent voting uncovered last month. Full voting statistics and an administrator’s report on disqualifications and withdrawals are available with the list of winners.
The First Fandom Awards for fannish achievements were given at the opening ceremony. (Official site not yet updated, but the list of winners is available at File 770.)
The Nommo Awards were presented by the African Science Fiction Society.
The Sidewise Awards for alternate history were also presented.
Future Worldcon and bid news
Next year’s Seattle Worldcon 2025 (August 13-17) announced that its optional special Hugo category will be Best Poetry. An eligible poem is “within the speculative, science fiction, and fantasy genres, published in 2024, that is at least three lines.”
The Seattle Worldcon has also announced a Community Fund, starting with $30,000 in seed money, to assist four groups in attending: first-timers from the Pacific Northwest; LGBTQIA+ fans; BIPOC/AANHPI fans; and fans from anywhere in the Global South. Applications have not yet opened. Those wishing to donate to the fund can do so through the con’s registration portal.
LA in 2026, now LAcon V, won the vote easily to hold the 84th Worldcon on August 27-31, 2026 in Anaheim, California. Fears of a stealth write-in campaign were unrealized. Guests of Honor will be Barbara Hambly, Ronald D. Moore, Colleen Doran, Dr. Anita Sengupta, Tim Kirk, Geri Sullivan, Stan Sakai, and Ursula Vernon.
The bid for Kampala, Uganda in 2028 has changed its proposed location to Kigali, Rwanda.
The Brisbane in 2028 bid is reconsidering its dates for the convenience of those travelling to Australia for the 2028 solar eclipse.
Business Meeting Summary
The WSFS Business Meeting took up nearly all its allotted time across four days of Worldcon. A full set of videos is available on YouTube for those who want to relive it in real time. If you would just like a summary of the results, pull up the agenda (PDF) for reference, and read on.
Many items were referred to committees, some of which are still open to additional members. To join one, contact businessmeeting@glasgow2024.org by 1700 BST (UTC+1) this Friday, August 16.
The Retro Hugos are on their way to removal with the initial passage of proposal F.19. This change will need to be ratified next year.
The controversial proposal to restrict which countries can hold Worldcons (F.13) was referred to a committee of its own. This one is not open to additional members unless they are representing a potentially affected country. F.12 (restricting the voter pool) was voted down.
The proposal to create a new Asian Science Fiction Convention (ASFiC) in parallel with NASFiC (E.12) was defeated. It was expected that this would provoke proposals to remove NASFiC, but none were submitted this year.
The censure motions which could not be printed due to local laws were referred to a Committee of Investigation, elected at the meeting by secret ballot. This committee cannot add further members. F.16 (making censures more censurious) was voted down.
Further motions to address the Chengdu results directly, D.13 (the formal apology) and D.14 (retroactively adding more finalists) were passed with significant changes. D.14 is now a constitutional amendment allowing the Business Meeting to retroactively change finalist lists and must be ratified in Seattle to take effect.
A Hugo Process Study Committee was formed and is still open to more members. It was handed F.5 (requiring more transparancy around disqualifications), F.6 (separating Hugo administration from individual Worldcons), F.7 and F.8 (restrictions on disqualifications), F.9 (barring of wayward administrators), and the part of F.10 which would create an oversight committee.
F.10 was divided into three other pieces, two of which were voted down. The remaining part, about Hugo software, was referred to its own committee.
F.11 (another oversight committee), F.17 (Best Editor Long Form wording change),F.18 (art category wording changes) were passed for ratification in Seattle. E.8 (figuring out word counts for non-English works) was ratified.
E.7 (Independent Film category), E.9 (Best Fancast modification), and E.10 (removing US-centric language rules) were all defeated. The Glasgow committee ran an advisory vote of the general membership about the independent film category, in which “No” won with 57.7% of the vote.
A Business Meeting Process Study Committee was also formed and is also open to further members. It was given F.14 (ratification of WSFS constitution changes by a wider vote of Worldcon members) to study. F.15 (holding subsidiary Business Meetings throughout the year) was defeated.
Among lower-intensity proposals, E.1 through E.6, plus E.11 were all ratified. F.1 through F.4 were passed for ratification next year. Various standing rule changes and eligibility extensions were also passed, though the extension for Godzilla Minus One was revoked after the full Hugo voting statistics showed that it had nearly been a finalist this year.
SMOF News thanks the Glasgow Worldcon volunteers who provided play-by-play reporting on Discord for members who could not be present in person.