Hugo Awards and WSFS Business Meeting

So Worldcon was this last weekend and the Hugo Awards results were announced. The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) which sets the rules for worldcons and the Hugos also had a meeting to discus changes to how things are done. So I spent a lot of the last few days paying attention to the con.

One of the things that was decided is that the 2017 con will be held in Helsinki. It looks like it will be a great con. I'm having fantasies of attending and visit UK friends on the same trip. But I don't really know what my life will be like in 2017 so just fantasies for now.

Mostly I'm feeling meh about the Hugo results. The voters declined to vote for slate works but that gave us very little to celebrate. I'm seeing a fair number of people putting a positive spin on events, but I want to celebrate great works of SFF not the defeat of internal factions. So I'm left just hoping that more people will nominate next year. In the meantime I'm going to continue recommending awesome short fiction.

The WSFS society declined to ratify Popular Representation a constitutional amendment that would have let supporting members of worldcon (like me) have more say in the governance of WSFS. I'm very disappointed with this. WSFS people keep saying that the cost of Hugo voting is expense because we are buying a society membership not just voting rights but if that is the case I want a say in how the society is run. Plus I'm discouraged by some of the unpleasant things people at the meeting said about supporting members.

Two potential changes to nominating procedures were passed this year. (To go into effect they will also have to pass next year.) I think I'm in favor of “E Pluribus Hugo” which is like an instant runoff system for nominations, and opposed to "4 and 6" because I don't want few nomination slots. I'm please to note that WSFS is making progress getting rid if the 5% rule.