WSFS Business Meeting Overview

Business Meetings of the World Science Fiction Society will be in the Ontario Room (Location changed from original announcement) of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, and are scheduled for 10 AM on the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and (if necessary) Monday morning of Torcon 3. Every attending member of Torcon 3 is a member of WSFS, and every member is welcome to attend and participate. If you want a say in what WSFS does, you must attend the Business Meeting.

For more information about what the Business Meeting is all about, see the following links:

Business Meeting Papers

The agenda for the Preliminary Business Meeting on Friday is available (PDF, HTML)

Business Meeting Decisions

A summary of decisions taken by the 2003 WSFS Business Meeting is posted here.

Business Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the 2003 WSFS Business Meeting will be posted here when they are available. Minutes of the 2002 WSFS Business Meeting are available at http://www.conjose.org/wsfs/wsfs_bmNotes.html. An archive of past WSFS Business Meeting minutes is available at http://www.sflovers.org/Reference/fandom/WSFS/wsfs-minutes.html.

 


 

WSFS - About the Business Meeting

The WSFS Business Meeting is the governing authority of the World Science Fiction Society. WSFS is a participatory democracy. Every attending member of the current year's Worldcon is a member of WSFS, and is thus entitled to attend the Business Meeting and vote.

The Business Meeting takes place in three parts: A Preliminary Meeting on Friday, a Main Meeting on Saturday, and a Site Selection Meeting on Sunday. If the Main Meeting is unable to complete all of the business submitted to it, it continues at the subsequent meetings. A Monday meeting, where we deal with any business we were unable to complete earlier, is scheduled but is rarely actually held.

The Friday meeting is largely administrative. It does things like receive reports from committees and set up debate time limits for the major motions. However, if the Friday meeting decides, by a two-thirds majority, that a particular motion is not worth debating, that motion can be dismissed there and then. If you have an interest in a particular motion it is important that you attend the Friday meeting in case you need to defend its right to be debated.

The Saturday meeting is when the main business is done. All amendments to the WSFS constitution are debated at this meeting.

The Sunday meeting is given over largely to presenting the results of Site Selection and to giving members a chance to quiz the winning bid about its plans. Bids for future years will also be given a chance to make a presentation.

If you would like to know more about WSFS and its working, please write to Torcon 3's WSFS team at WSFSbusiness@torcon3.on.ca.


 

The Rules of WSFS

WSFS - Rules

The World Science Fiction Society is governed by a Constitution. In addition there are Standing Rules for the conduct of meetings and various rulings of precedent (known as Resolutions of Continuing Effect). The current versions of these documents can be found on the WSFS web site at http://www.wsfs.org/bm/rules.html.

The general conduct of the Business Meeting is normally governed by the current (10th) edition of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised. [ http://www.robertsrules.com/ ]

WSFS's governing documents and Robert's Rules of Order are both necessarily written in legalistic language. If you would like help understanding these documents please contact Torcon 3's WSFS team at WSFSbusiness@torcon3.on.ca.


 

WSFS - Submitting Business

Any two or more members of Torcon 3 may submit business to the Business Meeting. You need not actually attend the Business Meeting to submit business to it, but it's wise to actually go there to explain and defend your proposal in debate. You must submit 200 identical copies of the proposal (the original signed by those members of Torcon 3 proposing it) to the Business Meeting staff by 10 PM local (Eastern Daylight) time Thursday, August 28, 2003. If you are submitting your proposal in person, either take it to the Convention Office and ask for it to be put in the Business Meeting mailbox, or bring it to the WSFS Mark Protection Committee Meeting on Thursday evening in the Fairmont Royal York British Columbia Room. We will waive the paper copy requirement if you submit business in advance by e-mail (see below). Don't forget the signed original though, we still need that.

If you want to submit new business, we recommend writing to us at WSFSbusiness@torcon3.on.ca by at least August 1, 2003. We can help you get your proposal in the proper format, and we will include it in the printed agenda, so you don't have to make those 200 copies. It helps a lot to talk to us in advance, because we may be able to spot things in your motion that would result in it getting thrown out on a technicality. We can also help you draft the motion so that it fits in with the style of the WSFS Constitution. Obviously we don't normally take sides with regard to any particular motion, but we like to make sure that everyone gets a fair hearing. WSFS is a participatory democracy, and that means that everyone has a right to be heard.

 


Last updated: 05 September 2003

Send comments or suggestions to WSFSbusiness@torcon3.on.ca.