Westercon 64 – San Jose, July 1-4 2011

Westercon 64 E-Mails Deactivated

By Kevin on December 1st, 2011
Posted in General | Comments Off on Westercon 64 E-Mails Deactivated

With Westercon 64 now all but completely wound down, we have deactivated most of the convention’s e-mail addresses ending in @westercon64.org. Only the website, info, and chair addresses are currently active.

Business Meeting Video Posted

By Kevin on July 12th, 2011
Posted in Site Selection | 1 Comment »

The video of the Westercon 64 Business Meeting has been released.

Westercon 64 Business Meeting from Kevin Standlee on Vimeo.

You can also directly download the video for viewing offline.

The Westercon 64 Business Meeting ran for over three hours (2 hr 15 min officially in session) in order to select the site of Westercon 66. Ordinarily, site selection is handled through the normal ballot voting process, but because no eligible filed bid received a majority of votes cast, the selection was referred to the Business Meeting. After a long, sometimes contentious discussion, the Business Meeting voted to award Westercon 66 to the “Olive Country” bid chaired by Kevin Roche and Andy Trembley. According to them, they are currently evaluating sites in the Sacramento, California area and will announce a specific site at a later date, probably sometime after this year’s Worldcon.

Nearly 700 Attend Westercon 64

By Kevin on July 8th, 2011
Posted in Registration | 2 Comments »

According to figures from Westercon Registration, 693 members attended Westercon 64 out of 826 total members of all types.
Read more…

Westercon 66 Awarded to Olive Country

By Kevin on July 3rd, 2011
Posted in Site Selection | Comments Off on Westercon 66 Awarded to Olive Country

After a very long meeting, the Westercon Business Meeting, acting under the provisions of Section 3.16 of the Westercon Bylaws, awarded Westercon 66 to the “Olive Country” bid of Kevin Roche and Andy Trembley on a vote of 93 to 27. (A three-fourths vote is required to award a Westercon site through the Business Meeting.) Kevin & Andy state that they will announce a specific site (probably in the Sacramento area) and other details in a few weeks, but that due to their commitments to this year’s Worldcon, they won’t be able to act immediately.

Westercons selected under Section 3.16 do not have to be declared for a specific location as long as the committee commits to hold it somewhere in the Westercon region (Western North America or Hawaii).

Other sites considered by the Business Meeting were the originally-filed Portland bid, a bid by the existing Utah in 2014 Westercon bid to move their bid up by one year, and a bid for Maui.

Westercon 66 Site to be Decided at Business Meeting

By Kevin on July 3rd, 2011
Posted in Programming, Site Selection | 1 Comment »

The final results of the ballot voting for Westercon 66 (2013) Site Selection were:

Portland 41
Granzella’s 42

The Granzella’s bid never filed required paperwork and therefore was not eligible to win the election. Under the provisions of Section 3.16 of the Westercon Bylaws, the site selection now moves to this year’s Westercon Business Meeting. The Business Meeting may select a committee for any site eligible to hold a Westercon (Western North America or Hawaii), and all of the other bidding rules (paperwork, organizational structure, etc.) are suspended.

The Business Meeting may select any site by a 3/4 vote, or it may vote by simple majority to decide that it is deadlocked an unable to decide. If the Business Meeting does not choose a site, then the selection will be referred to the board of directors of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, Inc., owners of the Westercon service mark.

The Westercon Business Meeting will be at 11:30 AM on Sunday in the Club Regent room on the ground floor of the hotel. (There will be a room-change notice posted on the door of the originally-scheduled venue, the California Room.) We advise anyone wanting to attend the Business Meeting to get there early.

You must be present in person to vote at the Business Meeting; no proxies or other forms of remote voting are allowed.

Westercon is Go!

By Kevin on July 1st, 2011
Posted in Art Show, Dealers, General, Guests, Hospitality, Hotel, Programming | Comments Off on Westercon is Go!

Westercon 64 on-site registration is open this morning. The Dealers’ Room and Art Show open to the members at Noon. Anime Programming started last night and continues through Monday. The Hospitality Suite in 1905 will be open daily from 10 AM.

The first program item of the convention is the Opening Ceremonies at Noon in the California Room. Main Programming then begins and runs throughout the day and into the night through Monday.

This evening’s major events include the Meet the Guests Reception in Regency Ballroom I at 7:30 PM and the first of two Regency Dances in Regency Ballrooom II, also at 7:30 PM.

Things are under way here at the Fairmont San José We hope you’ll join us! There are still hotel rooms available at the convention rate, so it’s not even too late to come and spend a night or three in the hotel.

Twitter Hashtag #Westercon

By Kevin on July 1st, 2011
Posted in Social Media, Web site | Comments Off on Twitter Hashtag #Westercon

For those of you Tweeting about Westercon 64, we recommend using hashtag #Westercon

Hospitality Suite is in 1905

By Kevin on June 30th, 2011
Posted in Hospitality | Comments Off on Hospitality Suite is in 1905

One thing that inadvertently was left out of all of the convention’s printed materials was the location of the Convention Hospitality Suite. The Con Suite, which is of course open to all members of Westercon 64, is in Room 1905.

Hospitality’s scheduled hours are 10 AM – 1 AM on Friday through Sunday and 10 AM – 2 PM on Monday.

Autograph Session
Schedule Published

By Kevin on June 30th, 2011
Posted in Programming | Comments Off on Autograph Session
Schedule Published

Autograph sessions are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in the Imperial Ballroom. They start at 1 PM, not 10 AM as listed in the Pocket Program. For the full schedule, see the Autographs page.

Programming Schedule Published

By Kevin on June 29th, 2011
Posted in Programming | 1 Comment »

The Westercon 64 Pocket Program with the complete panel-programming schedule is now available for download in PDF and EPUB formats from the Programming Page. This schedule is, of course, subject to change without notice. The EPUB format is slightly more updated that the PDF, as the PDF is the version sent to the printer, while the EPUB document reflects changes after the printing deadline.

An updated Panelist List including cancellations is also now available. As with the program itself, participants are subject to last-minute changes.