Renovation: The 69th World Science Fiction Convention

Photo request

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 02:04:22 GMT

Does anyone have a photo from the former Worldcon chairs photo session? If so, would it be possible for me to get a copy of one?

Deeley boppers rule!

Thanks!

Positive suggestions for future Worldcons based on Reno problems

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:56:36 GMT

I would like to offer some positive suggestions for future Worldcons to avoid some of the problems I experienced in Reno. If anyone would really like to read my ranting and complaining, there's a 2-part con report giving both positive and negative experiences at my own LJ. This, though, is not the place for that.

1. Calling a convention area "non-smoking" when it is in fact very smoky, not accessible without walking through a smoking area, and just an escalator ride above a smoke-filled casino was very inaccurate and misleading. It would be far more helpful for those of us with respiratory disabilities to delineate areas as either 100% smoke free or not 100% smoke free. Anything in a building that allows smoking where the smoking and nonsmoking areas are not separately ventilated, or share the same elevators, is not 100% smoke free. It would help if someone who is sensitive to smoke (not hard to locate in fandom) were to be assigned to work on the description for the website and con publicity.

2. If there is an area that is not 100% smoke-free, it is a very bad place to put open filking in the evening, or any other time. The filk community has a huge number of people who are sensitive to smoke, and for some of us with respiratory disabilities such areas offer an accessibility problem.

3. It is always preferable to have all evening activities - especially room parties and open filking - in the same building, or at least adjacent. Otherwise, it can end up being an either/or choice for some of us.

4. At many past Worldcons, in my recollection ('04. '05. '06, '08) an area has been set aside for secure storage of musical instruments, with evening access. It would be nice to bring this back.

Information from concoms or bidders for future Worldcons giving information as to the smoke-free status of facilities, the distance planned between evening filking and parties, and whether instrument storage will be available would be much appreciated.

please participate in a survey of members of Renovation

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:15:55 GMT

I am a Communication Studies professor and fan is doing research on Worldcon.
This will be the third survey of Worlcon attendees that is part of a larger
ongoing project on the history, structure and organization of Worldon. When the
con is over please fill in a short online survey (10-15 minutes). It asks for
some demographic info and about your experiences at this con as well as some
questions about any previous volunteering or con organizing you have done. If
you filled in the survey in a previous year please also fill in this one. You
will be prompted to skip some questions but your info about this year's con is
much appreciated. The survey is at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Renovation

If you want further info, contact June Madeley at jmadeley@unbsj.ca. Please circulate
this link widely to anyone who has attended Renovation.

Thank you for your assistance with this research.

June

Food, Glorious Food

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:57:57 GMT

Where have you found food near the Worldcon site?

Preliminary Business Meeting Report

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:52:07 GMT

I am not an officer of the WSFS Business Meeting, but I've posted my own unofficial report of what happened at the Preliminary Business Meeting on Thursday.

At-Con Newsletter Online?

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:15:10 GMT

Is the At-Con Newsletter going to be posted online? It may be there already, but I've looked pretty thoroughly and can't find it, so I figured it's time to ask.

UPDATE: Links to PDF copies of the newsletter now appear on the front page of the convention website. I have not read any of the issues yet due to a slow internet connection, but am glad they are being made available.

Ray May Fire

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:35:01 GMT

For those of you who drove up US-395 to get to Reno and wondered what the huge column of grey smoke was, it's the "Ray May" fire. The plume of smoke from the fire is visible from my room at the Peppermill.

You can read about it in the local paper (http://www.rgj.com)

9 p.m. update: Sierra Front has provided updated numbers on resources fighting the 2,730-acre Ray May wildfire in Douglas County.

They include:
o 414 personnel.
o 5 air tankers
o 6 helicopters
o 12 hand crews
o 15 engines
0 2 dozers
o 2 water tenders
o fire started 7 miles southeast of Gardnerville, near China Springs

Summary story:
It could take close to a week to control a fast-moving wildfire in Douglas County authorities say was started by two teenagers who lit an illegal campfire at a makeshift fort.

By late Wednesday the Ray May Fire had charred an estimated 2,730 acres with officials offering no estimate for full containment.

[...]

Atlantis penny-pinching

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:20:50 GMT

I thought the "energy surcharge" rip-off had died years ago, much of it in a blaze of class-actions against hotels who didn't inform customers before their stay. The con rate at the Atlantis is inflated as it is, but they are adding an extra $3/night that we were never informed of.

Visit Bodie

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 05:37:24 GMT

If you drive between California and Reno along US-395, I recommend stopping in California at Bodie (at SR-270). It's a really nice ghost town (old mining town).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodie,_California#Ghost_town_and_park

They sell water at the museum and there are a couple of water fountains, but I recommend that you bring a bottle of water for each person. And bring hats, sunscreen, snacks, and most definitely a camera.

Edit: A better URL: http://www.bodie.com/

One More Edit: Bodie is at 8,400 feet (Denver is at 5,280 feet). Be careful with altitude sickness. I had to sit a couple of times.

Atlantis Rapid Bus Stop Moved

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:29:26 GMT

Now that we've moved in to the Atlantis and my wife spent part of today riding the RAPID bus line that runs between the Atlantis/Peppermill/Convention Center area and downtown Reno, we have the following report:

You can buy a day pass from the driver, not just from ticket-vending machines.

The RAPID stops visible in my Renovation Preview (the small green shelters) have been temporarily moved a block south due to construction. The shelters themselves are gone and there are temporary signs marking the bus stops.

Business Meeting: No Proxies

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:40:34 GMT

I don't speak officially for Renovation or WSFS, but I'm sufficiently experienced in the ways of WSFS and the Business Meeting (which I've chaired multiple times) to be able to answer a question that people send me about the WSFS Business Meeting:

In order to vote at the WSFS Business Meeting, you have to be an attending member of the convention and you have to be present in the room when the vote happens. You cannot vote in advance, by proxy, or by any method other than being in the meeting. WSFS is run like a New England Town Meeting, and you represent yourself and nobody else.

The Business Meetings are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 10 AM in RSCC A02. There's a Sunday meeting in the schedule, but that will only happen if the meeting doesn't finish all business by the end of the Saturday meeting. The last time that happened was 1992, so even with the hefty agenda before the meeting this year, I'd be surprised if we went into an overflow session.

Renovation - More About Our Gaming Activities

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 12:14:46 GMT

Read more about our gaming activities, including a Dominion tournament and Summit Arcane: a LARP set in the world of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. See www.renovationsf.org/program-gaming.php.

Renovation - Artist Alley Schedule

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 11:41:21 GMT

We have now confirmed the schedule for Artist Alley - see www.renovationsf.org/art-alley.php.

Renovation - Program Grid Now Available

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 11:19:56 GMT

You can now download the Program Grid - see www.renovationsf.org/schedule-main.php. Note that the grid is aligned to the main Pocket Program so will not include updates since the Pocket Program went to print.

Renovation - Streaming the Hugos

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:43:37 GMT

Confirmed video streaming arrangements for the Hugo Award Ceremony. Hugos will available via Ustream at www.ustream.tv/channel/worldcon1.

Renovation - Kaffeeklatsches and Literary Beers

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 09:15:35 GMT

Meet authors, artists and other professionals at our kaffeeklatsches and literary beers. See www.renovationsf.org/program-kk.php.

Renovation - Stroll with the Stars

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 23:07:17 GMT

Check out the confirmed guest list for Stroll with the Stars, between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. every morning during the convention. Details at http://www.renovationsf.org/program-stroll.php#reno.

Renovation - Membership Transfers and Updates

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:49:09 GMT

PLEASE note that our membership team is now on its way to Reno ... please do not send any membership transfers, CoAs or other information to us by email at this point. Any changes agreed from now on need to be handled in person at the convention. Many thanks!

Business Meeting Schedule Estimates

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:34:53 GMT

Up-front disclaimer: I am not in an official position on the Renovation committee regarding the Business Meeting. I am not on the head table staff. I am speaking only for myself, and I am a participant in some of the issues mentioned in the events about which I am discussing in this message. My point of view is not necessarily neutral, and I don't pretend to be impartial. Anyone who thinks I'm speaking officially for anyone or any organization, including Renovation or the World Science Fiction Society, is wrong and is asking to be ridiculed. Got it?

This year's WSFS Business Meeting has a very full agenda. People have asked me (because I've attended a lot of these meetings and chaired quite a few of them) if I can tell them when they have to show up to just vote on the one thing they care about. Unfortunately, that's nearly impossible given the way the meeting works through its agenda. However, starting with this entry I have taken a shot at trying to estimate how long the various pieces of submitted business will take.

My speculations are estimates and the Business Meeting could rearrange everything at the drop of a motion, so if you rely too much on this, you may turn up and discover that your pet subject was pushed to the front and you lost your chance to vote. The Business Meeting procedures, by historical precedent and tradition, are geared to favor those people who make the commitment to spend the entire three scheduled hours in the meeting. I'm not commenting on whether that's a good thing or not; it's just how things are.

Remember that every attending member of Renovation is a member of the Business Meeting and can attend, debate, and vote on business. There's no "visitors gallery," no elected representatives, and you don't appoint proxies or vote in advance. Everyone represents him/herself. (At Westercon, one of the attendees said, "I'm just an attendee, not a member," and seemed surprised when I told him "If you're wearing a membership badge, you're a member and you can vote.")

SF reference: In The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, remember the provisional Congress of Free Luna? The WSFS Business Meeting works a little bit like that. I sort of wondered if Heinlein had attended a WSFS Business Meeting before writing the book.

If you think I was speaking officially for Renovation, the WSFS Business Meeting, or the World Science Fiction Society, go back and read the disclaimer at the top of this post.

Laundry?

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:17:57 GMT

Is there a self-service laundry at the Atlantis, or anywhere in the neighborhood?

Worldcon Flickr Group

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:23:47 GMT

If you have an account on Flickr and plan to upload photos from Renovation, remember that there is a Worldcons Photo Group on Flickr where you can share your photos with other Worldcon photographers. The group rules do suggest that you tag your photos appropriate (with at least 'worldcon' and 'renovation') to make it easier to sift through them for others.

Second needed to extend eligibility for Summer Wars

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:40:32 GMT

(The anime site where I originally asked for a second has beeen having an outage for over 24 hours now, I hope I'm not invoking the same thing on LJ...)

There's a Hugo rule that anything which "receives extremely limited distribution" in its year of publication can have its eligibility extended by a year by a vote of the Business Meeting. Summer Wars was officially released in English in December of 2010, but its showing within 2010 consisted of single-theater, single-week runs in a grand total of five cities. The DVD release in March of this year would have been most of the Hugo voting population's first real chance to see it.

Given that this movie won the Japanese equivalent of a Hugo and the Japanese equivalent of the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, it seems like it deserves a fair shot.

In order to invoke this rule, someone needs to take a proposal to the Business Meeting. Which means someone else needs to second it. That's where one of you comes in! All I need you to do is come to the Preliminary Business Meeting (Thursday, 10am, likely to last less than an hour) and be ready to say you second the proposal when it comes up. Sound simple enough?

Edit: Well, that was fast, I've got a volunteer. I still encourage interested parties to come to the meeting and vote for it, since it takes a 3/4 majority.

Memberships Fire Sale

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:31:02 GMT

~~Kind of desperate to get these sold... Two memberships to Renovation, separately or together, any reasonable offer accepted. Please e-mail alchow at gmail dot com or worldcon at februaryfour dot com.~~ [Edit: Sold, thank you all for the interest!]

registration open on Tuesday?

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:43:53 GMT

Hi folks,

Will registration be open on Tuesday for preregistered folks to pick up their materials?

Thx!

pxr5

Update on History Mystery Ghost Walk

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:24:24 GMT

A few more people have signed up for Reno's History Mystery Ghost Walk, which is encouraging. This is an off-site excursion for Renovation members. If we can get at least 20 by Sunday, then it will be a definite go. For those interested in reserving a spot, please go to http://www.renovationsf.org/ghost-walk.php for more information.

You do need to join Bay Area Ghost Hunters to reserve a spot in the group, but joining is free. You can also drop out after the walk.