Chicon 8: Days 4 & 5

So I have now officially attended an entire WSFS Business Meeting, all four days of it (not quite beginning to end because I was a few minutes late on Friday). I learned a great deal about parliamentary procedure, Roberts Rules of Order, and fandom politics. I don't know that I'll ever sit through a whole meeting again, but I feel like I better understand a few things now. The big news, of course, is that the Hugo for Best Game or Interactive Work won!! It will be passed on to the 2023 Worldcon, and assuming all goes well at that Business Meeting, the category will officially run for the first time in 2024. (The motion passed easily yesterday, with no drama and very little discussion, so there's no reason to think it won't also pass in Chengdu.) Big big love and props to justira for all the hard work they did to make this dream a reality. (If you want to congratulate and/or thank them, their Twitter is probably the best way.)

Other highlights of the Business Meeting include the passing on of the two proposed changes to how Fan and Pro are defined being passed on to a committee (which I, uh, volunteered to be on; we'll see what happens there) and the two proposed changes to Best Series failed (one handily, one in a close vote). There was also a ton of procedural drama which I won't get into here, but will probably write about more later.

The other big thing that happened yesterday was of course the Hugo Awards. I enjoyed the ceremony very much -- as I expected, Annalee and Charlie Jane were funny, kept the proceedings moving (it started on time and we were done in exactly two hours), and were clearly having the time of their life up there. I'm already seeing debates around some of the winners -- these conversations about fans versus pros are certainly going to be interesting, and the longlist raises a lot of questions -- and the laughter at the way the Strange Horizons staff was announced is being rightly discussed as a problem. But overall I enjoyed the ceremony very much, and I'm glad I could be there.

Although I'm staying on in Chicago for a couple more days, the con activities have concluded and I believe my friends have all left the site, so I'm declaring my con officially over. I deeply enjoyed getting to see and hang out with so many people and be in fandom space, and I'm really glad I came. Thanks to everyone who made Chicon 8 a great experience for me, whether you knew it or not.