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| 1.2. Report of the Nitpicking
& Flyspecking Committee The committee reports (attached) the compilation of items from the 1999 Worldcon, together with the collected items from earlier Worldcons. The committee continues to use a definition of "likely to continue to have effect for more than a year" as "continuing". Items appearing with a "BM" in them were motions passed by the Business Meeting while items with a "CH" in them are rulings or opinions of the Chair. The list has been pruned this year, to remove items which have since been incorporated in the Constitution or Standing Rules. The committee intends to make this full cumulative report available through its web page. At San Antonio, the committee was charged with codifying the "customs and usages of WSFS" in light of the recent constitutional amendment which refers to such matters. As a first step in this research, Tim Illingworth & Pat McMurray have OCRed and corrected the WSFS Business Meeting minutes for 1974, 1979-1988, and 1990-1992. 1993-date are available elsewhere (through Saul Jaffe). Kent Bloom has found a copy of the 1989 minutes, and so they too should be available in due course. This will make minutes for all Business Meetings from 1979 to date available to any interested party. These minutes are currently held in Word 6 format, and should be available from Tim’s web site Real Soon Now. The 1979 minutes are a report constructed from Ben Yalow's copy of the agenda of the Main Meeting with contemporaneous annotations. Pursuant to BM-94-1, http://www.wsfs.org/ has been updated, and copies of documents have been supplied to Saul Jaffe for the SF-Lovers archive. Don Eastlake Tim Illingworth Kevin Standlee The NP&FSC moves the adoption of the following motions: 1. Short Title: Continue NP&FSC Moved, To continue the WSFS Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee as previously constituted. 2. Short Title: Power to adopt Standing Rules Moved, To direct the Secretary, under the authority of Standing Rule 23, to move Section 6.5 of the WSFS Constitution into Section 5.1 to replace the existing Section 5.1.3. Discussion: At the moment, the power to adopt Standing Rules is in two places in the Constitution - 5.1.3 and 6.5. We suggest that this would best be resolved by moving the text from 6.5 to 5.1.3, replacing the existing 5.1.3. As a footnote, we note that 5.1.3 allows rules "for governance of the Business Meeting", whereas 6.5 allows rules "for the governance of the Business Meeting and related activities". The latter is probably the better idea. 3. Short Title: Numbering of the Standing Rules Moved: That the Standing Rules be collected into Groups and numbered as follows:
Discussion: This involves no changes to any of the text of the rules, but would make the numbers more loose-packed. It should make it easier for those unfamiliar with the Rules to follow them. Some of the rules in Group 7 could probably find a home elsewhere, if the Business Meeting so desires. 4. Short Title: WSFS Constitution Drafting Resolved, that the proper formatting of the WSFS Constitution is as follows: 1. The WSFS Constitution is divided into a number of Articles, which are numbered in Roman numerals, thus: I, II, III, IV…. 2. Each Article is divided into a number of Sections, which are numbered with their Article and Section number in Legal format in Arabic numerals, thus: 1.1, 1.2,…. Each Section has a title relevant to its contents. 3. Each Section may be divided into subsections, which are numbered with their Article, Section and subsection number in Legal format in Arabic numerals, thus: 1.5.1, 1.5.2,…. Subsections do not have titles. 4. Enumerated lists of items are numbered with their sequence number in Arabic numerals enclosed in parentheses, thus: (1), (2),…. 5. Sections should be arranged in approximately chronological order within articles, as should subsections within sections, and items within lists. Notes: (1) Section 3.3 (Hugo Definitions) should really be an enumerated list rather than a set of subsections. (2) Since subsections don't have titles, the names of the various Hugo Awards are substantive parts of the Constitution (which is current custom and practice). 5. Short Title: Hugo Voting Clarification Moved, to amend Section 3.10 of the WSFS Constitution as follows: 3.10.1: Final Award voting shall be by mail Discussion: This would accomplish two changes. It would legitimise the current practice of distributing Hugo ballots to non-members (e.g. by sending them as flyers to conventions) and it would explicitly restrict voting to WSFS members. This is necessary, as Hugo nomination is open to non-WSFS members. Moved by: NP&FS Committee, Ben Yalow, George Flynn. 6. NASFiC Reporting Moved, To amend the WSFS Constitution by replacing all occurrences of "Worldcon" in Sections 2.8 and 2.9 by "Worldcon or NASFiC" or effectively similar wording, as follows: Section 2.8: Financial Openness. Any member of WSFS shall have the right, under reasonable conditions, to examine the financial records and books of account of the current Worldcon or NASFiC Committee, all future selected Worldcon or NASFiC Committees, and the two immediately preceding Worldcon Committees and the Committees of any NASFiCs held in the previous two years. Section 2.9: Financial Reports. 2.9.1: Each future selected Worldcon or NASFiC Committee shall submit an annual financial report, including a statement of income and expenses, to each WSFS Business Meeting after the Committee's selection. 2.9.2: Each Worldcon or NASFiC Committee shall submit a report on its cumulative surplus/loss at the next Business Meeting after its Worldcon. 2.9.3: Each Worldcon or NASFiC Committee should dispose of surplus funds remaining after accounts are settled for the current Worldcon or NASFiC for the benefit of WSFS as a whole. 2.9.4: In the event of a surplus, the Worldcon or NASFiC Committee, or any alternative organizational entity established to oversee and disburse that surplus, shall file annual financial reports regarding the disbursement of that surplus at each year's Business Meeting, until the surplus is totally expended or an amount equal to the original surplus has been disbursed. Discussion: This imposes the same financial reporting requirements on NASFiCs that currently apply to Worldcons. It would not be binding on Conucopia. 7. Short Title: Awaken the Sleeping Dogs Moved, To renew all Continuing Resolutions included in the Nitpicking & Flyspecking Committee Report. Discussion: The NP&FS Committee’s duties include maintaining a list of all previously adopted resolutions of continuing effect, or "Continuing Resolutions." The Committee believes that it would be in the best interests of WSFS if such resolutions were annually renewed, rather that left to gather parliamentary dust. The meeting need not consider each previously adopted Continuing Resolution separately. They can be voted upon as a unit, as long as no member requests a separate vote on any particular item. Because this is a list of unrelated resolutions, any one member may "call" (request separate consideration) any of the resolutions. The Committee recommends that the Chair first ask if any member wishes to call any resolutions from the attached list, then take a vote on the list of uncalled resolutions, then consider each called resolution separately. Any resolutions that are not renewed shall be dropped from the list of Continuing Resolutions. The Committee intends to return the list of Continuing Resolutions to each year’s Business Meeting for renewal. |
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