The World Science Fiction Society

Minutes of the Business Meeting 1982
APPENDIX B - Fanzine Hugo

[Note: this was originally a landscape flow chart. I have redrawn it in a portrait format. Where the notes in the minutes refer to reading "from the bottom right corner", you should read this from the bottom upwards. TI - June 1998]

Should there be any Hugo category corresponding to the present "Best Fanzine" category?

1. NO:
   1. Santanos-Mitchell motion (Item 10): eliminate the Fanzine Hugo
   2. Feder-White-Bushyager motion (Item 21): eliminate all 3 Fan Hugos

2. YES:
   Should there be one such category as at present, or two categories distinguishing "amateur" and "semi-professional" publications?
   1. ONE CATEGORY
      How should eligibility for this category be determined?
      1. Present rule: left up to the will of the voters.
      2. Epstein-Mann motion (Item 14): restricted to publications which are not their editors’ main source of income. [Note that this motion would also make significant changes in the Professional Editor category.]
   2. TWO CATEGORIES
      How should "semi-pro" publications be distinguished from "amateur" ones?
      1. Cantor-Glicksohn motion (Item 9): semi-pro zines are those which pay their contributors/staff, and/or whose editors derive a substantial portion of their income therefrom. (Cf. Holier Than Thou 12, 13)
      2. Gary Farber motion (cf. Mainstream 7): semi-pro zines are those with circulations from 1000 to 10,000 [and prozines those with circulations over 10,000] (Item 19)
      3. Russell et al. motion (Item 16): semi-pro zines are those which satisfy at least 2 of 7 criteria: (circulation over 2000; at least 4 issues; paid contributors; main source of income for editor; at least 20% advertising space; self-declaration) but are "not published for profit" [thus distinguished from prozines].

SIDE ISSUES

1. If there are two categories, should eligibility for Fan Writer and Fan Artist depend on appearance in either type of zine or only in "amateur" zines? (Russell et al. motion specifies either; other motions don't say.)
2. Russell et al. motion would also eliminate the requirement of 4 total issues for "amateur" zines.
3. Epstein-Mann motion would restore the name "Amateur Magazine"; others would retain "Fanzine" for the amateur category.

Note: The summary of Item 16 given above was based on a preliminary text which differed in some details from that actually submitted to the Business Meeting. Corrections were made in the copies of this chart distributed at later sessions, but this is the version most attendees received.