Author: Kevin Standlee

Seattle Selected to Host 2025 Worldcon

~ Kevin Standlee

The bid from Seattle, Washington, USA, won the election to host the 2025 Worldcon held at the 2023 Worldcon in Chengdu, China. The official results announced at the WSFS Business Meeting were as follows:

Seattle: 163
Peggy Rae’s House (write in): 1
Xerps in 2010 (write in): 2

Total With Preference: 166
Needed to Elect (majority): 84

No Preference: 2
Total Ballots Cast: 168

Although the WSFS Constitution requires that ballots cast in advance be reported separately from those cast at the convention, but the election administrator failed to do so. According the 2023 WSFS Business Meeting Chair Donald Eastlake III, “It is believed the 168 ballots consisted of 149 or 150 by mail and 18 or 19 on site.”

You can watch the announcement of the votes and the initial presentation from the newly-seated 2025 Worldcon committee on the Worldcon Events YouTube channel.

The 2025 Worldcon will be called Seattle Worldcon 2025: Building Yesterday’s Future — for Everyone. The convention’s announced Guests of Honor are Martha Wells, Donato Giancola, Bridget Landry, and Alexander James Adams, with hosts K. Tempest Bradford and Nisi Shawl. The convention will be held August 13-17, 2025 at the Seattle Convention Center Summit expansion, Sheraton Grand Seattle, and neighboring hotels.

Seattle is Only Bid on Ballot for 2025 Worldcon

~ Kevin Standlee

According to the June 5, 2023 edition of the Seattle in 2025 Worldcon Bid newsletter, the Seattle bid to hold the 2025 Worldcon August 13-17, 2025 at the Seattle Convention Center was the only bid filed with the Chengdu 2023 Worldcon committee before the filing deadline. This means that Seattle will be the only bid listed on the ballot. Write-in bids can file up until the end of the election, which will take place at the 2023 Worldcon in Chengdu, China.

Seattle has posted their filing documents on their web site.

Memphis Withdraws from 2023 Worldcon Race

~ Kevin Standlee

On October 17, 2021, the leaders of the Memphis in 2023 Worldcon Bid, Kate Secor and Cliff Dunn, issued an announcement to its supporters that they were folding the bid to host Worldcon 81:

It is with great sadness that we let you know that the Memphis in 2023 bid has folded. The challenges and uncertainties surrounding the pandemic have severely hampered our ability to run the campaign we had been hoping to so it has led us to fold this bid. We thank you so much for all of your support and appreciate that you believed in us. Those of you who are still due t-shirts, we will be mailing those out to you soon.

When the site selection ballot is released by DisCon III, you will see a WITHDRAWN watermark over our listing on the ballot – that is what DC III has told us they will be doing. We are going to throw a thank you party at DisCon III and invite you to come by and let us toast you and your support. We look forward to seeing so many of you that we sadly haven’t seen in so long.

Our very best,

Kate and Cliff

The remaining bids are for Chengdu, China, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The election to select the 2023 Worldcon will take place at DisCon III, the 2021 Worldcon, which will be in Washington DC the weekend of December 15-19, 2021. Members of DisCon III will vote on the site of the convention. Members will be able to vote in advance by mail or in person at the convention, with the voting scheduled to open the first day of the convention and to continue through the evening of December 17. The results will be announced at the World Science Fiction Society business meeting on December 18. See the DisCon III 2023 Worldcon Site Selection page for more information.

2021 Worldcon Moves to December

~ Kevin Standlee

DisCon III, the 2021 Worldcon, announced on April 7, 2021 that they would be postponing their convention to December 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new dates are Wednesday, December 15 through Sunday, December 19, 2021. The full text of their announcement, including provisions for virtual-only convention memberships, potential membership refunds, and the impact on deadlines for the Hugo Awards and 2023 Worldcon Site Selection, is on the DisCon III website.

2023 Worldcon Bid Filings Online

~ Kevin Standlee

Two bids filed the required documents by the filing deadline to host the 2023 Worldcon: Chengdu, China, and Memphis, Tennessee. The election to select the site of the 2023 Worldcon will be administered by DisCon III, the 2021 Worldcon. DisCon III has updated their 2023 Worldcon Site Selection page with links to the bids’ filing documents.

Any group that meets the technical requirements in the WSFS Constitution and files the necessary documents with the Worldcon administering the election is eligible to bid for the right to host a Worldcon. Worldcon sites are selected by the members of Worldcon as a whole, not by a board of directors, chair, president, or site-selection committee.

Members of the 2021 Worldcon, DisCon III, will vote on the site of the 2023 Worldcon. Details on how to vote on site selection will be announced later by DisCon III.

2021 Worldcon Editor Guest of Honor Announcement

~ Kevin Standlee

The 2021 Worldcon, DisCon III, announced on February 19, 2021 that they have removed Toni Weisskopf as Editor Guest of Honor and that they do not plan on adding additional guests of honor.

The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) does not have a Board of Directors, Chair, President, or any other executive authority. Nearly all authority regarding Worldcon, including guest selection, is vested solely in individual Worldcon committees. Each Worldcon committee is selected by a vote of the members of the Worldcon two years in advance. Worldcon committees are independently organized, and under the provisions of Section 1.6 of the WSFS Constitution, all matters regarding an individual Worldcon not explicitly defined in the Constitution are reserved to the individual Worldcon committee.

If you have any questions about DisCon III, contact them directly through their web site.

Chicago to Host 2022 Worldcon

~ Kevin Standlee

Chicago, Illinois, USA was selected as the site of the 2022 Worldcon by the members of the 2020 Worldcon, CoNZealand, in Wellington, New Zealand and online around the world. The results were announced online on August 1, 2020 (New Zealand Time). Chicago’s bid received 517 (89.8%) of the 576 votes cast with a preference. The other bid on the ballot, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, received 33 votes. None of the Above received 6 votes. The remaining votes were spread among various write-in bids A full breakdown of the voting, including the write-in votes and the votes cast by paper mail and electronically, is available in this document.

Worldcon 80 will be called Chicon 8. The convention dates are September 1-5, 2022. Further information is available from the convention’s website.