2009 Natcon BM agenda

This article reproduces the '2009 Natcon Business Meeting agenda.

Agenda

1. Confirmation of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting

2. Business Arising from the Previous Meeting

3. Natcon Standing Committee Report

4. Site Selection for the 2011 National

5. Ditmar sub-committee report

6. Convention Reports

a. 2009 – Conjecture

b. 2010 – Dudcon

7. Selection of the Standing Committee

8. Motions on Notice

Motion: that the Ditmar Rules be amended so that 3.11 is changed from:

"3.11 Special Awards: Special awards recognise outstanding achievements in science fiction fantasy, or horror not eligible in the existing categories."

to:

"3.11 Best Achievement: This award recognises an outstanding achievement related to science fiction, fantasy or horror and not eligible in any other award category."

Discussion:

The 2008 meeting instructed the Standing Committee to "present wording to the [2009] meeting for discussion". This small change provides that wording. It doesn't prohibit "Body of Work" from being recognised as an achievement, and doesn’t specifically preclude an Achievement by someone eligible for Best New Talent. It doesn't add a lot more guidance for nominators, but it does help the Ditmar Sub-committee to recategorise imprecise nominations. (Maybe the meeting would like to suggest content for a document called "Ditmar nomination guidelines", about what is or is not eligible for Best Achievement.)

Motion: that the Ditmar rules be amended so that 5.2 is changed from:

"5.2 Minimum nominations for finalists: To appear on the ballot a finalist must attract a minimum of four nominations in the Professional and Best New Talent categories, or two in the Fan and Special Awards categories (including Professional Special Award and William Atheling Jr Award)."

to:

"5.2 Minimum nominations for finalists: To appear on the ballot a finalist must attract a minimum of four nominations in the Professional and Best New Talent categories, or two in the Fan and other Special Awards categories (including Best Achievement and William Atheling Jr Award)."

Motion: that the Ditmar rules be amended so that 5.3 is changed from:

"5.3 Minimum finalists for categories: In the event of there being three or fewer finalists in any of the following categories, at the committee’s discretion, eligible finalists in the Novella or Novelette and Short Story categories may be merged into a single category called Short Fiction; and eligible finalists in the Fanzine and Fan Production categories may be merged into a single category called Fan Production. "

to:

"5.3 Minimum finalists for categories: In the event of there being three or fewer finalists in the Novella or Novelette category, it may be merged with Short Story into a single category called Short Fiction.

Discussion:

These two motions are a simple cleanup after last year's changes.

Motion: that the Ditmar rules be amended to add "6.5 Votes for nominees not listed on the official ballot will be invalid and no additions or alterations to the nominees will be recognised."

Discussion:

This addresses the issue of write-in votes, which the committee realised was not addressed in the existing rules.

9. General Business