Jesi Lipp

So who are you murdering at this brunch? Because that's a murder outfit.

Wait that means I've been alive over five different decades.

Not cool, dude.

@nchanter.bsky.social if/when you chair a Worldcon, you'll let me have a flamethrower, right?

Well I would if you would *let me have a flamethrower*

I think your statistics are bad. You're using generalized risk data while ignoring the fact that *I would be totally responsible with a flamethrower.*

ruuuuuuuude

No, but see, I would be *totally responsible* with a flamethrower.

Nothing like this would ever happen. Promise.

I note we have once again decided to give out the Not-a-Hugos after the fan awards. Sigh.

Nerd

You’re so fucking pretty.

When asked to choose one format for the 2026 Business Meeting: 73% picked an online meeting held on distributed dates prior to the main convention dates, 16% picked a hybrid meeting, and 11% picked an in-person meeting.

When asked which Business Meeting formats they would be willing or able to attend: 92% said they would attend a fully online meeting held on distributed dates prior to the main convention dates, 60% said they would attend a hybrid meeting during the main con dates, 47% said they would attend an in-person meeting during the main con dates, and 34% said they would attend a fully online meeting during the at-con dates.

Barriers to In-Person Attendance: 61% of respondents would not have been able to attend an in-person meeting this year. When asked what has prevented them from attending the Business Meeting in past years (if that has ever been the case): 69% said inability to travel to Worldcon, 41% said a time conflict with the convention dates, and 45% said serving as a volunteer/panelist/dealer.

When asked "Why did you attend this year's Business Meeting" - 64% were interested in the virtual meeting, 55% were interested in a specific item or item(s) of business, 44% said they always attend the Business Meeting.

Feedback survey demographics: 132 responses, which is 50% of attendees; 64% of respondents attended all four sessions. 42 people reported they were first-time Business Meeting attendees. 40% of respondents consider themselves a "Business Meeting Regular."

Attendance information, based on logins to the Lumi platform: 262 total attendees, 119 members who attended all four sessions, 160 average attendance.

Title image reads "2025 Virtual WSFS Business Meeting: by the numbers" with the Seattle Worldcon 2025 logo.

Behold! Survey data! Have some shiny infographics about this year's virtual Business Meeting for @seattlein2025.org

That sounds vaguely correct.

I am desperately trying to get more talent in the pool. I've got my eyes on about 5 people. 2 are, I think, ready to preside after 2026. 1 prob needs more time in the cooker, and idk if they would ever actually want to. The other 2 I don't think are even aware that I have my eye on them lol.

This list is missing Darusha Wehm who did 2020. Which, yes, was a weird one, but also they did it very well and I bet they could do it again, and would be willing to do online. (One of my biggest regrets is that the timezone scheduling meant it wasn't reasonable for them to be on staff this year)

Correct. And while I hope we never need to go into Exec Session again after 2026, the last few years have made me very firm on the fact that we need a gated, credentialed videoconferencing platform. Basic Zoom webinar won’t cut it.

Virtual WSFS Business Meeting Survey We are collecting feedback about the virtual WSFS Business Meeting for Seattle in 2025. This survey is meant for those who attended at least one session of the online meeting. This survey will be ope...

If you attended the virtual WSFS Business Meeting, please fill out the survey if you have not already done so! We've had a great response rate so far, but I want as much data as possible to poke! forms.gle/AyQ7cHxPtBFW...

And, to be clear, "we" here means "fandom, and specifically the programmers in fandom." It does not mean "me and other people" because I Am Not A Programmer. Except for in Excel, which counts, but very much not for this.

And would also be nearly impossible to test at scale until you are live. And "live" for this would be very different than "live" for Planorama. You can't rollout an update while the meeting is happening. It needs to be 100% there from the moment you gavel in the meeting. 95% won't cut it.

A system like Lumi, or even better? Well, there's a reason we paid over $20k for Lumi. Maybe it's possible for us to create in-house. We did create Planorama, after all. But it would be A LOT of work.

A simple system where you can only submit one request at a time with no text field to add more info and no ability for the staff to respond - I think that's decently doable for us to create, if we have the people points. But that's going to be a very clunky experience.

#3 is where things get complicated. It depends on how fancy you want it to be, knowing that fancier = harder to implement, but much easier for staff to use and much better experience for participants.

#2 is the easiest bit. Making a thing that handles voting is trivial (once again, to my understanding and IANAP)

My understanding is that #1 is fiddly but doable. This is also the piece that would need to interact with the Reg system, which opens up the discussion that have been had elsewhere about the fact that we never use the same Reg system more than, like, 3 times.

With the caveat that I Am Not A Programmer....depends. There are basically 3 pieces here (setting aside the chatting/Discord piece, because that can be tacked on). 1) Credentialed Zoom, 2) Voting, 3) Speaker Pool.