SMOF News, volume 1, issue 35

Westercon is looking for groups to hold it, and SDCC stirs up a mild debate about ads.

Apr 28, 2022

Westercon Needs Bids

The West Coast Science Fantasy Conference aka Westercon began in 1948 as a get-together for fans who couldn’t travel to the World Science Fiction Convention every year. After being held in Los Angeles three years in a row, it began travelling up and down western North America to a different location every year. Similar to Worldcon, locations bid to hold it two years in advance and are voted on by Westercon members.

Westercon is now facing two consecutive years for which there are no bids. Westercon 74, this year’s con, has announced that no bids to hold the 2024 Westercon were received by the filing deadline. Write-in voting will still be possible.

If no write-in candidate emerges:

[T]he selection of the site of Westercon 76 will fall to the Westercon Business Meeting, which is scheduled for 11 AM on Sunday, July 3, 2022 in the Main Hall of the Tonopah Convention Center.

At voting time last year, there were no bids for 2023 either. (One for Tempe was created in late 2020, but withdrawn in June 2021.)

So with two empty years to consider:

It is likely that the determination of arrangements for both Westercons 75 and 76 will be up to the members of Westercon at this year’s Business Meeting. If the Business Meeting is unable to make a decision, the determination of arrangements for Westercon will be left up to the board of directors of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, owners of the Westercon service mark.

LASFS was forced to step in in 2021 when Westercon 73, originally scheduled for 2020 but delayed a year by the pandemic, determined it had lost too many volunteers to hold the convention as planned. Loscon, which is directly run by LASFS, honored memberships for Westercon 73 at its 2021 convention.

Conventions of all sorts have been squeezed for volunteer time by the pandemic, and Westercon occupies an ever smaller niche. Settled conventions became common throughout the western US and Canada in the decades following its founding. And while running a Westercon was once seen as a stepping stone to running a Worldcon, it is now overshadowed by the increasing opportunities to run the North American Science Fiction Convention (held in years when Worldcon is outside North America) instead.

San Diego Comic-Con Attracts Illegal Ads

Now that SDCC’s own paperwork is being sorted out, attention is turning to the gigantic “wrap” ads that appear on nearby buildings during the convention. These are prohibited by city law, but as the San Diego Union-Tribune reports:

City rules say the wraps are not allowed under any circumstances, but the city charges fines that are a fraction of what advertisers pay the buildings to run the ads. That makes it a financial no-brainer for the buildings to break the law.

And while there has been hope to either enforce the rules more strictly or explicitly allow the wraps during SDCC:

[Mayor Todd] Gloria’s predecessor, Kevin Faulconer, essentially widened the loophole in 2019 when he directed code enforcement staff to lower the fines buildings would face for violating the wrap ad ban.
He told the officers to shift away from civil penalties, which can be up to $10,000 per day, toward administrative citations, which are a maximum of $1,000 per day.
That lowered the total fines collected by the city from $65,723 in 2018 to just $7,500 in 2019 — despite there being roughly the same number of building wrap ads on land controlled by the city.

This being a fraction of what building owners are paid to display the ads, they are set to continue. The Union-Tribune finds that feelings aren’t strong enough about the ads to force the city’s hand one way or another, but notes one scenario in which that could happen:

Gary Smith, president of the Downtown Residents Group, said most residents aren’t too bothered by the wrap ads, primarily because they are restricted to Comic-Con and national events like the All-Star Game.
“I don’t think anybody really cares if it’s for a couple of weeks and it comes down,” he said.
That could change if the wrap ads expand to nearly every summer weekend, which would seem to make sense for advertisers because the waterfront is flooded with tourists during those times.

Event Calendar

Weekend of April 29-May 1

RavenCon 15, Glen Allen, Virginia, USA
Tulkon, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations (symposium), online
Das Frühlingsfest der Filksmusik (music), Hanstedt, Germany
Furry Weekend Holland: Castles and Peacocks!, Baarlo, Netherlands
Chupacabracon VIII (gaming), Round Rock, Texas, USA
TringCon (gaming), Marsworth, UK
San Marino Game Convention, San Marino
Great Plains Game Fest, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Congress of Gamers Spring Session, Rockville, Maryland, USA
2022 Gaming Hoopla, Mundelein, Illinois, USA
LoBsterCon XXII (boardgames), Eastbourne, UK
Jeu au Boute (boardgames), Chertsey, Québec, Canada
Game Jam South (video games), Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Midwest Gaming Classic (video games), Milwaukee, Wisconsin
FnordCon 5 (Steve Jackson Games), Austin, Texas, USA
aniMUC (anime), Fürstenfeld, Germany
Castle Point Anime Convention, Seacaucus, New Jersey, USA
Kameha Con (anime), Allen, Texas, USA
Anime Athens, Athens, Texas, USA
Avalon Expo 8 (media), St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
Fangaea (media), San Diego, California, USA
Causeacon (media), Beckley, West Virginia, USA
Fan Expo Cleveland (media), Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Wirral Comic Con, New Brighton, UK
Geek Days Rennes (media), Bruz, France
Visioncon 2022 (media), Springfield, Missouri, USA
MonstahXpo (horror media), Fairhaven, Massachusetts, USA

Weekend of May 6-8

Demicon 2022: The After, Urbandale, Iowa, USA
Furry Weekend Atlanta: The Enchanted Forest, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
ChupacabraCon VIII (gaming), Round Rock, Texas, USA
AniMinneapolis (anime), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Hanami (anime), Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany
South Pacificon Game Fest, San Diego, California, USA
Heroicon (gaming), Decatur, Illinois, USA
WagonCon 2022 (gaming), The Dalles, Oregon, USA
S’mores & Meeples (gaming), Coatesville, Pennsylvania, USA
Festival Alchemie du Jeu (gaming), Toulouse, France
GlyphCon 2022 (Pathfinder/Starfinder), Leduc, Alberta, Canada
21st Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention (pulp), Lombard, Illinois, USA
Portsmouth Comic Con, Portsmouth, UK

Weekend of May 13-15

ColoniaCon 24, Köln, Germany
SFeraKon 2022, Zagreb, Croatia
AtomaCon 2022, North Charleston, South Carolina, USA
StokerCon 2022 (horror), Denver, Colorado, USA
Geekway to the West 2022: Life Finds a Game (gaming), St. Charles, Missouri, USA
Huzzah! Con 2022 (miniatures gaming), Portland, Maine, USA
Romance of the Cyclops Con (D&D), online
PuchiCon (anime), Tannersville, Pennsylvania, USA
Metrotham Con Episode 3: Revenge of the ‘80s (media), Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
Tidewater Comicon, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
Fan Expo St. Louis (media), St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Saratoga Comic Con, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA
Northern FanCon (media), Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
FrankenCon (horror films), Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
QFX East (LGBTQ+ media), Tampa, Florida, USA
Seaquestria Fest (My Little Pony), Ocean City, Maryland, USA

Weekend of May 20-22

Keycon 39: From Myth to Modern, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
2022 Nebula Conference, online
FurcoNZ: Post-Apocalyptic Punk (anthropomorphic), Ōtaki, New Zealand
Zomerspel (gaming), Merelbeke, Belgium
Play (gaming), Modena, Italy
RPGCON (gaming), Huntsville, Alabama, USA
BN Video Game Con, Bloomington, Illinois, USA
Anime Central, Rosemont, Illinois, USA
IberAnime, Lisboa, Portugal
Otafest 2022 (anime), Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Bak-Anime, Bakersfield, California, USA
Harucon (anime), Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Austria
Animefest 2022, Brno, Czech Republic
ExpOtaku A Coruña (anime), A Coruña, Spain
Megacon Orlando (media), Orlando, Florida, USA
Comic Con Baltics, Vilnius, Lithuania
Argentina Comic Con, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dublin Wizard Con (fantasy media), Dublin, Ireland
Horrorcon UK (media), Sheffield, UK
Crypticon Seattle 2022 (horror media), Seatac, Washington, USA

Weekend of May 27-29

Balticon 56, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
ConQuesT 53, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
MisCon 36: Carnival of Wonders, Missoula, Montana, USA
Satellite 7, Glasgow, UK
Fargo CoreCon: The Great Age of Dragons, Fargo, North Dakota, USA
Åcon 11 (relaxacon), Mariehamn, Finland
WisCon (feminist sf), Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Mephit Mini Con 23 (anthropomorphic), Kirchen/Sieg, Germany
ConFuzzled (anthropomorphic), Birmingham, UK
AnthrOhio 2022: Tech Noir (anthropomorphic), Columbus, Ohio, USA
KublaCon (gaming), Burlingame, California, USA
GOBFest (gaming), Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
ReCon (gaming), Kernersville, North Carolina, USA
PrairieCon (gaming), Brandon, Manitoba
Rocky Top Game Con, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Nordsken 2022 (gaming), Skellefteå, Sweden
Gamex 2022 (gaming), Los Angeles, California, USA
Lincon 2022 (gaming), Linköping, Sweden
Richmond Open 2022 (gaming), Richmond, Virginia, USA
BGG.Spring (boardgames), Dallas, Texas, USA
Enfilade! 2022 (miniatures gaming), Olympia, Washington, USA
FanimeCon (anime), San Jose, California, USA
Naka-Kon (anime), Overland Park, Kansas, USA
Anime Onsen, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Anime Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Thy Geekdom Con (anime), Oaks, Pennsylvania, USA
Animazement (anime), Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Momocon (anime), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Mizucon (anime), Miami, Florida, USA
Sabaku Con (anime), Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Naka-Kon 2022 (anime), Overland Park, Kansas, USA
MomoCon 2022 (anime), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Phoenix Fan Fusion (media), Phoenix, Arizona, USA
MCM London Comic Con, London, UK
Fantasy Basel (media), Basel, Switzerland
Fanboy Expo Knoxville (media), Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Star Wars Celebration 2022, Anaheim, California, USA

Coda

Salt-enhancing chopsticks (Reuters)

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