SMOF News, volume 3, issue 6
Ohayocon is falling apart, notable proposals to shape future Worldcons, and news in brief.
Ohayocon Descends Into Chaos
Ohayocon (Columbus, Ohio) is one of the longest-running anime conventions in the United States, is now in danger of falling apart due to a multi-sided conflict. Nerd and Tie has ongoing updates of the still-evolving situation here.
The trouble follows three major strands. The first is a reorganization as ownership of Ohayocon is moved from a for-profit entity to a new non-profit, Cultural Exchange Society, Inc (CESI). This was described as a “hostile takeover” in a statement posted to the Ohayocon website and still visible here, alleging that multiple members of Ohayocon’s leadership team were fired without warning. A rebuttal which currently occupies the front page of the website says that some positions have been “retired” and that new positions will be opening for applicants soon.
Publicly visible relations have deteriorated from there, and Nerd and Tie reports that the remaining members of the leadership team have announced that they are on strike.
On a second front, long-time Ohayocon volunteers have banded together for collective action. An organization called Conventions of Ohio Volunteer Event Network (COVEN) was formed earlier this year and presented demands to the board in March.
Ohayocon’s front-page statement says that unpaid workers cannot form a real union under US or Ohio state law. Nevertheless, COVEN has announced that it is on strike, and asks that no one register for the convention or do any work for it for the duration.
The third issue, which is not yet clearly related to the other two, is that the Red Cross had taken issue with Ohayocon’s logo. The current front-page statement says:
A well meaning volunteer, concerned with the similarities with Ohayocon’s longtime cross artwork and its similarities to that of the Red Cross, submitted our logo to them for review. The Red Cross determined that the logo was in fact too close to their trademarked Red Cross Emblem. As such, an agreement was made with the Red Cross in April of 2023 to shift Ohayocon’s logo’s color to shade of blue to avoid any further issues. Since then, a cyberpunk theme was proposed for Ohayocon 2024, and our longtime artists and designers at Studio Capsule set out to craft new annual art and a refreshed logo. A different well meaning volunteer crafted their own logo in the meantime and despite being instructed not to be the CESI Board of Directors, asked for approval from their peers and began posting it online. Unfortunately their wonderful design bares too close a resemblance to the logo of Sakura Color Products and its use would open CESI up to a potential second logo lawsuit in less than a year. Out of respect for Sakura of America and their 100+ year history, we must kindly ask that the interim sakura blossom logo be not used moving forward.
“Posting it online” included putting the unapproved logo on Ohayocon’s official website and social media channels. A former convention chair and the until-now current head of Ohayocon social media were reportedly fired over this.
Worldcon Business Meeting Proposals Reflect Extraordinary Times
The agenda for this year’s World Science Fiction Society Business Meeting, which will happen during Chengdu Worldcon (Chengdu, China, October 18-22), has been released in both Chinese and English (PDFs). Alongside more traditional business like suggested new Hugo categories, there are a number of proposals spurred by Worldcon’s first visit to the Asian mainland and by the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asian regional convention
F.9 proposes an Asian Science Fiction Convention (ASFiC), to be administered by WSFS in a similar manner to the North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC). It would move around between Asian countries, and would not be held in years when the Worldcon is in Asia, just as NASFiC is only held in years when Worldcon is not in North America.
Early Worldcons were held exclusively in North America. NASFiC was created in the 1970s as Worldcon started to grow into its name, to placate North American fans who had become used to being able to travel to Worldcon every year. NASFiC’s connection with WSFS is increasingly seen as an embarrassing relic of the past, but there has never been enough support from people attending the Business Meeting to sever the link. Momentum was growing for another try in the late 2010s, but it was one of many things set aside as the pandemic sapped everyone’s time and energy.
The ASFiC proposal suggests a different approach, one where a whole system of regional conventions is administered by WSFS, covering all the different regions of the world. (Except presumably Europe, which already has its own regional convention, Eurocon, administered by the European Science Fiction Society.)
Pandemic contingencies
The report from the Nitpicking and Flyspecking Committee (A.2.1, item 2) suggests several changes to allow for the possibility that a WSFS Business Meeting can’t be held in a given year. This nearly did happen in 2020, when Worldcon was forced online. A quorum of fans local to the intended site was found, and a minimal meeting held which passed everything along to the 2021 meeting.
F.1 attempts to set limits on the time of year when Worldcons are held. This year will see the third Worldcon in four years to fall partly or entirely outside F.1’s preferred time window. The most dramatic departure from that window was the 2021 Worldcon being held in December, as it joined the flood of conventions moving to later in the year looking for more favorable pandemic conditions (and winding up in the Omicron surge instead).
Rethinking US and English dominance
Beyond NASFiC, the WSFS constitution is shaped in many other ways by how Worldcon has traditionally been dominated by English-speaking fans, and how dramatically fans in the United States outnumber those in any other English-speaking country.
C.1, while allowing English to remain the primary language of the WSFS Business Meeting, attempts to make more room for participation by local fans in non-English-speaking countries.
Dueling proposals under F.3 attempt to clear up confusion that happened during the site selection vote which Chengdu won. Many ballots from Chinese voters did not include a full postal address; this has been attributed to a combination of an unclear translation of the ballot and postal addresses being considered more sensitive information in China than in the West. F.3.A and F.3.B are proposed by Western and Chinese fans respectively, each trying to lock in their own norms.
F.8 removes a clause from the Hugo rules providing any work originally published outside the US an extra year of eligibility when it is published in the US. This exists as a recognition that a work which is not available to the enormous crowd of US fans does not have a fair shot in the Hugo voting.
F.4 addresses a probably non-controversial administrative issue by calling for a method to convert word count in stories between different languages for purposes of figuring out which Hugo category a work belongs in.
In Brief
Con or Bust, which helps fans of color attend geek conventions, is holding a fundraising sweepstakes through October 23. Prizes include a PS5 and book-related gift certificates.
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus handed out awards the weekend before last.
Transformative Work Award: Raina Telgemeier
Master Cartoonist Award: Daniel Clowes
Newly Emerging Talent Award: Evan Salazar
DerpyCon 2023 (New Brunswick, New Jersey, October 27-29) has added Lex Winter as a special guest.
Spooky Empire (Orlando, Florida, October 27-29) has added Nick Frost, Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Billy Wirth, Lou Diamond Phillips, Marley Shelton, and Andi Matichak as guests.
Imaginarium (Louisville, Kentucky, July 19-21) has announced Michael Knost will be its toastmaster.
Event Calendar
Weekend of October 13-15
Stranimondi 9 (Italian national sf convention), Milan, Italy
Octocon 2023 (Irish national sf convention), Dublin, Ireland
ICON 48: We Only Work in Outer Space, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
Can*Con 2023 (Canadian sf), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Alamo City Furry Invasion: Dr. Virginia's Island Paradise, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Viking-Con 42 (gaming), Copenhagen, Denmark
Atlanta Game Fest 41, Peachtree Corners, Georgia, USA
Congress of Gamers Fall Session, Rockville, Maryland, USA
Icon Gaming, Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA
Southern Board Game Festival, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA
Erie Days of Games, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA
NEWGameapalooza, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA
Portland Retro Gaming Expo (retro video games), Portland, Oregon, USA
Banzaicon 10 (anime), Larvik, Norway
Iberanime, Matosinhos, Portugal
Charleston Anime-Fest, North Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Polaris (anime), Hamburg, Germany
WasabiCon (anime), Jacksonville, Florida, USA
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Bowness-on-Windermere, UK
Geek Days Caen (media), Caen, France
Visioncon (media), Springfield, Missouri, USA
ValleyCon 48 (media), Fargo, North Dakota, USA
New York Comic Con, New York City, New York, USA
MondoCon 2023 (media), Budapest, Hungary
56th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Sitges, Spain
Brooklyn SciFi Film Festival, New York City, New York, USA
VoltCon 2023 (Voltron), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Weekend of October 20-22
Chengdu Worldcon (81st World Science Fiction Convention), Chengdu, China and online
BuchmesseCon, Dreieich, Germany
Multiverse, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
BristolCon 2023, Bristol, UK
Irish Discworld Convention 2023, Cork, Ireland
The Surrey Steampunk Convivial, Epsom, UK
Furror (anthropomorphic), Łódź, Poland
Confuror 2023: Locos por la Ciencia (anthropomorphic), Guadalajara, Mexico
TsunamiCon (gaming), Wichita, Kansas, USA
MEPACon: Video Game Heroes and Villains (gaming), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
Austi-Con 2023 (gaming), Austin, Minnesota, USA
Just added: ConFABulous 2023 (LGBTQ+ gaming), Bloomington, Minnesota, USA
Gamehole Con X (RPGs), Madison, Wisconsin, USA
AVL Scarefest (RPGs), Montreat, North Carolina, USA
Travellercon/USA 2023 (Traveller RPG), Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
Anime Fusion: This Con Goes to 11!, Plymouth, Minnesota, USA
Anime Mundo, El Paso, Texas, USA
Puchicon Poconos (anime), Tannersville, Pennsylvania, USA
Another Anime Convention, Westford, Massachusetts, USA
Anime Banzai, Layton, Utah, USA
Anime Nebraskon 2023, Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA
YuniCon 2023 (anime), Schwechat, Austria
NW Idolfest (anime idols), Seattle, Washington, USA
Anime Ink (anime & tattoos), Richmond, Virginia, USA
Heroes Assemble 3: The Halloween Hullaballoo (media), Richmond, Virginia, USA
FACTS (media), Ghent, Belgium
Comic Con Baltics, Vilnius, Lithuania
Comic Con Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Dallas Fan Festival (media), Irving, Texas, USA
Shoufu-Con (media), Lansing, Michigan, USA
The Penti-Con 2023 (media), Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
Festival of Fantastic Films, Manchester, UK
PonyCon Holland 2023: A Series of Mysterious Events (My Little Pony), Zeist, Netherlands
TFcon Orlando (Transformers), Orlando, Florida, USA
Weekend of October 27-30
MileHiCon 55, Denver, Colorado, USA
Astronomicon 14, Rochester, New York, USA
World Fantasy Convention 2023, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Hallowcon 2023: Plan 10 from Outer Space (fantasy/horror), Dalton, Georgia, USA
Ohio Valley Filk Festival 39 (music), Worthington, Ohio, USA
Spacedock GLC-13 (anthropomorphic), Hasliberg, Switzerland
Furpocalypse 2023: Summercamp Slasher (anthropomorphic), Stamford, Connecticut, USA
Biggest Little Fur Con 2023: Curse of Cœurasa (anthropomorphic), Reno, Nevada, USA
Carnage 26 (gaming), Killington, Vermont, USA
S’mores and Meeples (gaming), Spring City, Pennsylvania, USA
GaelCon (gaming), Dublin, Ireland
Cardboard Caucus 2023 (gaming), West Des Moines, Iowa, USA
CinCityCon 2023 (gaming), Sharonville, Ohio, USA
Conecturday (video games), Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Board to Death Con 2023 (boardgaming), Wayne, Michigan, USA
Anime Weekend Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
UwUCon (anime), Mesa, Arizona, USA
Anime Halloween, Rosemont, Illinois, USA
YumeCon USA (anime), San Jose, California, USA
ExpOtaku Granada 2023 (anime), Granada, Spain
DerpyCon 2023 (anime), New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Music City Multi Con (media/video games), Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Hal-Con (media), Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Winnipeg Comiccon, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
KingCon NW (media), Renton, Washington, USA
Sinbad and the Eye of the Monsterama (retro media), Peachtree Corners, Georgia, USA
Spooky Empire (horror media), Orlando, Florida, USA
Weekend of November 3-5
Les Utopiales, Nantes, France
ArmadaCon 2023, Plymouth, UK
Lodge Con 2023, Peotone, Illinois, USA
Y/Con 9 (LGBT sf), Paris, France
Doxacon X (sf and Christianity), Arlington, Virginia, USA
Virtual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts: AAAA! - AI, Algorithms, Automata, and Art (symposium), online
Furry Blacklight: Welcome to Olympus, Tremblay-en-France, France
PAW '23: Tu-deer England (anthropomorphic), San Jose, California, USA
Kee Con VI (gaming), Cherokee, Iowa, USA
Lucca Comics & Games, Lucca, Italy
Spellen Spektakel (gaming), Utrecht, Netherlands
FLAG Con (gaming), Ithaca, New York, USA
TimpCon (gaming), Provo, Utah, USA
Tampa Nerd Con (gaming), Clearwater, Florida, USA
Spielwiesn (gaming), Augsburg, Germany
Rock-Con (gaming), Rockford, Illinois, USA
AcadeCon (gaming), Dayton, Ohio, USA
Effing-Con (gaming), Effingham, Illinois, USA
Twincon (gaming), London, UK
BottosCon 2023: A Mere Matter of Gaming, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
TableCon 2023 (gaming), Springdale, Arkansas, USA
AmberCon NW (diceless RPGs), Troutdale, Oregon, USA
Good Game Fest (video games), Westminster, Maryland, USA
LoBsterCon XXV: Silver Jubilee (boardgames), Eastbourne, UK
LAN All Night VIII: For LANdetta (video games), Grapevine, Texas, USA
Fall In! (miniatures gaming), Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
Warfaire Weekend (wargaming), St. Louis, Missouri, USA
J1-Con (anime), Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
Sin City Anime, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Anime Pasadena, Pasadena, California, USA
Kaiga Anime Convention, Perth, Australia
HotaruCon (anime), Milton Keynes, UK
NekoCon 2023: Little Witch Catademia (anime), Hampton, Virginia, USA
Youmacon 2023 (anime), Detroit, Michigan, USA
Con Nichiwa 2023 (anime), Tucson, Arizona, USA
Coosacon! (media), Rome, Georgia, USA
Comic Con Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
Akron Comiccon, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA
Twin Cities Con (media), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Grand Rapids Comic Con, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Creation Jacksonville (media), Jacksonville, Florida, USA
NC Comic Con, Durham, North Carolina, USA
Rhode Island Comic Con, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
D. A. M. Con 2023 (Japanese live-action media), Dallas, Texas, USA
Pony Friends Forever (My Little Pony), San Antonio, Texas, USA
Weekend of November 10-12
Novacon 52, Buxton, UK
TusCon 50, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Windycon 49: Adventure is Out There!, Oak Brook, Illinois, USA
OryCon 43: Phoenix Rising, Portland, Oregon, USA
OmegaCon Fall 2023 (relaxacon), Siren, Wisconsin, USA
New England Crime Bake 2023: deadactually (mysteries), Dedham, Massachusetts, USA
Steampunk November, Venus, Texas, USA
Vermont Steampunk Expo, Essex Junction, Vermont, USA
Howloween: The Nightmare BeFur Christmas (anthropomorphic), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Hexcon (gaming), Trondheim, Norway
Mythic Con (gaming), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Save Against Fear (gaming), York, Pennsylvania, USA
Compass Games Expo Fall 2023, Meridien, Connecticut, USA
Spielewelt in Bielefeld (boardgames), Bielefeld, Germany
EuroQuest 2023 (Eurogames), Annapolis, Maryland, USA
Phantasm 33rd (RPGs), Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
The Long Con (RPGs), Longview, Texas, USA
Arcade Expo, Houston, Texas, USA
TORG Gaming Expo 2023 (video games), Columbus, Ohio, USA
Oni-Con XX (anime), Galveston, Texas, USA
Animaine 11: I Died and was Reincarnated as the Animaine Mascot?! (anime), South Portland, Maine, USA
Animaga (anime), Melbourne, Australia
Nishicon (anime), Eindhoven, Netherlands
Anime Iwai: Horizons, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
anime expo chibi, Ontario, California, USA
Rocky Mountain Con X (comics), Denver, Colorado, USA
Thought Bubble (comics), Harrogate, UK
Motor City Comic Con, Novi, Michigan, USA
Grit City Comic Show, Tacoma, Washington, USA
Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Twin Tiers Comic-Con, Horseheads, New York, USA
Coda
Choose your own adventure in combinatorics (arXiv, hat tip: NPR)
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