🚀 go-pugleaf

Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 01:35:20 
From: Mike Willmoth <mwillmoth@compuserve.com>
Subject: Hawaii Update


Hi, all!


As you all probably know by now, we lost the bid to Los Angeles for the
2002 Westercon.  There were 198 ballots.  2 were invalid (no known
membership in Conolulu, 1 for each bid).  2 were for No Preference.  1 was
for Chico and 1 for Roswell.  112 went to LA and 80 to us.  Not bad for a
convention that had around 200 at-con!

So, the bad news is that we lost (again).

The good news is that we put in a strong bid and a good showing in
Honolulu.  In fact, our showing there was so strong that we swayed between
1 and 2 dozen uncommitted votes!  Having that function space map was a
great idea and I used it in the Bid Presentation Panel on Sunday morning. 
From the feedback after that panel it was the general concensus that I
defeated (handily) Bruce Pelz in presenting information and promoting our
bid.  For those who don't know Bruce, he's been involved actively in fandom
for around 40 years!  Our bid party Saturday evening went quite well and I
talked to fans for 2 straight hours before getting a break.  I manned the
info table as you walk into the suite with Bob & Lori chatting folks up at
the food & munchies area.  We shut the party down at 1am, 30 minutes after
LA stopped, so we ran a longer and (in my opinion) superior party.

So, why did we lose?  Obviously, we didn't get enough votes.  Why not? 
Because not everyone on the bid committee voted, not everyone in Tucson
fandom voted and not everyone in Phoenix fandom voted.  We also didn't get
all the votes from the pre-supporters (of which we're up to around 100
thanks to sales at-con).  At the site selection table there was a printout
of members of Conolulu.  As votes came in the person voting was
highlighted.  Lori spent most of her time there while I spent most of mine
at the bid table.  Bob alternated between them and ran errands, such as
party signs and all that.  Lori didn't know all the pre-supporters nor all
the AZ fans, but in my brief stint at site selection I noticed a lot of AZ
members not highlighted.  This was our problem 2 years ago and although we
did much better this time we didn't do a good enough job on the local
offsite vote.  We also had a number of folks express surprise that we
weren't bidding Phoenix, but Mesa.  With the ballots listing Phoenix and
not Mesa we were at a disadvantage immediately.  We should have listed
ourselves as Mesa in 2002 instead of Arizona since most fans there didn't
care about our pan-Arizona efforts.  We also spent lots of time fending
questions about heat (no surprise there).  Some LA fans were really
obnoxious about this while voting at site selection.  Thanks to Lori for
putting up with their attitudes graciously under fire.  Even Bob dealt with
this diplomatically at the bid table while I was at Site Selection. 
Surprisingly, these folks failed to take me on for this issue, perhaps
afraid to do so after the bid presentation success.

After the vote showed LA won we congratulated Bruce & Elayne Pelz.  They
thanked us for a good bid and encouraged us to work with them in 2002 as
they would need help running their con.  John Lorentz (Fan GoH) and Ruth
Sachter (John's wife) ran Site Selection and were impressed with our strong
presence.  All 4 of them encouraged us to run for 2004.  Additionally,
Kathryn Daugherty (Chair of Conolulu) asked us to run for 2004.  They all
seemed pleasantly impressed with our efforts.  I don't think they were
playing with us, but genuinely supportive.  But, we know how long that can
last in fan politics :-)

Later on, in ConSuite after the convention ended and the Dead Dog started
up, I asked Bruce in public how to contact him for staff positions.  I
suggested emailing him our fannish resumes and he said that was probably
the best way until they set up a separate email address on their website. 
So, for anyone interested in working with their con, email Bruce Pelz
(bep@deltanet.com) with your interest and info.  It was suggested several
times that we should work with Portland and LA, so I told them I would pass
along the requests.  I don't have an address for contact regarding
Portland, but if anyone's interested I can find out.

There was no presence from any bidders for 2004.  Seattle is bidding for
2003 (SeaTac Airport hotel of some kind) with no competition to them
either.  I heard rumors about San Diego expressing interest in 2004, but
there was no one from SD at the con that I recognized.  Since I am working
Comic Con in San Diego (July 20-23) I will explore that rumor to find out
their level of interest.  When I return, I'll call a final bid meeting to
discuss Hawaii in any detail left out of this brief post and to pass on any
2004 data obtained in SD.  We can then make an informed decision as to 2004
or not.

Thanks to everyone for all their efforts, especially Pat Connors for almost
3 years of bid chairing efforts.  We scared LA this weekend.  You should
have seen their faces when I put 23 walk-in ballots on the table at Site
Selection on Sunday (I waited until after the presentation for effect),
much more than they brought.  We are definitely in favor within Westercon
fandom for our efforts and our gracious defeat.  I copied the thank you
flyer and posted it in numerous public places.  Again, we received very
positive feedback for doing this.

I also welcome your comments and input, either public or private.

<== Mike ==>