Site Selection

Worldcon sites are selected two years in advance, by a secret ballot of WSFS members - which means full supporting and attending members of the administering Worldcons.

This means that the 2013 host site will be selected by a vote at Renovation. The ballot process will open in early 2011 (for mail-in ballots) and continue through to Renovation where it will be possible to vote in person.

Site Selection in the Constitution

The Site Selection process is governed by Article 4 of the WSFS Constitution.

The complete Article can be found by following the link, but some of the key points are explained in the two sections below - the first aimed at potential bidders, and the second aimed at members who would like to take part in the voting process.

The Filing Process

Section 4.6 of the WSFS Constitution defines the requirements for a potential bidder to be included on the Site Selection ballot. There are two key requirements:

• The bidding committee must submit file certain documents with the administering committee no later than 180 days before the start of the administering convention (in this case Renovation). For 2011, this filing deadline is February 18, 2011.

• The proposed site must be at least five hundred (500) miles or eight hundred (800) kilometres from the site at which selection occurs (in this case, Reno, Nevada).

The bid filing documents need to include:

1. an announcement of intent to bid
2. evidence of an agreement with the proposed facilities, such as a conditional contract or letter of agreement
3. the rules under which the Worldcon Committee will operate, including a specification of the term of office of their chief executive officer or officers and the conditions and procedures for the selection and replacement of such officer or officers.

These documents have to be available to all WSFS members on request - Renovation will publish the filing on this web site to satisfy this requirement.

If you intend to put forward a bid to host the 2011 ballot, you should submit your filing to Renovation before the filing deadline of February 18, 2011 (midnight, PST). We strongly recommend that you file well in advance of the deadline in case of any communication issues or eligibility questions.

Bids can be filed by email to siteselection@renovationsf.org, or by postal mail to the main Renovation address of Renovation, PO Box 13278, Portland, OR 97213-0278. (If filing by post, please provide an electronic copy of your filing as well, for publication on this web site).

The Voting Process

Site selection is undertaken by written ballot, on a one member, one vote basis. Votes can be submitted by post prior to the Convention, or by hand at Renovation itself. There will be a cut-off date a few weeks prior to the start of the Convention for postal voting, to make sure the ballots reach us on time.

The bidders for the 2013 Worldcon will be announced shortly after the filing deadline of February 18, 2011, and the printed Site Selection ballot will be included in Renovation's Progress Report 4 which will be published in April 2011.

• You must be an Adult Supporting Member, Adult Attending Member, or Young Adult Member, of Renovation to vote.

• Corporations, associations, and other non-human or artificial entities may cast ballots, but only for "No Preference". "Guest of" memberships may also only cast "No Preference" ballots.

• All voters must buy a Supporting Membership in the 2013 Worldcon before voting - irrespective of how they vote. The membership rate will be announced when the bidders are confirmed and the ballot is opened, but in recent years has been in the $40-50 range. The aim of this is to provide initial funds to put the winning Convention on a sound financial footing.

• All votes are also entitled to upgrade to Attending Membership in the 2013 Worldcon for a maximum of twice the voting fee, for at least 90 days after the Worldcon is selected. This usually gives a lower cost than buying a new membership directly. The winning bidder may decide to keep this offer open for more than the required minimum of 90 days, but this varies from year to year.

• Please note that you cannot choose to retain your site selection voting right if transferring your membership, all rights automatically transfer with the membership as explained here.