Westercon is a convention which moves around the area of the US and Canada west of the 104th meridian. It is selected like Worldcon with bidding, mail and at-con voting, and a two-year lead time.
It is one of the oldest continuing conventions in the world.
Westercon was started in 1948 when Walter J. Dougherty of LASFS proposed that an annual West Coast convention be started for fans who couldn't afford to travel to the East Coast where most Worldcons were held. The first Westercon was held in September 1948 and was a one-day event attended by 77 people. It became a weekend-long convention in 1951 when it settled into its 4th of July weekend date and started moving between cities.
It is a Westercon tradition that GoHs are preferred from the region (west of the 104th W. meridian), having either been born or lived in the zone.
Westercon is formally sponsored by LASFS, though in practice it is completely independent. Nonetheless, in the event that Westercon were unable to function, the LASFS Board of Directors would be responsible for sorting things out.
See Westercon bids for more on Westercon bidding.
Some Westercons (marked with an asterisk) were held jointly with Worldcon. In most (but not all) cases they shared leadership and GoHs.
| from Fancyclopedia 2 ca. 1959 |
| An annual conclave for the Western half of the United States — West of the Rockies, that is — begun by the LASFS on Labor Day 1948. It has since become an institution for which other clubs bid also, like the Worldcon, and until the past year [i.e., 1958] was always some place in California. |
