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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) frankwu | |
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At the Worldcon this year, voting will take place to determine where the 2009 Worldcon is going to be. The leading contenders are bids from Kansas City, Kansas, and Montreal, Canada. I am throwing in my lot with Kansas City. My position is this: If you don't want to have a decent art show or dealer's room at the 2009 Worldcon, vote for Montreal. Otherwise, vote for Kansas City. I am opposed to the Montreal worldcon bid not because I dislike Montreal - actually, I have been there twice, and both were really fun trips. There is an excellent insect museum there, with a joyous butterfly garden, where the little guys will come and gently light on you. Nor am I opposing this Canadian worldcon bid to "punish" them for the inadequacies of the last Canadian worldcon, which was one of the worst-run and most-disorganized conventions I've ever attended. No - My main problem is with Canadian customs officials. This is continually a problem for Americans, particularly artists and dealers, bringing their stuff into Canada. What the customs officers want you to do is calculate the value of all your wares, assume that you will sell everything, and pay a percentage of that. On the spot. If you don't sell everything, in an ideal world, eventually you get reimbursed. For the Westercon (Due North) in Calgary (2005), one book dealer had to open every box on the spot, list every book and its value, total it all up, and then pay a fee before crossing the border. It took hours and hours to do. A magazine editor had to hide his wares - hundreds of copies, under stuff in his back seat to slip them across the border. Toronto Trek (a July media-themed convention) seems to have figured this out. They pay a blanket fee in advance for artists (not sure if they also do this for dealers). So artists crossing the border can wave the paperwork, and tell the customs fee "The fee's already been paid" and go on their merry way. The Toronto 2004 worldcon (Torcon) didn't do this, mainly because the value of the artwork was higher and so the fees out of their price range. So we artists were on our own. I haven't seen any indication that the Montreal worldcon bid people are helping artists and dealers with the payments and paperwork to get their stuff into Canada. There's nothing on the website about it. (Another thing that they could do is something like what was organized for the 2005 Glasgow worldcon, wherein US artists could mail their art to a single location in the US, and then it was all shipped in bulk to the UK.) If the Montreal worldcon bid people were to do something, anything, to help us get across the border, that'd be great. Until then, I can't vote for Montreal or recommend that anyone else do so. Kansas City in 2009! (If anyone from the Montreal bid would like to address these concerns here, I'm more than willing to listen, and I will stop opposing their bid if they deal with this issue. Also, this post is meant in no way to denigrate Artists or dealers from Canada, who could probably have a very fine, albeit small art show and dealers room without any Americans. Karen Tristao is a Canadian artist who showed fabulous work at Torcon, particulately memento mori made from human hair. But... Many congoers described both the art show and the dealer's room at Torcon as "sparse.")
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| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: January 24th, 2007 05:20 pm (UTC) |
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International customs & cons
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Hi! I have some info that may help people to understand the various situations.
Firstly please realize that any time you cross an international border to do business (which is what dealers and artists are doing) there are various things which must be done.
Preparation and the use of a broker IN ADVANCE are essential to clearing through -both- Customs & Immigration swiftly!!!
This happens when folks are going the other way too, which is why there are so few international dealers or artists at American conventions.
I import stuff from the US for my store all the time, and sometimes it is almost impossible to get the correct information because even manufacturers don't seem to understand why I would need to know where parts and publications are made! It is -Required- information for importing.
Yes, you would be crossing an international border, and yes it does require extra work to do so correctly.
I don't know about Toronto, but I do know that many of the problems for Due North occurred because some people were trying to cut corners and the broker some dealers chose to use was the one that had done T3. When that broker sent paperwork for clearing, -the broker- sent everything with the T3 name and address on it! This really screwed things up for people.
I do know that the Montreal committee wants to use a different broker and is investigating both the portal-to-portal advantages available to international conventions, as well as the costs involved in making arangements for a secure storage point that dealers and artists can ship into and out of.
Dealers and artists are still going to have to have a proper inventory list of thier goods, and indicate where things originate from.
The folks who just load a bunch of stuff into the trunk or back of the van, and drive to a con won't be able to do that for an international event. They will need to be prepared, and yes it takes time and money (fees for the broker etc.) This is just the reality of doing business in a different country.
I hate to say it this way, but if it is going to be a WORLD convention then from time to time it is going to have to be outside the US, which will create additional work on -everyone's- part.
I would like to point out that some of the requirements that are newly in place are due to the requirements of US Homeland Security. A perfect example is the fact that folks going from Canada to the US and vis versa now require a passport if they are flying, and if US Homeland Security can manage it, this will be true of those driving across the border by this time next year. The days of getting into a car and spontaneously going off to a convention across the border are fast disappearing.
Ask the conventions in New England and in Northern states how they feel about the fact that they may lose attendees and volunteers when these are fully in effect? I don't know what the specifics are for Americans, but these days a Canadian who wants a passport has to lay out about $87, and it is good for 5 years. The new regulations are definitely going to have an effect on smaller conventions on both sides of the border.
Governments place barriers and requirements that must be met. There is no way to get around these, until/unless the Countries of the North American continent are willing to create the equivalent of the European Union.
IF the voters choose to never vote for locations outside the US then it ceases to be a WORLD convention. NASFICs occur when the Worldcon leaves the continent, not the US, and in part that was due to the very unique relationship that Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.A. had. The free movement of people across the US/Canadian border is fast becoming a thing of the past, sadly. I, for one, can't predict what will happen over the next few years, but I hope that some solutions will be forthcoming.
-Linda Ross-Mansfield
Montreal Bid Committee Member
in Winnipeg, Manitoba
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| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: January 24th, 2007 04:31 am (UTC) |
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Crossing borders
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Hello Frank,
Your concerns about crossing the border with artwork and/or merchandise are justified.
I just want to add to the information you give because it is unfortunately incomplete. "Standard" procedure for merchandise entering Canada is for the importing party to pay the GST up front for it (this is the percentage value you refer to). But you fail to mention one important point: this amount can be recovered when making sales (ie you charge the GST to your purchaser, I won't go into details here) and you get a refund on the GST you paid on merchandise you bring back with you.
Many artists and dealers have expressed this concern to me at our bid table/parties and this is my usual answer:
We plan to facilitate crossing the border for artists and dealers alike. Con*Cept (Montreal's local con) did this as far back as 1995, so we do have an idea what this is about. Does this mean you will have no paperwork? No, you do have to play your part in this, but if things go well and regulations don't change by 2009, you should not have to pay any GST up front. In addition, as the host of many international events, the Montreal convention centre is also used to this problem.
At this point, we cannot give you the exact procedure since regulations concerning border crossings between Canada and the US have been constantly changing. (The latest change in regulations started only a day or two ago is but one of probably several to come in the next few years) What I can tell you is that we are well aware of the problem and plan to do everything we can to help dealers and artists come to help us make the best convention possible.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me.
René Walling
Chair
Anticipation
The Montréal Worldcon Bid
La candidature de Montréal pour le congrès mondial de science fiction
http://www.anticipationsf.ca
visit our blog: http://www.anticipationsf.ca/blog/
P.O. Box 505, Station NDG
Montréal, QC
Canada, H4A 3P8
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From: frankwu |
Date: January 24th, 2007 07:41 pm (UTC) |
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Re: Crossing borders
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I'd like to thank René, Linda, Kevin, Chris and everyone else for weighing in on this issue.
I'm very, very pleased to know that Montreal is putting time and effort into thinking about and dealing with this issue. We all know that it's a big deal. It would be reassuring to see something on their website, even a page that says, "Yes, yes, we know about the customs/border problem and we're working hard on it." It might help their bid, since, as was said, other dealers and artists have this concern.
I'm not advocating that all worldcons be in the United States. I'm merely hoping that all non-U.S. worldcons help Americans (or people from other countries) get their stuff into the country. Reciprocally, U.S. worldcons should help non-U.S. folks get their stuff into the country for U.S. worldcons. It'll be great to see a larger representation of British artists at U.S. worldcons.
Thanks, everyone. That puts my heart at ease.
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From: frankwu |
Date: January 24th, 2007 07:32 pm (UTC) |
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Ah, Lawrence, I guess you are correct, because their website says, if they win, the con'll be at Overland Park, which is indeed in Kansas. I was thinking it was Missouri since their mailing address is Kansas City, MO.
So I fixed this on the website.
(NOTE for those who don't know what we're talking about, in the text of the initial posting, I said it was a "Kansas City, Missori" bid. Actually, the reason I did that was because I wasn't sure, having not been to either KC, and I was hoping that if it was wrong, someone would notice, which apparently, has happened.)
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From: frankwu |
Date: January 26th, 2007 02:34 am (UTC) |
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Well, I clicked on the link roughly three hours ago, meaning to answer you, and promptly got distracted by everything else on the website. (However, I'm in Newfoundland, and I gather you're in California, four and a half hours behind me, so odds are you've not been up long at this point.) I wanted to tell you this at the time, but the only time I was close enough you'd just won a Hugo and I didn't want to interrupt. It was this one: http://www.frankwu.com/Forever.html . If I recall correctly, that airplane at the bottom is a little model which comes right out of the picture, yes? Looking at it now, a couple of years later, I think it was the expression on the woman's face which got to me. While I don't have any children, there is something about parental love which speaks very strongly to me, and it was clear to that there was something terrible happening. I didn't realise at the time that it was an illustration - now I'm going to have to try to find the story. I like stories about impossible choices. (Spider and Jeanne Robinson's "Starmind" is a good example.) I wish I had the vocabulary to speak about visual art better. My own art is poetry, so I love when visual art includes text, as this one does, and also your painting with the Dylan quote. I'm totally getting a kick out of the ekphrastic (look, I have the literary vocabulary! *grin*) poetry you comissioned for some of your other work - art about art about art! How cool is that? A good friend of mine is currently doing a BFA at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College (Memorial University of Newfoundland's hippie campus - visual arts, theatre, and environmental studies.) and for her final project she plans to do ink paintings based on a poem of mine. I can't wait to see what she comes up with. Art that works with other art is one of my favourite things since I read "Springtime with the Fall of Icarus" by Williams, about a painting by Brueghels the Elder. http://www.frankwu.com/rman.html Love this one, too. In your notes for a few of your pieces, you speak about your Christianity. This painting goes very well with my own spirituality which is based on the cyclical nature of things - I'm a Believer In The Carbon Cycle and the Water Cycle, etc, I guess. My fondest hope for my physical being is that after I'm not using it anymore, it'll be part of plants, and other animals, and eventually part of a star. I find "Resurrection Man" to be very hopeful - look, it says to me. Death need not be entirely wasteful. (Though the environmental studies major in me points out that deserts are actually very complex ecosystems and not devoid of life at all ;) ) I think this comment may be getting too long, so I'll stop rambling. It's just I'm a better writer than I am a talker - if I actually met you, I'd probably say "uh, uh, you draw good" and run away. |
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