It is traditionally considered bad form for a bid to announce its initial convention rates prior to being selected, as this may influence the selection process. After all, we want people to choose the bid that will run the best, rather than the cheapest, Worldcon. However, as Glasgow 2024 is running as an uncontested bid, we have a little more leeway in this and can be more explicit in how our Bid Supporter rates relate to our initial Convention Membership rates. So, let’s start by talking about our Bid Support Rates.
Both our PreSupport rate (£20) and our Super Friend rate (£300) are largely about donating to the bid to cover our expenses. While the Super Friend gives you automatic adult attending membership to the convention as well as access to exclusive activities (which we’re still planning) and other goodies, the £300 you pay for being a Super Friend are far more than what you’d pay to join the convention any other way. As for the PreSupport, there are no direct fiscal benefits other than having our gratitude and being on our mailing list.
If you’re planning on attending the convention, your best option is to become an Adult Friend (£120) or Y.A. Friend (£60) of the bid (depending on your age), as these are guaranteed to have a route to become an attending member of the convention for the smallest outlay and to be cheaper than waiting to buy a new membership when our registration system opens for anyone aged 11 years or older.
So, let’s now talk about these Bid Supporter types and how they relate to our Convention Membership types, and begin with the membership types Glasgow 2024 will have:
Glasgow will be offering eight different types of membership. For Adults of 26 years or older, our basic membership type will be:
- The Adult Attending – This is open to anyone
However, we will also be offering three discounted Adult Rates
- First Worldcon – This is open to any adult who by attending Glasgow 2024 will be attending their first Worldcon in-person. Having attended a Worldcon virtually does not exclude you from taking up this rate.
- Scottish Fan – This follows on from a tradition started by Dublin 2019 who wanted to encourage local fans to join. We are offering a discounted rate to anyone who is resident in Scotland, the Hebrides, Orkney or Shetland.
- Historically Under-represented Voices – This is a new discounted rate for Worldcon’s and is offered as a small part of our commitment to making Glasgow 2024 as diverse and representative an event as we can. This discounted rate is available to anyone who self-identifies as being part of this group.
All Adult memberships comes with WSFS voting rights. The rest of our membership types are related to age at the first day of the convention:
- Y.A. Attending – This type of membership is available to anyone who will be aged 16 to 25 at the start of the convention (so to anyone born between 1999 and 2008). It comes with WSFS voting rights.
- Teen Attending – This type of membership is available to anyone who will be aged 11 to 15 at the start of the convention (so to anyone born between 2008 and 2013). It comes with WSFS voting rights.
- Child Attending – This type of membership is available to anyone who will be aged 6 to 10 at the start of the convention (so to anyone born between 2013 and 2018). It is attending only, no voting rights.
- Infant Attending – This type of membership is available to anyone who will be aged 0 to 5 at the start of the convention, so to anyone born after 2018, and will be a nominal admin fee.
How do these rates relate to our Bid Support rates?
For Y.A. Friends we will be allocating you attendance as either a Y.A. or a Teen, based on the date of birth you registered when you became a Bid Supporter. For those allocated a Teen attendance, there is nothing more to be done. You will be a Teen Attending member. For those allocated a Y.A. attendance you will need to purchase a WSFS membership for Glasgow 2024, either by voting at Chicon 8 or by purchasing the WSFS membership through our registration system when it opens. At that point you will be a Y.A. Attending member. However you need to do this prior to May 1st 2023, or you will automatically be converted to a Y.A. Virtual Attending.
As for our Adult Friends, we will be emailing you all in early August, if the address you registered is not in Scotland, asking if this will be your first in-person Worldcon, or if you are a historically under-represented voice. You will have 10 days to reply if either of these apply to you, otherwise we will assume they do not. We will then allocate you attendance as either an Adult, First Worldcon, Scottish Fan or Historically Under-represented. Those allocated any of the discounted attendance types need do no more, and you will be automatically registered as an attending member. For those allocated the basic Adult attendance you will need to purchase a WSFS membership for Glasgow 2024, either by voting at Chicon 8 or by purchasing the WSFS membership through our registration system when it opens. At that point you will be anAdult Attending member. However you need to do this prior to May 1st 2023, or you will automatically be converted to a Adult Virtual Attending.
We will email all Friends (Adult & Y.A.) in the second half of August to inform them of their allocation, and explain again, what – if anything - they need to do, to become an Attending Member. To allow these administrative processes we will be closing the public link to our Bid Support pages (New Supporter and Support Upgrade) at the end of July. After this, we will only be taking changes to our Bid Supporters in-person at Chicon 8.
However, we would like you to be aware that in all these cases, you will pay less in total for your attending membership by following this process than you would by purchasing a new attending membership.
EDITED NOTE: In order to update our registration system and make sure all our supporter data is accurate we are closing the the ability to pre-support online (at any level) from 1st August 2022. We will still be taking supporters in person at Chicon8.
If you intend to support Glasgow in 2024 we recommend that you do it before this date.
You can support here https://glasgow2024.org/presupport/
You can upgrade here https://glasgow2024.org/upgrade/
This blog post is brought to you by Steve Cooper, Treasurer.
We are the Bid Team for Glasgow in 2024 – A Worldcon for Our Futures. We are part of the vibrant Worldcon community. We would love to welcome you to Glasgow and the Armadillo Auditorium for the 2024 Hugo Awards. Please consider supporting us.