McCarty, Standlee, and Others Censured or Reprimanded

Worldcon Intellectual Property (W.I.P.), the California non-profit that holds the service marks of the World Science Fiction Society including “Hugo Award,” issued this statement in a press release on January 31, 2024:

W.I.P. takes very seriously the recent complaints about the 2023 Hugo Award process and complaints about comments made by persons holding official positions in W.I.P. In connection with these concerns, W.I.P. announces the actions listed below. There may be other actions taken or to be taken that are not in this announcement.

• Dave McCarty has resigned as a Director of W.I.P.
• Kevin Standlee has resigned as Chair of the W.I.P. Board of Directors (BoD).
• W.I.P. has censured or reprimanded the following persons, listed in alphabetic order, for the reason given:
  • Dave McCarty – censured for his public comments that have led to harm of the goodwill and value of our marks and for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon that he presided over.
  • Chen Shi – censured for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon that he presided over.
  • Kevin Standlee – reprimanded for public comments that mistakenly led people to believe that we are not servicing our marks.
  • Ben Yalow – censured for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon that he presided over.
• Donald Eastlake has been elected Chair of the W.I.P. BoD.

Please note that each year’s World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) is run by a separate organization which administers the Hugo Awards for that year. The Chengdu 2023 Worldcon has asked that any specific questions about the administration of the 2023 Hugo Awards be sent to hugoteam@chengduworldcon.com.

(For media inquiries on topics related to W.I.P. other than the specifics of the 2023 Hugo Awards, you may contact info@thehugoawards.org.)

This statement follows widespread outcry regarding seeming irregularities in the Hugo Awards nomination data, including several entries ruled ineligible by the Hugo Awards administrators, among them R.F. Kuang’s Babel, fan writer nominee Paul Weimer, Astounding nominee Xiran Jay Zhao, and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, for reasons that are not explained on either the site or the document.

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