Down Under Fan Fund co-administrator Paul Weimer has announced the 2018 DUFF ballot is live. There is one candidate, Marlee Jane Ward, who will attend Worldcon 76 in San Jose.
Although it is a one-person race, the voting process is DUFF’s fundraiser, as votes need to be accompanied by a minimum contribution of at least $5 in US, Australian, Canadian, or New Zealand currency.
Get a PDF ballot or vote online at the OZ Fan Funds page. The voting deadline is March 31, 2018 at 23:59 AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time).
Ward’s platform is:
Marlee Jane Ward
I’m a writer, blogger and amateur photographer from Melbourne, Australia. I’m passionate about writing, but every writer begins as a fan – and I’m mad about Science Fiction. I attended Worldcon in 2016 in Kansas City and I’d love to have the opportunity to build connections with world-wide fans of Science Fiction again in San Jose this year. I look to document fan culture and my personal experience at the biggest con in the world, both through blogs and photos. I’m warm, outgoing and absolutely sure that I won’t just make networks, I’ll make friends.
Nominators: Australasia: Jane Rawson, Cat Sparks and Corey White; North America: Neile Graham and Kij Johnson.
Ward attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in 2014. Since then, ISFDB shows Ward has published six short stories and a novel (Welcome to Orphancorp). In 2017 she won the Ditmar Award for Best New Talent, and also attended Kij Johnson’s novel writing workshop in Kansas.
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As a former unsuccessful DUFF candidate, I’m more than a bit disappointed that this appears to be the third race in a row (following a year when the race was cancelled) where there has only been a single candidate.
@Joel Yeah, I can see how in this day and age why it is not as enthusiastically popular as it once was, given the difficulty we (the fan fund administrators) had in even finding one candidate.
It’s a not insignificant commitment to participate in one of the Fan Funds: get a big chunk of time off work, attend the con(s), meet with some fan groups, take detailed notes and photos, do a nice writeup within a reasonable amount of time, and help administer the next 2 rounds of the fund.
I suspect that a lot of people are in the same situation as me: it would be easier and less fraught to come up with the funds myself than it would be to have to get the extra vacation time for the ambassadorial visits, and I would be concerned that personal circumstances might get in the way of putting together a good report in a timely fashion (and you’ve certainly set a high bar in that regard, Paul). I would rather face the pressure of paying off the bills than that of stressing about meeting my obligations, not embarrassing myself, and getting a bad rep in fandom for not doing a good job of following through (which I understand has happened more than once).
As not only a former unsuccessful DUFF candidate, but the very first DUFF loser (to Lesleigh Luttrell in 1972, and where the heck is she now?) I second Joel’s comment.
I might as well admit that I’ve never heard of the sole candidate before.
Hold Over Funds looks like it’ll get my vote this year!