Category Archives: Fan Funds

2013 DUFF Race Begins

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Australian fans Bill Wright and Clare McDonald-Sims are your candidates for the 2013 Down Under Fan Fund. The winner will attend LoneStarCon 3 and boogie around North America afterwards. Copies of the ballot in various formats are available here.

Clare McDonald-Sims has been nominated by  Australasian fans Rose Mitchell, Perry Middlemiss and Janice Gelb, and by North American fans Curt Phillips and Chris Garcia. She has been a member of Austrek  for over a decade — General Secretary for a few years and President for one year. She worked on Aussiecon 4 as well.

Bill Wright’s Australasian nominators are Bruce Gillespie, Mervyn Binns, and Martin James Ditmar (Dick) Jenssen. His North American nominators are Murray Moore and John Purcell. He is a lifetime member of the Melbourne SF Club, a founding member of Anzapa, and a founding member of the Nova Mob (a Melbourne club). He was secretary for the first Aussiecon in 1975 and helped organize the Bring Bruce Bayside Fan Fund in 2004. He currently publishes Interstellar Ramjet Scoop and works for the Australian SF Foundation. (And Bill introduced me to Foster’s beer in 1972!)

Votes will be accepted until midnight June 10, 2013 and must be accompanied by a donation of at least $5 Australian, Canadian, United States, or $7 New Zealand. Anyone active in fandom on or before January 1, 2013 may vote. Electronic voting and donation is available through PayPal, see details on the ballot.

[Thanks to Irwin Hirsh for the story.]

A Short History of Hold Over Funds

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The TAFF stats left Andy Hooper wondering “Who was the wet blanket who voted to hold over funds? What sort of better candidates do you expect to appear?” Quite like Dante’s Inferno, where the poet asks after describing a heinous crime, “If you would not cry then, when would you?”

Once I savored the drama of Andy’s question, however, I paused for a fact-check. Aren’t votes cast for “Hold Over Funds” in every TAFF race? And I found out, no, there aren’t. So it’s not a purely rhetorical question.

TAFF instituted the “Hold Over Funds” option for the 1966 TAFF race. Co-administrators Arthur Thomson (ATom) and Terry Carr explained the change in TAFF Progress Report 8 –

“HOLD OVER FUNDS”: New this year is the candidate with the strange name of “Hold over funds”. This choice, which is similar to the “No Award” vote in Hugo balloting, gives the voter the opportunity to vote for no Taff trip in a given year/campaign in the event that either the candidates do not appeal strongly enough or that he feels that Taff should slow down on its program to build stronger interest in the campaigns that are held.

While the voters have never signaled for a full stop – translation: “Hold Over Funds” has never won – at least one person has voted for the option in 28 out of 40 TAFF races held since 1966. (This excludes 1973 for which statistics have never been posted.)

Is there a reason why some races dodged the bullet? As a little thought experiment I made up a list in my own mind of the five most deserving TAFF winners since 1966 and discovered that in 2 of those 5 races at least one vote was cast for “Hold Over Funds.” Not even the most stellar candidates can guarantee to get everybody off the fence.

“Hold Over Funds” has never received more than 15 first-place votes or more than 9 percent of the total vote – records set in the 1982 race between Rog Peyton and Kevin Smith which decided TAFF’s delegate to Chicon IV. Interestingly, 14 of those 15 votes for “Hold Over Funds” came from European fans. Someone may remember a reason, but it’s sure not ringing a bell with me. Not even after looking up the candidates’ platforms. (Thanks to Dave Langford for his TAFF site, indispensible to this spur-of-the-moment research project.)

Rog Peyton
‘Again, I boggle at his staying-power! Chairman of three Novacons, 1977 Eastercon, Brum Group (4 years) and veteran of umpteen other committees, Rog pre-dated me into fandom yet continues stronger than ever. He’s a Publishing Jiant — BSFA Vector, Tangent for 2 years, newsletters, and some superb programme books. His “Andromeda” is Britain’s top SF bookshop; No.1 auctioneer at every con, he’s into films, fancy-dress, art shows — My God, he’s done everything (including calling Harlan in the middle of the night)! Unquestionably our most active fan, Rog already has lots of US friends and richly deserves the opportunity to make many more!’ (Peter Weston)

Nominated by: Jack Chalker, Malcolm Edwards, jan howard finder, Bob Shaw and Peter Weston.

Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith has been around in fandom for some nine years, producing fanzines (Drilkjis with Dave Langford; Dot), writing for fanzines (Nabu, Space Junk, and others), chairing some British conventions (Skycon, Faancon 6), falling over at most others, editing an anthology of British fanwriting for Seacon ’79 (Mood 70), devising the world famous Surrey Limpwrist constitution, and downing the requisite amount of alcoholic beverages. He currently edits Vector, the critical journal of the BSFA, has clean personal habits, and wants to see America and meet American fans before it is too late (ra ra Ronnie Raygun!). All excellent qualities for a TAFF representative and administrator.

Nominated by: Avedon Carol, Eve Harvey, Terry Hughes, Rob Jackson and Ian Maule.

Coming in second, the 1985 race had 12 votes for “Hold Over Funds.” That was the year of Topic A. Yet because in 1985 fans cast a record number of TAFF ballots, 513, the percentage was trivial.

In fact, the 1989 race received the second highest percentage of “Hold Over Funds” votes, 6%, or 10 out of 165 votes, equally divided between voters from each side of the Pond.

Once “Hold Over Funds” became an option it garnered a tiny handful of votes in the next three TAFF races. Not until 1970 did “Hold Over Funds” register zero votes – all the preferences going to Elliot K. Shorter or his competition, Charlie Brown and Bill Rotsler. The latest race to shut out “Hold Over Funds” was 2012, which Jacq Monahan won over Warren Buff and Kim Kofmel.

2013 TAFF Voting

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John Coxon released the 2013 Trans Atlantic Fan Fund voting statistics in Taffline #6 [PDF file].   

Voting

N. Am.

Europe

 

Total

Theresa Derwin

5

11

  

16

Jim Mowatt

47

44

  

91

Hold Over Funds

1

0

  

1

No Preference

8

5

  

13

Totals

61

60

 

121

Jim Mowatt won with a first-round majority. He also passed TAFF’s ”20% rule” which, explains John Coxon, “meant that each candidate needed to get 10 votes in North America and 11 votes in Europe (‘no preference’ was not included when calculating these numbers).”

Coxon says 58 votes were cast in North America and 60 votes in Europe, and 3 more from the rest of the world — the latter reported in the North America column so it would not become too easy to deduce who they voted for. All voters’ names are listed in Taffline #6. Voter donations totaled $533.23 in North America and £349.68 in Europe.

Mowatt Wins TAFF

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Jim Mowatt will be the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund delegate to LoneStarCon 3.

Here is TAFF co-administrator John Coxon’s press release –

It is the pleasure of the TAFF administrators to announce the end of voting in the westbound TAFF race for 2013. Theresa Derwin and Jim Mowatt have both been excellent candidates who have kept TAFFing through some tough patches, but unfortunately there can be only one delegate.

Jim Mowatt is the winner of this year’s Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and will represent European fandom in a trip that takes him throughout North America. He will be appearing at LoneStarCon 3, in San Antonio, Texas, USA, amongst other fannish destinations yet to be confirmed.

The administrators would like to thank both candidates for their patience and good humour throughout the voting period. We wish Jim a fantastic trip to San Antonio and other amazing locales!

TAFF is the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and has been sending sf fans across the Atlantic Ocean since 1952 or 1955, depending on who you ask. The official unofficial TAFF website is at taff.org.uk and we can be found on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/TAFFnews or on Twitter as @TAFFnews.

For the full race results, keep an eye on taff.org.uk or efanzines.com for the next edition of the TAFF newsletter, which will contain information on the EightSquaredCon fan fund auction as well as the full voter breakdown for this race.

Don’t look for the voting totals in the official announcement. You won’t find them. Even though they must have been calculated to decide the winner. After weeks of reminders to VOTE FOR TAFF VOTE FOR TAFF VOTE FOR TAFF it’s a bit anticlimactic not to know how close the race was or how many fans participated.

CUFF Looking for Candidates

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Nominations are open for the 2013 Canadian Unity Fan Fund which will send a fan from Western Canada to Ottawa for Can-Con in October.

Debra Yeung, last year’s winner, explains the Western region of Canada is defined as Manitoba and parts West.

Can-Con is host of 2013’s CanVention, the annual convention of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.

CUFF nominees must apply by April 21. Applications require a minimum of three supporters from the West and three from the East, plus a letter from the nominee with a self-description and explanation why this would be beneficial for them and their communities.

Any Canadian fan or pro may individually nominate a fan to be this year’s CUFF delegate by sending an email outlining your reasons for believing that the fan would make a good delegate to: 2013.cuff@gmail.com or filling out the form at:- http://bit.ly/14wjpMP. Nominators who are not known to the current fund administrators Debra Yeung or Kent Pollard should provide a name and contact info for a fan who is known to one of them.

Final voting will run May 1-June 10. Anyone may vote for CUFF who has been active in Canadian fandom for two years prior to the Canvention, (so for this year, October of 2013) or anyone who has a membership to Can-Con 2013. Voters are required to make a donation to the fund of at least $5.00

Hertz: Moskowitz to Eaton, $250 to DUFF

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home_eaton-collection-hours_columnBy John Hertz: An anonymous donor has given DUFF $250 to send a rare copy of Sam Moskowitz’ Immortal Storm to the Eaton Collection.

SaM chaired the first World Science Fiction Convention. Besides his fan activity he edited a Gernsback magazine, wrote s-f, anthologized, and was generally a force of nature.

The Immortal Storm is his history of s-f fandom from the 1920s to World War II. Its title indicates its impassioned style. It remains indispensable.

This copy is from the limited mimeograph edition of 1951, after the Storm burst in Langley Searles’ Fantasy Commentator, before the 1954 hardback. A knowledgeable collector has estimated it is in Very Good condition.

DUFF the Down Under Fan Fund, like TAFF the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, sends fans on long-distance visits. TAFF began in 1953, DUFF in 1972, others followed, all sustained by donations. DUFF goes between North America and Australia – New Zealand.

Eaton, the world’s largest publicly accessible holding of science fiction, fantasy, and like that, is located at the Riverside campus of the University of California.

Last year Chicon VII the 70th Worldcon, at Chicago, had as is customary an auction to benefit the fan-travel funds. It was held in the exhibit hall, next to the Fanzine Lounge.

Some items came too late to be auctioned and will have to be used for raising money otherwise. One was this copy of Storm from Bob Passovoy (with his wife Anne, Fan Guests of Honor at Chicon VI) who could not get to the con that day but wanted to support DUFF.

Speaking as DUFF’s North America Administrator, I do not consider DUFF or its sister funds sell things.

As an Englishman once said, the exchanges which take place are measures of mutual assistance rendered by friends, in a spirit of confidence, sympathy, and good will.

A copy of this edition of Storm shows how physical production can be informative. It illustrates the art of mimeography.

The texture of the paper, the color of paper and ink, the appearance of typewriting, done by hand, teach what amateur publishing was sixty years ago, even to someone who may never have practiced slipsheeting or worked at a collating party.

Dr. Melissa Conway, head of Special Collections & Archives at U.C. Riverside and thus of Eaton, says the Storm has arrived.

Artifact as well as thought is elemental to history.

Perkovic Wins GUFF

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Mihaela Marija Perkovic of Croatia has won the 2013 GUFF race and will attend Conflux, the 2013 Australian National Convention.

Perkovic received over 50% of the 86 first-place votes cast.

  European Australasian Other Total
Julie McMurray

19

5

6

30
Mihaela Marija Perkovic

31

12

6

49
No Preference

4

2

1

7

Fund administrators James Shields and Kylie Ding report no one voted Hold Over Funds.

This year’s race raised a total of AU$1,098.02.

Fans from 15 countries voted – Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Channel Islands, Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, UK, Ukraine, USA.

GUFF, created in 1979, exchanges fans between Europe and Australia, therefore is called the Get Up-and-over Fan Fund or the Going Under Fan Fund, depending on which direction it’s running. Well, honestly, for that very reason it’s always called GUFF even though the variable name is a cute idea…

[Note: The winner's last name is correctly spelled with an accent over the "c", unicode U+0107, a character that does not seem to be available in this program.]

TAFF Is On!

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The TAFF administrators have officially announced the candidates for the 2013 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, Theresa Derwin and Jim Mowatt. Each has sworn a mighty oath (well, confirmed a willingness) to attend LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio if he or she wins, and posted a £15 bond.

The ballot is available here [RTF format]. Votes and donations may also be submitted via PayPal – see the ballot for details.

Voting ends Friday, April 19 at 23:59 British Summer Time aka UTC+1.

Theresa Derwin was nominated by Anders Bellis, Steve Green and John Meaney (from Europe), as well as Christopher J. Garcia and Yvonne Penney (from North America). Here is Derwin’s campaign platform, from the ballot:

Derwin: The Natural Selection. Theresa Derwin is standing for TAFF! A regular convention attendee and panel moderator/member, Theresa has been active in fandom since her teen years. She produces fanzine Andromeda’s Offspring, which promotes the genre work of female authors. She has also previously written for Critical Wave and writes book reviews on her blog www.terror-tree.co.uk whilst writing lots of fiction in a variety of anthologies and in her first book Monsters Anonymous. Theresa wants to attend LoneStarCon3 as a positive ambassador for European/British fandom and female fans and writers in particular. She brings enthusiasm, knowledge and humour to the race!

Jim Mowatt was nominated by Fran Dowd, Rob Hansen and Mark Plummer (in Europe), as well as Randy Byers and Curt Phillips (in North America). Jim’s platform reads:

Jim Mowatt came of age in the fiery fannishness of Leeds and burst upon the scene as Jim Trash at the Sou’wester Eastercon in 1994. Few noticed. He retreated into the shadows like a bewildered ninja. Since then he has made a number of friends, produced fanzines (e.g. Pips and Beam) and decided that fandom is a wonderful place to be(eblebear). He has produced a prodigious number of podcasts, and has a great face for radio. Jim followed a woman to Cambridge in 2002. She didn’t call the police so he moved in. San Antonio needs to know why.

The winner will have approximately four months to arrange his or her TAFF trip, which customarily includes meeting various groups of fans around the country in addition to attending the anchor convention. Recent visits to North America by TAFF delegates have included trips to Las Vegas, Toronto, New York City, Seattle, the Bay Area and Reno. The trip often lasts up to a month, and sometimes longer.

The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund has been facilitating the exchange of fans between Europe and North American since the 1950s. More information about TAFF can be found at the official unofficial website: www.taff.org.uk. TAFF also has presences on LiveJournal (taffnews.livejournal.com), Facebook (facebook.com/TAFFnews) and Twitter (@TAFFnews).