Category Archives: Fan Funds

Inaugural European Fan Fund Race Begins

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Voting has begun in the first European Fan Fund race. Matylda Naczyńska from Poland and James Shields from Ireland are candidates to become the EFF delegate to the 2023 Eurocon in Uppsala, Sweden. .

Balloting will continue until April 10 at 23:59 British/Irish Time: UTC+1), with the winner announced online as soon as possible after voting has closed.

The EFF is using a preferential voting system similar to that used by TAFF and GUFF. Voters rank candidates in order of preference. In order to win candidate must gain over 50% of the votes. If this doesn’t happen in the first round of counting, the lowest-ranked candidates will be eliminated from the race and those votes redistributed in subsequent rounds according to the next ranking. This will be repeated until one candidate has a majority of votes. Alternatively, fans can vote to Hold Over Funds to another year, or vote No Preference.  Any fan active in fandom prior to January 2022 can vote providing they donate at least 3 EUR (or 3 GBP or equivalent) to EFF.

The candidates’ platforms and nominators follow:

Matylda Naczyńska

My story with fantasy started when I was a teenager but I wasn’t introduced to the Fandom until Covid pandemic and tabletop RPGs community going full on-line in early 2020. I started to sink in participate in various RPG-related events. In 2021 I decided to dive head first and made my first time on a Convention as volunteering! Soon after that I co-organised an on-line part of a small, local convention! I decided to join a fantasy-oriented association and really quick I became a volunteer, co-organizer and even section-chief in 3, couple-hundred participants, conventions (on-line and off-line). Recently I was chosen to join the board of association of Fantasy-fans association Avangarda (based in Poland, Warsaw). This allows me to manage the (disliked by everyone else) administrative and financial aspects of our association. I’m still an active tabletop RPG player and huge sci-fi literature fan (all hail Stanislaw Lem!!!). I am not a veteran convention-goer but in just a few years I became very close to the Fandom and I believe it belongs to the brave and bold so I am asking kindly for Your votes in EFF so that I can continue my journey on Eurocon. See You in Uppsala!

  • Nominators: Julianna Grefkowicz (PL), Mikołaj Kowalewski (PL), Esther MacCallum-Stewart (UK)

James Shields

I’m very excited to be standing for the European Fan Fund. I think it’s a fantastic idea to promote Eurocon and greater links between European fan groups. I’ve been attending Eurocons when I can since 2011, and I co-chaired the Dublin 2014 Eurocon. I have been on many convention committees over the years. I’ve experience with fan funds as I was a prior GUFF delegate and attended Aussiecon 4 in Melbourne, and contributed to and helped run many fan fund auctions since then. I would be keen to bring that experience to the EFF, and help develop the fan fund into the future. I’m also a big fan of LEGO, and plan to produce a special EFF minifigure to come on the trip and be passed on to future delegates.

If selected as EFF Delegate, I would take as full a part in Konflikt as possible, participating in programme, and the social events of the convention. I would write blog posts in the run up to, and during the trip. After the trip I would aim to produce my trip report within a year and do my best to make the 2024 EFF trip even better than the 2023 one.

  • Nominators: James Bacon (IE), Mihaela Marija Perković (HR), Borys Sydiuk (UA)

Donations should be sent via PayPal to [email protected] (choose the option to send money to friends and family if you can). Please note during the payment process that the payment is for EFF 2023 (the location varies; typically ‘Add a note’ or ‘Email to recipient’).

Votes can be provided via the online form: https://forms.gle/uzXzS4t9qimmczmZ9; on a paper ballot (PDF, docx) – please write to [email protected] for the address to send the paper form to (or hand deliver it at to the EFF representative at Conversation 2023 (Eastercon), April 7-10.)

Three New Digital Editions of TAFF Trip Reports Help Start 2023 Right

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Three classic trip reports have been added to the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund’s library of free downloads. And if you enjoy them, a donation to TAFF is a fine way to express your appreciation. All are available in several electronic formats.

A Fake Fan in London by Bob Madle (1957 TAFF trip)

Robert A. “Bob” Madle (1920-2022) was the first North American TransAtlantic Fan Fund winner to travel to Europe at TAFF expense and the first to write a trip report on his experience. He attended the 1957 London Worldcon, the first to be held outside North America. A Fake Fan in London includes a detailed examination of the controversy (reflected in the title) resulting from the fact that many UK fans had preferred the rival candidate Dick Eney, a much newer fan whose activity was more visible across the transatlantic gulf between fandoms. All was amicably resolved. Madle died in October 2022 at the ripe age of 102, the last surviving member of the real First Fandom.

Ansible Editions ebook added to the TAFF library on 1 February 2023. Over 37,000 words. Cover drawing by Linda Miller from the first collected edition published in 1976.

The Moffatt House Abroad by Len and June Moffatt (1973 TAFF trip)

Len and June Moffatt were the 1973 US TAFF winners, travelling from California to that year’s UK Eastercon, OMPAcon ’73, held in Bristol. Their joint trip report The Moffatt House Abroad followed promptly in 1974.

Cover artwork by Bernie Zuber for APA-L, used as an interior in the 1974 edition. Ansible Editions ebook added to the TAFF site on 1 February 2023. Over 44,000 words.

The Squirrel’s Tale by Ron Ellik (1962 TAFF trip)

Ron Ellik (1938-1968), nicknamed “Squirrel”, was a popular Los Angeles fan highly active from the mid-1950s, co-editing the Hugo-winning newszine Fanac with Terry Carr. He won the 1961 TAFF race against Dick Eney and travelled from the USA to the 1962 UK Eastercon in Harrogate. The ensuing lively trip report The Squirrel’s Tale was serialized in the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society’s Shangri L’Affaires in 1962 and 1963, revised by Ellik in 1965, and published by LA friends a year after his tragic death in a January 1968 car accident.

Ansible Editions ebook added to the TAFF library on 1 February 2023. 27,000 words. Cover photo of Ron Ellik in squirrel costume from the Ethel Lindsay collection; photographer unknown.

[Thanks to David Langford for the story.]

So You Want To Start A Fan Fund

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By Mike Glyer: Whenever you think everything has already been invented, count on being surprised. Fan funds to bring across the seas people others only knew through their fanwriting got started seventy years ago and it turns out the idea has by no means been used up. TAFF, DUFF, and GUFF, organized to continually raise money to exchange fans between distant parts of the world, are a model for the latest effort announced a few months ago to add a European Fan Fund to the mix.

What does it take to create a fan fund to send a delegate from one area to another? Probably a good place to start is to identify hub convention in each area that can be the target for the person to attend. Then price out what the fund has to pay for in order to send someone to either con so you have a fundraising goal amount. Transportation, hotel room nights, meals, appropriate other thingies (whatever they might be).  Let’s say for the sake of discussion it’s $1,000.

Next question is — how can you generate $1000. That can be raised through: Direct donations. Auctions. Sales of donated stuff.

Direct donations requires the least amount of labor (people points).

Auctions — there are often TAFF/DUFF/David Gerrold/whatever else auctions at cons, so there are issues of finding a way to peacefully co-exist with these other efforts and at the same time avoiding giving fandom at large the impression of going to the same well too often. Those goals can probably be achieved, but they need to be thought about.

Sales of donated stuff — Running a fan table for purposes of publicizing the fan fund and selling donated stuff is time-intensive. What are ways of doing this collaboratively with fans who need to do the same thing for their causes. Which are compatible with raising money for this fan fund?

Sources of donated stuff can be individuals, and it’s likely you can tap into publishers (book, game, etc.) who want to publicize themselves by donating product. The risks of going to the well too often are not so great because the companies probably aren’t going to have a bad attitude, they will just say yes or no according to their own priorities and resources.

Fan fund publicity in general: The ever-popular press release sent out to likely suspects, and the use of social media, are pretty effective at getting the word out. These create an awareness of the fund’s existence, which is valuable, though the other in-person efforts described above are needed as follow-up to actually harvest money for the fund.

How will the fund be awarded? By vote or application to a directorate? It’s not always easy to find people who want to be fan fund candidates, and there’s also the question of whether the winner will be expected to administer the fund and assure it continues in existence.

Those are the broad strokes of the picture – your knowledge about fandom in your area will be needed to fill in the many other details involved.

2023 TAFF Ballot

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The official ballot for the 2023 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund race [PDF file] has been released. Fans have until April 11, 2023 at 23:59 Pacific / -7 UTC to vote.

The candidates are:

Sandra Bond
Nominators: John D. Berry (North America), Claire Brialey (Europe), Caroline Mullan (Europe), Alison Scott (Europe), Ted White (North America).

Mikołaj Kowalewski
Nominators: Marcin Kłak (Europe), Esther MacCallum-Stewart (Europe), Carolina Gómez Lagerlöf (Europe), Kat O’Steen Jones (North America), Ian Stockdale (North America).

Read the candidates’ platforms on the ballot.

The TAFF-trip goes to Pemmi-con, the 2023 NASFiC, being held July 20-23.

More information is available from the fan fund’s unofficial website.

2023 TAFF Nominees Announced

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The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund administrators Fia Karlsson and “Orange Mike” Lowrey have announced the candidates for the 2023 TAFF trip from Europe to North America, with itineraries expected to include Pemmi-Con, the 2023 NASFIC in Winnipeg.

The candidates are:

Sandra Bond
Nominators: John D. Berry (North America), Claire Brialey (Europe), Caroline Mullan (Europe), Alison Scott (Europe), Ted White (North America).

Mikołaj Kowalewski
Nominators: Marcin Kłak (Europe), Esther MacCallum-Stewart (Europe), Carolina Gómez Lagerlöf (Europe), Kat O’Steen Jones (North America), Ian Stockdale (North America).

Bonds have been posted and platforms have been received. The date voting will begin is TBA.

European Fan Fund Seeks Nominations for Inaugural Race

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By Marcin “Alqua” Klak: The European Fan Fund (EFF) transports European SF fans to Eurocons.

The purpose of the fan fund is to create and strengthen bonds between European fans and fandoms. Currently in almost every country there is a fandom that quite often has little or no connection to the broader European fandom. Most fans do concentrate on the “here and now” and are not looking for friends in other countries.

Nominations in the race to send a fan to Konflikt (Eurocon 2023 in Uppsala, Sweden, 8 – 11 June 2023; https://eurocon2023.se) are open to any European fan living outside Sweden who was active in fandom prior to January 2021.

If you wish to stand, please contact us at [email protected]. You will need three European nominators (who will each need to confirm their nominations), a platform of no more than 200 words to appear on the ballot, a bond of €12/£10 and a guarantee to attend the 2023 Eurocon in Sweden if you win.

Among your nominators there must be at least one fan from your country and one fan from another European country.

If you wish to stand and are unsure about how to go about getting any of these things, what the fund pays for or the duties of an EFF delegate and administrator, then feel free to contact us in confidence.

Nominations are open from 1 December 2022 until 25 January 2023 (British/Irish Time: UTC) and candidates will be announced soon after. Voting will then run until 23:59 on 10 April 2023 (British/Irish Time: UTC+1), with the winner announced online as soon as possible after voting has closed.

Nominations should be sent via email to the current administrator, Marcin Kłak, at [email protected]. The bond can be sent by PayPal to [email protected], or contact Marcin for bank transfer details. He will also take cash in person.

The idea of the EFF and the rules are available here.

There is a set of Frequently Asked Questions about EFF following the jump.

Continue reading →

TAFF 2023 Race Off To A Slow Start

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A month after announcing that the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund is taking nominations for the 2023 race North American TAFF Administrator Michael J. “Orange Mike” Lowrey says “We’ve got no nominees so far and only one whisper of a possible.”

The goal is to send a 2023 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund delegate from Europe to Pemmi-Con, the 2023 NASFIC in Winnipeg, and other stops along the way.

Lowrey adds, “I know there were lots of fine Eurofen I met during my 2022 trip who would make interesting guests here in North America.”

Here again is the information prospective candidates need to know:

With no Worldcon in Europe or North America in 2023, the next delegate will travel to Pemmi-con 2023, the NASFiC (North American Science Fiction Convention) in Winnipeg, Canada. It takes place on July 20–23, 2023 and is bound to be an exciting event!

Who can become a candidate?

Assuming you have the time, the wish to go, and the nominators to back you up, any European science fiction fan can volunteer to become a TAFF candidate.

For this race, you need two North American nominators, and three European nominators, who will then proceed to contact the current TAFF administrators (details below) by December 4, 2022, informing the administrators of whom they nominate for this honor.

You will also need to send an official statement of standing for TAFF to the administrators listing your nominators, plus a 101-word platform statement, and a £10/€12 bond fee sent via PayPal to [email protected].

What do you do as a TAFF delegate?

TAFF sends the chosen delegate across the Atlantic where they get to visit different fannish communities and make friends across the continent. Each trip has a target convention, which is the only pre-set destination for the trip, the rest is up to you. Afterwards, you come home and take over the European administration part of this fan fund. Delegates help raise money for the fund, for example by hosting fan fund auctions and other events, prior to, during, or (usually) after your trip.

Who can become a nominator?

Anyone in North American or European science fiction fandom who is not a current administrator. Meaning, you can’t ask either Fia or Orange Mike to nominate you. Not this time, anyway.

The nomination period will close on December 4. Voting to elect said TAFF delegate will commence five days later on December 9, 2022, and close on April 11, 2023.

Note: When counting the votes, if there are more than three candidates, we will not apply the “20% rule” until the candidates with the fewest votes have been eliminated and there are just three candidates left.

More details about TAFF can be found at David Langford’s excellent website, taff.org.uk. If you are interested in standing for the 2023 TAFF Race or would like to nominate some deserving fan, please contact Fia Karlsson, the European Administrator ([email protected]), or the North American Administrator, Michael Lowrey ([email protected]). Good luck!

  • Fia Karlsson, European Administrator. [email protected].  Lönngatan 44 C, 214 49 Malmö, Sweden
  • Michael J. Lowrey, North American Administrator. [email protected]. 1847 N 2nd Str., Milwaukee, WI 53212

TAFF Taking Nominations for 2023 Race

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The 2023 TAFF (Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund) Race is now officially open for nominations.

With no Worldcon in Europe or North America in 2023, the next delegate will travel to Pemmi-con 2023, the NASFiC (North American Science Fiction Convention) in Winnipeg, Canada. It takes place on July 20–23, 2023 and is bound to be an exciting event!

Who can become a candidate?

Assuming you have the time, the wish to go, and the nominators to back you up, any European science fiction fan can volunteer to become a TAFF candidate.

For this race, you need two North American nominators, and three European nominators, who will then proceed to contact the current TAFF administrators (details below) by December 4, 2022, informing the administrators of whom they nominate for this honor.

You will also need to send an official statement of standing for TAFF to the administrators listing your nominators, plus a 101-word platform statement, and a £10/€12 bond fee sent via PayPal to [email protected].

What do you do as a TAFF delegate?

TAFF sends the chosen delegate across the Atlantic where they get to visit different fannish communities and make friends across the continent. Each trip has a target convention, which is the only pre-set destination for the trip, the rest is up to you. Afterwards, you come home and take over the European administration part of this fan fund. Delegates help raise money for the fund, for example by hosting fan fund auctions and other events, prior to, during, or (usually) after your trip.

Who can become a nominator?

Anyone in North American or European science fiction fandom who is not a current administrator. Meaning, you can’t ask either Fia or Orange Mike to nominate you. Not this time, anyway.

The nomination period will close on December 4. Voting to elect said TAFF delegate will commence five days later on December 9, 2022, and close on April 11, 2023.

Note: When counting the votes, if there are more than three candidates, we will not apply the “20% rule” until the candidates with the fewest votes have been eliminated and there are just three candidates left.

More details about TAFF can be found at David Langford’s excellent website, taff.org.uk. If you are interested in standing for the 2023 TAFF Race or would like to nominate some deserving fan, please contact Fia Karlsson, the European Administrator ([email protected]), or the North American Administrator, Michael Lowrey ([email protected]). Good luck!

  • Fia Karlsson, European Administrator. [email protected].  Lönngatan 44 C, 214 49 Malmö, Sweden
  • Michael J. Lowrey, North American Administrator. [email protected]. 1847 N 2nd Str., Milwaukee, WI 53212

[Based on a press release.]

Chicon 8 Fan Fund Activities Final Tally

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Fan Fund activities at Chicon 8 brought in a total of $4,649.64 reports Geri Sullivan, a past administrator of the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund.

Fan funds enable a well-known fan to attend a major science fiction convention in another country or region.

The Live Auction brought in $2,160 with fans bidding on flash fiction by Michael Swanwick, dill chips from TAFF delegate Fia Karlsson, a hand-beaded/hand-knit lace shawl from Esther MacCallum-Stewart, and an original poem by Jane Yolen as well as one by Jo Walton. Also going under the hammer were Tuckerizations by Mary Robinette Kowal, Cat Valente, and Steven Barnes in collaboration with Larry Niven.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

$1,432.64 Dublin/Glasgow suite (Comic & book sales, bar tips, & Tammy’s Tastings Ukraine); with thanks to CoNZealand
$   303.00 Yard Sale
$   584.00 Silent Auction
$   170.00 Other donations ($2 given to Lynelle, DUFF 50th Party, Jeanne Mealy, Comic sales to Greg Ketter)

Geri Sullivan says: “Not only did we do remarkably well overall, 31% of the proceeds came from the utterly splendid support of the Dublin/Glasgow suite. A healthy but undetermined amount of that came from the sale of a box of Ben Yalow’s comics and copies of Mad Magazine from the 1960s-1980s while several hundred dollars clearly came from the tip jar and Tammy’s Tastings Ukraine cocktail event. Huge thanks to James Bacon for carrying on and expanding the support started at DisCon III, and to CoNZealand as well as Dublin and Glasgow. Those daily great big, gronking wads of money were amazing!”

The distributions to participating fan funds worked out to:

$1,132.66 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund
$1,245.39 Down Under Fan Fund
$1,086.62 GUFF (Get Up-and-over Fan Fund or the Going Under Fan Fund)
$1,172.95 FFANZ (Fan Fund of Australia and New Zealand)
$12.02 PayPal Fees

Travel Back to 1957 in Hansen’s History of the First UK Worldcon

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The cover photo shows the three Hugo Awards that were presented, held by E.J. (Ted) Carnell, editor of New Worlds (best British prozine), John W. Campbell Jr, editor of Astounding (best American prozine), and John Victor Peterson representing Science-Fiction Times (best fanzine, formerly Fantasy Times).

You know that phrase “putting the world in Worldcon”? The first step toward that utopian goal was the London Worldcon of 1957. You can learn all about the con and the kerfuffles in Rob Hansen’s 1957: The First UK Worldcon, the latest addition to TAFF’s library of free downloads. 

The 65,000-word book, compiled from contemporaneous participants’ own words, is available in multiple formats at the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund’s website, where they also hope you’ll make a little donation to the fund. Find it here.

From Rob Hansen’s Foreword

So why the 1957 Worldcon? Because it was a singularly significant and important event in the history of fandom. Not only was it the first Worldcon to be held outside North America, it was in many ways the first true world convention, pulling in as it did fans from more countries than had ever attended a single convention before. It was also the first time that UK and US fans met en masse. Yes, a handful of US and Canadian fans had been posted to the UK while serving in their armed forces during WW2, contacting local fans while over here, but these meetings had been individual and sporadic. And in terms of legacy, LONCON started the tradition of there being a British Worldcon once every calendar decade (1957, 1965, 1979, 1987, 1995, 2005, 2014, 2024). That’s three in London, three in Glasgow, and two in Brighton, with the longest gap between Worldcons being fourteen years, and the shortest being eight.

As well as firsts, the 1957 Worldcon is also notable as a last, being the final SF convention held before the start of the Space Age: Sputnik launched a few weeks afterwards.

And when it was over, as readers will learn, the outcome was less like utopia and more like fandom: some Americans stiffed the con hotel, the committee lost money, and the U.S. charter flight organizer sued his fannish creditors for defamation. I’m sorry, was this half-a-century ago or yesterday?