Radical Reform Of The Faned Awards

R. Graeme Cameron, Founder and sole member of the non-registered and non-existent Canadian Fanzine Fanac Society and administrator of his self-invented Faned Awards has decreed all the world should enroll and vote in this year’s awards – a radical change from the Canadian-only rule of prior years. He explains:

Last year 19 people voted. Considering the size of Canada compared to the United States, this compares rather favourably with the FAAn Awards (roughly ten times as many voted for the latter).

However, 19 votes is rather meagre. Canadian fanzine fandom hasn’t exactly been expanding at an exponential rate of late. What to do?

Since most of the fan artists active in Canadian zines are American, many of the letter of comments coming from outside Canada, some of writing content likewise, and there’s a distinct possibility most of the readership resides in other lands, I have decided to throw open the Faned voting process to ANYONE who reads Canadian zines. The emphasis will still be focused on Canadian zines exclusively, but the vote will be open to any and all loyal readers of those zines, no matter which county they live in.

I will distribute ballot information in an upcoming issue of The Fanactical Fanactivist within a week, along with instructions on how to vote (email) and who can vote (certified fanzine fans who read Canadian zines).

My goal, this year, is to DOUBLE the number of votes. Staggering concept, what?

Unboundaried ambition, I’d say!

Fanac_Awards_2011_-_Unknown_Faned small

Canadian Faned Award Voting Stats

Voting for the 2013 Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards (“Faneds”) is now complete. The winners will be announced at VCON 38 in Vancouver in October. Only Canadians are eligible for the “Faneds,” designed to promote Canadian SF&F fanzine fandom and its heritage.

A successful transition to selecting the winners by vote is a feather in the cap of founder R. Graeme Cameron who created the “Faneds” in 2011. In the first year he acted as sole judge, then in 2012 picked winners with the help of “peer consultation and suggestion.” Now in 2013 he has been able to institute a formal vote by Canadian fans.

There were 19 voters — Keith Braithwaite, Lindsay Brown, R. Graeme Cameron, Paula Johanson, Cathy Palmer-Lister, Steve Fahnestalk, Keith Lim, Jenni Merrifield, Murray Moore, Andrew C. Murdoch, Lloyd Penney, Yvonne Penney, Lester Rainsford, Garth Spencer, Sylvain St-Pierre, Felicity Walker, Taral Wayne, Neil Williams, and Rose Wilson.

Nine of the voters are from British Columbia, 6 from Ontario and 4 from Quebec.

Each voter cast 3 weighted votes in each category with first choice worth 3 points, 2nd choice worth 2, and 3rd choice worth 1.

Cameron, multiplying the categories and the voters, determined there were 151 votes awarding a total of 294 points.

The 25 nominee slots were filled by 18 different candidates, some of them competing in more than one category.

The maximum points a nominee could potentially receive was 57, and the most points actually received by a winner was 40.

Cameron proudly observes:

The vote, meagre as it is (but then, so is the scope and scale of Canadian Fanzine Fanac), is truly a peer sponsored award, in that — as far as I am aware — almost all the voters were or are active in Canadian fanzine fandom:

8 = current, active Faneds
5 = Faneds active in the past
3 = are current contributors to zines
3 = readers.

[Thanks to R. Graeme Cameron for the scoop.]

Award certificate created by Taral in 2011.

Award certificate created by Taral in 2011.

Graeme: CFF Award Certificates in the Mail

By R. Graeme Cameron: Taral Wayne has completed the Certificates for the winners of the 2011 Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards. Copies have already been emailed to the winners, to be followed up by hard copies printed on acid-free 25% cotton paper. I attach a copy of the Life-Time Achievement certificate as an example.

I requested the certificate show a 1950s style astronaut (with a mimeo for his back pack) gazing over an alien terrain, with any bits of SF business Taral might care to add in homage to SF TV, Film, Comics, Movies, etc. He put in ten that I can see. I list them at the end of this article.

Taral has produced a wonderful piece of art that captures the wimsey, fun, and joy of fanzine publishing. I’m blown away by it. More than I expected. I am confident that future winners of the ‘Faneds’ will be pleased to receive these certificates in the years to come.

Note that the actual ‘Faned’ Award figure is still being sculpted by Lawrence Prime and is coming along quite nicely as depicted on the cover of my Fanactical Fanactivist #5.

Cheers!   Graeme (CFFA Administrator)

1)      Upper left corner – Avro Arrow.
2)      On planetary rings – Red Dwarf space bug.
3)      In helmet – shock of hair  = Tin Tin.
4)      Beneath backpack – Kirk vs. Gorn.
5)      To right of knees – City from The Jetsons.
6)      Next right – Apes & 2001 Monolith.
7)      Next right – Galileo 7 Shuttle from Star Trek.
8)      Next right – Tardis from Dr. Who.
9)      Next right – Robot from Roger Ramjet.
10)   Below – Barlennan from ‘Mission of Gravity’.

First Canadian “Faned Awards” Given

R. Graeme Cameron announced his selections for the first Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards on October 2 at VCON 36:

  • Best Fan Artist: Taral Wayne.
  • Best Fan Writer: Garth Spencer.
  • Best Loc Hack: Lloyd Penney.
  • Best Fanzine: WARP, Cathy Palmer-Lister, Editor.
  • Life-Time Achievement: “The Unknown Faned” who published Canada’s first SF fanzine in early 1936 under the title The Canadian Science Fiction Fan. (Unknown because in his 1936 review of the zine Donald Wollheim neglected to mention the editor’s name!)

All winners will receive “The Faned” figure sculpted by Lawrence Prime, and a certificate designed by Taral Wayne.

Cameron knows his new award needs lots of publicity if it’s going to have a bright future:

These first awards are entirely by fiat, being my personal decision based on what I consider to be the most obvious choices, the CFF Awards being entirely a one-man show at this point.

I’m hoping this is so outrageously abnormal compared to the usual peer-determined, incestuous, in-fought, excessively emotionally violent fan activity (of any sort) we are all used to that vast amounts of publicity will be generated by fan reaction to the awards (and this sentence).

Got to seep into widespread fannish consciousness somehow!

Next year I will be taking peer input into account. After that? Maybe an actual vote (rigged or otherwise).

Since I currently publish five fanzines (and am about to launch a sixth) I withdrew my name from my own consideration to create an illusion of impartiality. My first impulse, to award myself all five Faneds, took at least an hour to argue myself out of… for this year anyway. I make no promises.

(And if the above paragraph doesn’t generate yet more publicity I’ll be greatly surprised. I’m discovering that ‘doing’ publicity can be fun!)

I, Canada

R. Graeme Cameron, the Dean (or at least Boys Vice-Principal) of Canadian fanzine fandom has unilaterally created “The Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards” (nicknamed the “Faneds”).

There will be awards in five categories: (1) Best Fanzine, (2) Best Fan Artist, (3) Best Fan Writer (editorials, columns, articles, etc.), (4) Best LocHack (letters of comment writer), and (5) Hall of Fame (lifetime achievement).

He plans to present them annually at VCON beginning this year.

The Graeme explains in Auroran Lights #5:

Let’s get something straight here. This is not a big deal. As far as general fandom is concerned, it is of marginal interest. It’s basically a promotional stunt, a publicity ploy, a gimmick to stimulate interest in the fanzine niche fandom.

But also, I admit, an effort to awaken awareness of the “Best Fan Publication” category of the Aurora Awards.

Cameron would know how badly that is needed, for he is a director of the association that runs the Prix Aurora Awards. The award, though, is his own personal project.

There’s precedent for this sort of thing. In the Seventies, Sheryl Birkhead made her own set of awards – dog biscuits in Lucite – and sent them to faneds whose zines she appreciated. I was lucky enough to get one.

However, Cameron has something more traditional in mind for his “Faneds.” He’s already enlisted Taral to design a certificate and hopes to find someone to design a figure that can be cast from a mold for a physical award.

The first time around – for this year’s VCON — Cameron will select the winners himself from “a few obvious choices.” In 2012 they’ll be picked with the help of “peer consultation and suggestion” and by 2013 he hopes to institute a formal vote by Canadian fans.