Tag Archives: DUFF

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.]

Hertz: TAFF & DUFF Auction at Worldcon

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By John Hertz: The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and the Down Under Fan Fund will hold a combined auction at Chicon VII on Friday, August 31, at 6:30 p.m. in the Fanzine Lounge.

Murray Moore is co-ordinating the auction.  Chris Garcia the 2008 TAFF delegate, host of the Fanzine Lounge, will be an auctioneer, which will surely be awesome.  John Coxon the 2010 TAFF delegate will be another.

This annual auction is a big fund-raiser for each fund, and fun (as Vladimir Nabokov used to say, the difference between a thing’s cosmic element, and its comic element, consists of a single sibilant).

TAFF sends a delegate across the Atlantic, DUFF across the Pacific, in alternating directions, each year (more or less).  Delegates attend the Worldcon if it is at their destination, otherwise the national convention.

Have you something suitable to donate for auctioning? If you’re attending, can you bring it along? If you’re not attending, can you send it?

DUFF Will Hold Over Funds

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By John Hertz and David Cake: This year’s Down Under Fan Fun voting was counted on June 1, 2012 by John Hertz the North American Administrator and David Cake the Australia – New Zealand Administrator.

Founded in 1972, and supported by donations from all over the world, DUFF each year votes for a delegate from NA to ANZ,or the other direction in alternate years. Anyone active in fandom may vote.

The 2012 candidates were Juanita Coulson of the United States and Murray Moore of Canada. Moore in his platform urged voters to choose Hold Over Funds and said he would not go if elected.

The decision was clear from first-choice votes. Counting lower choices was not needed.

Hold Over Funds received 38 first-choice NA votes + 19 ANZ. Coulson received 24 first-choice NA votes + 1 ANZ. Moore received 11 first-choice NA votes + 2 ANZ.

Funds will be held over. No delegate will be sent in 2012.

Each Administrator received some out-area votes (e.g. Britain) which were included in the totals above.

Hertz: DUFF Voting Reminder

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By John Hertz: Votes for a Down Under Fan Fund delegate will be accepted until midnight May 31 (i.e. before 12:01 a.m. 1 Jun) Pacific Daylight Time.

Thanks to those who already voted. Thanks to those who helped distribute ballots by hand and by paper mail.

You can get a ballot electronically here [PDF file].

The ballot explains DUFF, identifies this year’s candidates, and says how to vote by paper or electronic mail.

DUFF is supported by donations. Votes must be accompanied by a DUFF donation of at least $5 Australian, Canadian, United States, or $7 New Zealand. PayPal may be used with an E-mail vote.

I am the North America DUFF Administrator.
John Hertz
236 S. Coronado St., No. 409
Los Angeles, CA 90057  U.S.A.
Phone: (213) 384-6622

Dave Cake is the Australia – New Zealand Administrator.
David Cake
6 Florence Rd.
Nedlands, WA 6009  Australia
E-mail: dave (at) difference (dot) com (dot) au

2012 DUFF Race Begins

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Votes are now being accepted in the 2012 Down Under Fan Fund race. North American DUFF Administrator John Hertz and Australian DUFF Administrator David Cake very recently held a telephone conversation and determined to select a delegate to travel to Australia/New Zealand despite the tight scheduling — votes will be accepted until midnight May 31 (PST).

The contenders are Juanita Coulson and Murray Moore, however, while Coulson is running with the intention of making the trip, Murray Moore’s platform actually advocates no one be sent – 

“…[My] unusual position is that, if elected on this ballot, I will not attend the Australian national SF convention June 8-11 in Melbourne. Furthermore I encourage you to join me in voting for Hold Over Funds on this ballot.”

Juanita Coulson (London, Ohio, U.S.A.) — NA nominators Sue & Steve Francis, Chris Garcia, Joyce & Arnie Katz; ANZ nominators Bruce Gillespie, Marc Ortlieb.

Murray Moore (Mississaugua, Ontario, Canada) — NA nominators Hope Leibowitz, Spike, Art Widner; ANZ nominators Cath Ortlieb, Bill Wright.

Eligibility and other voting information appears on the ballot linked below:

2012_DUFF_Ballot

Hertz: DUFF Nominations Open

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By John Hertz. Nominations are now open for a Down Under Fan Fund delegate from North America to the 51st Australia national science fiction convention Continuum VIII, Melbourne, June 8-11, 2012.

Founded in 1972, and supported by donations from s-f fans all over the world, DUFF sends a delegate from North America to Australia – New Zealand, or the other way, in alternating years.

Delegates are chosen as people whom fans on the visited side would like to meet.  The delegate travels as much as possible, makes friends, radiates goodwill, and becomes the Administrator in turn on the home side until the next cycle.  Delegates’ trip reports are sold to support the Fund.

I am the current NA Administrator. The ANZ Adminstrator is David Cake. Three NA nominators and two ANZ nominators are required for each westbound candidate. Candidates should submit a written platform of about 100 words and a donation of at least US$25.

Nominations will be accepted until midnight May 11 (Pacific Daylight Time). The ballot will be published as soon as possible thereafter with candidates, nominators, and platforms. Voting will probably close May 31.

Two suitable candidates have already emerged, one from the United States and one from Canada.

Send paper mail to me, John Hertz, 236 S. Coronado St., No. 409, Los Angeles, CA 90057, U.S.A.; call me if you wish at (213)384-6622.  Checks in U.S. money should be payable to DUFF.  Send E-mail, and PayPal donations, to Marty Cantor <martyhoohah (at) sbc (dot) global (dot) net>.  Consult me about donations in Canada money other than by PayPal.

Dave Cake can be reached at <dave (at) difference (dot) com (dot) au>.  Consult him about donations in Australia or New Zealand money other than by PayPal to Cantor.

This close schedule is regretted.  The DUFF delegate may be unable to attend the 33rd New Zealand natcon unCONconventional 2012, Auckland, June 1-4.  However, a reasonable amount of contact, merriment, and satisfaction should be possible.

Hertz: DUFF and TAFF Well Begun

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By John Hertz: Intelligence (if that term may be used) reports that DUFF delegate Dave Cake has arrived from Australia, and TAFF delegate John Coxon from Britain.
 
Their paths met in Seattle, where they are in the hands of Randy Byers, Ulrika O’Brien, and similarly fannish folk.
 
Cake (who is mine) did not bring his theremin.  After the Worldcon he hopes to attend Armadillocon in Austin.
 
Coxon (who is Anne & Brian Gray’s) is a cricket fan.  Otherwise he is said to resemble Chris Garcia.  I don’t yet know if they went to see a local match as suggested by O’Brien.
 
As I was working out the code groups there seemed to be something about Coxon walking off with Cake’s fez so as to have two, but I may have misread this for “copies of All Our Yesterdays” or “microbrews”.
 
Not sure how long I can keep transmitting from this station.  The derg is warning me not to lesnerize.

David Cake Is 2011 DUFF Winner

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David Cake won the 2011 DUFF race with a first-round majority reports Emma Hawkes, Australian Administrator:

ROUND            AUS     NA    Total
====================================
David Cake       69      11     80
Paula McGrath    33      24     57
Hold Over Funds                  1
Write-In                         1
No Preference                    9
                ---    ---     ---
                102     35     148

The third time was a charm for Cake, who rebounded from previous defeats in 2002 and 2009. 

[Thanks to Marty Cantor, John Hertz, Catherine Crockett, Ansible Links and all the ships at sea for the story.]

Update 06/07/2011: Courtesy of Marty Cantor I have a copy of Emma Hawkes’ e-mail with a correction, adding 1 vote to Paula McGrath giving her a total of 57, making 148 votes cast altogether. (No info on which region that last vote came from.) Marty also says he persuaded Emma to divulge that the recipient of the single write-in vote was Tess Williams. // Cantor writes that the vote must have come from Australasia, because he knows Hertz hasn’t contacted her since the first tally was announced. So I have updated the columns accordingly.

Seeking 2011 DUFF Candidates

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The Down Under Fan Fund is looking for Australasian fans wanting to be the fund’s delegate to the 2011 Worldcon in Reno.

Nominations must be received by the administrators by midnight March 31. See eligibility requirements in the press release below.

Once the candidates are announced voting will continue until May 20, 2011.

When this news was posted online John Hertz called to give me three corrections. That’s why in this case I say – darn near the full text of the press release follows the jump.

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