Voting is now open for the 2010 Down Under Fan Fund. An extraordinarily large field of candidates — Jeffrey Boman, Terry Fong & Jannie Shea, John Hertz, Melanie Herz and John Purcell — are vying to become North America’s delegate to Aussiecon 4.
Jeffrey Boman is a Montreal fan whose fanzine The Original Universe won a 2009 Prix Aurora in the Fan Experience (Fanzine) category. He’s been nominated by Australian fans Cath Ortlieb and LynC and North American fans Chris Garcia, Yvonne Penney and Cathy Palmer-Lister.
Terry Fong, another Montreal fan, is running in tandem with Oklahoma fan Jannie Shea. Both have tons of conrunning experience. Their nominators from Australasia are John Maizel and Shaun Tan; from North America, Ian Stockdale, Todd and Joni Dashoff and René Walling.
John Hertz of Los Angeles, publisher of Vanamonde and a regular contributor to File 770, has been nominated by Australasian fans Robin Johnson and Janice Gelb, as well as North Americans Peggy Rae Sapienza, Mike Glyer (naturally) and Randy Byers.
Melanie Herz of Palm Bay, Florida has devoted years to helping people run conventions, often as head of the Volunteers Department. Her Australasian nominators are Julian Warner and Alan Stewart. Her North American nominators are Elaine Brennan, Pat and Roger Sims and Jim Mann.
John Purcell of College Station, TX by way of Minneapolis in ’73, is a prolific fanzine publisher. He’s been placed in contention by Australasian fans Bruce Gillespie and Bill Wright, and North American fans Arnie and Joyce Katz, Guy H Lillian III and Lloyd Penney.
To vote on paper, download the PDF ballot and follow the directions to mail it either to Steve and Sue Francis, North American DUFF administrators or to Emma Hawkes, Australia/New Zealand administrator. Ballots must be accompanied by a minimum donation of $5USD, $6AUD or $7NZD.
To vote online and pay voting fees or make donations via Paypal, use Jean Weber’s site http://wrevenge.com/duff2010/ (which shortly will be updated for this purpose.)
The voting period ends 11:59:59 p.m. (EST) on Wednesday, March 31, 2010. Any ballots received after that time will not be counted.