European Fan Fund Administrators Matylda Naczyńska and Marcin “Alqua” Kłak announced April 6 that Joro Penchev of Buglaria has been voted the fund’s 2024 winner. Penchev will attend the 2024 Eurocon in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, from August 16-19.

Eighty votes were received, however, 14 lacked the voting contribution. The 66 valid votes came from a dozen different countries. Penchev achieved a majority in the second round of the runoff.

The total voting contributions received in various currencies were:

• 92.91 EUR
• 130.40 GBP
• 935.94 PLN

[Via Ansible Links.]

Voting has begun in the first 2024 European Fan Fund race. Jane Mondrup from Denmark and Joro Penchev from Bulgaria are candidates to become the EFF delegate to the 2024 Eurocon in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, from August 16-19 .

Balloting will continue until April 1 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:

Jane Mondrup

I’ve been an avid reader of Science Fiction, Fantasy and other speculative genres since a very early age. At some point, I started writing in the genres too, and six years ago, I attended my first convention, Fantasticon in Copenhagen. For the first time in my life, I experienced being out-nerded within the subject of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Exhilarated by this, I went again next year. Then I got into organizing a new convention in my local area in Jutland (Vilde Universer), and for a couple of years, I also joined the Fantasticon committee. In 2022 I went to my first convention abroad, Swecon, and then to Eurocon 2023 in Uppsala.

I love the organizing work and getting to know my wonderful, fellow weirdos of the SFF world. So many exiting things are happening in the genres these years, and I’m grateful to be a part of it. As the EEF delegate at Erasmuscon, I would primarily represent the Danish community, but I have some connections within Scandinavian fandom in a broader sense. I look forward to making new ties to fandom in the rest of Europe and thus contribute to the purpose of the EFF.

• Nominators: Jesper Rugård Jensen (DK), Fia Karlsson (SE), Sidsel Pedersen (DK)

Joro Penchev

My name is Joro and I come from Bulgaria where I have spent more than 30 years reading and 20 years writing about science fiction and fantasy. It is a passion but also a mission for me. I am among the main drivers of the venerable ShadowDance fanzine&website; and an organizer of many local festivals, workshops, competitions, games, etc. I work with publishers and media to spread awareness of the importance of the SFF genres and wholeheartedly believe in their important social impact. My first Eurocon was in 2004 in Plovdiv and since the late 2010s I try to visit or help Bulgarian participants in all of them. I help the nominations committee in Bulgaria with programming, draft proposals for ESFS and help popularize the Eurocon. It has however recently become difficult for me to attend and so I would be very grateful for your support. I hope to make friends with many of you on the con whom I still haven’t met and do great things in the future together. Finally, I want to thank Fionna O’Sullivan, Francesco Verso and Ivo Alekseev for supporting this bid and for their many contributions to the genre and to fandom. Cheers everyone!

• Nominators: Ivalyo Alekseev (BG), Fionna O’Sullivan (IE), Francesco Verso (IT)

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/TaTU4e5ajnkSmdMZ9; on a paper ballot (PDF, docx) – please write to [email protected] for the address to send the paper form to — or hand deliver it to the EFF representative at Levitation 2024 – Eastercon 29th March – 1st April 2024.

European Fan Fund administrators Matylda Naczyńska and Marcin Kłak Nominations are taking nominations for the second annual EFF race until January 25, 2024.

The purpose of the European Fan Fund is to create and strengthen bonds between European fans and fandoms. The EFF winner will be sent to Erasmuscon (Eurocon 2024) in Rotterdam, Netherlands, August 16-19, 2024. Eligible candidates are European fans living outside Netherlands who were active in fandom prior to January 2022.

Those wishing to become candidates should contact the administrators at [email protected]. They 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 2024 Eurocon in Netherlands if they win.

The nominators must include at least one fan from the person’s own country and one from another European country.

Once the candidates are announced, voting will run until April 1.

The European Fan Fund rules are available at the link. A FAQ is online here.