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.)