Tag Archives: James Shields

GUFF Reports Added to TAFF Free Library

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The latest additions to the TAFF free library are eight GUFF trip reports by winners of the Get Up and Over (or Going Under) Fan Fund, which transports SF fans between Oceania and Europe.

While these are available as free downloads, each page includes a GUFF donation button in hope your generosity will be inspired by the delegates’ accounts of their adventures.

Most are previously released PDFs, some of which had become unavailable. All will be officially released on November 1, but you don’t actually have to wait, thanks to David Langford who has allowed a soft opening for File 770 readers.

Here are the links:

John Foyster (1979 trip): Stranger in Stranger Lands   

Eric Lindsay & Jean Weber (2001): Jean and Eric ’Avalook at the UK

Pat McMurray (2004): GUFF Guy

James Shields (2010): A Rough Guide to GUFF: James Shields Goes Under for Fan Funds in 2010

Gillian Polack (2014): Gillian’s Book of Lists: GUFF 2014 Report

Donna Maree Hanson (2017): GUFF Trip Report 2017

Marcin “Alqua” Kłak (2018): The Giant Leap to Never Never

Simon Litten (2019): Visiting Nearly Kiwiland

Marcin “Alqua” Kłak

Inaugural European Fan Fund Race Begins

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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 europeanfanfund@gmail.com (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 europeanfanfund@gmail.com 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.)

James Shields Wins Doc Weir Award

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James Shields receiving Doc Weir Award

The Doc Weir Award for service to fandom was presented to James Shields during Reclamation, the Eastercon, this past weekend.

eFanzine’s complete history of the Doc Weir Award begins:

The Doc Weir Award was set up in 1963 in memory of fan Arthur Rose (Doc) Weir, who had died two years previously. Weir was a relative newcomer to fandom, he discovered it late in life – but in the short time of his involvement he was active in a number of fannish areas. In recognition of this, the Award is sometimes seen as the “Good Guy” Award; something for “The Unsung Heroes”.

The award, voted by attending members of Eastercon and presented at the convention, is a silver cup which each winner keeps for a year. It is engraved with the earliest winners’ names, and since space on the cup itself ran out other names have been engraved on silver plates mounted on the cup’s storage box.

[Thanks to “Orange Mike” Lowrey for the story.]

James Shields Receives Irish Conference Ambassador Award

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James Sheilds

James Shields

By James Bacon: For a number of years now, the Dublin Convention Bureau and Fáilte Ireland the National Tourism Development Authority have been encouraging the ‘Conference Ambassador’ scheme, which helps support and encourage individuals and organisations to bring international conferences and conventions to Ireland.

To recognise the efforts of people who give up their own time to organise international events, Fáilte have set up the Conference Ambassador awards, and plan to hold them every two years going forward.

Shamrokon, Co-Chair James Shields was invited to the inaugural award ceremony on the 21st of January at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin. Shields came up with the idea of a Eurocon the weekend after a potential UK Worldcon while on his GUFF trip to New Zealand and Australia in 2010. He was in the vanguard of efforts to win the Eurocon bid for Dublin and was subsequently joined by Brian Nisbet who co-chaired the convention.

 

He informs us:

Irish television celebrity, comedian and student of theoretical physics Dara O’Briain came on stage and gave an introduction, and spoke a little about the awards and the kinds of people who were present. He singled out a woman who happened to be sitting next me, called Karen O’Sullivan, who had held the European ice skating conference in Dublin, and is hoping to hold the European Championships, and Dublin doesn’t even have a proper ice rink!

I didn’t expect to be receiving an award. Admittedly they weren’t “best in” style awards, and there were about 40 given out on the night, but it was still really wonderful to receive such recognition and It was especially nice to be there with my partner Fionna O’Sullivan and I was really proud to be there with her.

The Irish government have always been keen to promote tourism in all its forms and see the efforts to welcome conventions as an important aspect. The Dublin 2019 World Science Fiction bid is also supported by Fáilte and I was pleased to wear my Dublin 2019 badge on the night

[Photos by Fionna O’Sullivan and James Shields.] 

Shields’ GUFF Report Available

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James Shields won GUFF in 2010 and attended Aussiecon 4. Shields recently completed and published his trip report, titled A Rough Guide to GUFF.

Yes, it’s been a long time coming.

I’ve put a lot of work into getting the report from my trip report finished, and I hope the result makes it worthwhile. I wanted the finished product to look really good, and I hope I’ve achieved that.

Copies have been taken to a few conventions for sale, and they are also available from print-on-demand publisher Blurb.com. Shields reminds everyone that his report is a fundraiser for GUFF:

€5 from the price goes directly to the GUFF fund. Unfortunately, the shipping on single issues is pricey, so if you’d prefer to wait and pick it up at a con, it should be considerably cheaper.

Yes In Pictures

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Kirk SpockIreland’s yes voters carried a referendum about whether same sex marriage should be legally recognized by nearly 2-to-1 on May 23.

The Dublin in 2019 Worldcon bid issued a statement supporting the result:

This is a huge step forwards in recognising that everyone should have the right to love, and marry, the partner of their choice, and it is particularly important that this has been signified via the people of Ireland….

We’re very proud of the many Irish members of Dublin 2019 who supported the ‘Yes’ vote, and went out to take part in the referendum.

A fannish manifestation of the Yes campaign were James Brophy’s comics-inspired icons for James Shields’ Mammies and Daddies Matter Facebook page. (Shields was Shamrokon 2014 co-chair and is a past GUFF winner.)

While proponents of a No vote ran ads with imagery of traditional heterosexual couples and their children (see one example here), Brophy illustrated many different couples and groupings. Brophy says:

They were intended as a parody of the no campaign logo. Showing that it’s not just mums and dads that make up families, sometimes it’s two dads sometimes its two mums. Then I added in some super hero people and they got slowly stranger and stranger as the month wound on.

I’ve had requests to make t shirts by people who didnt know the origin of the images and just thought they would be lovely to have at LGBTQ events.

Kirk Spock heartAlien and DalekSuper familyAnother Super familyHarley Quinn and Green girl

[Thanks to Esther MacCallum-Stewart for the story.]

Perkovic Wins GUFF

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Mihaela Marija Perkovic of Croatia has won the 2013 GUFF race and will attend Conflux, the 2013 Australian National Convention.

Perkovic received over 50% of the 86 first-place votes cast.

  European Australasian Other Total
Julie McMurray

19

5

6

30
Mihaela Marija Perkovic

31

12

6

49
No Preference

4

2

1

7

Fund administrators James Shields and Kylie Ding report no one voted Hold Over Funds.

This year’s race raised a total of AU$1,098.02.

Fans from 15 countries voted – Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Channel Islands, Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, UK, Ukraine, USA.

GUFF, created in 1979, exchanges fans between Europe and Australia, therefore is called the Get Up-and-over Fan Fund or the Going Under Fan Fund, depending on which direction it’s running. Well, honestly, for that very reason it’s always called GUFF even though the variable name is a cute idea…

[Note: The winner’s last name is correctly spelled with an accent over the “c”, unicode U+0107, a character that does not seem to be available in this program.]

2013 GUFF Race Begins

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Voting is now open to choose the GUFF delegate Conflux, the 2013 Australian National Convention. Anyone can vote who was active in fandom prior to January 2011, and who contributes at least GBP5 or AUD8 (or the equivalent in other currencies) to the fund. Candidates for the Europe to Australasia race are: Julie McMurray and Mihaela Marija Perkovi?.

Julie McMurray: I’ve been in Fandom since 1989 starting out in media fandom. Then I went to Novacon 23 and was completely drawn in by the diversity of the conventions and amazing people I met. I volunteered from my first convention doing all sorts of fun and exciting stuff. My passion is travelling and meeting people and I’ve always dreamed of going to Australia. Some of my favourite authors include Shaun Tan & Garth Nix. I love reading, larping and volunteering. I’d love to travel to Australia and have an active trip meeting fans, promoting European fandom and worldcon/loncon3 in London 2014.

Julie’s nominators are James Bacon, Emma King, Jim Mowatt, Dave Cake and Richard Crawshaw

Mihaela Marija Perkovi?: A Croatian fan who is downright crazy about Australia; she earned her degree with a paper on “SF tropes in Peter Carey’s short fiction”. Active in fandom since 2004, she has participated at Croatian conventions as lecturer, moderator and GoH host. She runs the SFERA Award Jury and writing workshops, is PR manager of SFera and SFeraKon, and coordinated Kontakt Special Track at Eurocon 2012. Enthusiastic, cheerful and chatty, she is an active blogger and lousy photographer. She plans to attend Swancon and Conflux, visit Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand. Her report will be fun to read.

Mihaela’s nominators are Cheryl Morgan, Carolina Gómez Lagerlöf, Cristian Tamas, Anna Hepworth and Adrian Smith.

You can vote via PayPal (the online ballot is available here) or use the print ballot (see link below) and send cheque (made out to ‘GUFF’) or money order or cash in person to James Shields. 7 The Way, Highlands, Drogheda, Co. Meath, Ireland (email james [at] lostcarpark [dot] com); or Kylie Ding, 80A Forrest Street, FREMANTLE WA 6160, AUSTRALIA (email kylie_ding [at] hotmail [dot] com).

GUFF_2013_ballot

2012 Smofcon Scholarhip Winners Named

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CanSMOF has awarded Danielle MacDonald (Ontario, Canada) and James Shields (County Meath, Ireland) scholarships to the 2012 SMOFCon.

MacDonald has worked a number of art shows, and is also interested in masquerades and food and hospitality services. This will be her first Smofcon.

Shields has worked in programming, and is interested in developing uses of web technologies to further aid conventions and their memberships with their online experience. This will be his first Smofcon in North America.

The winning applicants were selected based on a demonstration of their potential for contributing to their local fandom and Canadian fandom. The 2012 selection committee was Terry Fong, Diane Lacey and Kevin Standlee.

CanSMOF Inc., is parent non-profit organization of Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon, The first scholarship was open to a Canadian citizen or resident, while the second was open to anyone involved in running conventions, regardless of their place of residence or citizenship.

Smofcon 30 will be held Philadelphia from November 30-December 2.

GUFF Call for Nominations

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[From the press release by James Shields]: GUFF is the Going Under (or Get Up and Over) Fan Fund which transports SF fans from Europe to Australasia (and vice versa). Nominations are now open for the southbound race, to transport a European fan (or fans) to Conflux, the 2013 Australian National Convention (NatCon), to be held at the Rydges Capital Hill in Barton, Canberra, on 25th to 28th April 2013. Depending on the length of trip they’re able to make, the winner could also consider attending Swancon in Perth (29th March to 1st April) and/or Au Contraire 2 in Wellington (12th to 14th July). The winner will also be required to take over the administration of the fund for the next northbound and southbound races.

If you wish to stand, please contact us at the postal or email address below. You will then need three European and two Australasian nominators (who will each need to confirm their nominations), a 100-word platform to appear on the ballot, and a bond of £15/€20/AU$25  guaranteeing to attend the 2013 Natcon if you win. If you wish to stand and are unsure about how to go about getting any of these things, what the fund pays for, or the duties of a GUFF delegate and administrator, then feel free to contact us in confidence.

Nominations are open until Thursday 11th October 2012, and candidates will be announced on Saturday 23th October at Octocon in Dublin. Voting will then run until Monday 7th January 2013, with the winner announced at GenghisCon in Perth, Western Australia on 13th January.

Nominations should be sent to james@scifi.ie or James Shields, 7 The Way, Highlands, Drogheda, IRELAND; or kylie_ding@hotmail.com, or Kylie Ding, 80A Forrest Street, FREMANTLE  WA   6160, AUSTRALIA.

Please disseminate widely.

The FAQ follows the jump.

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