What is TAFF? The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund was created in 1953 for the purpose of providing funds to bring well-known and popular fans familiar to those on both sides of the ocean across the Atlantic. Since that time TAFF has regularly brought North American fans to European conventions and European fans to North American conventions. TAFF exists solely through the support of fandom. The candidates are voted on by interested fans all over the world, and each vote is accompanied by a donation of not less than $3 or £2 or €3. These votes, and the continued generosity of fandom, are what make TAFF possible.
Who may vote? Voting in the 2005 race is open to anyone who was active in fandom prior to April 2003, and who contributes at least $3 or £2 or €3 to the Fund. Larger contributions will be gratefully accepted. Voting is by secret ballot: only one vote per person, and you must sign your ballot. You may change your vote any time prior to the deadline.
Deadline: Votes in this race must reach the administrators by midnight, 3 April 2005.
Voting details: TAFF uses a preferential ballot system which guarantees automatic runoffs until a majority is obtained. You rank the candidates in the exact order of your preference for them. If the leading first-place candidate does not get a majority, the first-place votes for the lowest-ranking candidate are dropped, and the second-place votes on those ballots are counted as first-place votes. This process repeats itself until one candidate has a majority. Your votes for second and third place are important, but you may give your candidate only one ranking on your ballot. In order to win, a candidate must receive at least 20% of the first-ballot first-place votes on both sides of the Atlantic, separately. Any candidate failing to receive this minimum percentage on either side will be dropped, and the second-place votes on their ballots counted as first-place votes in the next ballot count. Thus candidates and their supporters will need to canvass fans on both sides of the pond. You may send your ballot to either administrator, but it will be tabulated with the other votes from the side of the Atlantic on which you reside. Votes from fans not resident in either Europe or North America will not count towards either 20% minimum, but are important to the outcome of the race.
Hold Over Funds: This choice, like "No Award" in Hugo balloting, gives you the chance to vote for no TAFF trip this year, if the candidates do not appeal. Hold Over Funds may be voted for in any position, and is exempt from the 20% requirement; thus, if it receives a majority of the votes on the final ballot, no TAFF trip will be held this year regardless of how many votes Hold Over Funds received on the first ballot.
No Preference: For voters who prefer not to choose between candidates, but don't want the trip held over.
Donations: TAFF gratefully accepts your freely given money and material for auction; such generosity has sustained the Fund for over 50 years. TAFF is fandom's oldest travel fund, and one of its worthiest causes -- give early and often! Please contact your nearest administrator for details.
Candidates: Each candidate has posted a bond, promising -- barring Acts of God -- to travel, if elected, to:
Interaction, the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention, in Glasgow, Scotland, August 4th to 8th 2005, and has provided signed nominations and a platform (see below).
Please read all of this ballot before voting. Send entire sheet as your vote.
Name: ________________________________________________________________________
Address: ______________________________________________________________________
Phone number or e-mail address: __________________________________________________
(we do not list or exchange this information)
Signature: _____________________________________________________________________Enclosed is __________ as a contribution to TAFF. Please make checks/cheques etc. payable to "Randy Byers" or "James Bacon", not to "TAFF", and in the currency of the administrator's country. (James Bacon can accept cheques in dollars, pounds sterling, or euros.) If you think your name may not be known to the administrators, then in order to qualify your vote, please give, in the space below, the name and address of an active fan (not a fan group, a candidate, or their nominator) who is known to them and to whom you are known:
Active fan known to the administrator: _________________________________________________
2005 TAFF Ballot -- North America to Europe
Chaz Boston Baden
I'm a lapsed apahack, intermittent loccer, newszine faned, litfan, con fan, party fan, conventioneer, blogger, Margarita Jell-O mixologist, a custodian of the Worldcon Fan Gallery exhibit, and proprietor of www.boston-baden.com where several thousand fannish pictures may be found. I've met many charming Britfans and European fen. I'd love to meet the rest of them. As TAFF winner, I'd cover all the fannish territory I can fit into three or four weeks, and photograph every fan I meet to share your faces with the rest of fandom; and publish a trip report illustrated with photos and fan art when I return home.
Nominators: Rose-Marie and Guy Lillian, Rich Lynch, Len and June Moffatt, Mike Scott, Jan van't Ent
Curt Phillips
I'm a traditional "books and writers" kind of fan. To me the heart of fandom is described in the writings of fans like Willis, Berry, Tucker, and White, and though changed, our foundation is still there and I stand upon it with you. I believe in a fandom united not by ideas themselves but by the expression of ideas and the joy we find in the well written word. I've never been to Europe but I want to meet the fans there and come home to write about them. Trip report? Count on it! Visit my TAFF website.
Nominators: Ulrika O'Brien, Bob Tucker, Peter Weston, Ted White, Pete Young
Suzanne Tompkins (Suzle)
Suzanne Tompkins (Suzle) was born to be a fan, living above her parents' A.B. Dick distributorship, learning to apply corflu and crank it out. After she and Linda Bushyager re-invented Pittsburgh fandom and coedited the early issues of '70s fanzine Granfalloon, she moved to New York. There she and Jerry Kaufman pubbed the Hugo-nominated Spanish Inquisition, and after moving to Seattle, Mainstream. Suzle is Seattle's goto girl for hotel/convention advice, having worked on cons from Worldcon committees to Corflus/Potlatches. She co-publishes Littlebrook, which can be found at eFanzines.com, and would love to meet or again see her fannish friends next August.
Nominators: Lilian Edwards, Brad Foster, Lucy Huntzinger, Mary Kay Kare, Dave Langford
Please read and fill out both sides of this sheet. Send in entire sheet as your vote. Do not detach this portion!
[ __ ] Chaz Boston Baden
[ __ ] Curt Phillips
[ __ ] Suzanne Tompkins (Suzle)
[ __ ] Hold Over Funds
[ __ ] No PreferenceSend ballot & donation to:
Randy Byers, 1013 North 36th St., Seattle, WA 98103, USA
James Bacon, 211 Black Horse Ave, Dublin 7, Ireland