The Northern Guffblower: 11

January 1984

The eleventh issue of an occasional newsletter from the UK GUFF administrator, Joseph Nicholas, at 22 Denbigh Street, Pimlico, London SW1V 2ER.


Voting in the second-ever northbound race organised by GUFF, the Get Up-and-over Fan Fund, to bring an Australian fan to Seacon 84, has recently concluded. The results, counting first-place votes only, are as follows:

UK Aus Total
Justin Ackroyd 6 58 64
Shayne McCormack 3 15 18
Jean Weber 17 11 28
Roger Weddall 7 16 23
Hold Over Funds - 3 3
33 103 136

It's obvious from this that no candidate has an overall majority of first-place votes (69 being the figure needed), and the second preferences of the lowest-ranked candidates therefore need to be taken into account. Eliminating first Hold Over Funds and then Shayne McCormack, the results are as follows:

1st Round 2nd Round
Justin Ackroyd 65 71
Shayne McCormack 19 -
Jean Weber 29 37
Roger Weddall 23 24

(Dead votes -- i.e., no second preferences -- 4)

Justin Ackroyd is therefore the winner, and we look forward to seeing him at Seacon 84. He will eventually take over as Australian GUFF administrator; the current office-holder, John Foyster, tells me that he is currently sitting on an amount of A$1450 (give or take a few cents); at the UK end the fund now totals £667.41, up significantly from the £472.23 announced in the previous issue of this newsletter (June 1982). This money has been raised from the following sources:

Donations from convention profits -- Novacon 13: £50
Sales of material at convention auctions -- Novacon 12: £68.49; Albacon 2: £124.21 (including book room sales); Beccon 83: £29.25; Novacon 13: £39
Other sales and donations -- Geogre Bondar, COFF, Bernard Earp, John Foyster, Rob Hansen, Eve Harvey, Rob Jackson (donation of material), Brian Smith (ditto), Sue Thomason, David Wood

And the following 33 people who voted through me (several donating more than the minimum stipulated on the ballot):

Cathy Circosta, John Dallman, Lilian Edwards, Malcolm Edwards, Helen Eling, Dave Ellis, Alan Ferguson, Colin Fine, Roelof Goudriaan, Carey Handfield, Eve Harvey, John Harvey, Joy Hibbert, Rob Jackson, Paul Kincaid, Christina Lake, Dave Langford, Hazel Langford, Janice Maule, Caroline Mullan, Marc Ortlieb, Eunice Pearson, Pete Presford, Dave Rowley, Joyce Scrivner, Bob Shaw, Cas Skelton, Paul Skelton, Kevin Smith. Alex Stewart, Pascal Thomas, Sue Thomason, Owen Whiteoak. (Plus a late ballot from Arnold Akien which would have made no difference to the final result.)

My thanks to you all. (12 January 1984)