August 1981
More public haranguing on behalf of GUFF from the new UK administrator, Joseph Nicholas, of Room 9, 94 St George's Square, Pimlico, London SW1.
As announced at the end of my rather maudlin stream-of-consciousness piece about my trip to Australia in Ansible 19, GUFF, the Get Up-&-Over Fan Fund, will be running "the other, way" in 1982, bringing an antipodean fan to sample the joys and delights of British fandom at next year's Channelcon, and nominations for candidates were then declared open. To my knowledge, there are at least three people interested in standing, and this must bode well for the future of the fund for, as a relative newcomer to a recession-hit (along with the rest of the world) fandom, it can only achieve permanence, support and a momentum of its own through continual activity by all concerned, (Hence my constant pushing of it, anyway....)
By the time you read this, of course, the nomination period will have almost closed - the deadline is 12 September 1981 -- so if you haven't yet offered your services as a nominator to, or been contacted by, an Australian fan you are instructed to write immediately to the Australian administrator, John Foyster, at 21 Shakespeare Grove, St Kilda, Victoria 3182, Australia, adding your name to the roster of those caught up in this noble endeavour. Although John is a bit fafia at the moment due to the partial flooding of his house at the end of Hay and various staffing problems at work, he'll surely pass your name along to the people who need it.
In the meantime, fundraising continues apace; while the forthcoming northbound trip will be (largely if not, we hope, wholly) paid for at the Australian end, we in Britain still need to raise money for the next southbound trip in 1985 (to the Worldcon, if the Sydney bid is successful). The fund picked up another £37.25 from the auction at Beccon, boosting the total to £143.23; but, given that my Apex ticket cost £606, there's obviously still a fair way to go, and such donations of money and/or material for future auctions as you choose to make will be gratefully received, I have, however, a couple of things to offer for sale on it behalf, as follows:
(a) The remaining few copies of the first four issues of my fanzine, Napalm In The Morning, for 30p each (including postage), while stocks last; and
(b) Copies of the By British fanthology of the best British fan-writing of the seventies, edited by Ian Maule and myself and published to commemorate Seacon 79, featuring much fine stuff by Roy Kettle, Graham Charnock, John Brosnan, Dave Langford, Kevin Smith, Andrew Stephenson, Rob Holdstock, Peter Roberts, Chris Priest, John Piggott, Rob Hansen and Bob Shaw: 80 pages, duplicated, with a card cover by Harry Bell, sold for £1,50 each (including postage).
And in due course -- sometime in October, the schedule having slipped- my GUFF trip report, entitled Once Upon A Time In Australia, will also be on sale on behalf of the fund; details of its price and such will be announced as soon as I know them myself. Until then, stay loose (or whatever the current jargon phrase might be -- you don't seriously expect an unrepentant Jefferson Airplane fan to be completely in touch with the modern street idiom, do you?).
Joseph Nicholas