The GUFF Ballot 1995:

Australia to Europe

The 1995 GUFF race will select an Australian fan to visit Europe and attend Intersection, the 1995 WorldCon in Glasgow. All of the candidates have posted a bond and vowed, barring unforeseen accidents or acts-of-god, to attend should they win.

GUFF is the Going Under Fan Fund or Get Up-and-over Fan Fund (depending upon where you're standing), and is dedicated to furthering contacts between the SF fan communities of Europe and Australia. It was founded in 1979 to send popularly elected fans from one continent to the other, so that they can attend a major convention and meet local fans.

Candidates enter the GUFF ballot upon nomination by five fans, three from the originating continent and two from the destination. The candidates are required to present a fifty word description of themselves (or whatever they believe will aid their chances -- after all, it's their platform), pay a bond, and pledge to attend the nominated convention if they should win the GUFF race.

The elected candidate makes the trip, and upon their return administers the fund for the next two elections and fends off questions about publishing trip reports.

GUFF depends upon voting fees, general donations, donations of material for mail and convention auctions, and any fundraising stunts the administrators can dream up. The money raised goes towards paying for the winner's airfare. All funds should be sent to one of the administrators in the appropriate local currency.

Last time, Eva Hauser of Prague visited Australia to meet fans in Sydney and Melbourne. Her trip report has appeared in issues of Wild Sharkah, her fanzine. Eva joins Roman Orszanski (1990), Roelof Goudriaan (1989), Irwin Hirsh (1987), Eve Harvey (1985), Justin Ackroyd (1984), Joseph Nicholas (1981) and John Foyster (1979) as previous winners.


The Official Ballot Form

Deadline:

Ballots must be posted to reach an administrator by last mail on March 31st, 1995

Please number in order of preference: (1, 2, 3 and so on...)

[ ] LynC

[ ] Ian Gunn & Karen Pender-Gunn

[ ] Kim Huett

[ ] Hold Over Funds

The ballot is optional preferential; if it is unclear where your next preference lies, your ballot will be deemed exhausted.

Name

Address

Signature


1995 Guff Candidates' Platforms

LynC

Hi there! It has been a while since I was last prominent on the international fannish scene (as editor of Thyme), but I made a lot of friends back then, some of whom I've never even met, despite making it over for Conspiracy in 1987. Since then, a lot of new faces have appeared whom I'd also like to meet. Lately, I've been concentrating my fannish endeavours in Australia, conventioneering, pubbing (the ASFF's Instrumentality, and an ANZAPA contribution -- Lynx), and just plain socialising. I'd really like the chance to do the same in Europe and Britain in 1995 too.

Nominators: Lynne Ann Morse, Carey Handfield, Marc Ortlieb, Alan Stewart, John Harvey

Ian Gunn & Karen Pender-Gunn

We've only ever been to one Worldcon: we met at Aussiecon II, in 1985. Wouldn't it be sooooo romantic if, a decade later, we got to go to the Glasgow Worldcon? Besides, we'd get to see all those far-flung friends we've never met.

Are we keen? You bet! We'll do practically anything to earn our keep: fundraising, partying, panelling, punning, illo-drawing, fanwriting, zine-editing, toy making, talking, cooking, auctioneering or just plain being there and making new friends.

Two talented, fun-loving, friendly folk for the price of one.

All this and we even make our own beds.

Nominators: Cath Ortlieb, Nick Stathopoulos, Kerri Valkova, Alexander V Vasilkovsky, Boris V Sidyuk

Kim Huett

"Stand for GUFF" they said "we need a two-fisted, beer-drinking, fanzine fan to impress those northerners. Rampage around Europe for about five months and boogy till you puke at Intersection."

"Well" I replied "I can't drink that much anymore and I need to be in bed by eleven these days. I'm not that young anymore."

"Do the best you can, meet everybody you possibly can and we'll be happy."

"I wouldn't dream of depriving anybody the opportunity to experience my rather unique personality. Will they be holding a mexicon while I'm over there."

"We'll see. No promises."

"Ok, I'll do it. I owe that much to menyanthes trifoliata."

Nominators: Perry Middlemiss, Pam Wells, Craig Hilton, Walt Willis, David Russell


Send this completed ballot along with a voting donation of Aus$5 or £2 Stg (or the approximate local equivalent) to one of the GUFF administrators by March 31st, 1995.

GUFF Administrators:

Australia: Roman Orszanski, PO Box 178, Kensington Park, SA 5068, Australia.

Europe: Joseph Nicholas, 15 Jansons Road, South Tottenham, London, England, N15 4JU.

(Eva Hauser handed over the kitty to Joseph to avoid problems with the soft Czech currency.)

Reproduction of this ballot is encouraged, provided the text is unchanged. Anyone doing so is encouraged to substitute their name here: Dave Langford [HTML conversion for the Web].