1985-86 TAFF Ballot

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 $1 or £1. These votes, and the continued generosity of fandom, are what make TAFF possible.

Who may vote? Voting in the 1985-86 race is open to anyone who was active in fandom prior to September 1984, and who contributes at least $1 or £1 to the Fund. Contributions in excess of the minimum will be gratefully accepted. Voting is by secret ballot: only one vote per person, and you must sign your ballot. "Write-in" candidates are permitted. You may change your vote at any time prior to the deadline.

Deadline Votes in this race must reach the administrators by 15 May 1986.

Voting details (1) 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. It is therefore important to vote for second, third, and fourth place on your ballot. Also, it is a waste of time to vote for any candidate in more than one place.

(2) One other requirement obtains. To win, a candidate must receive at least 20% of the first-ballot first-place votes cast 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. It is therefore important for candidates and their supporters to canvass fans on both sides of the Atlantic. It should be noted that, while you may send your ballot to either Administrator, it will be tabulated with the other votes from the side of the Atlantic on which you reside. Finally, votes from fans not resident in either Europe or North America will not be counted toward either 20% minimum (but are almost certain to affect any given race anyway, so don't let this stop you from voting).

Hold Over Funds This choice, similar to "No Award" in Hugo balloting, gives voters the chance to vote for no TAFF trip this year, if the candidates don't appeal to them, or if they feel TAFF should slow down its trip frequency. Hold Over Funds may be voted for in any position, and is exempt from the 20% requirement: thus, should it ultimately receive a majority of 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.

Donations TAFF gratefully accepts freely-given donations of money and of material for auction; such generosity has sustained the Fund for over thirty years. If you are ineligible to vote, or do not feel qualified to make a choice, why not donate anyway? TAFF is fandom's oldest travel fund, and one of its worthiest causes.

Candidates Each candidate has posted a bond, promising -- barring Acts of God -- to travel to the 1986 World Science Fiction Convention in Atlanta if elected, and has provided valid signed nominations and a platform, reproduced overleaf along with the ballot.

SEND BALLOTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO: NORTH AMERICA: Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, 75 Fairview #2B, New York NY 10040 USA, or
EUROPE: Rob Hansen, 9A Greenleaf Rd, East Ham, London E6 1DX UK.

IMPORTANT: Make checks payable to one of the Nielsen Haydens or to Rob Hansen, please, not to "TAFF," and make them payable in that administrator's home currency. Thank you.

Reproductions of this form are encouraged provided that the text is reproduced verbatim. Persons reproducing it should substitute their own names below.

This version produced by Rob Hansen. [HTML adaptation by Dave Langford.]

side 2:

1985-86 TAFF Ballot

Simon Ounsley

I've wanted to go to America since I was five years old. Back then, I wanted to meet Donald Duck and drink ice cream soda. Now I want to meet SF fans and talk and party and stuff like that. There's maturity for you. Though best known for confusion and mononucleosis, I've also edited the fanzines STILL LIFE, STILL IT MOVES, and CRAB DROPPINGS, co-edited OCELOT, served on two Yorcon committees, and written regular columns for the BSFA. My latest plan is for a long weird article about a trip to America. This is where I can use your help....

Nominators: John D. Berry, Abi Frost, Joyce Scrivner, D. West, and Walt Willis.

Judith Hanna

I am not a 100-word platform and refuse to be boiled down into one! See writings in NUTZ, PREVERT, WALLBANGER, BoSFA reviews, SHALLOW END (dec'd) etcetc for further details. Previously active in Australian fandom. Member INTERZONE editorial collective (you too Simon? What a coincidence!). Sercon tendencies balanced by deep underlying frivolity. Member "FUCK THE TORIES" Tricontinental Revolutionary Fanzine Commission, the politically correct fanzine with a bite like Norman Tebbit's that welcomes little fishes in with gently smiling jaws. Guaranteed ideologically and, ecologically sound, nuclear-free and tobacco-free. This has been a paid political broadcast on behalf of (cont. p. 94).

Nominators: Terry Hughes, Roelof Goudriaan, Dave Langford,Lucy Huntzinger, and Bob Shaw.

Greg Pickersgill

Sometimes I'm not Boring. Occasionally I'm Wonderful. Anyway, you either know who I am and what I've done, or you don't, and don't care. Whatever, since meeting fandom in 1967 I've done a bit of everything, I was even a fanwriter, but now I just, you know, perform. So what. I like Guinness, Dos Equis, Performance, Anne Warren, Pizza, and Neat Stuff, and I can't stand bullshit about pretension and fandom fans. I have met several Americans and became very attached to them. I will go looking for a good time and meaningful conversations. 1986, Big Fun and No Sellout.

Nominators: Mike Glicksohn, Arthur ("ATom") Thomson, Rich Coad, Avedon Carol, and Linda Pickersgill.

For a pamphlet detailing TAFF's rules, customs, and precedents, and the procedures for becoming a nominator or candidate, send a SASE to either administrator.


Before voting, please read both sides of this sheet

I VOTE FOR (rank 1-2-3-4)

( __ ) Simon Ounsley

( __ ) Judith Hanna

( __ ) Greg Pickersgill

( __ ) Hold Over Funds

Signature:


Name and address (legibly, please):




Enclosed is __________ as a contribution to TAFF. Please make cheques, etc., payable to Rob Hansen or to one of the Nielsen Haydens, please, not to TAFF, and payable in the currency of that administrator's home country. If you think your name might not be known to the administrators, then in order to qualify to vote please give the name and address of an active fan who is known to them and to whom you are well known, in the space below:

Reference(s):