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 sent 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 $2 or £1. These votes, and the continued generosity of fandom, are what make TAFF possible.
Who may vote? -- Voting in the 1992 race is open to anyone who was active in fandom prior to September 1990, and who contributes at least $2 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-ins" are permitted.You may change your vote any time prior to the deadline.
Deadline: Votes in this race must reach the administrators by 15 January 1992.
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 an overall majority. It is therefore important to vote for second and third 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 in any position, and is exempt from the 20% requirement. Should it ultimately receive a majority of votes on the final ballot, no TAFF trip will be awarded 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 35 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 1992 British National Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon) in Blackpool, England (April 17-20, 1992) if elected; and has provided signed nominations and a platform, reproduced overleaf above the ballot.
Send ballots and contributions to:
In North America:
Robert Lichtman
P.O. Box 30
Glen Ellen
CA 95442
USAIn Europe:
Pam Wells
24A Beech Road
Bowes Park
London N11 2DA
UKNB: Make cheques payable to relevant individual, NOT TO TAFF.
side 2:
1992 TAFF Ballot -- North America to Europe
Jeanne Bowman
Big. Blonde. Boisterous. Brassy. Bright. An asset at every convention. A decade in Bay Area fandom. Corflu. Ditto. Member Glen Ellen Mafia. Columnist for new improved Outworlds. Trip report: great column fodder. Fan writings in Trap Door, Whistlestar, Majoon and other internationally acclaimed journals. Bad jokes in Maledicta. Jackie Chan Fan. Owner, largest collection of Doggie Diner heads on earth, and they are the largest dog heads on earth. Hot dog party girl, will travel. Get me out of the house! In conclusion, my good friend Charles Willeford once offered to hire me to go to all his lectures and laugh. Real loud.
Jeanne Bowman's nominators are: Richard Brandt, Jerry Kaufman, Dave Langford, Spike Parsons, Paul Skelton.
Richard Brandt
Puttering about in a small land called Fandom for some twenty years, Richard has been more than the editor of a fanzine known for its fast and furious trip reports (ahem). More than the host of Corflu Ocho, the annual convention for fanzine fans. More than the publisher of Fanthology '87. More than all this, Richard is the public relations mastermind who got a Worldcon mentioned in The Economist. As TAFF administrator, Richard will do n>ore than visit the land of his forebears and press the flesh with fans he's met previously only as reams of A4 paper. He'll show you Texas-sized trufannishness in action.
Richard Brandt's nominators are: Bill Bowers, Jeanne Bowman, Chuch Harris, Lucy Huntzinger, Martin Tudor.
Please read both sides of this sheet before voting. Send entire sheet as vote.
Do not detach this portion!
I vote for (rank 1 - 2 - etc):
[ __ ] Jeanne Bowman
[ __ ] Richard Brandt
[ __ ] Hold Over Funds
[ __ ] ____________________
(write-in)Signature
Name and address (legibly, please):
Enclosed is ________ as a contribution to TAFF. Please make cheques etc. payable to Robert Lichtman or Pam Wells, not to "TAFF," and payable in the currency of that administrator's home country.
If you think your name may not be known to the administrators, then in order to qualify please give, in the space below, the name and address of an active fan (not a fan group, a candidate or their nominator) to whom you are known:
Reproduction of this form is encouraged. It is the official voting vehicle and must be reproduced verbatim. Anyone so doing should substitute their name here: PAM WELLS. [HTML adaptation by Dave Langford.]