GUFFAWE EIGHT


GUFFAWE is published on an irregular basis by the Australian GUFF administrator Irwin Hirsh, at 26 Jessamine Avenue. East Prahran, Victoria 3181, AUSTRALIA; phone: (03) 51-6104. The European administrator is Roelof Goudriaan, Caan Van Necklaan 63, 2218 BB Rijswijk (ZH), THE NETHERLANDS. This issue is published in December 1989.


NEW STUFF Going out with this issue of GUFFAWE is a copy of the 1990 GUFF ballot. For further details on this race please refer to the ballot, and please do vote. The next issue of GUFFAWE will carry complete details on the vote. Getting this race together was not without its problems; when the nomination deadline rolled around no-one had qualified to make the ballot. However, three groups of people had got some part of their nomination details in, so Roelof and I gave them a week extension, and all were able to make it. Roelof and I hadn't discussed what we would've done if the extra week hadn't done the trick, but I would've been inclined to reopen nominations for another 6-8 weeks in order to allow others the opportunity to make the ballot.

FLICKING THROUGH THE NOMINATIONS A common feature about the nominations I received for this race is the 'testimonials' the nominators gave for their favoured candidate. Grant Stone wrote a longish letter about Larry Dunning, which includes the news (to me) that a fanzine workshop was run at the first Swancon. Marc Ortlieb displayed a strong regional bias in suggesting that Roman Orszanski was as good as anyone to be the first Adelaide fan to win a major fan fund. Roger Weddall nominated Mark Loney and Michelle Muijsert with the time-honoured (and probably cliched) description: 'they're both full of GUFF'.

A WORD about this race: past European administrator Eve Harvey has kindly offered to maintain a UK bank account for GUFF, helping Roelof cope with the fact that the UK is where most of GUFF's European support comes from. This is the reason the ballot asks for Sterling cheques to be made out to 'Eve Harvey'. Filled in ballots should be sent to Roelof, and not Eve, though. Roelof has produced an attachment to the GUFF ballot, so that Continental Europeans can vote using their GIRO accounts. If you are distributing GUFF ballot forms you aren't required to reproduce the attachment, but it would be helpful.

For fans who live outside the UK and Australia and who don't have a GIRO account please don't consider all this as meaning that your participation of GUFF is being denied or whatever. Certainly, we encourage your support: vote, spread the word, etc. However, it you are sending money please don't send a cheque payable in your own currency. Unless you can send a cheque for Pounds Sterling or Australian Dollars (and which can be cashed at a British or Australian bank, as appropriate) just send an equivalent amount of cash in your own currency. Thank you. (US fans may wish to contact Janice Murray about changing greenbacks into Aussie $. Janice tells me that it is easy for her to get Australian currency and she is willing to help US fans out. Write to Janice at PO Box 75684, Seattle, WA 98125-0684, and I'd imagine that a stamp for return postage would be appreciated.)

OLD STUFF Roelof Goudriaan made his GUFF trip to Australia in March and April of this year. Accompanied by Lynne-Ann Morse, Roelof spent about 3 weeks in Australia, attending Swancon XIV in Perth, travelling to Adelaide by train, and also visiting ol' Melbourne town. While in Melbourne Roelof witnessed Jenny Chudaki marry past GUFF-winner Justin Ackroyd and attended a party hosted by another past GUFF-winner John Foyster. I wasn't at Swancon but I gather Roelof and Lynne-Ann were a hit. Or, at least, I think they were a hit: one person (who hadn't voted in the last GUFF race) was heard to say "Roelof and Lynne-Ann were great. It is a pity GUFF couldn't have sent them out here."

Thanks go to Roger Weddall and Yvonne Rousseau and John Foyster for pulling out spare beds for Roelof and Lynne-Ann, and to the Swancon XIV committee for their help (a page in the programme book and paying for one night of Roelof and Lynne-Ann's hotel room.)

FURTHER THANKS GO TO Swancon XIV for programming an auction at their convention, and to Justin Ackroyd, Perry Middlemiss and some unknown others for running the auction. $324.40 was raised for GUFF, $237 of which went to paying for Roelof and Lynne-Ann's room. Lee Smoire, Martin Tudor, Janice Murray, the Melbourne Science Fiction Club, Jack Herman, and LynC and Clive Newall for distributing GUFF ballots.

BAD STUFF One Interesting thing about being a fan fund administrator is watching the bank balance and wondering about how fund-raising is going and all that. It is made particularly interesting because I have a feeling that in real terms there is now less money going to fan funds than there was four or five years ago?

Sometime soon after I returned home from my GUFF trip I read a report in Thyme regarding the surplus the Confederation committee found they had after hosting the 1986 Worldcon. After refunding the membership fees for programme participants and convention workers and that sort of thing, they still had a surplus of over $90,000, and were asking for suggestions and submissions as to what to do with the money. Fan funds have long been considered appropriate places for conventions to donate some of their surplus, and GUFF has enjoyed the support of Worldcons going back to IguanaCon (1978). In March 1988 I wrote to the Confederation committee suggesting GUFF as an appropriate place for a donation of some money. By June I had not heard anything so I sent a brief, follow-up letter, with another letter going in August. More than a year after the third letter I'm still to receive a reply.

I realise that my 'submission' was not made in the manner asked for, but I figured that there was little need to explain a fan fund to a committee which had hosted the winners of two fan funds (and, I understand, treated them very well.) I realise that the committee may only be meeting intermittently but I have no idea as to why I haven't received a reply. It can't be because the committee is against the idea of making donations to fan funds – they have given quite large donation to DUFF and, I think, TAFF. At this stage I'm not so much concerned about GUFF not receiving a donation so much as that I've not received a reply. My letters were not unsolicited, they were written in response to a fandom-wide request from the committee. Having taken my time to write the letters and used GUFF's money on postage and IRCs I feel like both could've been better spent elsewhere.

TRIP REPORTS There has been a bit of action on this front. The 15th issue of my fanzine Sikander contains a chapter from each of John Foyster and my trip reports. This issue is available from me for $3 ($2 of which gets donated to GUFF.) Another chapter of John's trip report can be found in the 3rd and 4th issues of Jack Herman's Sweetness and Light (available for $1 each, from Jack at Box 272, Wentworth Building, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, AUSTRALIA.)

In addition, the 61st issue of Andre-Francois Ruaud's Yellow Submarine reprints, in French, the first chapter of my report. Andre intends to publish all the chapters of my report as they get written, including one which will not appear in English until I get around to publishing the report in one volume. YS is available for 10 French francs from Andre, at 245 rue P. Bert, 69003 Lyon, FRANCE.

POSTAL AUCTION 3 Below is a list of fanzines which are being auctioned through the pages of this newsletter. Please make all bids in Australian dollars (on current rates of exchange, an A$ is equal to US78.5¢, and UK48.7p.) If the total of your winning bids is less than $30 I'll be asking you to contribute up to $3 towards postage. People in Europe will be able to make payment for their winning bids to the European administrator. No bids can be entered with conditions attached – for instance, you can't raise your bid conditional on a rival bid being entered. On the other hand, I am willing to answer any query about the status of a bid, provided you include return postage or a couple of IRCs, so that I can respond to your letter. Bids can be made anytime until the auction deadline of midnight, 27th of May, 1990. In early-March I will produce a progress report listing all bids entered. This progress report will be sent to anyone who has entered a bid or has requested a copy (the latter, only if they include $2 or 3 IRCs).

FANZINES FOR SALE These are available for $2 each, unless otherwise indicated. While multiple copies of some fanzines are available you should specify alternate selections. Make cheques available to GUFF and include money for postage on the following basis: 1 or 2 fanzines: $1.50, 3-5 fanzines: $2, 6-8 fanzines: $3, more than 9 fanzines: $4. Thanks.

CONVENTION PUBLICATIONS

DATES TO REMEMBER
21 April 1990 – Voting Deadline
27 May 1990 – Postal Auction Deadline

PRINTED MATTER

From: Irwin Hirsh
26 Jessamine Avenue
East Prahran
Vict 3181, AUSTRALIA