TAFFETA #4

TAFFETA is an irregularly produced information sheet on the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and is produced by outgoing European Administrator Rob Hansen of 9A Greenleaf Rd., East Ham, London E6 1DX. Dissemination of the information herein is encouraged. Final issue.

Now that the 1986 TAFF race has concluded my final duty, other than passing on all European TAFF monies and material to my successor, is to list the voting breakdowns and to announce a winner. Those standing this year were Simon Ounsley, Judith Hanna and Greg Pickersgill, listed by their initials in the tables below, with voters having the further options of writing in the candidate of their choice or of voting for funds to be held over -- listed as HOF, or Hold Over Funds, in the tables below. While fans not resident in either Europe or North America can vote in TAFF races their ballots are not used in reckoning the 20% minimum of the votes cast on each side of the Atlantic that every candidate has to secure and have been listed separately. In this instance these were all from Australia and were collected by the US Administrators, Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden. First place votes were as follows:

FIRST BALLOT   SO   JH   GP   HOF   WRITE-INS   TOTALS

EUROPE         37   16   48    2        1         104
N. AMERICA     44   40   49    -        3         136
AUSTRALIA       3    5    1    -        -           9

TOTALS         84   61   98    2        4         249

The write-ins were for Ken Slater, Terry Jeeves, and the Yorkshire Ripper in. North America, and for Woofie Beat over here. No-one captured a majority of the votes cast so we needed to go to a second ballot, and since both Judith and the write-ins failed to poll 20% of the total vote on each side of the Atlantic theirs were the votes that were re-allocated according to the second place preferences listed on the ballots. Thus:

SECOND BALLOT  SO   GP   HOF   NO PREF.   TOTALS

EUROPE         46   52    5       1        104
N. AMERICA     62   70    2       2        136
AUSTRALIA       6    3    -       -          9

FINAL TOTALS  114  125    7       3        249

This time a candidate did secure a clear majority (ie. more than half of the 249 votes cast) making a third ballot unnecessary. Therefore, it's my duty and my pleasure toannounce that GREG PICKERSGILL will be the TAFF representative at this summer's Worldcon in Atlanta and that he now assumes the role of European Administrator until TAFF next sends someone from Europe to North America. The 'no pref.' column in the previous table lists the number of re-allocated ballots where no preference was given in second place. Votes were cast by the following eligible resident European fans:

Arnold AKIEN, Graham ANDREWS, Paul ANNIS, Hazel ASHWORTH, Mal ASHWORTH, Chris ATKINSON, Chris BAILEY, Harry BELL, Tony BERRY, Denis BRIDOUX, Robert BROWN, Avedon CAROL, Vin¢ CLARKE, Richard COOPER, Arthur CRUTTENDEN, John DALLMAN, Mike DICKINSON, Alan DOREY, Rochelle DOREY, Lilian EDWARDS, Malcolm EDWARDS, Holger ELIASSON, Helen ELING, Stan ELING, Dave ELLIS, Mike FORD, Jörgen FORSBERG, Susan FRANCIS, Keith FREEMAN, Abi FROST, Paul "Gamma" GAMBLE, Ron GEMMELL, Rob GREGG, Jackie GRESHAM, David GRIFFIN, Michael HAMILTON, Kaj HARJU, Alun HARRIES, Chuck HARRIS, Joy HIBBERT, Malcolm HODKIN, Dave HODSON, Dave HOLMES, Anders HOLSTROM, Gordon HUNDLEY, Tim ILLINGWORTH, Rob JACKSON, Linda JAMES, Phil JAMES, John JARROLD, Kate JEARY, Roz KAVENEY, Debbi KERR, Paul KINCAID, Christina LAKE, Ken LAKE, Jan LAKE, Dave LANGFORD, Hazel LANGFORD, Ethel LINDSAY, Pete LYON, Krsto MAZURANIC, Caroline MULLAN, Joseph NICHOLAS, Anne PAGE, Rog PEYTON, Bernie PEEK, Linda PICKERSGILL, Simon POLLEY, Maureen PORTER, Dave PRINGLE, Nigel E. RICHARDSON, Tony RICKERBY, Jimmy ROBERTSON, Roger ROBTNSON, Andrew ROSE, Dave ROWLEY, Mike SCANTLEBURY, Bob SHAW, D.M. SHERWOOD, Cas SKELTON, Paul SKELTON, Diana SMITH, Kev SMITH, Kate SOLOMON, Ylva SPANGBERG, Helen STARKEY, John STEWARD, Alex STEWART, Chris SUSLOWICZ, Peter (Fred) THOMPSON, Arthur "ATom" THOMSON, Martin TUDOR, Paul VINCENT, Ashley WATKINS, Pam WELLS, D. WEST, Peter WESTON, Owen WHITE OAK, Madeleine WILLIS, Walt WILLIS, Dave WOOD......

Sent to the North American Administrators but included in the European tally were votes from: Roelof GOUDRIAAN and Lynne Ann MORSE.

My thanks to all those who voted this time out and my commiserations to Simon and Judith. Money collected from votes on this side of the Atlantic was £175.50 and the sum in the coffers of TAFF-Europe currently stands at £1236, some £9 less than the sum handed on to me by my predecessor, Kev Smith. I'm reasonably pleased about this since, being to a Worldcon on the West Coast, mine was a fairly expensive TAFF trip and since there's actually another £35 due TAFF that I haven't yet collected. No doubt Greg will make collecting this one of his first priorities and will list those who donated it in his first TAFF newsheet.

THE NEXT RACE: It may seem a little early to be gearing up for this already, but in fact it's not as you will see from the following schedule:

Nominations open: September 15th, 1986
Nominations close: October 31st, 1986 (1½ months)
Ballots available: November 7th, 1986
Voting deadline: March 14th, 1987 (4 months)

This is different from the provisional schedule announced in P&T NH's TAFFLUVIA #2 a few months back for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that all of those who've so far professed an interest in standing next time wish to go to the British Worldcon rather than to the Eastercon. Start thinking now about which North American fan you'd like TAFF to send across next time. There's more time to nominate than the provisional schedule allowed for, but not that much more. I know who I'm voting for next time.

All future donations to, or enquiries about TAFF, should be addressed to the new European Administrator, Greg Pickersgill, at 7A Lawrence Rd., South Ealing, London W5.

... Rob Hansen, 18th May 1986.