Dec 12 2015

Taff Ballot 2016

Welcome to the 2016 TAFF Race.

Meet our candidates

 Anna Raftery

What’s with all these whippersnappers running for TAFF?! Well, going to cons for more than half my life has to count for something, right?I’ve been an active fan, filker and con-goer since 13; at this point the community is quite literally my family. My love for being involved extends to being on con committees (including as filk programme head for Loncon 3) and setting up new cons from the ground up. I am so excited to run this race to represent Europe at MidAmeriCon2, meet fans across North America, and share that experience in my trip report.

Nominated by: Claire Brialey, John Coxon, Gareth Kavanagh, David Weingart, Christina O’Halloran

Wolf von Witting

“Gentlefen who desired to vote for both candidates in the previous race get their wish.

Now, my friends in Swedish and German fandom, I really need your votes too. But regardless of the outcome of this race, I hope to prove myself useful to TAFF for the following three years in relating the fund to continental sf-fandoms. I dislike talking about myself, but I can see the necessity in it. People ask. So I decided once and for all to answer all questions in CLOCKWISE #2016 end of January.

All I wish for is an interesting race. May TAFF win!”

Nominated by: Mihaela Marija Perkovic, Dave Lally, John Henri Holmberg, Teddy Harvia, Mike Glyer

Please rank candidates with 1, 2, etc. where 1 is your first preference:

Name:

Address:

Email/phone:

TAFF may contact you regarding your ballot or to send out newsletters. We do not publish your data or pass it to any other organisation.

The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund

was created in the 1950s 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. It exists solely through the support of fandom. Interested fans all over the world vote on the candidates, each vote being accompanied by a small minimum donation. These votes, and the continued generosity of fandom, are what make TAFF possible.

Who may vote? Voting in the 2016 race is open to anyone active in fandom before April 2014 who donates at least £2.00 (GBP), 3 Euros or $3.00 (USD) to TAFF (larger donations are gratefully accepted). Voting is by secret ballot: only one vote is counted per person, and you must give your name to the administrators. You may change your vote at any time prior to the deadline. Votes in this race must reach the administrators by 23:59 on Tuesday 29th of March 2016 (British Summer Time aka UTC+1).

Donations: TAFF gratefully accepts your freely given money, material for auction and other relevant donations; such generosity has sustained the Fund for more than 50 years. TAFF is fandom’s longest-running travel fund, and one of its worthiest causes – give early and often! Please contact your nearest administrator for details.

Candidates: Each candidate has posted a bond of £15, (or in this case a rough equivalent in Euros) promising – barring unforeseen circumstances – to travel, if elected, to the 2016 Worldcon in Kansas City, MO, USA (Midamericon 2, 17th August to 21st August, 2016). Each candidate has three nominators on their side of the Atlantic and two on the other, each of whom has personally contacted the administrators with their nomination. Each candidate has also provided a platform of up to 101 words (published overleaf).Anyone active in SF fandom can run for TAFF as long as they fulfil these criteria for the relevant race; contact your administrator about future races!

Voting System: TAFF uses a preference voting system similar to the system used in voting for the Hugo Awards, for instance. Voters should rank candidates in order of preference (where a rank of 1 is the voter’s first preference); where relevant, this allows for the lowest-ranked candidates to be eliminated from the race and those votes redistributed according to the next ranking until one candidate has a clear majority. However, a candidate must receive at least 20% of the #1 rank votes on both sides of the Atlantic to win. 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. Votes will be counted according to a voter’s contact address, not where they send their ballot. Votes from fans not resident in either Europe or North America will not count towards either side of the Atlantic for the purpose of this rule.

“Hold Over Funds”: This choice, like “No Award” in Hugo balloting, gives you the chance to vote for no TAFF trip this year, should you feel none of the candidates deserve your support. Hold Over Funds may be voted for in any position, and is exempt from the 20% requirement: if it receives a majority of the votes on the final ballot, no trip will be held this year.

“No Preference”: For voters who prefer not to choose between candidates, but don’t want the trip held over.

How to Vote: Either send a copy of this form with a cheque, or pay via PayPal. The minimum donation to vote is $3 (USD) or £2 (GBP) or 3 Euros. Cheques should be made payable to “Curt Phillips” (for checks in USD) or to “TAFF” (for cheques in GBP or Euros). PayPal donations should be made to the email addresses below indicating your contact details and your ranked voting preferences in the comments’ section. If you do not fill in the comments section, your vote may not be counted!

Send your signed and completed ballot form and donation to:

Europe: Jim Mowatt – cheques payable to TAFF

273 The Rowans, Milton, Cambridge, CB24 6ZA

Paypal using email jim [at] umor.co.uk

North America: Curt Phillips – Cheques payable to Curt Phillips

19310 Pleasant View Dr. Abingdon, VA 24211

Paypal using email absarka_prime [at] comcast.net

Enclosed is as my contribution to TAFF – minimum $3 (USD) £2 (GBP) or 3 Euros

If you think your name may not be known to the administrators, please provide the name and contact details of an active fan (not a fan group, a candidate, or one of their nominators) who is known to the administrators and who can vouch for you being an active fan, eligible to vote.

By Jim Mowatt • General TAFFing •

Jan 1 2015

TAFF Ballot Form 2015

2015 Ballot, Europe to North America

The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund was created in the 1950s 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. It exists solely through the support of fandom. Interested fans all over the world vote on the candidates, each vote being accompanied by a small minimum donation. These votes, and the continued generosity of fandom, are what make TAFF possible.

Who may vote? Voting in the 2015 race is open to anyone active in fandom before April 2013 who donates at least £2.00 (GBP) or $3.00 (USD) to TAFF (larger donations are gratefully accepted). Voting is by secret ballot: only one vote is counted per person, and you must give your name to the administrators. You may change your vote at any time prior to the deadline. Votes in this race must reach the administrators by 23:59 on Tuesday 7th April 2015 (British Summer Time aka UTC+1).

Donations: TAFF gratefully accepts your freely given money, material for auction and other relevant donations; such generosity has sustained the Fund for more than 50 years. TAFF is fandom’s longest-running travel fund, and one of its worthiest causes – give early and often! Please contact your nearest administrator for details.

Candidates: Each candidate has posted a bond of £15, (or in this case a rough equivalent in Euros) promising – barring unforeseen circumstances – to travel, if elected, to the 2015 Worldcon in Spokane, Washington, USA (Sasquan, 19th August to 23rd August, 2015). Each candidate has three nominators on their side of the Atlantic and two on the other, each of whom has personally contacted the administrators with their nomination. Each candidate has also provided a platform of up to 101 words (published overleaf).Anyone active in SF fandom can run for TAFF as long as they fulfil these criteria for the relevant race; contact your administrator about future races!

Voting System: TAFF uses a preference voting system similar to the system used in voting for the Hugo Awards, for instance. Voters should rank candidates in order of preference (where a rank of 1 is the voter’s first preference); where relevant, this allows for the lowest-ranked candidates to be eliminated from the race and those votes redistributed according to the next ranking until one candidate has a clear majority. However, a candidate must receive at least 20% of the #1 rank votes on both sides of the Atlantic to win. 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. Votes will be counted according to a voter’s contact address, not where they send their ballot. Votes from fans not resident in either Europe or North America will not count towards either side of the Atlantic for the purpose of this rule.

“Hold Over Funds”: This choice, like “No Award” in Hugo balloting, gives you the chance to vote for no TAFF trip this year, should you feel none of the candidates deserve your support. Hold Over Funds may be voted for in any position, and is exempt from the 20% requirement: if it receives a majority of the votes on the final ballot, no trip will be held this year.

“No Preference”: For voters who prefer not to choose between candidates, but don’t want the trip held over.

How to Vote: Either send a copy of this form with a cheque, or pay via PayPal. The minimum donation to vote is $3 (USD) or £2 (GBP) or 3 Euros. Cheques should be made payable to “Curt Phillips” (for checks in USD) or to “TAFF” (for cheques in GBP or Euros). PayPal donations should be made to the email addresses below indicating your contact details and your ranked voting preferences in the comments’ section. If you do not fill in the comments section, your vote may not be counted!

Send your signed and completed ballot form and donation to:

Europe: Jim Mowatt – cheques payable to TAFF

273 The Rowans, Milton, Cambridge, CB24 6ZA

Paypal using email jim [at] umor.co.uk

North America: Curt Phillips – Cheques payable to Curt Phillips 19310 Pleasant View Dr. Abingdon, VA 24211

Paypal using email absarka_prime [at] comcast.net

Enclosed is as my contribution to TAFF – minimum $3 (USD) £2 (GBP) or 3 Euros

If you think your name may not be known to the administrators, please provide the name and contact details of an active fan (not a fan group, a candidate, or one of their nominators) who is known to the administrators and who can vouch for you being an active fan, eligible to vote.

Active fan known to an administrator:

Signature:

Reproduction of this form is encouraged. It is the official voting vehicle and must be reproduced verbatim.

Anyone reproducing this form should substitute their name here: Jim Mowatt

2015 Ballot, Europe to North America

Nina Horvath

Whatever can happen, does happen. So why not an Austrian for TAFF? – Nina Horvath is a science-­fiction fan and an award winning author. She has been to conventions in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Slovakia and the Ukraine so far, but is eager to travel further.She has already written con reports quite often and will do so again with pleasure. She is eager to take up the honourable task to represent Europe ́s fandom in North America in a very serious way – but nevertheless hopes to find enough time for her favourite ­activity: Socializing with other fans over a beer.

Nominated by: David Hartwell, David Lally, Gloria McMillan, Mihaela Marija Perković, Cristian Tamas

Wolf von Witting

Has TAFF ever had a more pan-European candidate? German-Swedish-Scottish, born in Finland, married in Moscow, living in Italy. Touched by the Wand Contact 1974. First convention 1977 in Kleve, Germany. Touched by the 2nd Wand, called Fanac, in 1978 causing me over the years to produce more than 200 fanzines in three languages.
With my quarterly fanzine CounterClock I never stop striving to improve on my writing. As fan-illustrator, Atom and Rotsler have been paragons. I smoffed, filked and dabbled in fan-history. I know no greater honour than to follow in the footsteps of Walt Willis. Travel report guaranteed.

Nominated by: Arnie Katz, Ronald M Hahn, John-Henri Holmberg, Lloyd Penney, Chris O’ Shea,

Please rank candidates with 1, 2, etc. where 1 is your first preference:

Name:

Address:

Email/phone:

TAFF may contact you regarding your ballot or to send out newsletters. We do not publish your data or pass it to any other organisation.

By Jim Mowatt • General TAFFing •

Dec 14 2014

Walt Willis Trans-Atlantic Trip Report

Struggling away trying to write my TAFF report I made the mistake of wondering about other reports and my thoughts went toward the man who started it all, Walt Willis.
Walt wrote The Harp Stateside and I managed to find the Chicon section of the report online in the fanzine Mimosa.
I read it and managed to depress myself completely as I realised that I would never be able to produce anything even a tenth as good.
However, I was enjoying reading Walt’s convention report so transferred it to my Kindle so I could read it there. Then I thought that other people might wish to read it on their e-readers so I’m sharing the converted file here.

Walt Willis – The Harp Stateside in Kindle format

Walt Willis – The Harp Stateside in epub format

If this is useful to anyone then please consider popping some money in the TAFF jar.
Use one of the buttons to the right that say ‘TAFF vote’ dollar payments or sterling payments. Both of them just show you a Paypal form so that you can shove money in my account and I then bank it into the TAFF account. There’s no voting concerned with these buttons at the moment.

Happy reading.

If you want me to email the file straight to your kindle then let me know at jim at umor dot co dot uk or fill in the contact form top right of this page. Just send me your Kindle’s email address which you’ll find in your amazon kindle account. Click on ‘Your Account’ and that will give you a drop down menu. Then click ‘manage your content and devices’. Then you’ll see three tabs on the screen. Click the one that says ‘your devices’. You will then be shown whatever devices you have registered with Amazon and the email address associated with that device. Let me know that email address. Next go to the tab that says settings. Scroll down to ‘Approved Personal Document E-mail List’ and enter my umor dot co dot uk domain and that will allow me to email your kindle.
It’s a bit of a faff but delightful when things just magically appear on your device.

By Jim Mowatt • General TAFFing •

Sep 8 2013

Thank You

A big thank you to all the accomodation hosts and party hosts who looked after me throughout the trip.
Thank you Catherine and Colin, Curt and Liz, Randy, Glenn and Allison, Dave, Jay and Dixie, John and Jacq, Alan and Dedee, Arnie and Joyce, Nic, Rebecca and Ragnar and David and Janice plus many many more people who took me places and showed me stuff.

By Jim Mowatt • General TAFFing •

Sep 7 2013

TAFF traveller returns home

After one month, eight cities and more parties than I can remember I have finally returned home. I must admit to being a little weary at the moment.
However, I am already being prodded with sharp pointy sticks in the hope that a TAFF trip report will be shortly forthcoming.
Today though I shall lay about doing nothing.

The sharp eyed among you will have spotted that Carrie bought red, white and blue flowers to welcome me back.

By Jim Mowatt • General TAFFing •

Apr 23 2013

The TAFF results 2013

The PDF with the full voting details is here

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By Jim Mowatt • General TAFFing •

Apr 21 2013

Upgraded from TAFF candidate to TAFF delegate

Well, a million thanks to all you TAFF voters. I’ve just had ‘the’ phone call. It seems I am now TAFF delegate for 2013, so I will be attending Lonestarcon3 in San Antonio and touring other fannish destinations (Hurrah!). I haven’t seen the results yet but I’m guessing that a substantial number of you must have decided to vote for me and therefore propel me to the other side of the Atlantic in August. I thank you all.

I am also extremely grateful to the people that helped me  to run my TAFF campaign. I was keen to try and make it a high profile campaign to help promote the fund (we managed it in some areas but not in others) and  several people put in vast amounts of time, trouble and effort to help me achieve what I wanted to do.

Thanks, in particular to Nic Farey, Randy Byers and my partner Carrie. Lots of people helped but these three bent their backs just that little bit further. It was/is very much appreciated.

I am a very happy TAFF delegate indeed!

.

By Jim Mowatt • General TAFFing •