What is GUFF? Known, depending on the direction in which it's running, as the Get Up-and-over Fan Fund and the Going Under Fan Fund, GUFF was created in 1979 as a means of "closing the gap" between TAFF, linking Europe and North America, and DUFF, linking North America with Australia. Like them, GUFF exists to provide funds to enable well-known fans from Europe and Australia to visit each other's national (or other) conventions and get to know each other's fandoms better. GUFF operates on a less frequent schedule than TAFF and DUFF, but like them exists solely through the support of fandom. The candidates for each trip are voted on by interested fans, and each vote is accompanied by a monetary donation. These votes, and the continue generosity of fandom, are what make GUFF possible.
Who may Vote? Voting in the 1999 race to send a European fan to the Worldcon in Melbourne is open to anyone who was active in fandom prior to August 1997, and who contributes at least £5 or A$10 to the fund. Larger contributions will be gratefully accepted. Voting is by secret ballot; only one vote per person is allowed, and you must sign your ballot.
Deadline Votes must reach the administrators no later than midnight on Easter Monday, 5 April 1999.
Voting Details GUFF uses a preferential ballot system which guarantees automatic runoffs until a majority is obtained. You rank your candidates in order of your preference for them. If the leading first-place candidate does not have a majority after the first round of counting, the first-place votes for the lowest-placed candidate are discarded, and the second-place votes on those ballots are counted as first-place votes for the candidates concerned. This process is repeated until one candidate has a majority of all the votes cast. Votes for second and third place candidates are therefore important; but you may not rank your favoured candidate in more than one position on your ballot.
Hold Over Funds This choice, like "No Award" in award balloting, gives you the chance to vote for no GUFF trip to the 1999 Worldcon if for any reason the candidates do not appeal. Hold Over Funds may be voted for in any position on the ballot.
No Preference This is for voters who do not wish the GUFF trip to be held over, but who either cannot or prefer not to decide between the candidates.
Donations GUFF gratefully accepts your freely given money and material for auction; such generosity has sustained the fund in addition to voting donations. If you're not eligible to vote, or for some reason you don't wish to vote, why not give anyway? (Give early and give often!)
Candidates Each candidate has posted a bond of £10, sworn an almighty oath that unless struck down by an iceberg, meteorite or other act of a higher power they will travel to the Worldcon in Melbourne in August 1999, if elected; and provided signed nominations and a 100-word platform extolling their many interests and virtues (reprinted overleaf).
Please read both sides of this ballot before voting. Send the entire sheet as your vote.
Name:
Address:
Signature:
Enclosed is ____________ as a contribution to GUFF. Please make cheques or other money orders payable to the administrators, not to GUFF, and in the currency of the administrator's country. If you think your name may not be known to the administrators then, to ensure that your vote qualifies to be counted, please give in the space below the name and address of an active fan (not a fan group, a candidate or one of their nominators) by whom you are known and who is known to (one of) the administrators:
I'm co-editor of Plokta, a fanzine of dubious reputation; I'm chairman of Reconvene, the 1999 Eastercon; I've worked on everything from filkcons to worldcons and I have more superfluous technology than is good for me. I don't actually collect skulls, they just accumulate around me. If I win, I'll take vast quantities of notes about my travels, then throw them away and write a scandalous trip report bearing no relation to reality at all. They're more interesting that way. I'll also include lots of digital photos with libellous captions. Special offer! Vote for me and get a free Tasmanian!
Nominators: Michael Abbott, Perry Middlemiss, Marc Ortlieb, Alison Scott, Tibs
Bibulous biblioholic biochemist, part-time alliterate and paronomaniac, and provider of "serious scientific talks" to the fannish intelligentsia -- "Headlong into the Drink" on fankind's favourite tipples, "I am Spock's Liver" on Vulcan biochemistry (cuprohaemoglobins'R'us), and "How the Black Hole at the heart of the Galaxy caused the Russian Revolution and the hits of Boney M" on astrophysics, molecular biology and disco -- at Eastercons, Novacons, Mexicons and Worldcons, and as a Guest at Star Trek and Dr Who cons. With a fund of interesting subjects and an inexhaustible supply of bonhomie and bad puns, Australia can be sure of an entertaining GUFF guest.
Nominators: Justin Ackroyd, Martin Easterbrook, Paul Kincaid, Paul Oldroyd, Julian Warner
After nearly 25 years in fandom -- producing and reviewing fanzines, working with the BSFA and on conventions, writing criticism and the odd story -- I want to extend my horizons. Everyone who has been to Australia has raved about it, and I am keen to find out what all the fuss is about. What's more, with the close co-operation that is developing between TAFF and DUFF, I see this as an opportunity to complete the circle and get all the fan funds working together.
Nominators: Terry Frost, Bruce Gillespie, Eve Harvey, Julian Headlong, Dave Langford
I vote for (enter 1, 2, etc.)
[ __ ] Steve Davies
[ __ ] Julian Headlong
[ __ ] Paul Kincaid
[ __ ] No Preference
[ __ ] Hold Over Funds
Send completed ballots to either of the following addresses:
UK Agent Joseph Nicholas, 15 Jansons Road, South Tottenham, London, N15 4JU
Australian Agent Karen Pender-Gunn, P.O. Box 567, Blackburn, Victoria 3130, Australia
This is the official voting form, but copying of this ballot is encouraged provided that the text is reproduced unaltered. Anyone copying this ballot should insert their name in the space below:
Dave Langford