GUFF
The Get Up-and-over Fan Fund

GUFF was created as The Get Up-and-over Fan Fund in 1978, to complete the triangle whose existing sides were TAFF (the TransAtlantic Fan Fund, which sends sf fans between Europe and North America) and DUFF (Down Under Fan Fund, running between North America and Australia). Of necessity, the name changes to Going Under Fan Fund for southbound trips. (See ballot for more.) This page is maintained, irregularly, by David Langford.

GUFF Archive

    Current Administrators
  • Europe: Alison Scott – guffeurope at gmail dot com.
  • Australasia: Simon Litten – littenz at gmail dot com.

Announcements

20 February 2024 GUFF administrators Alison Scott and Simon Litten have announced a new northbound race for 2024, whose winner will travel from Oceania (Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia) to the Glasgow Worldcon on 8-12 August 2024. As usual candidates need to find nominators (two from Europe and three from Oceania), provide a platform of no more than 100 words to appear on the ballot, and deposit bond (AU$25 or NZ$25 with the administrators. The full announcement has been posted at File 770.

August 2023 Alison Scott, the 2020 GUFF winner, is at last making her delayed Australian trip this year – arriving in Sydney on 26 September, flying home from Perth on 30 October.

February 2022 Alison Scott is still waiting until it feels likely that a lengthy trip to Australia and New Zealand would not be significantly disrupted by border closures and lockdowns – that looks most likely to be during 2023 at this point. Donations to GUFF remain welcome; we expect the cost of travel to be significantly higher over the next few years than it has been recently.

October 2020 Just to catch up: Alison Scott was the 2020 GUFF winner but was unable to travel physically to the New Zealand Worldcon (CoNZealand), which could not be held as expected owing to the coronavirus pandemic. She made a spectacular virtual trip to the online Worldcon and other antipodean locations, and will follow up with actual travel when this becomes possible. • Marcin Klak has handed over the GUFF Europe email address to Alison: guffeurope at gmail dot com.

19 January 2020 GUFF 2020 candidates and ballot.

11 October 2019 is the date on which nominations opened for the 2020 southbound GUFF race from Europe to CoNZealand. Nominations close on 10 January 2020 and voting will run to 13 April 2020. More details here.

October 2019 Marcin Klak's 2018 GUFF trip report The Giant Leap to Never Never can be downloaded from this page at the Australian Fans Funds site, which suggests a small donation to GUFF if you do so.

24 April 2019 Simon Litten is this year's GUFF delegate and will attend Dublin 2019: see official announcement with further details to follow. • Claire Brialey reports that over £1000 was raised by the TAFF/GUFF auction at Ytterbium (the UK Eastercon), with further donations and voting fees bringing the total to well over £2000.

December 2018 GUFF 2019 voting is now open and continues to 22 April 2019. The candidates are Lynelle Howell, Simon Litten and Nicole Murphy.

October 2018 Nominations open for the 2019 GUFF race.

July 2018 Donna Maree Hanson's report on her 2017 GUFF trip to Worldcon 75 in Finland is now available in ebook form for $7 (Australian).

April 2018 Donna Maree Hanson announces that Marcin Klak is the winning candidate.

February 2018 Voting for this year's race is now open, with candidates Marcin Klak (Poland) and, jointly, Steve and Alice Lawson (UK). See the 2018 GUFF ballot and the printable PDF version on this site. Voting closes on 3 April.

December 2017 Nominations are now open for the 2018 southbound race, closing on 15 February with voting until 3 April. Full details here.

April 2017 The GUFF administrators have announced Donna Maree Hanson as the winner. See voting summary here.

December 2016 2017 GUFF ballot: candidates are Donna Maree Hanson, Sam Hawke, Belle McQuattie and (jointly) Alisa Krasnostein and Alexandra Pierce.

September 2016 GUFF 2017: call for nominations.

March 2016 Gillian Polack's 2014 GUFF trip report Gillian's Book of Lists can now be bought online from blurb.com: click here. The same site also has James Shields's 2010 trip report A Rough Guide to GUFF: click here. All proceeds from sales go to the fund.

December 2015 James Shields's completed GUFF trip report is now available.

October 2015 Jukka Halme is declared the winner of the 2016 GUFF race. His deadly rival Hold Over Funds was last seen slinking into the shadows muttering "I'll be back."

28 July 2015 GUFF 2016 voting is now open with one candidate, Jukka Halme. The background information section of the ballot is [on a page since deleted] and the voting section is here.

June 2015 The nominations deadline for the 2016 race (as announced in April; below) has been extended to 9 June 2015. See here.

April 2015 Mihaela Marija Perkovic announces the 2016 southbound race which will transport a European fan (or fans) to Contact 2016, the 55th Australian National Science Fiction Convention, to be held in Brisbane, Australia, 25-28 March 2016. Nominations are open to 31 May 2015 and voting will then run to 31 August 2015. Here is the official call for nominations, to which Mihaela has added a useful GUFF Nominations FAQ.

13 June 2014 Kylie Ding writes: "We would like to congratulate Gillian Polack, who is the winner of GUFF 2014. We would like to thank all the candidates for running an excellent race. We had over 100 votes cast, and the revenue from voting was $1332 in Australia, €78 (minus PayPal fees) and £95 (minus PayPal fees) in Europe. In addition there were auctions held at several conventions. Eastercon raised £195.10, Swancon $159, Continuum $750, Marsonikon €30, and Mihaela still has to total up several other auctions she ran. Thank you for your efforts to keep the fund in good financial shape! / The vote was very close, and we have checked and rechecked each vote, which is why it has taken a while to get back to you with a result." Here's the online report from Mihaela Marija Perkovic.

22 April 2014 Australasian administrator Kylie Ding has now created a GUFF 2014: online voting form. As before, voting continues to 9 June 2014.

21 December 2013 The 2014 GUFF ballot is now available in PDF format. Voting continues to 9 June 2014.

22 November 2013 2014 candidates announced on Australasian administrator Kylie Ding's LiveJournal.

October 2013 2014 northbound race nominations are open, with nominating deadline 15 November 2013.

January 2013 Mihaela Marija Perkovic is the 2013 GUFF winner: official announcement here.

October 2012 The 2013 GUFF race is on: voting closes 7 January. Here are downloadable ballots in PDF and Word format.

August 2012 James Shields announces that nominations are open for the 2013 GUFF race.

22 October 2011 Now available: the 2012 GUFF ballot [PDF]. The candidates are Grant Watson and Kylie Ding. [Later: Kylie Ding was the winner and attended Olympus 2012, the UK Eastercon.).

September 2010 The Aussiecon 4 group photo of past and present GUFF winners.

15 August 2010 James Shields's GUFF trip website is now officially launched.

6 April 2010 James Shields wins GUFF.

March 2010 Irwin Hirsh's Australian Fan Funds page lost its original site and has a new home (as just linked) courtesy of Jean Weber. Updates continue.

November 2009 The southbound GUFF race is on, with candidates James Shields and Douglas Spencer. Official UK administrator page here, with links to PDF and online ballots. Here's a copy of the PDF version.

September 2009 New race announced, from Europe to the Australian Worldcon in 2010. Details here.

November 2008 Sue Ann Barber and Trevor Clark announced as winners of the current race.

September 2008 GUFF race announced, from Australasia to the 2009 UK Eastercon.

18 April 2007 Ang Rosin wins the 2007 GUFF race and will travel to the Australian National Convention in Melbourne: Convergence 2, 8-11 June 2007.

30 March 2007 At last, the 2007 GUFF race announcement and PDF ballot. The latter gives the voting deadline as 16 April 2007. Is this the shortest campaigning time ever to be allotted by a major fan fund?

January 2007 Damien Warman writes: "GUFF 2007 will convey a European fan or fans to Convergence 2, the 2007 Australian natcon. A bond of £10 or ¬15 together with the names of three European and two Australasian nominators is to be sent to either Pat McMurray (pcmcmurray at yahoo co uk) or Damien Warman (dmw at pobox com). Contact Pat or Damien for more information. Ballot to be available mid-February."

May 2005 Damien Warman and Juliette Woods are the 2005 GUFF winners.