TAFFlon Tudor #1

July 1996

Hello, my name is Martin Tudor, I am the new European Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF) administrator and you are reading the TAFF newsletter.

Introductions out of the way, old business first: the 1996, East to West, TAFF Race featured two candidates, Michael J ('Simo') Simpson and myself. As you may've heard, or guessed, I won. After a hard-fought and good-clean-dirty campaign the final tally was: 2 for no preference, 9 for Michael J ('Simo') Simpson and 138 for Martin Tudor (that's me, you'd forgotten already?). On hearing the news of his defeat, from Steve Green of Critical Wave, Mr Simpson demanded a recount on the basis that he couldn't believe that there were nine people who would vote for him. Commiserations to Simo and better luck in the Novas. I hope to obtain a list of the European voters and a breakdown of the voting to feature in the next edition of this newsletter. Many thanks to everyone who voted.

Abigail Frost, the out-going European administrator, informs me that the balance of the Fund stands at about £2,600. In addition to which I would like to thank the following people: Greg Pickersgill for passing over £150 from the Novacon 25 United Fan Fund (UFF) auction; Tony Berry for the £19.62 raised selling 'Tudor for TAFF' badges; Christina Lake for donating copies of Time-Bytes to TAFF, sale of which has so far raised £20.00; Bridget Hardcastle for donating 10 copies of her Guide to UK Fandom, sales of which have raised £7.00 to date; Steve Hatton and Dave Holmes for donating the £2.00 they would have paid if they'd remembered to vote -- any more guilty consciences out there? You know the drill, cheques made payable to 'Martin Tudor' to the address below!

I'm delighted to announce that this year's trip is now confirmed, flights all booked and paid for. My wife, Helena Tudor, will be accompanying me (at our own expense, naturally) and our itinerary is as follows: flying from Heathrow to Las Vegas on 22 August (in time to attend Toner); Las Vegas to Los Angeles on 29 September (we are hoping for a ride for this leg of the journey -- please let us know if you can help, failing this we'll use train or bus); Los Angeles to San Francisco on 2 September (again we are hoping for a ride for this leg of the journey -- please let us know if you can help; failing this we'll use train or bus); flying from San Francisco to Seattle on 5 September; flying Seattle to Washington DC on 9 September; Washington DC to Heathrow on Friday 13 September (this date strikes me as a bit dodgy, but them's the breaks). It doesn't sound too strenuous, if you read it out real quick, does it?

You will no doubt be surprised to learn that my Trip Report, entitled Have Bag, Will Travel, is already under way; not to mention incredulous when I tell you that I intend to try to complete and distribute most of it en route.

The plan is that I'll e-mail installments to Bernie Evans from Vegas, LA, San Francisco, Seattle and DC -- Bernie will then photocopy and dispatch them in the envelopes I leave with her. (So if you want to be sure of getting each installment as it appears please send six self-addressed, stamped envelopes to me by the 17 August! [Since this date is long past, a better bet might be directly to Bernie at 121 Cape Hill, Smethwick, Warley, W.Midlands, B66 4SH.]) All this, of course, depends on the kindness and cooperation of fans in those cities; but I'm sure if I can deliver the text this will drop into place.

However, one thing would make the whole idea easier -- if I had access to a laptop for about a month.... So, if you have a suitable machine (one that can save material in ASCII to standard PC disks) lying around that you could lend me, or if you know of somewhere which could rent me one really cheap, please let me know! (Although, given some of my recent experiences with information technology, I'm probably better off with my pen and paper.)

I'm hoping to auction TAFF material at both Toner and LAcon III and have been touting around for auction material for the last couple of months. Thanks to the generosity of a number of people, especially Greg Pickersgill, Catherine McAulay, Walt Willis and Dave Langford, this has paid off with a pile of very good stuff: fanzines such as Hyphen, Twentythird, Second Hand Wave, copies of Eric Bentcliffe's 1960 TAFF Trip Report -- Epitaff; a hand-coloured, framed and covered Don West print; a small, full-colour ATom painting; copies of the limited edition, numbered, slip-cased Conspiracy '87 programme book, Frontier Crossings, each featuring an autograph plate filled with such signatures as Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Harryhausen, Brian W. Aldiss and many more. In addition to these I've donated my fanzine collection (over 16 years worth) so it will be well worth attending the auctions at Toner and LAcon III! If you can't make it to those don't despair, when I return from my trip I will be conducting a postal auction of a number of goodies and there will be more stuff on sale in the UFF auction at Novacon.

But please don't let the above put you off donating material! Fanzines, books, cash (of course), original artwork, unusual condoms (preferably unused), leather jackets, etc are always welcome -- contact me at the address below. I look forward to hearing from you!


TAFFlon Tudor #1 is the first newsletter from the European Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund administrator, Martin Tudor, who can be contacted at 24 Ravensbourne Grove, off Clarkes Lane, Willenhall, England, WV13 1HX. Distributed 17 July 1996. Copies of TAFFlon Tudor are being distributed as widely as possible. Feel free to copy and distribute as you wish -- but please copy verbatim. Copies are available for donations of material and/or cash to TAFF, stamped self-addressed envelopes and editorial whim. The title comes from Steve Green's nickname for me -- 'Teflon Tudor' (he reckoned, the mud never stuck to me -- but always to him); the pun is 'courtesy' of my wife Helena -- I've forgiven her, I hope you will as well!