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number two, the February 1988 issue of the newsletter of the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, is published by Jeanne Gomell at Box 1443, Madison, WI 53701-1443. Telephone 608-255-9909. The European Administrator is Greg Pickersgill, 7A Lawrence Road, S. Ealing, London, W5 4SJ, England. Taffiles will be generally available to all those who donate to or show interest in TAFF. Or just ask. Or you may already be on my mailing list. My apologies to those of you who were confused by my typos. Indeed the upcoming race is the UK -> NA race; I knew it all along. Really. Obsessive Press #90. February 12, 1988 |
REDD BOGGS WANTS TO KNOW "I woke up in the middle of the night wondering," says Redd, "'Why the hell NOT???' And I still can't figure it out. I mean the notice, 'SEND THE ENTIRE SHEET AS VOTE DO NOT DETACH THIS PORTION!' on the TAFF ballot. I believe that this warning has been on previous TAFF ballots and I could never think why. Not even a 'Please' attached to the warning! Has TAFF been taken over by a government bureau? I expected another notice 'For office use only. DO NOT WRITE IN THIS SPACE.' If I can get away with it, I always write in this space. Anyway, it's an irritaiting thing to wake up in the night about and fret hopelessly till the sun peeps through the window!"
Redd didn't send his vote along with this note (on either a whole or amputated ballot), which can only mean that he waits sleeplessly for an answer to this question and will not vote until he has one. There is no time to lose, I think. To cure Redd Boggs' insomnia, I will get another issue of TAFFILES out and try to answer him.
Everything You Need to Know about the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund is included in the TAFF ballot. The "front" of the TAFF ballot is actually a cunningly efficient description of the whole process, history, and philosophy of the fan fund. Amazingly that one side of an 8½"x11" sheet of paper contains the sum total of every official, written-down policy that governs TAFF. Parts of it have evolved over the years by a consensual process among current and past administrators, but mostly it remains the very same statement of purpose and ground rules created by Walt Willis Once Upon a Time. You don't need--indeed, you can't find--a multi-chaptered book full of legalese, complex wherefores and ifthens, about how the TAFF fund works. It's all there on that one page of the ballot.
The other side of the TAFF ballot, of course, contains the list of worthy candidates, their platforms, and their nominators, plus the voting form.
The reason it's important that you don't detach the voting form from the rest of the ballot, is so the administrators can be sure that you voted in the same election as everyone else. By sending in the complete ballot, we know that you read (or could have read) the whole statement of philosophy and rules of the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund. You know what it's for and how it works. You have read the same rules that everyone else has read. We also know that you have seen the same list of candidates and the same version of their platform, and the same list of nominators seen by everyone else who voted.
Basically the warning not to detach the voting form from the rest of the sheet makes it possible to make sure that nothing essential has gotten lost or altered in the process of copying the many versions of the ballot that circulate among fans. TAFF is a remarkably informal organisation for all its success and longevity, but it depends upon the financial generosity of its supporters, as well as upon the volunteers who reproduce and distribute the ballots. For this reason, the ballot stipulates that reproduction must be verbatim, and if the whole ballot is returned to the administrators, we can be sure of that. We will be reassured that no fans voted using a hoax ballot on which all the platforms but one have been edited so that they tout the candidates' admiration for L. Ron Hubbard and firm belief in scientology.
WHY THE ENCLOSED BALLOT ISN'T QUITE VERBATIM REPRODUCTIONS OF OTHERS YOU MAY HAVE SEEN Greg Pickersgill, the British administrator, sent me a master copy of the TAFF ballot near the end of January, and I immediately sent out copies to American nominators of the British TAFF candidates, as well as some copies to the fannish newszines and other fan editors. Soon afterward, I began receiving completed ballots in the mail, and quite a few notes attached to those ballots which made subtle references to the typos in that ballot. They weren't rude about it, you understand. They just said they thought they would probably correct my typos before duplicating the ballot and distributing it. But I blushed all the same. My reputation for imaginative spelling makes it difficult for me to protest that it wasn't my fault.
Instead, I'll simply say that I have accepted Teddy Harvia's amused offer to clean up the copy and send me a beautiful, typeset version of the TAFF ballot. That version of the ballot is included in this packet and it eliminates some of those unfamiliar, British spellings of words like "Stu Schiffman."
STATE OF THE TAFF REPORT I'm still transcribing my trip report notes from the cassette tapes I recorded during my visit to the UK, but I'm making good progress on that, and have a title for my trip report (ALWAYS LEAVING TOWN), an outline, and a pen-and-ink cover. I'm working on some interior illustrations when I cannot bear to sit behind a typewriter. When will you get to read ALWAYS LEAVING TOWN? This is what I hope: I hope that I am completely done writing it before Nolacon, because I don't want to get the memories of Conspiracy mixed up with those of another worldcon. I think I can do that, and if I do, I expect that it will be published and distributed sometime before the end of the year. Of 1988.
On another front, the catalog I promised you in my platform isn't ready yet. There will be some material for sale at the end of this issue of TAFFILES, but an auction-by-mail won't take place until the catalog comes out. And when will you get to see that? This is what I hope: I hope that I will be able to put it together next month when Scott and I purchase a MacIntosh computer. There are piles and piles of saleable material in Scot's and my very, very crowded apartment that I inherited from the previous US TAFF administrators, Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and I think that a computerized listing of all that stuff is the only reasonable way to keep tab of the bidders, bids, availability, and catalog page layouts. Once I get it all together, however, I expect the auction will be a very profitable one for TAFF, since there's a lot of really, really good fanzines and books and etcetera among my inheritance.
I'm still asking for contributions of saleable fanzines, books and other materials for auction, and will gratefully accept your donations. But please remember my very, very limited storage space and only send me things that you think would seem unusual or rare enough to be of interest to a TAFF supporter. Scott Custis moved into my two-bedroom apartment with me last year, and we plan on buying a house sometime in 1989, but in the meantime are attempting to lead relatively uncramped lives in the space we have. And since one of the so-called bedrooms is filled with my drafting board, layout table, desk, bookshelves, typewriter (and soon, a computer), and because that office's closet is filled with art supplies and filing cabinets, that means that we are extremely short on closet space.
Still, I would welcome contributions to the catalog, and I thank those of you who have already sent me items for sale. Thank you Ethel Lindsay and Joyce Scrivner.
Monetary contibutions and purchases of some of the Conspiracy publications (advertised in TAFFILES 1) have been sent to me, and I want to thank those of you who have contributed to TAFF. Thanks especially to the members of the Confederation committee who donated a very generous check from the profits of the 1986 Worldcon, and to Robert Taylor, Marty Cantor, Jane Hawkins, and the Chattercon committee.
TAFF finances are in good shape, but I will wait till I straighten out British/American finances (made more complex because of the ever-shifting value of the dollar) before I publish a financial report. As always, donations to TAFF are always needed and welcome.
TAFF auctions are planned for WisCon (February 19-21, 1988), Corflu (April 29-May 1, 1988), Minicon (April 1-3, 1988), and Nolacon. If you would like to schedule an auction for a convention or would like to auction material at a convention you will be attending, please contact me and I will help you with materials.
The 1988 UK->NA election is now under way. The ballot with its list of UK candidates is enclosed. Remember to vote before the April 15, 1988 deadline! The winner or winners of this race will travel to the 1988 worldcon in New Orleans, Louisiana.
FOR SALE Please include $1.00 for postage and handling with your order. Add 25¢ for each item over two items. If you arrange to meet me at a convention or live in Madison, you can skip the extra postage costs.
THE TRANSATLANTIC HEARING AID, BY Dave Langford. A hilarious, unforgiveably hard-to-follow trip report describing Langford's 1980 TAFF trip to North America. $3.50
FANFOODRY, or the plain fan's guide to happy eating. A Conspiracy publication, edited by Eve and John Harvey: a collection of fannish food and drink recipes, donated by dozens of famous gourmetafans. Chapbook, 58 pp. $3.50
THE STORY SO FAR... A brief history of British Fandom, 1931-1987. A Conspiracy Publication, by Rob Hansen. Chapbook, 50 pp. $3.50
NOW READ ON: A collection of recent British fanwriting. A Conspiracy publication with reprinted articles by D. West (Introduction), Kevin Smith ("Birdland"), Lilian Edwards & Christina Lake ("A Tale of Two Panels"), Linda Pickersgill ("How Women Get Pregnant"), Greg Pickersgill ("B24 Liberator"), Roz Kaveny ("Splendors & Miseries"), Abi Frost ("A Mitcham Mint"), Anne Hamill ("Lunch at the Savoy"), and Bob Shaw ("When Fandoms Collide"). Chapbook, 68pp. $3.50.
PLATEN STORIES by Dave Langford. Yet another Conspiracy publication which includes reprints of some of hugo-winning fanwriter's efforts, 13 articles, 1980-1987 from Arena, The Channelcon Programme Book, Chuch, Mad Scientist's Digest, Prevert, This Never Happens, Trapdoor, and Xyster. Chapbook, 63 pp. $3.50
EMBRYONIC JOURNEY, From Leeds to Leeds in 50 years. Produced for Conception 1987 by Graham James, this is yet another fabulous British convention publication. EJ contains 30 articles and includes work by Vince Clarke, E. C. Tubb, Harry Bell, Malcolm Edwards, Atom, D. West, Greg Pickersgill, Alan Dorey, Kev Smith, Dave Langford, Chris Evans, Jim Barker, Chris Atkinson, Jimmy Robertson, Abi Frost, and others. Good stuff, and not easy to find. $10.00.
SIX-SHOOTER, One-shot by Pam Wells, Linda Pickersgill, and Jeanne Gomoll, with two articles by each. The editors have received so many encouraging letters of comment that they are talking about doing another...a reload, so to speak. Buy #1 and assure yourself of #2, if it gets discharged. 26 pp. $3.00.
TAFF TALK Lilian Edwards and Christine Lake, two co-candidates for TAFF this year, have just published The Caprician 1, a fanzine that not surprisingly supports the two of them for TAFF. You may be interested to read it for a section called "Six Year Old Twins to Stand for TAFF Scandle." Lilian and Christine talk about the whys and wherefores of their campaign. There's a good article that talks about fanzine reviewing and the philosophy of fanzine reviewing by Christine, a hilarious trip report by Simon Ounsley, and some in-depth reviews and comments on the very Conspiracy publications for sale in this issue of TAFFILES. Recommended for these comments as well as a chance to get The Caprician 2 and a LoC column that I suspect will be filled with discussion on the controversy of multiple TAFF candidacies. Write to Lilian Edwards (1 Braehead Rd., Throntonhall, Glasgow, G74 5AQ, Scotland) or Christina Lake (47 Wessex Avenue, Horfield, Bristol, BS7 0DE England) and ask for a copy.
I will, of course, be glad to list the fanzines published by any of the other TAFF candidates in future issues of TAFFILES. Also, any other fanzines that include TAFF related-conversation can be forwarded to me and I will mention them as well.
If things work out, there will probably be one more issue of TAFFILES out before the voting deadline, possibly in comination with a very short issue of Whimsey. We'll see.
Jeanne Gomoll
13 February 1988
TAFF Voting Deadline
April 15, 1988
VOTE!
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TAFF BALLOT INSIDE! |
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ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED