Necronomigone

A newsletter at the end of James Bacon's term as European TAFF administrator
(July 2006)

Ghostwritten by Claire Brialey & Mark Plummer
TAFF logo by Anne Stokes

RESULTS OF THE 2006 WESTBOUND TAFF RACE

The following valid ballots were received by the deadline of 9 pm (BST) on Saturday 27 May 2006:

Candidates Europe votes North America votes Rest of world votes Total
'Bug' -- Bridget Bradshaw 86 59 1 146
'½r' -- Arthur Cruttenden 46 8 0 54
'Sparks' -- Mike Rennie 53 17 1 71
Hold Over Funds 0 1 0 1
No Preference 6 13 1 20
Total(1) 191 98 3 292

Bridget Bradshaw ('Bug') won on the first round with an absolute majority of the first-place preference votes cast (53.7%) and was therefore declared the winner without the need for any reallocation of votes. Bug has already started her trip at Readercon on 7-9 July; it will conclude at LACon IV, the Worldcon in Anaheim, at the end of August, and she aims to visit at least 14 destinations in the USA and Canada in between.

The TAFF result was announced at a mini-con held on 27 May at the Horseshoe Inn in London. It had 112 attendees; these included ten of this year's Hugo nominees (including guest speakers Paul Cornell, Paul McAuley and Kim Newman), four former TAFF winners, two former GUFF winners, and the winner of SMOFF (a one-off fund-raiser contested during this year's Eastercon). Over £400 was raised for TAFF in addition to voting fees taken at the event.

Many thanks to everyone who voted or made other donations or contributions to TAFF, and to all the candidates and their nominators for making this a well-fought and high-profile race. A full list of voters is set out below. We understand the 292 votes cast this time to be the second highest total in a westbound TAFF race (the highest was 1971 -- the race won by Mario Bosnyak), and also that this race had the highest number of European votes cast in any TAFF race ever. More info is available on the TAFF website (www.taff.org.uk) if anyone wants more geeky details than that!

James Bacon -- who threatens to write something later to really finish off his TAFF administration, but decided not to hold up publication of this newsletter any longer -- would specifically like to thank Dave Langford (aka 'God') for continuing to maintain the TAFF website and provide sage advice, Anne Stokes for designing multiple versions of the splendid TAFF logo seen above, Jim de Liscard for the loan of his laptop to help with the count on 27 May and, to quote: 'Elvis, Dr Plokta, Flick, and all the usual suspects. And I want to write something about you two.' Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer would specifically like to spank James Bacon(2). Thanks also to Suzanne Tompkins (the North American administrator) and Jerry Kaufman for their good cheer and efficiency in conducting the count in the slightly unconventional way the European side wanted.

Voters in the 2006 westbound TAFF race

Emily, Flick, HnK, Max, Omega, Arnold C Akien, Agnes Andrews, Graham Andrews, Sarah Andrews, Gillian Armstrong-Bridges, Keith Armstrong-Bridges, Erik Arthur, David Axler, Amanda Baker, Elizabeth Batty, Allen Baum, Zara Baxter, Covert Beach, Tom Becker, Chris Bell, Douglas Bell, Alan Bellingham, Tracy Benton, Meike, John D Berry, Rajnish Bhasrar, Sheryl Birkhead, Zoe Bevan, Marianne Blackham, Kent Bloom, Bill Bodden, Anne Bodell, Sandra Bond, Robbie Bourget, Bridget Bradshaw, Simon Bradshaw, David Bratman, Elaine Brennan, Claire Brialey, Abi Brown, Tanya Brown, Roger Burton West, Elinor Busby, Randy Byers, Steven Cain, Jack Calvert, Alistair Cameron, Paul Campbell, David Carlile, Ewan Chrystal, Dave Clements, Becky Clubb, Rich Coad, Catriona Coast, Mike Cobley, David 'Eddie' Cochrane, Eli Cohen, Noel Collyer, David Cook, Chris Cooper, Stephen Cooper, Cheryl Costello, Cardinal Cox, John Coxon, Catherine Crockett, Helen Cross, Tony Cullen, Pat Curzon, Charlene Taylor D'Alessio, John Dallman, Julia Daly, Malcolm Davies, Steve Davies, Hal Davis, Jim de Liscard, Linda Deneroff, Sharon Dennett, Frank Denton, Vincent Docherty, Paul Dormer, Fran Dowd, Tara Dowling-Hussey, Carolyn Doyle, Michelle Drayton-Harrold, Ralph C Drayton-Harrold, Lilian Edwards, Sue Edwards, Arthur George Eele-Cruttenden, Richard Eney, Andi Evans, Julia Evans, Gary Farber, Tom Feller, Tommy Ferguson, Don Fitch, Susan Francis, Alison Freebairn, Nigel Furlong, Michael Gallagher, Janice Gelb, Nick Gibbins, Alexis A Gilliland, Don Glover the Younger, Steve Glover, Hank Graham, Richard 'Reg' Gray (Dr), Steve Green, Gay Haldeman, Judith Hanna, David A Hardy, John Harold, Colin Harris, Lisa J Hart-Collins, Eve Harvey, John Harvey, Susie Haynes, Julian Headlong, Zandy Hemsley, Mark Herrup, David Hicks, Graham Hill, Colin Hinz, Arthur Hlavaty, Judy Hodgkin, Marilyn Holt, Paul Hood, Andy Hooper, Jim Hudson, Reuben Hustler, Ben Indick, L Blunt Jackson, Barbara Johnson-Haddad, Al Johnston, Lee Justice, Mary Kay Kare, Jerry Kaufman, Tony Keen, Paul Kincaid, Grant Kruger, Lisa Lagergren, Christina Lake, Dave Lally, Dave Langford, Alice Lawson, Erhard Leder, Hope Leibowitz, Fred Lerner, Robert Lichtman, Guy Lillian, Rose Marie Lillian, Frank Lunney, Peter Mabey, Karl MacNaughton, Timothy Maguire, Sue Mason, Ian Maughan (Square Bear), Kari Maund, Rich McAllister, Neil McChrystin, Ross McCleary, Michael E McConnell, Simon McGrory, Luke McGuff, Michael McInerney, Alex McLintock, Darren McMahon, Pat McMurray, Mark Meenan, Geneva Melzack, Farah Mendlesohn, Brian Milton (Munchkin), June Moffatt, Len Moffatt, Murray Moore, John Moore, Cheryl Morgan, Chris Morgan, Pauline Morgan, Tony Morton, Caroline Mullan, Donald Munro, James J Murray, Robert J Newman, Joseph Nicholas, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Philip Nye, Hal O'Brien, Ulrika O'Brien, Carrie O'Callaghan, Michael O'Connor, Roderick O'Hanlon, Dave O'Neill, Mark Olson, Priscilla Olson, Spike Parsons, Harry Payne, Rog Peyton, Catherine Pickersgill, Mark Plummer, Andy Porter, Silas Potts, Judith Proctor, Liam Proven, Colette Reap, Peter Redfarn, Katharine Rennie, Mike Rennie, Moira Rennie, Neil Rest, Julie Rigby, Dave Rike, Roger Robinson, Doreen Rogers, Tony Rogers, Carrie Root, Howard Rosenblum, June Rosenblum, Vicki Rosenzweig, Dave Rowe, Nigel Rowe, Marcus Rowland, Yvonne Rowse, Ruth Sachter, Meurig Sage, Mhairi Sage, Peggy Rae Sapienza, Kate Schaefer, Karen Schaffer, Jeff Schalles, Ben Schilling, David W Schroth, Alison Scott, Mike Scott, Joyce Scrivner, Randall L Shepherd, Gavin Shorrock, Ina Shorrock, Nesa Sivagnanam, Ken Slater, Randy Smith, P H Sneddon, Robert Sneddon, Kate Solomon, Ian Sorensen, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Douglas Spencer, Kevin Standlee, Tim Stannard, Janine Stinson, Billy Stirling, Ian Stockdale, Erwin S Strauss, Alan Sullivan, Geri Sullivan, Chris Suslowicz, Cameron Taylor, Clara Taylor, Jean Thompson, Amy Thomson, Dave Tompkins, Suzanne Tompkins, Chris Tregenza, Alex Tudno-Jones, Evan Tudno-Jones, Mel Tudno-Jones, R-Laurraine Tutihasi, Peter Tyers, Lennart Uhlin, David Ulicsak, Tobes Valois, Simoné Van Zyl, Pat Virzi, Rene Walling, Gerry Webb, George Wells, Pam Wells, Peter Weston, Richard Wheatley, Donya White, Ted White, Art Widner, Peter Wilkinson, Tom Womack, Kenneth Wood, Alan Woodford, Alastair Woodward, Martin Morse Wooster, Ben Yalow, Pete Young, Kate Yule, Lucy Zinkiewicz.

Thanks to all for their votes and donations. Thanks also for specific donations without votes from Roger Earnshaw, Peter Sullivan, and Damien Warman & Juliette Woods. As Peter Sullivan said, '…if we could get some more people to send in "ineligible voter non-voting fees", it would help the TAFF funds tremendously. I reckon there must be at least 50 million ineligible voters in [the UK], and I bet no more than 0.00002% of them will actually bother to Not Vote."

Over to you, then, Bug…

European TAFF accounts during James Bacon's administration

(Prepared by Claire Brialey, on behalf of the League of Fan Funds)

There is no opening balance as such: James received a sum of money from Tobes Valois, the former administrator, before his trip; he didn't need to use all of this so was able to return a smaller sum of money to the pot on his return.

James wanted to establish a specific bank account for TAFF, partly because he was living in Ireland at the time and thought it would be helpful to have a sterling bank account since most of the funds would be raised in the UK, but mostly in order to establish clear accountability for the TAFF money during his own and subsequent administrations.

Until this account could be set up, James therefore asked the League of Fan Funds to hold the TAFF monies in their bank account. The first part of this account therefore reflects the sums managed through the LFF account between Easter 2005 and January 2006.

Balance available to Bridget Bradshaw from the European fund for her TAFF trip: £3,584.32

Bug will continue to use the specific TAFF account for funds raised and expenses during her administration, with support where needed from the League of Fan Funds.

2007 eastbound race

Convoy, the 2007 Eastercon, announced after they won the bid that their Fan Guest of Honour will be whoever is the incoming North American TAFF delegate. Convoy will be held at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool on 6-9 April 2007. (See http://convoy.org.uk/ for more information.)

The TAFF administrators opened nominations on 25 June, with the intention of launching a race early in September if all goes well. Check out http://taff.org.uk/ for more news as it happens…

Information for future TAFF voters

(A note from TAFF data input assistant (3rd class) AKA Mark Plummer)

There were 191 European votes in the recent TAFF race. I'm sure TAFF thanks you all, and so do I from my lowly position as typist and data input assistant to Ms C Brialey who is in turn assistant and English language advisor to TAFF administrator James Bacon. However, I must admit that I was rather wishing that there had been fewer of you when I came to type up your names and addresses, and especially when I saw what some of you had written on the forms.

The TAFF ballot asks you for your name, address, telephone number and email address. It does this so that, in the short term, the TAFF administrators can contact if you if there's a query over your ballot -- if you've omitted the voting fee, say, or produced the pen-and-paper version of a hanging chad -- and longer-term so that you can be sent European TAFF newsletters and the like, telling you about current and future developments in the fund to which you've contributed.

Now, maybe some of you think that TAFF is in fact a front organisation for a double-glazing company and you are reluctant to provide this contact information in case you find yourself bombarded with cold calls; and maybe you'd simply prefer it if James didn't know where you lived in case he pops round to borrow your lawnmower, your kettle, or your first-born for one of his schemes. But really, it's quite safe: the information is only used for TAFF purposes. And, just in case you're wondering, while we do pass the names and addresses of voters from one administrator to the next, we do not pass on how you voted.

So with that in mind -- and as a plea on behalf of Bridget and all future TAFF administrators -- could you please remember to write your address in full and legibly? The irony is, of course, that some of the worst offenders may never get to read this because we can't work out where you live, and past experience has shown that mail addressed to '23 Degler Street' is unlikely to arrive unless we can give the poor postperson at least a clue as to the town in which Degler Street might be found. And I will leave you with a question. If you are thinking about completing the name and address on the ballot form in 'mirror writing' because you can, do you think that the person who has to transcribe said writing will (a) chuckle at the great wit and talent you are displaying; or (b) do something else, possibly involving throwing the ballot form across the room and swearing? I will give you a clue: the answer is not (a). End of plea from TAFF data input assistant (3rd class).

Editorial address: 59 Shirley Road, Croydon, Surrey CR0 7ES, UK
Any TAFF correspondence received will be passed to the TAFF administrators.


1 Four ballots were cast in Europe of possibly questionable validity in terms of voters' specific time/activity within fandom, but were allowed since they were in the spirit of TAFF and have absolutely no material impact on the outcome of the race.

2 This joke inserted mainly for the benefit of the new TAFF delegate and her husband.