TAFFETA is an irregularly produced information sheet on the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and is produced by the current European Administrator Rob Hansen of 9A Greenleaf Rd., East Ham, London E6 1DX. Dissemination of the information herein is actively encouraged.
By the time most of you read this less than a month will remain til the deadline for getting your TAFF ballots back to me. And in case anyone's forgotten that date is:
15TH MAY 1986
Since I'll be leaving town on the 15th in order to attend my brother's wedding the following day I won't actually be able to total the votes and compare notes with Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden until I get back, sometime late on the 18th I imagine, but I will be in town long enough to pick up my mail before leaving so the 15th remains the absolute deadline for return of ballots. None received after that time will be counted and no excuses, such as postal delays, will be accepted as good reason for exceptions to this rule.
The main reason for this penultimate TAFFETA (the fourth and final one will carry voting breakdowns and the name of the winner, of course) is to remind any of you who have yet to vote that time is running out and that your vote counts. Nor is that last comment mere hyperbole. I can truthfully say that, with voting totals as they currently stand, it's impossible for me to predict who will win on this side of the Atlantic. If you haven't voted do so now or you might kick yourself when the results come out for missing the opportunity of making a difference for the candidate you support. I'd also urge the candidates themselves to drum up their supporters and make sure that all get their votes in under the deadline.
Occasionally those who've already voted forget that they've done so and vote again, and some who think they've voted and haven't miss their chance to do so. Therefore, since I can't think of any valid reasons why I shouldn't, I'm listing below the names of all those who've voted to date. If your name's not there then it might be time you did something to change that situation.
Paul ANNIS, Hazel ASHWORTH, Chris ATKINSON, Chris BAILEY, Tony BERRY, Denis BRIDOUX, Avedon CAROL, Vin¢ CLARKE, Arthur CRUTTENDEN, John DALLMAN, Mike DICKINSON, Alan DOREY, Rochelle DOREY, Lilian EDWARDS, Malcolm EDWARDS, Dave ELLIS, Mike FORD, Kieth FREEMAN, Abi FROST, Paul "Gamma" GAMBLE, Ron GEMMELL, Rob GREGG, Jackie GRESHAM, Mike HAMILTON, Alun HARRIES, Chuck HARRIS, Dave HODSON, Dave HOLMES, Gordon HUNDLEY, Tim ILLINGWORTH, Rob JACKSON, Phil JAMES, Linda JAMES, John JARROLD, Kate JEARY, Roz KAVENEY, Paul KINCAID, Debbi KERR, Dave LANGFORD, Hazel LANGFORD, Pete LYON, Krsto A.MAZURANIC, Caroline MULLAN, Anne PAGE, Rog PEYTON, Linda PICKERSGILL, Simon POLLEY, David PRINGLE, Roger ROBINSON, Jimmy ROBERTSON, Andrew ROSE, Nigel E.RICHARDSON, Mike SCANTLEBURY, D.M.SHERWOOD, Kev SMITH, Diana SMITH, Kate SOLOMON, John STEWARD, Alex STEWART, Arthur THOMSON, Martin TUDOR, Paul VINCENT, Ashley WATKINS, Pam WELLS, D.WEST, Peter WESTON, Owen WHITEOAK,........
I've also received votes, for inclusion in the US totals (tho' we keep the cash), from:
Dave BRIDGES, Allyn CADOGAN, Andy PORTER, and Ted WHITE.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS this time are due to Harry Andruschak (not a typo), Moshe Feder (not one either), Stu Shiffman for donations of material for auction, and to the committee of L.A.CON II for the $500 donation (£346 at the exchange rates prevailing at the time their cheque was written) they sent, the first of two such amounts allocated for release to TAFF on the publication of completed trip reports. As it was publication of Dave Langford's trip report, THE TRANSATLANTIC HEARING-AID, that released this donation (copies of which are still available from him for a mere £2.25 sent to 94 London Rd., Reading, Berkshire RG1 5AU) -- and it was his suggestion that the donation be added to the impoverished coffers of TAFF-Europe rather than its robust North American counterpart -- he too receives our thanks.
MENTION OF THE ROBUSTNESS of the North American side of the fund reminds me of an impressive demonstration I witnessed in February of just how it has achieved that condition. As many of you will know Avedon and I visited the USA earlier this year to visit her parents and to attend CORFLU III. Now, at that convention Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, the North American TAFF Administrators, conducted an auction that raised over $600, an impressive sum to raise at any convention. What made it particularly impressive on this occasion, however, was that the attendance at the convention was only a little over 60 in all. In other words, that auction raised the equivalent of $10 for every person at the convention! What a contrast to recent TAFF auctions at British conventions where material often equivalent to that auctioned in the US has had to be withdrawn from auction to prevent it going for sums far below those that could be obtained by selling it directly to second-hand dealers.
TED WHITE alone was responsible for a third of the money raised at the CORFLU III auction due to his enthusiastic bidding on some of the choicer items being knocked down by Patrick and Teresa. Ted is also my co-editor on CRANK and since the sixth issue is..ah..slightly overdue and would, in the normal course of events, have carried this sheet as a rider in order to save TAFF postage, some of you may be wondering what's happened. Well, what's happened is that Ted is currently dealing with some pressing legal and professional problems that may demand his full attention for a while so the appearance of the sixth issue of CRANK is likely to be delayed a while. Normal service will be resumed as soon as feasable.
LATE NEWS: Since I appear to have some surplus space here there's just room to pass on details of the Fan Hugo nominations, phoned thro' by Patrick from the US:
Fanartist: Fanwriter: Fanzine: Brad Foster Don D'Amassa Holier Than Thou Steven Fox Dick Geis Anvil Stu Shiffman Mike Glyer Lan's Lantern Bill Rotsler Arthur D.Hlavaty The Universal Translator Joan Hanke-Woods Dave Langford The Greater Chicago
Fantasy Costumer's
Guild Newsletter.Patrick Nielsen Hayden Personally, I urge everyone to vote for The Greater Chicago Fantasy Costumer's Guild Newsletter. Final TAFFETA out after May 15th. See you then.
Rob Hansen 16th April 1986.