Published in the interests of the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund by Arthur Thomson, 17 Brockham House, Brockham Drive, London S.W.2, England, and Terry Carr, 35 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., 11201, U.S.A.
TAFF NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN
At the 23rd World Science Fiction Convention in London this year, an unprecedented Meeting at the Summit was held: nine previous and present TAFF winners/administrators gathered together to discuss matters relating to the fund and its future. Those attending were Walt Willis, Ken Bulmer, Ron Bennett, Eric Bentcliffe, Ron Ellik, Ethel Lindsay, Wally Weber, Arthur Thomson and Terry Carr -- representing the complete roll of TAFF winners with the exceptions of the late Don Ford, and Bob Madle, who had been unable to attend the convention.
The first subject on the agenda was the question of whether or not TAFF should go ahead now with a new campaign, electing a European fan to travel to the 1966 convention in Cleveland. There had been some feeling that TAFF should hold off further elections for awhile, in order to avoid possible apathy on the part of the voters due to a too frequent schedule of TAFF trips. The opposing view was offered that TAFF might easily suffer an "out of sight, out of mind" reaction by closing down operations for too long, and it was pointed out that if we were to send a Taffman to Cleveland this would be spacing the trips a full year apart for the third. year in a row, a considerably slower schedule than those of '62 and '64 when two trips each year were made. This view was generally upheld, and Walt Willis, a founder and one of the first administrators of TAFF, capped it by suggesting that we could provide a method by which fans could vote to hold over the funds in any given year/campaign if they wished, thereby leaving this choice up to the electorate.
Procedural details of voting were then discussed. It had been suggested that TAFF adopt the "Australian ballot" a system of voting which provides automatic runoffs and assures majority winners in each case. This new balloting procedure was discussed and adopted. (Later, at the Convention's business meeting, the Hugo Study Committee proposed the Australian ballot for future Hugo voting, and it was adopted here too.)
Following this meeting, Terry Carr announced at the conclusion of his speech at the banquet that nominations for the TAFF trip to Cleveland were open, and that they would close December 1. Ballots will be distributed early in December, and voting deadline would be 15th April 1966.
At the present moment it has been heard that nominations are being gathered for several well known European fans. If you think that you would wish to help nominate a fan to represent you at Cleveland, to appear on a ballot a European fan must meet the following requirements:
a) He must be nominated by three European and two American fans.
b) He must submit a hundred word nominating platform to be published on the reverse of the ballot. It's customary for a nominator to take care of this.
c) A 5.00 dollar (approx: 35/- sterling) bond of good faith must accompany the nomination. This is usually taken care of by the nominators.
d) The candidate must sign a statement of willingness to travel to the 1966 World Convention in Cleveland if elected..
Send these four requirements to either of the current Taff administrators on or before December 1st, 1965.
The following is the text of the rules on new voting procedures which will appear on this year's TAFF ballots:
VOTING: Taff this year is inaugurating (as are the Hugo awards) the Australian Ballot, a vote-counting technique with a built-in runoff count: On the first "ballot" only first place votes are counted; then, if of a 100 votes three candidates get 40-35-25, the third one is dropped from the second "ballot" and the second choices of his 25 supporters become first place votes distributed between the remaining two candidates -- so that, unlike the previous systems of mail voting, the winner from now on will definitely represent a majority vote, as he would if unlimited runoffs were possible for Taff.
When voting, rank the candidates in the exact order in which you prefer them: "P is my first choice, but if he loses the first ballot then I guess Q is my second choice and X the third." If you do not rank them and your first choice loses, you have forfeited. your further votes. Under no circumstances may a fan vote more than once or enter a candidate's name more then once on a ballot. Illegal ballots may be voided by the Administrators.
"HOLD OVER FUNDS": New this year is the candidate with the strange name of "Hold over funds". This choice, which is similar to the "No Award" vote in Hugo balloting, gives the voter the opportunity to vote for no Taff trip in a given year/campaign in the event that either the candidates do not appeal strongly enough or that he feels that Taff should slow down on its program to build stronger interest in the campaigns that are held.
"Hold over funds" may be listed in first, second, or third place, just like any other candidate, and the vote will be counted accordingly. If the final majority vote is against sending a candidate that year/campaign, funds will be held over for the next election.
(The use of three places in the voting examples given is arbitrary; there is no limit to the number of fans who may be nominated and run for Taff.)
Arthur Thomson.
Terry Carr.
October 1965.