TAFF VALE

No 1 • March 1987 • 'All Knowledge Is In Fanzines.'

GREG PICKERSGILL, 7a LAWRENCE ROAD SOUTH EALING, LONDON W5 4XJ, UNITED KINGDOM. Phone 01-568-8174 and get lucky.


A START; In which glad news is brought to the faithful OR
JEANNE GOMOLL WINS TAFF! BEST WOMAN FORWARD: GIANT STEP FOR WISCONSINKIND!

Yeah, no kidding, the election for the 1987 TAFF run, to bring a deserving person from the USA to the Brighton Worldcon and surrounds has run its course, and on March 14th your trusty local agent was called up to confer with his American counterpart and produce the following table

AS WE KNOW THERE WERE FIVE CANDIDATES, and on the first count things were so;

                   USA  UK AUST TOTAL
BILL BOWERS         26   4   1   31
BRIAN EARL BROWN    25   3   -   28
MIKE GLICKSOHN      57  20   -   77
JEANNE GOMOLL       86  42   4  132
ROBERT LICHTMAN     35  11   2   46
HOLD OVER FUNDS      3   -   -    3
                   232  80   7  319

AS WE IN BRITAIN are fully aware, to prevent misconduct by those inimical to the very spirit of Anglo-American cooperation the 20% Rule applies. This means that any candidate polling less than 20% of the vote in either the US or UK is automatically dropped from the ballot. This time that meant catching a minimum of 16 votes in the UK and/or 43 in the US. Accordingly BOWERS, BROWN, LICHTMAN, and HOLD OVER FUNDS fall by the wayside and their votes according to the preferential system are reallocated, giving us this picture;

                    USA and AUST      UK       TOTAL
MIKE GLICKSOHN          86            26        112
JEANNE GOMOLL          149            53        202
NO FURTHER PREFERENCE    4            1           5

THEREBY GIVING THE WIN TO GOMOLL over Glicksohn by 202 to 112.

There were no write-in votes, for which some may be truly thankful. No Australasian votes were received by the European administration, so are included with the US total in the final tally. Anyone with fond lingering memories of those Golden Age days when the 20% Rule did not apply, and endless re-countings of preference-votes were necessary to obtain an overall majority-winner will doubtless be delighted that this crushingly tedious process was carried out for the benefit of certain and though the details are far too tiresome for reproduction here NO DIFFERENT RESULT WAS OBTAINED! Isn't Nature wonderful.

NAMES AND NUMBERS -- We're watching you and we know what you did.

The Average vote in US to UK TAFF runs since 1977 (not counting this one) from the UK is 75, averaged over four runs. This contrasts with the average over five UK -- US runs of 82 British votes per run. This means that the 80 vote response to this ballot was a good one from the UK, especially considering that the average vote for US to UK trips was inflated dramatically by the Beck Intervention of '84. As you will see from the listing most of the faithful responded, notable gaps occurring only in those twin centres of fan-activity, Leeds and Europe. Surprisingly few of the Leeds-based fans who voted in the last TAFF election participated this time, and only THREE votes came in from the entire European mainland. There is probably a reason for this, though masked from the sight of men. One is also tempted to think that the British vote at least might have been bigger had ALL British nominators actively supported their candidates. As far as the Administration can tell, some nominators did nothing whatsoever to promote their candidates in any way, while a minority were consistently active. Nomination is something which should probably be taken more seriously, especially by persons not intimately familiar with British fandom and its ways.

Whatever, a massive TAFF thanks a lot goes to the following, who took the time and money to support the transference of Transatlantic goodwill ..........

Hazel and Mal ASHWORTH, Tony BERRY, John BERRY, Terry BROOME, Eric BENTCLIFFE, Jim BARKER, Mark R. BENNETT, Avedon CAROL, Vince CLARKE, Arthur CRUTTENDEN, IAN COVELL, Dave COLLINS, John DALLMAN, Alan and Rochelle DOREY, Mike DICKINSON, Malcolm EDWARDS, Dave ELLIS, Graham ENGLAND-KOCH, Helen and Stan ELING, Susan FRANCIS, Gwen FUNNELL, Abigail FROST, Keith and Wendy FREEMAN, Cohn FINE, Jackie GRESHAM, Ron GEMMELL, Roelof GOUDRIAAN, Judith HANNA, John and Eve HARVEY, Anne HAMILL, Dave HODSON, Rob HANSEN, Alun HARRIES, Chuck and Sue HARRIS, Katie HOARE, Steve HUBBARD, John JARROLD, Rob JACKSON, Terry JEEVES, Roz KAVENEY, Paul KINCAID, Dave LANGEORD, Ethel LINDSAY, Christina LAKE, Richard LEWIS, Lynne-Ann MORSE, Caroline MULLAN, Joseph NICHOLAS, Simon OUNSLEY, Roger PEYTON, Maureen PORTER, Linda PICKERSGILL, Geoff RYMAN, Roger ROBINSON, Jimmy ROBERTSON, Alex STEWART, Alison SCOTT, Johan SCHIMANSKI, Paul and Cas SKELTON, John STEWARD, Nick SHEARS, Chris SUSLOWICZ, Kate SOLOMON, Arthur THOMSON, Peter-Fred THOMPSON, Pam WELLS, Walt and Madeleine WILLIS, Paul VINCENT, Dave WOOD, Peter WESTON, D. WEST, & Owen WHITEOAK.

Particular thanks go also to non-voting contributors Mike CHRISTIE, Mike ABBOTT, Mike HAMILTON, and shadowy mystery-man R. EARNSHAW, who contributed £12. Mike FORD we will mention last, as his was the sole vote to arrive after the deadline, and who contributed his cash nevertheless.

BIG MONEY FOR LITTLE BRITAIN

Your present administrator received £1243.95 from the careful hands of R. HANSEN, of whom it has been said. £421 was spent during the course of the last TAFF trip. Since then £160 was acquired in voting and other contributions in this last election, £190 by the superhuman efforts of Greg PICKERSGILL auctioning British fanzines at the 1986 Worldcon, and £84 was contributed by Dave LANGFORD, this last being his share of the original printing costs of his TAFF Report THE TRANSATLANTIC HEARING AID. It appears that by the time the money was paid back our David was so deep in fivers gained by other means he magnanimously donated the cash to TAFF. What a People's Hero Dave Langford is. Anyway, TAFF-UK presently has £1251.45 at its disposal, at least enough for a few funky days in Brighton for our visitor. Further contributions are always welcome, though mere promises are not. £35 was promised by London comics and book shop FORBIDDEN PLANET, being the profits made on its 100th signing session party. That was last year. We were all glad to see the demise of the COFF Fund, but where's the money that's supposed to go to TAFF and DUFF? Breath not being held around here. Though secret optimism always boundless.

Whatever, all things being equal there will be a TAFF auction at the upcoming BECCON. Come buy reasonable books expensive. Get drunk and spend some money, it's an expansionist world!

THE FUTURE. THERE IS ONE.

See next issue.