We are trying to expand this TAFF site with digital copies of past trip reports (with exceptions as noted below) and the ephemera – newsletters, ballot forms, announcements – which reveal so much about the fund's operation over the years. Contact Dave Langford if you'd like to try your hand at a little scanning or retyping.
Wants List
Electronic text versions of any of the following would be gratefully welcomed. Acceptable formats are HTML, RTF, WordPerfect, any version of Word readable by Libre Office, or even plain text with suitable markup of *boldfaced* and _underlined or italicized_ text....
KNOWN WANTS. Any TAFF newsletter or progress report noted in the Newsletter List with no link to a digital version on this site. Examples:
- TAFF Report, 1957, ed. Don Ford
- TAFF Reporter, early 1960s, ed. Eric Bentcliffe – we have #1 from 1962 but there may be more
- TAFF Progress Report #7, 1965 (finished version), ed. Wally Weber (& Ethel Lindsay?); #11 (numbered #1), 1968, and #12 (numbered #2), 1969, ed. Thomas Schlück & Steve Stiles; #13 if it ever existed; #14 ed. Steve Stiles & Eddie Jones, 1970.
- TAFF 1962 ed. Ethel Lindsay
- TAFF 1972 ed. Mario Bosnyak
- TAFF News From The Moffatts, issued with Instant Message 129, 1973; TAFF News, 1976 – both ed Len & June Moffatt.
- The 1977 TAFF Report ed. Roy Tackett
- TAFF News, 1979 or early 1980s, ed. Terry Hughes
- TAFF newsletters ed. Stu Shiffman, early 1980s
- Remaining issues of TAFFiles, ed. Jeanne Gomoll. Lowish priority here, since these are on line as scanned page images at Fanac.org – #1, Oct 1987; #2, Feb 1988; #4, Jun 1988. Anyone care to prepare electronic text from these sources?
ALSO: Any TAFF newsletter or progress report not appearing in the Big List – even knowledge of the existence of other material would be useful, as would issue numbers and dates of items where we have only a name.
State of Play (latest first)
Recent progress - November 2017 Robert Lichtman kindly sent scans of Wally Weber's Letter announcing Terry Carr's win (2 March 1965) and draft of TAFF Progress Report #7 (March 1965).
- The Free Ebooks page was launched in May 2015 with ebook versions of the Bulmer (1955), Roberts (1977), Langford (1980) and Hansen (1984) reports, plus other goodies just for fun. Much further material has since been added, including the Bacon (2004) and Garcia (2008) reports and original compilations of fan writing edited by Graham Charnock, Rob Hansen and Dave Langford.
- Rob Hansen scanned the inside back cover of Hyphen #4 (October 1953) – the first printed announcement of TAFF.
- Robert Lichtman unearthed Wally Weber's "TAFF report synopsis", briefly describing his 1964 trip.
- Rob Jackson spontaneously rekeyed chapter 1 of Dave Langford's report – the complete text is now on line.
- Bridget Bradshaw's Stakhanovite frenzy continues, with the rekeying of chapters 2 and 3 of Dave Langford's report, now almost complete in digital form!
- Mark Plummer sent digital text of Maureen Kincaid Speller's newsletter Taffkin's Bum: #2, Autumn 1999 and #3, Easter 2000. [29/6/05]
- Bridget Bradshaw heroically rekeyed chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Dave Langford's report, whose digital version remains under construction (rekeying help also volunteered by Mary Kay Kare). Robert Lichtman sent wanted issues of TAFF newsletters from Jeanne Bowman, Jeanne Gomoll and Ulrika O'Brien, now being scanned.
- Robert Lichtman sent Ken Bulmer's 1954 newsletter TAFF Steam, and the wanted 1968 and 1974 TAFF ballots.
- Rob Hansen sent issue #2 of his newsletter TAFFETA, completing the on-line set.
- Paul Vincent retyped a batch of old newsletters: TAFF Official (Carol), TAFFluvia 5 (Nielsen Haydens, completing the on-line set), Two Times TAFF 1, 2, 3, 5 (Edwards & Lake, ditto) and TAFF-Eta 3 (Hansen). [4/05]
- Earl Kemp scanned the remaining three issues of Pam Wells's TAFFervescent – complete run now on line. [4/05]
- Robert Lichtman unearthed the old WordPerfect files of his newsletter TAFF Door – complete run now on line. [4/05]
- Dave Langford has scanned lots more stuff from his files, including the complete run of TAFF Talk (Roberts, Langford, Smith). [4/05]
Many thanks also to ... - Claire Brialey, Richard Brandt, Elspeth Kovar Burgess, Vin¢ Clarke, Mike Ford, Brian Jordan, Marilee J. Layman, Ulrika O'Brien, Vicki Rosenzweig, Alison Scott, Jim Singleton and Pam Wells, who have all rekeyed TAFF instalments, or otherwise deviously converted them to electronic form. Vince and Brian in fact typed up the whole of Ken Bulmer's report, now entirely on-line. Others did chapters 1-9 of Peter Roberts's report, and what there is of Steve Stiles's.
- Richard Brandt, John Dallman and Christina Lake unearthed and forwarded existing electronic text from the files of Fanthology '87, Attitude and Christina's own archives.
- Stuff already on the web is listed here.
- Other uncollected chapters are listed in this (probably still incomplete) summary of all the past TAFF trips and publications. If there's a link from the instalment or report title to the text, that piece is obviously on-line. Others may be working their way through the system and will be listed here a.s.a.p. – see above. Please check with Dave Langford before rushing to the keyboard or the scanner....
Explanations
The TransAtlantic Fan Fund has an intermittent tradition whereby TAFF delegates publish trip reports – accounts, long or short, of their TAFF journey and adventures in far-off lands amid far-out fans. Many longer reports have been published in chapbook or volume form: a worthy act, since the report can then be sold to interested fans with proceeds going to TAFF. Additionally, certain noble fan organizations have standing offers to donate to TAFF on publication of any completed report: SCIFI in California offers $500.00 and Fanac.org offers $100.00.
Many past TAFF winners suffered nasty attacks of Real Life before completing an intended report. Jeanne Bowman, I think, first had the idea of preparing an anthology of really good chapters from uncompleted TAFF reports. I liked this idea, but was struck by the fact that one substantial, well-written trip report had (mostly) been published: Peter Roberts's, covering his 1977 trip. Meanwhile, this website came into existence. Hence the grandiose Master Plan:
- Call for volunteers to type up the Roberts report, making it electronically available on the web. [Done.]
- When all Roberts chapters are assigned, continue the work with other chapters of other uncollected and incomplete reports. [Ongoing.]
- In due course, publish the Roberts report in classy printed form so that – I hope – TAFF can claim the on-publication bounty. [Done at last, December 1999. There was a delay because Peter Roberts wanted to write new chapters. Buy a copy now!]
- Likewise, publish any other plausibly complete reports not yet issued in collected form. Ken Bulmer's was the only obvious example and duly appeared in January 1998. Buy a copy now!
- In the longer term, rekey those already collected TAFF reports which are not easy to find, with a view to website and paper publication. This needs caution and consultation: we don't want to injure sales of reprinted reports or of those still available in their first printing.
- Furthermore: past TAFF platforms and nominators are also of historical interest, and that it would be good to have all this material electronically available and linked to the TAFF Publications On-line page on this site. Work continues.