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TAFF Online Voting
2024 Race

2024 Online Voting

Please read the full text of the TAFF ballot below before voting. Entries marked * are required.

* I Vote For (rank one or more in numerical order of preference)  

 Vanessa Applegate

 Sarah Gulde

 Hold Over Funds

 No Preference

* Your name

* Your email address

* Your postal address

Name of an active fan who knows you

* Confirm region

 

2024 TAFF Ballot
North America to Europe

Please read both sides before voting and send the entire sheet as your vote.

The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF) was created in 1953 to provide funds to bring well-known and active fans familiar to those on both sides of the ocean across the Atlantic. Since that time, TAFF has regularly brought North American fans to European conventions and European fans to North American conventions. It exists solely through the support and continued generosity of fandom, which has sustained TAFF, our longest-running travel fund, for some 70 years. We gratefully accept your freely given money, material for auctions, and other relevant donations: give early and often! Please contact your nearest administrator for details.

Who may vote?

Voting in TAFF 2024 is open to anyone active in fandom before April 2022 who donates at least £3 (GBP), €3 (EUR), or $4 (USD) to TAFF. (Larger donations very gratefully accepted.) Voting is by secret ballot, with one vote per person. You must provide your name on the ballot. You may change your vote at any time prior to the deadline. All votes must reach the administrators by 11.59 pm British/Irish time (UTC+1; 3.59 pm Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-7) on Tuesday 2 April 2024.

Candidates

Each candidate has posted a bond of $20 (USD) promising to travel, if elected, to the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, August 8-12, 2024. Each candidate has three nominators on their side of the Atlantic and two on the other, each of whom has personally contacted the administrators with their nomination. Each candidate has also provided a platform of up to 101 words (published overleaf). Anyone active in SF fandom may run for TAFF, so long as they fulfill these criteria for the relevant race. Contact your administrator about future races!

Voting system

TAFF uses a preferential voting system similar to the system used in voting for the Hugo Awards. Voters should rank candidates in order of preference. If necessary, the lowest-ranked candidates will be eliminated from the race and those votes redistributed in subsequent rounds according to the next ranking until one candidate has a clear majority. A candidate must also receive at least 20% of the first-place votes on both sides of the Atlantic to win. Any candidate failing to receive this minimum percentage on either side will be dropped, and the second-place votes on their ballots counted as first-place votes in the next ballot count. (Note: In years with more than three candidates, this rule is not applied until after the candidates with the fewest votes have been eliminated and just three candidates are left.) Votes will be counted according to a voter’s contact address, rather than by where they send their ballot. Votes from fans not resident in either Europe or North America will not count toward either side of the Atlantic for the purpose of this rule (but are nonetheless encouraged, of course).

Hold Over Funds

This choice, like "No Award" in Hugo balloting, gives you the chance to vote for no TAFF trip this year should you feel none of the candidates deserve your support. "Hold Over Funds" is exempt from the 20% requirement: if it receives a majority of the votes on the final ballot, no trip will be held this year.

No Preference

This option caters for voters who prefer not to choose between candidates, but who don’t want the trip held over.

How to vote

The minimum donation to vote is £3 (GBP), €3 (EUR) or $4 (USD). Checks/cheques should be made payable to "TAFF" (for cheques in GBP) or to "Michael Lowrey" (for checks in USD). PayPal donations should be made to one of the email addresses below. If you mail your printed and signed ballot, please send it and your donation to:

Europe: Sandra Bond, 1B Chestnut House, Mucklestone Road, Loggerheads, Market Drayton TF9 4DA (PayPal payments to: EUTAFF@gmail.com)

North America: Michael J. Lowrey, 1847 N 2nd Str., Milwaukee, WI 53212, U.S.A.

(PayPal payments to: TAFF@toad-hall.com)

The 2024 TAFF Candidates

Vanessa Applegate

Vanessa Applegate has been around fandom for more than twenty years, mostly attending and occasionally running logistics for cons in Northern California. Mostly, she arts, has had art in various zines, co-edited The Drink Tank for a year, was nominated for the Hugo for her work on Journey Planet, and has been known to throw on a costume from time to time. Vanessa lives among the redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her husband, a pair of clingy cats, and two miniature fans-in-training. You will know her by her hair flowers!

European nominators: John Coxon, Alyssa Wales North American nominators: Francesca Myman, Dave O’Neill, Chuck Serface

Sarah Gulde

This isn't my first time standing for TAFF ... maybe the third time's the charm? But the nice thing about throwing your hat in the TAFF ring is that even when you lose, you make some great new friends along the way! (Hi friends I made along the way!)

I'm a two-time Hugo Finalist, and 2024 will be the 10th anniversary of my first Worldcon (Loncon 3). I've kept in touch with folks I met there, but I would love to attend Glasgow 2024 as the TAFF delegate and make even more fannish friends across the pond!

European nominators: Johan Anglemark, James Bacon North American nominators: Chris Garcia, Seanan McGuire, Kevin Roche

Please rank candidates with 1, 2, etc. where 1 is your first preference:

[__] Vanessa Applegate

[__] Sarah Gulde

[__] Hold Over Funds

[__] No Preference

Name:

Address:

Email/phone:

If you think your name may not be known to the administrators, please provide the name of an active fan (not a fan group, a candidate, or one of their nominators) who is known to the administrators and who can vouch for you being an active fan, eligible to vote.

Name:

TAFF may contact you regarding your ballot or to send out newsletters; but we do not publish your data (save for the traditional list of voters and contributors), or pass it to any other organization.

Reproduction of this form is encouraged. It is the official voting vehicle and must be reproduced verbatim.

All votes must reach the administrators by 11.59 pm British/Irish time (UTC+1; 3.59 pm Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-7) on Tuesday 2 April 2024.

Anyone reproducing this form should substitute their name here: Sandra Bond