GUFF 2007 is now on. Candidates for the Europe-to-Australasia race are: Johan Anglemark, Anna Davour, Steve Davies, and Ang Rosin. You can vote via Paypal or download and send in a completed ballot.
Vote via paypal or send cheque or money order or see Pat or Damien. Hurry! Voting ends midnight April 16!
Here is a pdf to print and mail: ballot.pdf
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Remember to mention the candidates in your preferred order. Email dmw@pobox.com to confirm your vote.
Johan Anglemark says: I’m Johan and I’m a fan. Swedish fandom—53 years old—is small and deadly, and the fans are mad but proud. I’ve been a conrunner for 22 years, and a worse con than the first I ran you will never see. I’ve published a dozen of zines, but to be frank, I’m in it for the books, the conversation, and the beer. I’ve never been to the far side of the world. I want to meet the fabled Aussie fans on their home turf, and if possible squeeze in Wellington as well. It would be wonderful. Trip report? You bet.
Steve Davies says: Steve Davies is a fan of many parts, some of which are even allowed out in public. He has run conventions from small cuddly ones to worldcons and was chairman of the UK national convention in 1999. He is co-editor of the fanzine Plokta (http://www.plokta.com), winner of the Fanzine Hugo in 2005 and 2006. He has also messed about with filk, costuming, book-collecting, beer, art and writing about himself in the third person. He has been to Australia a couple of times before and is actually married to a Tasmanian, Giulia De Cesare. However, he hasn’t been back for a while and really wants an excuse to come over again. If he wins he expects to be bringing back large quantities fo Tim Tams and Cherry Ripes for the expatriate Australians of England.
Anna Davour says: I’m Anna Davour, often known as Åka (sometimes spelled wokka on the internet). I’m an enthusiastic all-round fan: fanzines, conventions, clubs and meetings, web forums and blogs—I’m there. We don’t really have any filk tradition here, but I like to sing as well. So far I’ve limited my activity mainly to Scandinavia, although I have attended a couple of British conventions and was a member of e-APA for a while. I would love to go to Australia and make new friends, and bring news of the wide world back home. This is also a good incentive for me to write more in English, and maybe revive old plans of a new fanzine.
Ang Rosin says: I wandered into fandom via the alt.tv.red-dwarf Usenet group in the mid-90’s. It was here I first encountered Australasian fans and decided these were cool people I wanted to learn more about. Since my first con—Aliens Stole My Handbag in 2001—I’ve been increasingly involved with fandom and I was young adult program stream (YAFA) staff at the 2005 worldcon. I’m an active fan—light reading, infrequent fanzine publishing and some heavy lifting. Friends have told me I’m friendly, cheerful and, with a steady supply of potato products, cause little trouble.
Johan’s nominators are Jukka Halme, Lennart Uhlin, Teddy, Alison Barton and Kelly Buchanan
Steve’s nominators are Tim Illingworth, Paul Kincaid, Alison Scott, Justin Ackroyd and Eric Lindsay
Åka’s nominators: Ylva Spångberg, Sten Thaning, Britt-Louise Viklund, Sharee Carton and Roman Orszanski
Ang’s nominators are Claire Brialey, James Bacon, Max, David Cake and Alsion Campbell
What is GUFF?
Known as the Going Under Fan Fund or the Get Up-and-over Fan Fund, depending on which direction it's running, GUFF was created in 1979. Like TAFF (the Trans Atlantic Fan Fund, between Europe and North America) and DUFF (the Down Under Fan Fund, between North America and Australia), GUFF exists to provide funds to enable well-known fans from Europe and Australasia to visit each other's national (or other) conventions and get to know each other's fandoms better. GUFF, like other fan funds, exists solely through the support of fandom. The candidates for each trip are voted on by interested fans, and each vote is accompanied by a monetary donation. These votes, and the continuing generosity of fandom through auctions and other donations, are what make GUFF possible.
Who may vote?
Voting in the race to send a European fan to Convergence 2, 8--11 June 2007 (the Australian National Convention, http://www.natcon.org.au/2007/), is open to anyone who was active in fandom prior to June 2004, and who contributes at least GBP5 or AUD10 (or the equivalent in other currencies) to the fund. Larger contributions are encouraged and will be gratefully accepted. Only one vote per person is allowed. You must sign your ballot, but your vote will not be made public.
Voting Details.
GUFF uses a preferential ballot system which guarantees automatic runoffs until a majority is obtained. You rank your candidates in order of your preference for them. If the leading first-place candidate does not have a majority of votes after the first round of counting, the first-place votes for the lowest-placed candidate are discarded, and the second-place votes on those ballots are counted as first-place votes for the candidates concerned. This process is repeated until one candidate has a majority of all the votes cast. Votes for second and third place candidates are therefore important; but you may not rank your favoured candidate in more than one position on your ballot.
Hold Over Funds.
This choice, like `No Award' in award balloting, gives you the chance to vote for no GUFF trip in 2007 if for any reason the candidates do not appeal. Hold Over Funds may be voted for in any position on the ballot.
No Preference.
This choice is for voters who do not wish the GUFF trip to be held over, but who either cannot or prefer not to decide between the candidates.
Donations.
GUFF gratefully accepts your freely given money and material for auction. If you're not eligible to vote, or for some reason you don't wish to vote, why not donate anyway? (Give early and give often!)
Candidates.
Each candidate has posted a bond of GBP10; promised that, unless struck down by an iceberg, meteorite or other act of a higher power, they will travel to Convergence 2, 8--11 June 2007 if elected; and provided nominations and a short platform displayed above extolling their many interests and virtues.