bort43

This is from Jean Weber, who writes:

Please distribute this information widely, as I am not well plugged in to online fannish groups.

Norman Cates, the Australasian administrator for DUFF, has approved an electronic ballot Jean Weber created for those wishing to vote in DUFF2008 and make payment through PayPal at http://jeanweber.com/duff2008/

The ballot is sent to an email address at Jean's domain, from where it is automatically forwarded to Norman Cates, one of the DUFF administrators, without Jean seeing it.

The PayPal buttons link to Jean Weber's accounts in the US and Australia. She will pass the money on to the DUFF administrators.  Obviously she will see who sends how much.

If you wish more privacy, please don't use this method; send a paper ballot and a check/cheque or money order instead.

The PDF version of the ballot can be downloaded from http://www.fanac.org/DUFF2008.pdf

For any questions about the ballot or payment, please contact Jean directly: jeanweber -at- gmail -dot- com.

bort43

The deadline for the receipt by the administrators of the snailmail-only ballots is short: Jan. 31.

The ballot can be found at http://www.fanac.org/DUFF2008.pdf

bort43

Nominations for DUFF 2007 are still open. The deadline has been extended to December 20, 2007.

The winner -- to come from North America -- will be expected to attend the Australian National SF Convention, Swancon 2008 in Perth Australia, March 20th-24th 2008.

Since 1972, the Down Under Fan Fund, a fan-supported fellowship, has encouraged closer ties between science-fiction fans in Australasia and North America. Through an alternating exchange of representatives, DUFF delegates attend the Worldcon or a national convention in the host country and visit fans they might otherwise never meet in person.

DUFF is entirely fan/volunteer run by the winning candidates from the previous election.

Delegates are responsible for raising funds and administering DUFF until a new delegate from their continent is elected, and are expected to publish trip reports which can be sold to aid the fund.

Nominations are open to anyone who is currently a resident of North America and was active in North American Fandom prior to December 31, 2006.

Nominations will close on December 20, 2007, and voting forms will be available soon after. We encourage others to distribute this information and also to publish and distribute ballots when they are available. Voting will close on January 31, 2008.

To appear on the DUFF ballot, a candidate must supply a $25 bond and a 100-word platform statement. Each candidate must also submit nominations from 3 North American nominators and 2 from Australia and/ or New Zealand. Nominations may be signed or or sent by e-mail

Note that if a nominee wins, they will need to have or obtain the appropriate documentation for international travel to the Australia.

Any questions or comments should be directed to Joe Siclari or Norman Cates.

DUFF nominations can be sent to:

North America Administrator
Joe Siclari
661 Hanover St.
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-5901
USA
jsiclari@gmail.com

or

Australasian Administrator
Norman Cates
P.O. Box 13-574,
Johnsonville,
Wellington
New Zealand
normanc@clear.net.nz

bort43

"You might remember that Australian, American and British fans were so kind as to raise enough money in 2004 to enable me (Bruce Gillespie) to travel to the West Coast of America in February-March 2005. The trip was very enjoyable, and eventually I wrote my Trip Report.

"This week I sent out the BBB Fund Trip Report to those people that Bill Wright and I had on the list as being 'OnePerCenters' (people who contribute $25 or more, i.e. 1 per cent of the anticipated total cost of the air fare).

"Meanwhile, if you want to buy a copy of the BBB Fund Trip Report, don't hesitate to send your $10 to the continuing Australian administrator, Bill Wright, at Flat 4, 1 Park Street, St Kilda, VIC 3183, or to me, Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard Street, Greensborough VIC 3088. The report is 44 pages, A4, total of 32,000 words plus lots of photos, colour cover by Ditmar.

"Thanks again to all who supported the BBB Fund. There will be quite a return of leftover funds to the various contributing fan charities, but most of the cash will have to come from Bob Lichtman after he publishes the American edition of the Trip Report."

bort43

Greetings all!

I joined LJ in order to be able to contribute to this very community.

First off, on this community's info page the very first listed link is to a page of my Oz Fan Fund website. I'd like to suggest that a better link to my site is http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/hirsh/fanfunds.html, if only because that's the fan fund section's homepage.

I operate the Oz Fan Fund website in a way that's independent of any Fund and it's labelled as unofficial. I see is as an archive, rather than as a news-site. Though I do put up news items (if I see them and I'm not busy) because today's news is tomorrow's archive material.

In terms of getting out current news, my feeling is that each administrator (or set of then current administrators) should do what is easiest for them. In terms of a web-presence, if they wish to use, say, my website as their administration-announcement website, fine. If they wish to do their own thing, also fine.

As it says on the top of first page my site is devoted to all things dealing with fan funds involving Australia. It is the intention that'll act as an archive of everything related to Aussie-linked fan funds: ballots, voting details, administrators reports, bits from newszines saying "I'm back and the trip was fantastic...", trip reports, and so on. I'm pleased that I've been able to put up bits of Roman Orszanski's, Paul Kincaid's, and my unfinished GUFF trip-reports, as well as the whole of Bob Tucker's Tucker Bag trip (to the first Aussiecon) and Other Stuff.

A big deficiency with my site is the lack of info about NAFF. I'd like there to be page about NAFF in the same style of the DUFF, FFANZ and GUFF. If NAFFpeople want to look at, say, this page for GUFF http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/hirsh/guff/guff.html, as an example of the information I'd like to list. Please, all you NAFFpeople, rush me at once.

As I also say on the site, it "is envisaged as being a work permanently in progress: comments, corrections, and contributions are eagerly solicited." In recent years I've gone in and out of gafia, so I've missed news and updates. I see, for instance, that the FFANZ page http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/hirsh/FFANZ/ffanz.html doesn't mention David Cake's FFANZ race, win and trip. The race and win happened without me noticing, but before I update the page I need to know: Were there FFANZ races in 2005 and 2006?

More later, no doubt.