Fandom Explained: TAFF

[mishalak]

The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund at its simplest is a contest held each year to send a person from the fandom of one side of the Atlantic to the other to attend a national convention and hang out with fans. Though as Teresa & Patrick Nielsen Hayden said in a very good article on the semi-official TAFF site it is a lot off different things all at once.

It is tradition, it keeps happening because once something has happened three or so times in fandom it becomes nearly immutable tradition. Many fans love tradition and doing certain things at conventions or parties year after year. (And no one wants to be known as the fan who killed TAFF.)

It is curiosity about fans who people have seen in print or now on the internet and would like to meet in person and also the curiosity about how things work "over there". The latter is true on both the part of the person going, the group getting him, and the group sending him. After all there will be trip reports (most likely) for the folks at home, getting to talk to someone at length about his home culture for the hosts, and getting to actually go there for the winner.

It is an honor, bestowed upon fans willing to travel. As with other honors that are voted upon, like the Hugos or Oscars, the reasons going into why a person is being honored are very complex. That also provides a topic for endless hours of smoffing, trying to figure out why one person standing for won and another one didn't.

It is about fun and relatively cheap to express an opinion on TAFF. The minimum donation to the fun is just $3 or £2, though I usually donate $10. I've never been unhappy about my donation because when I've met past and current TAFF delegates I've always been pleased. Even when someone I didn't vote for won.

Now here are the bare mechanics of the race. Each person wishing to stand for TAFF needs five people to nominate him or her, three from the home side of the Atlantic and two from the destination. Sending that in with a "bond" of $20 or £10 and a 100 word platform gets the candidate on the ballot. The voting is by preferential ballot, with everyone not getting at least 20% of the vote on each side of the Atlantic eliminated. Hold Over Funds and No Preference are both available for those who either don't like any of the candidates or want to see the trip happen but don't have a strong opinion. The previous winner of TAFF is the administrator for that side of the Atlantic for the next two years until a new winner for that end of the race is selected.

Why Mishalak Plans On Standing For TAFF in 2005
Now here is the self-serving bit where I explain my reasons for wanting to be a TAFF delegate. First and foremost, let's be honest, I want to visit the British Isles for something more than the transfer of planes that I had on my way to Russia back in 1996. I've met a number of fen from Europe and I find them very interesting and meeting even more (plus seeing some friends I've made at conventions again) sounds very good to me. I like fandom a lot and seeing more of it is something I'm always ready to do. Plus I might meet some really cute Brit Fen.

I also think it would be really great to have a TAFF delegate from Colorado and the Mountain West of the US. Fandom out here is a bit isolated from fandom at large, I've often called Denver fandom an island surrounded by a sea of land. I think we're a bit different and I think running, even if I don't win, would be useful for both raising the profile of Denver fandom and getting us more connected to fandom at large.

My third reason for going is that I think I would make a pretty darn good TAFF. I'm frequently perky, quite willing to eat strange food at odd hours, open to changing plans based upon conditions, a decent trip report writer, and able to sleep anywhere from armchairs to feather beds. Also I've got a fairly good constitution, I'm rarely sick and the only thing I'm allergic to is mowing grass. That's it for now, but I'll keep adding to my list of better qualities as I think of them. I wanna win! (Though I'm realistic that I might not the first time I try.)

Hurm, this turned into an article. I guess I'll keep working on it and put it in the next edition of Miffed

Comments

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Keep me in mind when you need a nominator.

Although I think that Geri would carry more weight as a nominator.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I have a number of people who have said they would nominate me, but it never hurts to have one more! I think there is no upper limit, just 5 as the minimum. (I'm not going to mention whom yet, since I figure I should get permission to say before I go around dropping names.)

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

It's traditional to have exactly five nominators on the form, but there's also a tradition that some couples who pub together can count as one nominator.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Good to know, that could have been an interesting gaff. Well I'll just have to put all my friends who want to be on a page of pre supporters or something. They need to be singled out for encouraging me in my madness.

[armoire-man.livejournal.com]

Welllllll....I don't think I can even vote, maybe I can donate a few bucks to the cause, I dunno...

Hope you win! (Hope you at least get on the ballot...)

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

The voting is open to all fans who are active in fandom. You're semi out with Maya taking up so much of your time. But here is the genius of me starting the campaign now. The next westbound race, 2004, will be taking place around June or so next year. So vote in that one and you'll for sure be considered a valid person to vote in 2005. Plus you are known to be a fan in good standing to various local BNFs, like Bruce Miller, Sourdough, and Rose Beetem. She's not quite as high profile as Bruce, but Rose is fairly known in certain circles in fandom and the fact that you have brunch with her almost every Sunday ought to count for something. After all fandom is infectious.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

First, I think it's a fine thing that you're deciding to run for TAFF well ahead of time. In the interest of full disclosure, IJWTS that I'm sure you know that TAFF's not all pubbing zines and quaffing bheer. The least-discussed (beforehand, anyway) aspect of winning TAFF involves fundraising, to ensure that the fund can afford the next trip. Mind you, some people are willing to help with different aspects of it (e.g., Andy Hooper's fanzine auctions on eBay), but you can't assume they'll still be doing it in two years.

• How good are you at asking people for stuff, from cash to items for auction?



• Do you get to a lot of larger conventions, or would you be willing to attend more while you're the TAFFboy?



• How good are you at dealing with complaining fans? Depending on the controversy topic, being the TAFF delegate can make you the target of to months or years of disagreeable conversation.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

How good are you at asking people for stuff, from cash to items for auction?

I already do a fair amount of fund raising on behalf of the club and convention. I'm not only shameless about self promotion, I'm also quite bold at pestering, wheedling, and begging for people to buy memberships, give money, and donate stuff. I bounce around behind the MileHiCon table at various conventions, collect books for DASFA (and crazy me I stored them in my apartment for two months once, 30 boxes of books in addition to the thousands already here, it was intolerable), and generally spread the good word about things. I think I might do all right at it and I help keeping the books for MileHiCon, so people consider me pretty trustworthy. (I'm either getting moved up to Treasurer this year or going to have a year of apprenticeship, nothing definite yet.)

Do you get to a lot of larger conventions, or would you be willing to attend more while you're the TAFFboy?

This may be the hardest one for me. Living in central nowhere I've not gotten to as many large conventions as I would like. My plan next year is to hit Westercon, Minicon, and hopefully Worldcon in addition to the local conventions. How many large conventions should the TAFF delegate be hitting? How have the more fan writer types handled this in the past?

How good are you at dealing with complaining fans? Depending on the controversy topic, being the TAFF delegate can make you the target of to months or years of disagreeable conversation.

I'm director of a SF club, I know nothing about people complaining about everything I do. (That should be read with cheerful sarcasm.) I've dealt with some controversies in the past both online and off. What I have done is to give apologies even when I think I didn't do anything wrong and to avoid provoking people who are angry with me or that I think might be angry with me. Having the emotional memory of a butterfly helps me; I forget insults almost like they never happened. So I'll do all right in not getting dragged under by a fan feud.

Yikes! Good answers.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I meant my questions mainly rhetorically, ones that I expected you'd encounter soon enough from other sources. It sounds like you haven't just come off the boat (yeah, like there's ocean near Denver) or anything, which is good.

I expect there are ways to get around things like going to lots of other cons, far away, yourself. It seems that every American treats issues like this differently, based sheerly on geography and personal resources.

(Once again, I'm so glad to have LJ. Without it, I would've seen your name on the 2005 ballot and gone, "Who?" Some days LJ is indeed the cat's pajamas.)