GUFF 2020 Ballot: Europe to Australasia

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED
Please read the whole of this ballot, including the candidates’ platforms, before voting.

What is GUFF?

GUFF was created in 1979. Known as the Get Up-and-over Fan Fund or the Going Under Fan Fund, depending on which direction it’s running, GUFF exists to provide funds to enable well-known fans from Australasia and Europe 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 CoNZealand in Wellington in July/August 2020 is open to anyone who was active in fandom prior to January 2018, and who contributes at least GBP6, EUR7, AUD10, NZD10, 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 or otherwise verify 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 the candidates in order of your preference. 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 candidates below first place are therefore important, but you may not rank any 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 2020 if for any reason none of the candidates 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. It can be voted for in any position on the ballot but cannot be eliminated, so any specific preferences ranked below it would never be counted.

Write-in: No write-ins will be accepted. Any write in will be treated as an invalid first vote with consequential preferential votes allocated according to that process. A write-in ballot with no consequential preferences will be treated as a donation to GUFF.

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? All funds will be used to pay for current and future GUFF trips.

Candidates

Each candidate has posted a bond of £15/€20 and promises if elected that, barring force majeure, they will travel to attend CoNZealand in Wellington, New Zealand (29 July-2 August). Candidates have also provided nominations from Australasian and European fans and a short platform, which is displayed below.

How to cast your vote

Please read the whole ballot before voting. You can vote below on this page or by completing and sending this ballot form (PDF) to an administrator
(Simon Litten on littenz@gmail.com or Marcin KÅ‚ak on guffeurope@gmail.com – postal addresses on request), or at an sf convention where someone is collecting ballots.

Votes are not valid unless accompanied by a contribution of at least GBP6, EUR7, AUD10, NZD10, or an equivalent amount in other currencies. You can pay by Paypal or bank deposit. See below for instructions.

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED. Voting ended on Monday 13 April 2020 at 23:59 British/Irish time (GMT + 1)

Candidates

Cora Buhlert (Germany)
Cora Buhlert is a writer, teacher, translator, crafter and lifelong SFF fan from Bremen, Germany. She writes for the Hugo-nominated fanzine Galactic Journey, co-runs the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a blog focussed on self-published and small press SFF, and recently created the 1945 Retro Hugo recommendation spreadsheet to help nominators. At her personal blog, she writes long rambling posts about science fiction, fantasy, media and whatever else comes to mind, including her adventures at the 2017 and 2019 WorldCons, where she was a panellist and volunteer. She’d love to have some adventures at CoNZealand to share as well.
Nominators: Camestros Felapton, Jo Van Ekeren (Australasia), Adrienne Joy, Kári Tulinius, Mark Yon (Europe)

Hisham El-Far and Lee Fletcher (UK)
Lee and Hisham met at a con in 2004, became best friends and partners in geekery, and have attended (and worked) DragonCons, Eastercons, Worldcons, Nineworlds and many more! They tweet, meet, and squee IRL about books, cosplay, and all things nerdy. In 2019 Lee opened The Portal Bookshop, an LGBT+ and diverse SFF specialist – now they push the best books at people for a living. Hisham helps! They can’t wait to explore NZ, nerd out with awesome new people, connect across continents, and document (and live-tweet) a riotous, excitable adventure to help fans everywhere vicariously get their geek on.
Nominators: Thoraiya Dyer, Abigail Nathan (Australasia), Matt Cavanagh, Joanne Harris, Alasdair Stuart (Europe)

Hanna Hakkarainen (Finland)
An efficient HR-person by day and an enthusiastic Fan by nature, Hanna is the way you spell “fandom” in Finnish. Hanna has organized cons of all sizes, from hundred-member Åcons, Finncons for thousands to Worldcon 75. She would love to go to New Zealand and Australia, chat with new friends until the various marsupials come home, and bring new ways to fandom from the Antipodes back home. Hanna loves to read, binge media, share bad memes and conjure culinary delights for friends and family. She never misses an opportunity to meet people and enjoy new activities, so bring on ConZealand!
Nominators: Sarah Lee Parker, PRK (Australasia), Phil Dyson, Jukka Halme, Mihaela Marija Perković (Europe)

Elizabeth Jones and Claire Rousseau (UK)
We’ve both been involved in conventions since 2014, having volunteered at LonCon3, WorldCon75, Dublin2019, BristolCon and NineWorlds, doing front of house, exhibits, social media, programming and speaking on panels. We’re also both involved in fandom through BookTube, the bookish part of YouTube. There we discuss science fiction, fantasy and fandom (Claire’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ ClaireRousseau, Elizabeth’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/booksandpieces). Attending ConZealand is an opportunity to meet fellow fans from across the globe and to document and celebrate this amazing fandom with a series of videos about WorldCon and the fans that make it.
Nominators: Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Australasia), Aliette de Bodard, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Nicholas Whyte (Europe)

Dave Lally (UK)
Well known in UK, Ireland and Europe.
Active since his 1st UK Eastercon/Eurocon-Seacon 84/Brighton.
Video progs for (a) Worldcons: The Hague 1990 (Confiction), Glasgow 1995 (Intersection) and 2005 (Interaction), (b) most Eastercons : 1991-2005 and (c) many Octocons (IrishNatSFCons).
2006-2013: Chair ESFS (European SF Society-Eurocon’s home).
Since 2014: Membership Officer-British SF Association.
2016: Eastercon (Mancunicon) Committee.
Expertise “The Prisoner” (TV: 1967) and “The Wicker Man” (film: 1973).
Conventions are fandom’s lifeblood : not just the interaction of fen with the GoHs, but fen with
each other.
Financial services: retired. Irish National. London resident.
Nominators: Perry Middlemiss, John Toon (Australasia), Kin-Ming Looi, Mali Perera, Bridget Wilkinson (Europe)

Alison Scott (UK)
I’ve been attending conventions since 1984 and running them since 1986, including chairing Eastercons and curating fan spaces at UK Worldcons.
I write and illustrate fanzines, winning the Hugo for Plokta and the Rotsler and Nova for fan art. I helped edit the Aussiecon 4 at-con newsletter remotely while the convention slept.
I enjoy conventions mightily; I stay up late, meet new people, and have many passions, including fan funds, fundraising, and trip reports.
Through fandom I’ve grown to know many Australasian fans and would relish the chance to learn first-hand about their local fan groups and activities.
Nominators: Sue Ann Barber, Damien Warman (Australasia), Johan Anglemark, Sue Mason, Mark Plummer (Europe)

Online ballot

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED. Voting ended on Monday 13 April 2020 at 23:59 British/Irish time (GMT +1)

Note: This ballot is no longer active. You can fill it in, but if you try to vote, nothing will happen.

Voting contribution

Votes are not valid unless accompanied by a contribution of at least GBP6, EUR7, AUD10, NZD10, or an equivalent amount in other currencies.

To pay by Paypal or credit card, please log in to your account and send the money to one of the following addresses (choose the option to send money to friends and family, with one of the email addresses below for recipient).

• EUROPE (in EUR or GBP): Marcin KÅ‚ak, guffeurope@gmail.com
• AUSTRALASIA (in AUD or NZD): Simon Litten, littenz@gmail.com

Please note during the payment process (the location varies; typically ‘Add a note’ or ‘Email to recipient’) that the payment is for GUFF 2020.

OR use one of the Paypal buttons below.

To pay by bank deposit or cheque, please contact Simon or Marcin for account details.

Privacy Notice

Our primary website address is: https://ozfanfunds.com/?page_id=6. This site, together with others linked there, are devoted to the Going Under (or Getting Up-and-over) Fan Fund and is a part of the bigger site (https://ozfanfunds.com/) devoted to all Fan Funds in Australia and New Zealand. The owners of the GUFF part of the portal are current administrators of the GUFF: Simon Litten and Marcin KÅ‚ak. They can be contacted at their respective e-mails: littenz[AT]gmail[DOT]com and guffeurope[AT]gmail[DOT]com

What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Online Ballot form and Paper Ballot form
When you are filling in the Ballot we collect all your data provided there. This data is used to confirm eligibility for voting and to count the votes as per GUFF rules.

Cookies
The cookie settings on this website are set to “allow cookies” to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click “Accept” below then you are consenting to this.

Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

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Who we share your data with
For voting calculations we use a Google Spreadsheet to allow both GUFF administrators to access and verify information. Limited, trusted observers may also see the content of the spreadsheet to complete counting checks or provide other information.

The document contains minimal required information: your name, general location (continent), amount donated to GUFF, and the vote itself with your order of preference for the candidates..

We share information, in a non-identifiable way, only for the purpose of announcing who has won the GUFF race and for reporting and accountability purposes, such as total votes received and preference allocation in each round from the sending and receiving continents, the winner of the vote, and total funds received. We do not publish the names of voters.

How long we retain your data
Data from ballots are stored for up to one year after the announcing of the results of the GUFF race. Afterwards data is removed by:
a) removing of the emails that contain your data
b) deletion of the Google Drive files that contain your data
c) shredding paper ballot forms.

Rights over retained data
If you have provided any data to us, you can request we send you a copy of that data. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes such as vote tallies and related emails.

We can delete names from the data if required after the votes have been announced and replace your name with words ‘verified SF fan’ in the record.

If you request us to remove your data provided in the Ballot (online or paper) before the results are tallied in April 2020, we will have to exclude your vote from the results’ calculation.

To proceed with voting, please tick the box on the voting form above if you are in agreement with the terms in the privacy notice.

This ballot was authorised by Simon Litten and Marcin KÅ‚ak and prepared by Jean Weber.