This site is devoted to all things dealing with fan funds involving Australia. It is intended to be an archive of everything related to Aussie-linked fan funds: ballots, voting details, administrators reports, bits from newszines and blogs saying “I’m back and the trip was fantastic…”, trip reports, and so on.
This is envisaged as being a work permanently in progress: comments, corrections, and contributions are eagerly solicited. Any offers to retype or scan material will be accepted with glee.
Please note that this site is not the official website of any Fan Fund.
WHAT’S A FAN FUND?
Fan Funds exist as a means to provide closer links between various national science fiction fandoms. They achieve this aim by providing the funds for a well-known fan from one country to attend a major science fiction convention in another country. The Funds exist solely through the financial support and generosity of fandom.
WHAT FAN FUNDS ARE COVERED BY THIS SITE?
Any Fund with an Australian connection. There are four on-going Funds:
DUFF moves people between North America and Australasia. Its current administrators are Marlee Jane Ward and Erin Underwood. DUFF has its own Offical website.
FFANZ moves people between New Zealand and Australia. Its current administrators are Lynelle Howell and David McDonald. FFANZ has its own Offical website and Facebook page.
GUFF moves people between Europe and Australasia. Its current administrators are Alison Scott and Simon Litten.
NAFF moves fans within Australia to the Australian National Convention. The current administrator is Tehini Croft. NAFF has its own Offical website.
In addition there have been a variety of one-off Funds, including the BBB (Bring Bruce Bayside) Fan Fund.
LATEST NEWS
DUFF: Erin Underwood has won the Down Under Fan Fund race. However, with ConZealand being a virtual Worldcon and Covid-19, Erin did not be travel to New Zealand, and attended the vitual Worldcon. The Voting details are here.
GUFF: GUFF 2024 Voting Open
Voting is now open in the 2024 GUFF race, to bring a fan from Australia to the Glasgow Worldcon. We have two lovely candidates, Kat Clay and Ian Nichols.
Vote by (a) sending us money, and (b) filling in the form (which you can do online). Full details in the Full details in the
attached ballot. Voting closes late on April 22nd or early on April 23rd, depending on where you are in the world.
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Alison Scott won the 2020 Going Under Fan Fund race. Voting details here. However, with ConZealand being a virtual Worldcon and Covid-19, Alison did not be travel to New Zealand, and attended the vitual Worldcon. In 2023 Alison travelled to Australia and New Zealand, and attended Conflux 17, the Australian Natcon, held in Canberra.
NAFF: NAFF (the National Australian Fan Fund) assists fans to travel across Australia to attend the Australian National Convention (Natcon) by covering the costs of airfare, accommodation and convention membership. Official statement from NAFF administrators:
“Due to the cancellation of this year’s Natcon (Swancon), the 2020 NAFF race cannot proceed. After consultation with a number of people, including the candidate, we have opted to Hold Over Funds. We hope that this year’s candidate will run in a future NAFF race. Thank you to all who supported the race and those who intend to support it in the future.”
TRIP REPORTS
2017 DUFF Trip Report is available to buy online now!
Paul Weimer has published his Trip Report, titled “What I Did On My Summer Vacation.” US$7.00 will get you a solid .pdf file. Check out this page from Paul’s website.
GUFF Trip Reports are available to buy online now!
Marcin Klak’s 2018 trip report, The Giant Leap to Never Never, is available here in PDF. Contact Marcin if you want a printed copy.
James Shields’ 2010 Trip Report is available here. And Gillian Polack’s 2014 Trip Report is available here. (Order James’s and Gillian’s Reports together to save on shipping.)
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WHO’S RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THIS?
The site is managed by Irwin Hirsh, who wishes to acknowledge:
- Jean Weber, who provided initial webspace and significant admin support. Ion Newcombe now has this role;
- Dave Langford, whose TAFF site has been an inspiration and who allowed me to re-use some of his htmled files;
- Marc Ortlieb, whose publication An Australian Compendium of Fandom was my initial reference;
- Damien Warman, with whom I bounced around some ideas;
- Perry Middlemiss, who provided me with quite a few files and who probably would’ve done something like this years ago but instead got sidetracked by some Worldcon-thingyies; and
- Janice Gelb, Edwina Harvey, Paul Kincaid, Dave Langford, Dave Locke (for the late Jackie Causgrove), Roman Orszanski, Joyce Scrivner, Alan Stewart, and Bob Tucker who have provided documents and/or ‘reprint’ permissions (though not all items are yet on the site.)
TRIVIA
Building this site I began to notice a whole lot of useless information about Fan Funds. To share in this trivia click here.
IF YOU HAVE ENJOYED THIS SITE…
…you may wish to make a donation to one of these funds. Fan Funds exist solely due to generosity of fandom. Any donation you may make would be gratefully appreciated and put to good use.
RELATED SITES
DUFF’s Offical website.
The Australasian Fan Fund Live Journal (not updated since 2014).
Dave Langford’s TAFF website.
FANAC’s Fan History website.
Bill Burns’ eFanzines website.
Guy & Rosy Lillian’s 2004 DUFF race website and 2005 DUFF race website.
Janice Gelb’s DUFF website covers the 2000 and 2001 DUFF Races.
Norman Cates DUFF website covers the 2009 DUFF Race.
Jean Weber’s and Eric Lindsay’s GUFF website: their 2001 trip report, plus info on the 2003 and 2005 races.
SITE HISTORY
Previous iterations of this website can be found at the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
PSST JOE, YOU WANT FANZINES?
If you want to purchase some good fanzines, remember a Great Fan, and help out GUFF, check out this page.