The 2011/12 GUFF race ballot – Australasia to Europe

About GUFF
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 to 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 an Australasian fan to Olympus, the 2012 British Eastern is open to anyone who was active in fandom prior to August 2009, 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 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 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 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 2012 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?

Candidates
Each candidate has posted a bond of AUD 25; promised that barring force majeure they will travel to Olympus 2012 (http://olympus2012.org/) if elected, and provided nominations and a short platform displayed overleaf extolling their many interests and virtues.

side 1 ends; side 2 begins

The 2011/12 GUFF race ballot – Australasia to Europe

About the race

GUFF 2011 is now on. Candidates for the Europe to Australasia race are: Grant Watson and Kylie Ding. You can vote via Paypal or send cheque or money order or cash in person to:

Sue Ann Barber, PO Box 249, Pascoe Vale South, Victoria, 3044, Australia (cheques made out to ‘GUFF’, email activeim[AT]hotmail.com – Paypal to the same address) or to:
James Shields, 7 The Way, Highlands, Drogheda, Co. Meath, Ireland. (cheques made out to ‘GUFF’, email james(AT)lostcarpark.com for information – Paypal to lister(AT)liv.ac.uk )

Voting ends 22nd January, 2012 23:59 GMT

About the candidates

Grant Watson

Has Grant Watson: A.) celebrated his 35th birthday; B.) spent 21 years in fandom; C.) served on the committees of 11 different conventions; D.) co-programmed Aussiecon 4; E.) won five Ditmar and two Atheling Awards; F.) written award-winning plays; G.) listed his favourite things as Doctor Who, William Shakespeare, Asian cinema and DC Comics; H.) read a lot of Ursula K. Le Guin, Arthur C. Clarke, Jeff Noon, Chuck Palahniuk and Clive Barker; I.) never attended a science fiction convention outside of Australia, or; J.) All of the above.

Grant’s nominators are Justin Ackroyd, Danny Oz, Simon Oxwell, Claire Brialey and James Bacon.

Kylie Ding

Kylie Ding, fan since 1991, congoer since 1999, and recent volunteer in childcare and children’s streams at local convention Swancon has a great sense of humour and loves meeting new fans. She has attended Eastercons, Worldcons, Swancons, Continuums, Diana Wynne Jones fan gatherings, and heaps of smaller conventions in Perth. After successfully fundraising at Villiancon, Kylie has some ideas for future fundraising for the next GUFF race. If elected Kylie promises to host a party with tasty Australian food and beverages. Ready to volunteer for the Eastercon program, Kylie will be accompanied (at her own expense) by her five-year-old daughter.

Kylie’s nominators are Sarah Parker, David Cake, Beverly Hope, Pat McMurray and John Medany.

About you

Please write your name and some contact details in case the administrators need to get in touch _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________

Enclosed is ____________ as a contribution to GUFF (minimum GBP5, EUR6, AUD10)

Please indicate your voting preference by numbering the following

_____ Watson

_____ Ding

_____ Hold over funds

_____ No preference

Please do not repeat any numbers; please use only the numbers 1 to 4; you do not need to number all options.

If you think your name may not be known to the administrators then, to ensure that your vote qualifies to be counted, please give in the space below the name and address of an active fan (not a fan group, a candidate or one of their nominators) to whom you are known and who is known to (one of) the administrators.