TAFF

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The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (originally called the British Fan Fund) is a fan fund that sends fans from North America to the UK (and occasionally elsewhere in Europe) and vice versa.

The first "regular" near-yearly fan fund, TAFF followed the first successful fund to bring a fan from overseas to a US Worldcon – the WAW With the Crew in '52 Campaign, which brought Walt Willis from Belfast, to attend the 1952 Chicon II. It has, at times, been highly controversial.

In most alternating years – excepting when TAFF funds are low and/or some other need to reschedule is perceived – a European fan (usually but not always from the UK) is chosen to attend a convention in North America, usually the Worldcon (the NASFiC would be a possibility in years when the Worldcon was being held outside North America but not in Europe). When the Worldcon is being held in Europe, in practice one of the races is usually slowed down or speeded up so that the North American fan who wins TAFF will go to that Worldcon, otherwise in those alternating years a NA fan is chosen to attend Eastercon, the UK national convention.

The winners spend the next two years acting as TAFF administrators – one for the next TAFF race for fans going to their country and one for the following race for fans going back the other way.

To run, two or more fans on the same side of the Atlantic need to get three nominators from their side and two nominators from the other side to be listed on the TAFF ballot. They also have to post a bond saying that, barring Acts of God, they will attend the designated convention if they are elected, and provide a short platform. The TAFF ballots are distributed via fanzines or over the internet, and/or are handed out at clubs or conventions and require a minimum donation to vote; some conventions also hold benefit auctions for the Fund.

Winners usually attend the convention as a special guest and spend some time before and after the con traveling to different fan centers and getting to know fans better in the host country. They are generally expected to write a trip report but it's not an iron-clad requirement; but people grumble if they fail to do so.

Once TAFF became a going concern, the other major fan fundsDUFF and GUFF – followed with similar degrees of success.

There is an unofficial TAFF website maintained by Dave Langford, reproducing ballots and newsletters and tabulating the voting results (where known) for all past TAFF races. The site also offers a number of free ebooks including fan classics, some TAFF trip reports, and TAFF Trip Report Anthology (Ansible Editions, 2017) -- a compilation of all past trip reports that were left unfinished or were too brief for separate publication, along with sample chapters from reports still in progress.

See also TAFF Wars, Fan Funds.

Year Direction and Winner Other Candidates Notes Reports and candidate zines
1952 << Walt Willis (none) Not an official TAFF race, since TAFF didn't exist yet. The WAW With the Crew in '52 fund started it all off. The Harp Stateside
1954 << Vin¢ Clarke Peter Campbell, Walter Gillings, Derek Pickles, Mike Rosenblum, Tony Thorne, James White Vin¢ Clarke was unable to make the trip.
1955 << Ken Bulmer Eric Bentcliffe, Terry Jeeves Pamela Bulmer accompanied him on his trip. TAFF Tales
1956 >> Lee Hoffman Forrest J Ackerman, Gertrude M. Carr, Kent Corey, Dave Kyle, Hal Shapiro, Lou Tabakow Lee Hoffman declined the use of TAFF funds and Ackerman, the second place finisher was unable to go.
1957 >> Bob Madle Forrest J Ackerman, Richard Ellington, Dick Eney, Stuart Hoffman, Ed McNulty, Boyd Raeburn, George N. Raybin First TAFF Wars. A Fake Fan in London
1958 << Ron Bennett John Berry, Dave Newman See TAFF Wars Colonial Excursion
1959 >> Don Ford Terry Carr, Bjo Wells See TAFF Wars TAFF Baedeker
1960 << Eric Bentcliffe Mal Ashworth, H. P. Sanderson EpiTAFF
1961 >> Ron Ellik Dick Eney Ella Parker attended the 1961 Worldcon paid for by the one-off Parker Pond Fund and has been mistakenly called the 1961 TAFF winner. The Squirrel's Tale
1962 << Ethel Lindsay Eddie Jones The Lindsay Report
1963 >> Wally Weber Marion Zimmer Bradley, Bruce Pelz
1964 << Arthur Thomson Phil Rogers ATom Abroad
1965 >> Terry Carr Bill Donaho, Jock Root Beyond the Mnemonic Statute of Limitations
1966 << Thomas Schluck Eric Jones, Bo Stenfors, Peter Weston
1968 >> Steve Stiles Ed Cox, Ted Johnstone Harrison Country
1969 << Eddie Jones Bob Shaw
1970 >> Elliot Shorter Charlie Brown, Bill Rotsler Heicon (the 1970 Worldcon) had decided prior to the convention to select the TAFF winner as its Fan GoH.
1971 << Mario Bosnyak Per Insulander, Terry Jeeves, Peter Weston
1973 >> Len & June Moffatt Howard DeVore, Frank & Ann Dietz The Moffatt House Abroad
1974 << Peter Weston Peter Roberts
1976 >> Roy Tackett and Bill Bowers (none) The vote was tied so both were declared winners. There were not enough funds for both to travel on a regular flight, so a cheap charter was arranged. The charter flight was cancelled, however, so Bill Bowers withdrew and let Roy Tackett on a regular flight. Tackett's Travels in Taffland
1977 << Peter Roberts Terry Jeeves, Peter Presford New Routes in America
1979 >> Terry Hughes Fred Haskell, Suzanne Tompkins
1980 << Dave Langford Jim Barker The Transatlantic Hearing Aid
1981 >> Stu Shiffman Gary Farber
1982 << Kevin Smith Rog Peyton
1983 >> Avedon Carol Grant Canfield, Larry Carmody, Taral Wayne
1984 << Rob Hansen D. West See TAFF Wars. On the TAFF Trail
1985 >> Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden Rich Coad, Martha Beck See TAFF Wars. Taffluvia
1986 << Greg Pickersgill Judith Hanna, Simon Ounsley
1987 >> Jeanne Gomoll Bill Bowers, Brian Earl Brown, Mike Glicksohn, Robert Lichtman Taffiles
1988 << Lilian Edwards & Christina Lake Martin Tudor, Dave Wood
1989 >> Robert Lichtman Luke McGuff
1991 << Pam Wells Abigail Frost, Bruno Ogrolec
1992 >> Jeanne Bowman Richard Brandt
1993 << Abigail Frost Mike Ashley, Tony Berry, Ashley Watkins Frost's administration of TAFF subsequent to her trip was fraught and resulted in the loss of much of the European TAFF funds.
1995 >> Dan Steffan Samanda b Jeude, Joe Wesson
1996 << Martin Tudor M. J. "Simo" Simpson Have Bag, Will Travel
1998 >> Ulrika O'Brien Victor Gonzalez, Vicki Rosenzweig, Thomas D. Sadler
1998 << Maureen Kincaid Speller Chris Bell, Bridget Hardcastle This 2nd 1998 race was held as a "catch up" for the missed 1997 TAFF race.
1999 >> Velma "Vjay" Bowen Sarah Prince
2000 << Sue Mason Tommy Ferguson, Tobes Valois
2001 >> Victor Gonzalez Tom Springer
2002 << Tobes Valois Chris O'Shea Tobes' Taff Ting
2003 >> Randy Byers Colin Hinz, Mike Lowrey, Curt Phillips
2004 << James Bacon Anders Holmstrom WorldconNomicon
2005 >> Suzanne Tompkins Chaz Boston Baden, Curt Phillips
2006 << Bridget Bradshaw Arthur Cruttenden
2007 >> (no winner) Chris Garcia, Mary Kay Kare The winner would have attended ConVoy the 2007 Eastercon in Liverpool which was cancelled. The 2007 eastbound TAFF race was postponed to 2008. PrintZine
2008 >> Chris Garcia Chris Barkley, Linda Deneroff, Christian McGuire PrintZine, Rockets Across the Waters
2009 << Steve Green Tom Womack Are You Still Here?
2010 >> Brian Gray && Anne K. G. Murphy Frank Wu Anne and Brian Gray's TAFF Reports
2011 << John Coxon Graham Charnock, Liam Proven, Paul Treadaway
2012 >> Jacqueline Monahan Kim G. Kofmel, Warren Buff All Jacq'd Up
2013 << Jim Mowatt Theresa Derwin Theresa for TAFF Newsletter, Tiny TAFFzine
2014 >> Curt Phillips Brad & Cindy Foster, Randy Smith TAFFtastic
2015 << Nina Horvath Wolf von Witting TAFFWorld
2016 << Anna Raftery Wolf von Witting Alternation of direction was suspended by the administrators.
2017 >> John Purcell Sarah Gulde, Alissa McKersie
2018 << Johan Anglemark Fia Karlsson, Helena McCallum Trip blog
2019 >> Geri Sullivan Teresa Cochran, Sarah Gulde, Michael Lowrey
2020 >> Mike Lowrey Ann Totusek alternation of direction suspended for sake of Dublin Worldcon, trip delayed because of the Covid-19 epidemic. Mike is leaving April 5, 2022 and will attend the 2022 Eurocon/Luxcon and the 2022 Eastercon Reclamation.
2021 Cancelled because of Covid-19. The next race will be westbound to Chicon 8 in 2022
2022 << Fia Karlsson Anders Holmström, Mikołaj Kowalewski, Julie Faith McMurray

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959
The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, a fund intended to take Britons to American Worldcons and, alternate years, vice versa. It all began with Shelby Vick's WAW With the Crew in '52 campaign, which undertook to bring Walt Willis over to America, to the ChiCon II, that year. (There had been a predecessor in the Big Pond Fund drives sparkplugged by Ackerman.) Early in 1953 Don Ford and the Cinci Fantasy Group started a fund to bring Anglofan Norm Ashfield to the Philcon II but he was unable to come and Don offered the funds to anyone else Anglofandom should select. At the 1953 Loncon at the Bonnington the idea of a continuing TAFF was brainstormed by Willis, Vin¢ Clarke, Slater, Chuch Harris, Terry Jeeves, Eric Bentcliffe, Norm Shorrock and John Brunner, after long hours of discussion and smokefilled-room sessions.

The original idea was that nominees should be "someone fairly well-known to both British and American fandom" and that voters "should have been active in fandom to the extent of having subscribed to or contributed to at least one fanzine or joined a fan club or organization". Don Ford on this side and Walt Willis on that side acted as administrators -- exchange difficulties making it necessary to have operators on each side of the ocean. Afterward, it was understood that the most recent winners from each side would operate the fund.

So far it's sent over Ken (and Pam Bulmer, Bob Madle, and Ron Bennett. (Vin¢ Clarke and Lee Hoffman won the egoboo of election but didn't make the trip as TAFFen.) In 1957 circumstances of the election kicked up a flap about definition of a fan which sundered the movement considerably; Madle, the winner that year, had earlier decreased fanac to write for the [ptui!] proz, and a number of people never heard of in fandom before seemed to have voted, despite the requirement noted above. Madle also got some undeserved blame for the antics of another candidate who toured the country offering to pay the token contribution (50, or 2/6) for anybody who'd vote for him. Objection to such things, with advice to tighten up the rules, was entered by Chuch Harris and others, but actual rules adopted later (by Madle and Bennett, in September 1958) had the effect of doing away with the voter-requirements and even, by omission, the candidacy requirements. The administrators, however, apparently meant this as a move to quell the argument, since they had previously used their discretion to reject the sort of questionable votes against which protest was made.

From Fancyclopedia 2 Supplement, ca. 1960
Concerning the Ashfield fund: in 1953 Don Ford had a raffle going to raise money for Ashfield's trip to Philcon II. Since it was under way, he didn't want to call it off. Bea Mahaffey took raffle tickets to Willis and Carnell, when she went to the Coroncon in '53; these sold tickets, making it an international affair. Ford then offered the dough to anybody else coming over from England who might be suggested. TAFF was the answer. The raffle (for some covers donated by Carnell and Mahaffey was conducted at the Philcon II; Ford forgets who the winners were.

Fanfund 1952
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