Issue #69, November 1st, 1996

What Can You Do to Help TAFF?
by Andy Hooper

First of all, vote. When the ballot for the next TAFF race reaches you, don't put it aside and save it for the last minute before the deadline. Fill it out and send it in right away, with perhaps a little extra money over the two dollar/pound voting fee. If you do delay sending in your ballot, use the time to make extra copies and make them available to local friends in fandom. If they don't have sufficient knowledge or familiarity with fandom to be good voters, give them some fanzines, especially TAFF trip reports, and let them know that the fund is all about. If you publish a fanzine yourself, be sure to send ballots out with one or more of your issues. Talk the fund up at conventions and fannish gatherings, and do what you can to make people aware of TAFF 's mission.

Fill in some holes in your fanzine collection by purchasing items offered in the upcoming TAFF mail auctions. Even if you aren't a fanzine collector, there promise to be some items -- books, T-shirts, etc. -- of interest to most science fiction fans. Buy a copy of Rob Hansen's trip report, it's very good. I still have some copies of Martin Tudor's special TAFF fanzine, The Tudor Dynasty, on hand for $5.00 a copy.

If you're a former administrator who hasn't published a trip report, there's never been a better time for you to finish one. Even if you've had chapters published in various fanzines, assembling them in a new special edition would put them in front of a new group of fans. Your opinions on the current TAFF crisis will be sought frequently in the near future -- try to help people remember that the failure of one administrator doesn't mean that the fund isn't still an important tool for fostering contact between different fandoms.

If you've ever thought of standing for TAFF, and haven't just been across the Atlantic for Intersection, there'll never be a better time to go. Think about it -- although the next American administrator may be facing more work than any in the past, they'll also be hailed as a hero for volunteering to take it on. Despite obvious concerns about the future safety of the fund assets, I expect fund-raising for TAFF may turn out to be surprisingly easy. Dan Steffan reports that the Magicon committee have already offered a generous donation to match that offered by LACon for finished trip reports. Other fannish groups may offer similar grants. No doubt there will be some calls for abolition of the fund as well -- but a large slate of candidates and an eagerly contested race will do a lot to invalidate such negative assessments of the TAFF tradition.

And above all, write to Dan Steffan at 3804 S. 9th St., Arlington, VA 22204, to be sure you're on the TAFF mailing list, to be kept up to date with this and future races.

Issue #69, November 1st, 1996

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