LostCarPark's Journal

Part 6: Are fan funds still relevant today?

Update: Clarified a few points after Facebook discussion with Alison.

Today's episode might quite possibly be the last in this series (I was going to call it "part several of several" but then I'd be guaranteed to think of something else), and differs slightly from the others in that it's dealing with a slightly more subjective topic.

The main reason fan funds were set up has to do with the cost of international travel. With air fares a fraction of what they were in the 1950s, this argument certainly holds less weight. But if somebody's main reason for standing for a fan fund was because they couldn't afford to get to a worldcon, I'd be inclined to say "let them save up like everyone else." Let's face it, if anyone on even a modest income really wanted to, and planned far enough ahead, they could go to a worldcon.

I'm sure that remark has a lot of people saying, "there's no way I could ever afford a Worldcon." That may be true for . But for a lot of us, if we really wanted to, and we prioritised it over some of the other things we spend our money on, we could find £10 a week to put into a savings account. After a couple of years we'd have a grand that would get you most of the way to a US Worldcon. The trouble is that life gets in the way, and something happens that means we can't save for a few weeks, and then something else happens that causes unavoidable expense, and we find ourselves dipping into our savings just a little. And pretty soon we're having to put off that Worldcon trip just for a year.

So, yes, for someone who has struggled to save to go to Worldcons, the fan fund may be a real boon.

But I don't think that's what fan funds were ever really about. The financial support is certainly important, but being a GUFF representative is about a representing European fandom, about serving the convention, and most importantly, about forging a bond of friendship with fans across the world. And once that's over, it's about passing on the torch, and making sure the fund is in good shape for the next delegate.

I've heard it suggested that we should stop having fan funds now that we're being discouraged from flying to save the planet. In my opinion, this could make the funds more important than they are now, partly because carbon taxes could push the price of travel back up, but more importantly, because it allows fandom to choose a symbolic representative. Fans can say "I would have gone to the worldcon, but I'm choosing to send the fan fund delegate instead." (Mind you, another part of me secretly hopes we're about to discover a new mode of air travel that doesn't pollute the planet and will allow us all to have the personal jet-packs we were promised).

So I believe that fan funds are as relevant as they ever were, and possibly more so.

If you think there's something I haven't covered so far, please let me know and maybe there will be several more parts to this series.

Part 5 - So what's this about an election?

In previous instalments I talked about GUFF, the Gone-Under/Get-up-and-Over Fan Fund, hinting that the delegate is chosen by their peers. Now, I feel it time to explain how this works.

To start with, candidates must be nominated to stand for the election by a total of five fans. Three of the nominators must be on the candidates own continent, and two from the destination. The nominators are important, since fans who don't know the candidates will look to see who nominated them.

Once a candidate has agreement from their nominators, they lodge a bond of £15 with the current administrator, and write a short platform about themselves to tell people why they out to vote for them. This appears on the ballot form.

After that, candidates are expected to publicly say what fine upstanding folk their rivals are, while secretly plotting their untimely demise. Of course all candidates hire personal bodyguards to ensure these plans never come to pass.

But back to the election, where fans now have ballot papers. In order to vote, fans must have been active in fandom for a reasonable amount of time. Active in fandom is considered to mean attending conventions or doing other fanish things. Voters may have to give the name of another person known to the administrators who can vouch for them. Although individual votes will not be made public or revealed to the candidates, voters must identify themselves to the administrator, so it's a sort of semi-secret ballot.

The ballot papers will list the names of all candidates who have been properly nominated, plus a couple of extras. The first is "hold over fund", who should be voted for if both candidates make your blood boil, and you don't want either to make the trip. The second is called "no preference", who should be voted for if you think both are lovely, and you don't mind which one goes, or if you just can't decide.

Rather than just ticking the box, you should number votes, with 1 for the person or entity you like best, and so on.

In the old days this was all done on paper, but thanks to the magic of the interweb, you can now do it all online. Of course paper votes are still valid too.

To win the election, a candidate must achieve at least 50% of the total number of votes. If nobody achieves this from first preference votes, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated, and the second preference from their ballots will be counted and added to the other candidates first preference votes. This continue until a candidate has majority of the valid votes.

These elections have been an important feature of fan funds from the early days, and since votes must be accompanied by a donation, it gives the candidates a good incentive to get their friends to vote for them, boosting the fund. And a little friendly rivalry between candidates makes it interesting.

Once the election is over and the results announced, a candidate becomes the GUFF delegate until their trip is complete when they become the administrator and the cycle starts again.

Part 3: Where does the money come from?

In parts 1 and 2 I talked about GUFF and how it works and what the winner's responsibilities are.

But the question which naturally follows is who pays for it all?

And the short answer is "you do" (you being fans of science fiction).

This, of course, prompts you to ask, "why would I want to do that?"

Perhaps you'll allow me to give the longer answer first.

The fund actually comes from several sources. The first is directly from fans when they vote for their preferred candidate (or vote for one of the alternatives, which I'll cover in a later instalment). Each vote must be accompanied by a donation to the fund, with the current minimum being £5, or the local currency equivalent, though larger donations are not discouraged. This may form a relatively small portion of the fund, but it forms an important principal that by voting you support the candidate to get selected, and the eventual winner to make the trip.

The next source is from the sale of trip reports. Next time you are at a big convention, look for the fan fund table, which will be loaded high with mighty tomes going back to the early days. Pick a few up and feast in the old school production values. And then buy some. For the fund! Again the actual sums of money from trip reports may not be great, but the principal is vital.

After that we get down to actual fund raising, which mainly takes the form of fan auctions. The tradition is that you donate some stuff you don't want to the auction, then go along and bid on a load of other stuff you don' want (and maybe occasionally some that you do), but you don't mind because it's for the fund. Next time around you'll have realised you didn't want the stuff, and you donate it back so the cycle can continue.

Other fund raising ideas come along from time to time, such as Ang's "name the amusingly shaped potato" competition at Novacon.

Finally, as mentioned in the last episode, two bodies known as FANAC and SCIFI pay bounties upon completion of a trip report. This is quite a considerable sum, especially if the report is finished within a reasonable time after the trip (a good idea, while it's still fresh in memory). This is obviously of great benefit to the fund.

I think an important concern when planning a trip is to ensure the fund is not depleted by more than can comfortably be replenished before the next trip, and previous administrators have done a fantastic job of keeping the fund in good shape for their successors.

Okay, a week after due date, but better late than never...

I arrived on Sunday and took the reins of the registration desk for a couple of hours, there weren't too many new arrivals during that time, but plenty of people pre-booking for 2011 and buying raffle tickets. It was also a good time to talk with Peter, who seems mad enough to keep hold of the reins, about some changes to the website for next year.

Duty done, I popped in to the second half of The Eagle has Landed in Dublin, where John Vaughan, Laura Anne Gilman, Juliet McKenna and Cheryl Morgan were discussing their efforts to subjugate the Earth. Suddenly it all seems to make sense.

After that I felt I couldn't miss "Has the Internet become indispensable?". Maura McHugh, R.F. Long, Bob Neilson and Cheryl Morgan where pretty much agreed that it has from the outset, and discussed why this was so. In interesting perspective was offered by a member of the audience who pointed out that the various moves to restrict what is available on the internet, and that in many ways it is not as free as it was a few years ago.

After this I took a short break from panels and caught up with some old friends in the bar.

Next was the eBooks panel, which was a follow on from the one at last year's P-Con, and a lot has changed in just a year, and with a lot of new technology just around the corner, it's likely to change a lot more in the next year. An interesting point was that while "our generation" has sentimental value for paper books, the next generation probably won't, and books are likely to become a luxury item, with eBooks replacing the mass market paperbacks.

The day seemed to have flown by, for already it was time for the closing ceremony. The larger room was packed, with standing room only. People were thanked, prizes were awarded, and text year's guest of honour, Ian McDonald was announced.

P-Con was over for another year, but that meant it was time to head to the bar.

Edit: Check out the Guest of Honour interview with Nick Harkaway from Saturday on YouTube.

Friday night has marked the start of P-Con for the last few years, and last night was no exception. I arrived in the late afternoon th find a few early arrivals holding court in the Library bar. I settled into a comfey chair, and gradually our numbers swelled. It's always good to catch up with old friends, though the phrase "What happened to you?" was oft repeated, accompanied by pointing at an arm. It must be a P-Con tradition I guess.

The opening ceremony was a simple affair, introducing the guests (at least the ones who had arrived), and relaying apologies from those who missed flights, but would be arriving later.

It was good to keep it brief, to make way for the P-Con Players, who put on an amusing horror story, Mildew Manor by Kim Newman. It started a little slow, but built to a gripping story, taking the micky out of all the Victorian horror stereotypes in the process.

After that it was time to retire to the bar, though in my case only briefly as the train home beckoned.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend, which promises some excellent programme items.

Some of you have heard snippits on Facebook or Twitter, but I thought I'd post the full story here to bring people up to date.

Two weeks ago, I slipped running for a train, landing hard on my left arm. It was a frosty morning and I think there may have been a little ice on the platform. It hurt quite a lot, but the friendly station master held the door open for me, while asking was I sure I wouldn't prefer to get the next train. I said I was okay, thinking I'd be fine once I got on the train.

So I sat on the floor of the packed express train feeling sorry for myself. It wasn't hurting too badly by the time I got to Dublin - providing I didn't try to move.

I made it to work. I had a couple of importantish things to do as there was a system change I'd prepared going live that day. But I was limited to typing with one hand, and it was clear that my left arm wasn't right.

After consulting some of my colleagues, I remembered I have a physiotherapist friend in town, so I gave her a call. She said to pop over and she'd take a look. Once I'd made sure everything looked okay at work, I headed over. She examined my arm, and said that she thought it was most likely just muscle damage, but that she couldn't rule out a break to one of the bones in my wrist, so her advice was to head to casualty and get it x-rayed.

So I headed over to the hospital. After I found the A&E department, things proceeded quite quickly. I hadn't even finished checking in when the nurse called me for an initial examination. This was just to determine the urgency of my case, but she said there weren't too many others ahead of me. I was only waiting about twenty minutes before I was called again. This time an "advanced nursing practitioner" did a detailed examination of my arm, determining exactly where it hurt and what range of movement I had.

I was sent off for an x-ray. Again, I was waiting just a few minutes. The x-ray person positioned my arm a couple of different ways, zapped it, then sent me back to A&E. I sat there for another fifteen or so minutes, then was called back by the advanced nursing practitioner who informed me I have fractured my distal radius. He showed me the x-ray, which looked a little like this (you can see a little crack across one of the main arm bones).

I waited outside for another few minutes while he consulted with an orthopaedic specialist. When I came back, he said they were reasonably happy with the angle it was at, but he wanted me back for the next available fracture clinic. He then put me in a back slab - a cast along half my arm - apparently they don't do a full cast at first in case there's swelling that could cut off the blood supply. In total I was in the hospital for just over two hours. I made an appointment for the "next available" fracture clinic on my way out. Unfortunately, that was over a week away, which in hindsight might not have been ideal and perhaps I should have checked with the practitioner if that was okay.

They also told me I could take a week off if I needed it. I didn't think I would, but I had a slightly uncomfortable week, with difficulty sleeping, a useless left arm, and did not feel up to going to work. I did think about updating LJ, but the effort of one handed typing put me off.

So on Monday I was back in hospital (thanks to Angie who gave me a lift in). The doctor took a quick look at the x-ray from my first visit, then sent me for a new cast and an x-ray. I asked plasterer (a somewhat anachronistic title since they don't use plaster any more) should they not do the x-ray first, but he said there was no point since they have to x-ray after the cast is on to make sure nothing has moved, and it's cheaper to take a few casts off than x-ray everyone twice. Encased in a new cast (in a fashonable blue colour), I headed down to the x-ray area, where there seemed to be a big queue, but I got called relatively quickly. Once zapped, I was back to the doctor, thinking how smoothly it had all gone, and I'd be out in no time.

Unfortunately the doctor had other ideas. He wasn't happy with the angle the bones were knitting at, which had shifted in the wrong direction from my first visit. He thought it best to bring me in to insert some metal wires to hold it in place. Because it had been ten days since the accident, it had to be done in a hurry. I waited while he rang around to find somewhere for me. Eventually I got out with a booking for the day surgery unit the next morning.

The next morning I arrived in at 7:30 (thanks to my sister, Brenda, who kindly gave me a lift). I was seen by nurses and doctors, and changed into embarrassing gowns. Finally I was walked to the theatre, which seemed to be miles away. I asked the nurse if they ever lose patients. There was a brief discussion about whether the glass of water I drank that morning was okay - apparently I shouldn't have listened to the information sheet day surgery had given me saying no food after midnight, but liquids were okay till 6am. Eventually they decided it would be okay to go ahead, injected me with something, and the next I knew was waking up in the recovery area.

They left me there a while, then wheeled me back to day surgery. I did a quick check to make sure I had the right number of limbs. My arm was back in a back slab, wrapped up firmly in a stretchy bandage. I was given a prescription for painkillers and anti-inflammatory medicine, and told to come back in two weeks.

So I've been off work since. I've to ring the hospital if I feel like going back to work, though that looks unlikely for a few days yet. My arm is still quite sore, and it's not easy to get to sleep at night. Occasionally I forget and try to use my left hand, which usually results in a painful reminder. Typing this has taken an age.

Hopefully will be back to normal functioning soon.

After getting increasingly frustrated with my Nokia, which seemed to be running on less and less memory, despite my moving everything I could to the SD card, I decided I wanted an Android phone. Unfortunately, I've been warned off the only one Vodafone do in Ireland, and I didn't reaally want to switch to Meteor for a Hero, so I decided to look on eBay.

I've really liked the HTC G1 because of its keyboard. New unlocked ones go for upwards of £300, which was outside my budget, but a I managed to snap up a second hand one for just over a hundred quid when you add postage, which is okay because it was mostly money I had in my PayPal account.

Once it arrived, it was down to the dodgy mobile phone shop to get it unlocked, after which it happily accepted my SIM.

So far I love it. Everything seems vvery tightly integrated compared to the Nokia. I hadn't realised how closely tied to Gmail it would be. As I was already syncing my contacts to Gmail, this suits me fine.

I will report back when I've had a little more time with it and let you all know how it goes.

Further to yesterday's post (and partly to test if it works), I think I might have a solution.

I, of course, completely forgot that LiveJournal offers RSS feeds, which should make things a whole lot easier, and replacing "LiveJournal to..." with "RSS to..." in Google provides much more useful search results.

On FaceBook, the easy solution is to tell the Notes application to import the RSS feed. It's not my preferred solution, since the whole post gets imported, which means comments will get distributed across two sites, but we'll see how it goes.

For Twitter, there is a handy site called http://rss2twitter.com/ that seems to do the job.

Let's see if it works!

For all fans of Dublin based Science Fiction, there will be a Christmas party taking place in The White Horse Inn (now officially McGraths) on Burgh Quay, Dublin 2 (close to Tara Street DART station).

Please bring a nice present (max value €5) and a naff one (some piece of horrible sci-fi tat, the naffer the better) to exchange with a random stranger.

We'll have some food and maybe a party game or two to get us into the Xmas spirit. Feel free to bring along some extra treats.

There's a Facebook event at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=204439708784

Hope to see you there.

Very early start to Friday because my sister, who was giving me a lift to the airport, had some crazy idea that I ought to be early for my flight.

Got to Nottingham without a hitch, and the bus was foolish enough to leave me outside Games Workshop and Forbidden Planet, where I spent a plesent half hour browsing. Ended up in HMV, emerging £116 of Dr Who DVDs later. For some reason they don't discount them anything like as much (if at all) in their Irish stores. My credit card successfully crashed one of their tills, leaving a message "enter something code" on the screen that wouldn't go away no matter what they did. I left them (after paying at another till) with the manager and two other staff huddled over it wondering what was wrong with it. I expect it's only a matter of time before someone devises a computer virus that can be transmitted through chip-and-pin cards.

Ended up at the con hotel around lunchtime, where Steve was definitely not panicking over last minute details. Helped with bagging programme books and moving stuff around, but there didn't seem to be an awful lot that needed doing.

Around tea-time I popped up to my friend Mike who lives a few minutes away and kindly offered me a bed for the night. We munched pizza while poring over his LEGO collection. He builds large and impressive cranes.

Shortly after, I arrive back for the opening ceremony, which was followed by Room 101 where the guest of honour tried to put her five least favourate things in the room and remove them from society. She failed with social networking sites, but managed to get rid of several other things, which I'm sure were annoying, but can't remember what they are because they no longer exist in this universe (outside the room).

Ended up back in the bar, although I did take a short break to visit the book launch. Later on Mike joined us and we had a couple of pints (he's not a SF fan). My intention was not to stay out too late as I'd had an early start, and I didn't stay out too late, though I think I was nodding off towards the end.

A good start to the convention. I'm looking forward to day two.