31. What are TAFF and DUFF?
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This article is from the Science Fiction Fandom FAQ, by Vicki Rosenzweig vr@panix.com with numerous contributions by others.
31. What are TAFF and DUFF?
These fan funds (that's what the "FF" stands for in both) are
long-running projects to enable fans to travel between (for TAFF)
North America and Europe, and (for DUFF) North America and
Australasia. TAFF is the "Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund" and DUFF is the
"Down Under Fan Fund." Fans tend to think of them as part charity,
part award, but they aren't registered charities and have no legal
existence. The person who will make the trip is chosen by a vote;
the eligible constituency is people who have been active in fandom for
at least 18 months, and the practical constituency is some subset of
that number, who think it's worth having these things happen and are
willing to contribute a few dollars or pounds to the cause.
32. What about the rest of the world?
It's all purely voluntary, and there are other fan funds. GUFF
sends fans between Europe and Australasia; FFANZ sends people between
Australia and New Zealand (which are not as close together as North
Americans tend to think); and CUFF sends Canadian fans to Canada.
Okay, okay, from one part of Canada to another. There have also been
a number of one-time funds designed to bring a specific fan to a
specific place/event: TAFF is the outgrowth of a fund to bring Walt
Willis to the United States (from Ireland) in 1952. Walt wrote
about the trip in "The Harp Stateside." More recently, a number of
British fans paid Gary Farber's <gfarber@savvy.com, a prolific
poster to this group> way to Britain for a month, and the Auld
Lang fund raised money to send Dave Langford (a witty
man who says he has too many Hugos) to Australia for the 1999
Worldcon.
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