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The 2012 NAFF race is on. In fact it closes in just 11 days, on April 22. What is NAFF? I hear you ask?

The National Australian Fan Fund (NAFF) was created to assist fans to travel across Australia to attend the National Science Fiction Convention (Natcon). NAFF assists fans to travel to the Natcon and, where possible, covers the costs of airfares and accommodation. The Natcon donates a convention membership. This year’s NAFF race is to the 51st Australian Natcon, Continuum 8, which will be held in Melbourne over the Queen’s Birthday weekend, 8th-11th June 2012.

All Australian fans are eligible to vote. Voting costs just $5 and goes towards the fundraising for NAFF. You can even vote to hold over the funds or for neither candidate – all votes however cast help to raise money for the coffers.

But, this post is to tell you not only that you should vote but that you should vote for Sean. Here’s Sean’s candidacy pitch:

Sean Broughton-Wright

A fan reviewer and commenter writing at Adventures of a Bookonaut, Sean promotes Australian speculative fiction authors, publishers and community news. In 2011 he ran an interview series on ‘Authors & Social Media’, featuring the likes of Marianne de Pierres and Margo Lanagan. He submits audio interviews to the fan produced Galactic Chat podcast; Claire Corbett being his most recent. His cunning plan at Continuum is to record audio interviews; file a daily report and tweet selected panels. He will gladly participate in panels or con activities that match his expertise.

Nominated by: Alisa Krasnostein (WA), Tansy Rayner Roberts (Tas) and Alexandra Pierce (Vic)

And as you can see, the members of Galactic Suburbia are his nominators. That’s because we think Sean is awesome. But let me introduce him to you a bit more to show you why he would be a great NAFF candidate.

Sean lives in South Australia. He is not the other Sean who lives in South Australia. He’s never been to a Natcon before – and so he doesn’t yet know what he is truly missing. Though he is starting to suspect – check out his Tweet stream over Swancon weekend. In fact, if you’re on Twitter you’ve probably chatted with him, had your signal boosted by him or gotten the breaking news from him. He’s a great supporter of Australian SF/F even though he’s fairly new to the scene. Sean blogs at http://bookonaut.blogspot.com/ where he promotes Australian SF/F fiction. If you write, produce, edit, publish or perform Aussie specfic, he’s more than likely tooted your horn for you.

Sean came on board our sister podcast Galactic Chat last year and has conducted some suburb interview for the podcast. They’re really worth listening to. His recent interviewees include Helen Lowe, Claire Corbett and Ian Irvine.

And maybe you’ve seen him around the traps fighting the Feminist 101 fight like the strong feminist ally that he is, so that some of us can take a wee break from the front.

I believe Sean is the kind of candidate that NAFF is intended for – an Australian fan who has never been to a Natcon before, wouldn’t otherwise be able to make it to this one and already participates so enthusiastically in fandom. Let’s bring him out to Melbourne, show him what a Continum con looks like and introduce him round!

Sean is running against WA fan Sarah and John Parker. They are strong and worthy candidates. No matter who you vote for, voting makes the fundraising easier. So get voting. Here’s all the information on how to vote:

Votes are being collected by: Sue Ann Barber (VIC) and the candidates. For more information please contact Sue Ann at activeim@hotmail.com. Voting opens Tuesday 3rd April 2012 and concludes on Sunday 22nd April 2012.

Please make all cheques payable to NAFF or National Australian Fan Fund. Email Sue Ann if you would like to pay via direct deposit or PayPal. Cash, in person, is welcome, but not through the mail! Postal address:

NAFF
PO Box 249
Pascoe Vale South VIC 3044

 

 



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