Saturday March 13 is the final day for a couple of important things:

• Hugo nominations may be submitted until midnight Pacific time (3 AM Eastern time Sunday morning). You must be a supporting or attending member of Anticipation or Aussiecon to nominate for the Hugo awards, the most important awards in the field of science fiction.
• The Canadian Unity Fan Fund ballot is open until Saturday (presumably midnight Central time, or 1 AM Eastern time Sunday morning). Any Canadian may vote for the CUFF delegate, for a voting fee of only $5.

Quote of the day from Robert J. Sawyer: “I’ve voted, Diane, and I’m happy to publicly declare that I voted for you. You are one of the shining lights of Canadian fandom, and a wonderful ambassador for Eastern Canada.” Diane and her other friends are, I’m sure, grateful for Rob’s kind words about Diane.

The CUFF ballot has been posted online at http://sfcontario.ca/cuff/.

Because of the delay getting the ballot up, voting has been extended to March 13th.

Many thanks to Colin and Alex for their help in getting the ballot together.

I’m running to be this year’s CUFF delegate. I’m very pleased to learn that this year, for the first time since 2003 it seems, there will be an election. The competition will be good for CUFF and for Canadian fandom in general. Rob Uhrig, from Nova Scotia is also in the race. I wish him the best of luck.

So why am I doing this? Well, it occurs to me that while I’ve attended conventions all over the US, I’ve never attended any in Western Canada, and this seems wrong. I’d like to rectify that situation. I’d like to meet all those fans from Western Canada that I’ve been missing, as well as visit those I have managed to meet elsewhere. I’m also eager to attend the one day conrunner’s convention that’s planned for the day following Keycon. I’d like to find out what they’re doing over there and to let them know what we’ve got going on over here.

I believe I have the organizational skills to be a good administrator. I have some ideas for fund-raising but plan to pick the brains of those who are much more experienced with that than I am for more and better ideas. I absolutely intend to publish a trip report as soon as possible upon my return. I’d also very much like to see the fund promoted more. Right now it is difficult to find very much information online. Other than the facebook page, a google search brings up little information on the application procedure, membership, qualifications, expectations, etc., and many of those hits are several years old. I’d like to address this.

Voting takes place from February 5th to February 25th. I don’t have a link for that yet but will post it as soon as I do.

Thanks to my nominators. From the West they are Fran Skene, Dave Clement, Richard Graeme Cameron and Tim Hogue. From the East they are Murray Moore, Rene Walling, Lance Sibley and Colin Hinz.