Ambiguity!

[the_magician]

Voting is open to any science fiction fan based in Europe who has been active in fandom since 1 January 2005 and/or who was a member of Interaction, and who contributes at least £3 or 5 euros to the fund alongside their vote.Ok class, we're going to see why lawyers/legal clerks get paid so much

Comments

[the_magician]

Does it matter how I'd have done it? I believe we're committed to using these ones now so some clarification of what is intended is probably in order. Particularly since I don't actually know what was intended, it would make it a total guess on my part how they should be reworded.

Perhaps something closer to the Nova award rules? (List six fanzines you've received and/or someone who will vouch for you)

For example (and yes, I'm sure I'll get this wrong as I'm typing this off the top of my head!)

Eligible voters:
To vote for the JETS scheme you must either be resident in Europe (as defined by the following set of countries ...) or have been resident in Europe at the time of Interaction
AND
You must also have either been a member of Interaction (attending, supporting, child etc. even if you didn't attend) or have been involved in some form of fannish activity at some point after the 1st of January 2005.
Fannish activity being defined as one or more of the following: Held a membership in a convention (including conventions that have not yet occurred such as Orbital 2008 and Year of the Teledu), wrote or commented on a fanzine/apa/similar fannish publication, attended a fan group meeting, commented on a fannish mailing list, been a member of one of the following yahoogroups ("eastercon", "redemptioncon", "orbital2008"), submitted fanfic to one of the following sites/publications (list of fanfic sites). If you are in doubt about whether you have been an "active" fan, you should vote and attach your justification for being considered an active fan and/or list fans who will vouch for you who are known to one or more of the administrators. The administrators' decision is final, and your voting fee will be added to the fund even if your vote is considered void.

[bugshaw]

Does it matter how I'd have done it?
No, but if you're giving the matter some thought it would be useful to have your suggestions to hand should it become appropriate to rewrite the TAFF rules ;-)

Those are helpful ideas, but I might disagree with some of them... The "include the name of a fan known to the administrators who can vouch for you" is a useful catch-all. And you can e-mail the administrators before voting if you wish to clarify your eligibility.

Grin!

[the_magician]

Good, I was hoping I wasn't treading on anyone's toes. :-)

I've posted the quotes from the TAFF and GUFF rules as a separate reply, but basically they already include the "include the name of a fan to vouch for you" rule, they specify the date of fannish activity as "prior to" a date rather than "since" and they put no geographical limitation on the TAFF and GUFF voters, and it's those changes that have caused the potential ambiguities.

I'll have another look at the TAFF rules sometime (who knows, I may run again one day!) and see if there's anything I can suggest (I'm not a rules lawyer, nor do I play one on TV!)