The League of Fan Funds

CONSTITUTION AND RULES

The status of the organisation
- The organisation is called the ‘League of Fan Funds’ (abbreviated to ‘LFF’). It is an unincorporated umbrella organisation for fan funds [1] operating in the UK.
- LFF was formed in the 1990s with the aim of co-ordinating fundraising for individual fan funds at science fiction conventions in the UK. Its function remains to support fundraising and distribute money raised for fan funds and other relevant good causes where needed, being accountable to the SF community about where the money handled comes from and where it goes.
- LFF is not a registered charity, and neither are most of the funds and organisations supported.
Officers
- There should be a minimum of three LFF officers at any time. The active LFF officers may agree to invite other suitable people to join the organisation.
- In the event that resignation or incapacity reduces the number of active LFF officers to fewer than three, those remaining must prioritise invitation of additional officers.
- It is for the active LFF officers to agree practical working arrangements between them. For banking purposes (see section 3), officers may be designated as chair, treasurer, and secretary of LFF.
- All the officers of LFF will be known and identified within the UK SF community.
- LFF officers may be current administrators of fan funds or volunteers for other causes which could be beneficiaries of funds raised, but this interest should be made clear.
Financial arrangements
- Other than the reimbursement of any expenses agreed by the officers as a whole, LFF does not raise or hold money for its own purposes.
- LFF will operate a specific bank account, separate from other personal or SF community accounts, in order to collect and disburse funds raised. It may agree to hold sums temporarily on behalf of the good causes that do not have their own bank accounts in the UK.
- Sufficient LFF officers will have access to the bank account to ensure that funds can be transferred when needed, allowing for contingencies, within whatever signatory/authorisation arrangements have been agreed.
- LFF may establish other accounts and financial arrangements in order to facilitate donations and fundraising from SF fans in other countries as well as the UK for the causes supported.
- The officers will report as appropriate on funds raised and disbursed through LFF.
- Should LFF be dissolved for any reason, any balance of money held will be donated to some or all of the causes usually supported, by agreement of the remaining LFF officers.
Causes supported by LFF
- It was agreed in 2000 that, in addition to the ‘travel’ fan funds, other fan-run non-profitmaking endeavours of value to the SF community in the UK could qualify for LFF support. [2]
- LFF works with the administrators of the specific funds and other organisations involved to co-ordinate and support joint fundraising activities and general awareness-raising, as needed. The extent of LFF’s involvement in fundraising at any given time depends on the help and support wanted by individual fan fund administrators. Each elected fan fund administrator retains separate responsibility for their own funds.
- Where LFF is specifically involved in fundraising at a convention or other event (or receives a donation from another source), the officers of LFF will agree which causes will be supported and propose a division of funds raised between them. There remains an expectation that money will always be offered to TAFF and GUFF, as a minimum, from any LFF fundraising.
- The officers may agree to use LFF funds for small loans or other seed funding to other projects of benefit or interest to the UK SF community. Any such activity will be made clear in LFF reporting.
General
- Any amendment of this document must be agreed unanimously by the LFF officers, and their names and the date of the revised constitution of rules recorded as part of the new version.
- This version was adopted on 19 January 2025 by the current officers of the League of Fan Funds:
  
  Claire Brialey
  John Coxon
  Ang Rosin
  Alison Scott
  Flick

Notes

[1] ‘Fan funds’ is the term used here, and commonly within science fiction fandom, for the volunteer-run mechanisms which have existed since the middle of the twentieth century to bring fans together and strengthen connections across SF fandom worldwide. The most relevant examples for the purposes of LFF are the international funds which can involve UK-based fans: the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF, which was established in 1953), the Going Under Fan Fund (GUFF, established in 1978), and the European Fan Fund (EFF, established in 2019). Fan funds operate races between nominated candidates, which raise money to enable travel to another country or region; there the successful delegate will attend a science fiction convention and meet other members of the SF community. Fan funds exist only through the generous support of SF fandom; as well as a small fee paid to vote in each race, money for each trip is raised through auctions at relevant conventions and online, sales of the reports written by fan fund delegates following their trips, and other activities and entertainments intended also to raise awareness of the funds.

[2] To date such causes have included the Memory Hole fanzine archive, the Memory Hole Annexe for convention records, the Science Fiction Foundation (SFF), the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA), and the Science Fiction Encyclopedia (SFE).

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