The first international fan fund , the '' Big Pond Fund '' , was established to get Ted Carnell to the 1947 Worldcon , though it was the 1949 Worldcon he eventually attended . TAFF 's roots lie in the successful effort to bring Walt Willis to the 1952 Worldcon in Chicago . Willis published the founding document for TAFF in '' Hyphen '' 4 ( October 1953 ) following a discussion with " the available leaders of British fandom " at that year 's Coroncon . Since that time TAFF has regularly brought North American fans to European conventions and European fans to North American conventions . The success of TAFF has inspired other regular fan funds between North America and Australia , Europe and Australia , and even Eastern and Western Canada
1949 Worldcon
7th World Science Fiction Convention
Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund