Yahoo Forum Archive

I have been overwhelmed with RL at the moment, so wasn't able to do any
nominating, but had no difficulty in finishing the nomination information for
the one story Ellynn nominated for my work. Will try the review process tonight
or tomorrow.

I hope that the times get better organized--had to search through about four
different third age groups to find the actual time I needed to note.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large

"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR

"Don't go where I can't follow."

Greetings, all.

The other volunteers and I are busy getting ready for the 2011 awards. There
are a few things I wanted to tell you about.

I. Policy + Website Changes

In the post-mortem we decided on two fairly significant changes.

FIRST, in addition to the old-style awards like first place, second place,
etc. we're adding something new called Smaug's Treasures. (Kudos to
Dreamdeer for the name.) Basically, Smaug's Treasures will be handed out to
stories that score in the top third of all our nominations.

This is in addition to the other awards, so you may get a Smaug's Treasure
in addition to one of those other awards, but you can get this award even
if you don't get a subcategory-specific award. The goal is to recognize
high-scoring stories that ended up in more competitive subcategories.

ALSO, there will be a change to how Drabbles, Poetry, and WIPs are
categorized. In the past, these pieces were put in special subcategories
with other pieces of the same type. (So drabbles vs. drabbles, WIPs vs.WIPs,
poetry vs. poetry.) Trouble was, we often didn't have enough entries to
offer very many subcategories, which meant that often pieces ended up in
less-than-optimal places.

To help with that, we will be setting up main categories for Drabbles,
Incomplete, and Poetry. Authors will still complete the form like before;
this change will only affect the categorizing. But I did want to give people
a heads-up.

Of course, the BIGGEST change is the website. Those people who have been
testing it know all the new shinies Aranel has been setting up. I'm really
excited about it. Just make sure you read the instructions carefully. Think
of it like a new phone menu: read it all through carefully, because some of
the choices may have changed. :-P

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II. Dates, Deadlines, and So Forth

We are aiming to get the ball running on the 2011 awards by June 1. That
means:

--- June 1-30: Nominations season.

--- July 7: Deadline for authors to finish up the forms on their stories.

--- July 24-31: Check ballots posted; authors should check that they were
placed in a main category and subcategory that meets the information they
provide.

--- August 1: Votes start showing up on the MEFA website.

--- September 1: Deadline to set up your review goal, if you choose to do
that.

--- December 31: The last day to enter votes.

So you now know what to expect! I hope that schedule seems good to people.

***********************************

III. What Now?

Besides helping test the new site, there are a few ways that you can get
ready for the 2011 awards.

1. Go ahead and start thinking about what you want to nominate. There's a
list of every story that has been nominated before at

http://mefa-archive.fancrone.net/

Stories with a blue WIP beside them are only eligible if they have been
completed; all others cannot be nominated again. But it's a big fandom out
there. Why not go through your favorite archive and see which of your
favorite fics haven't been nominated before?

2. Once you've decided what you want to nominate, why not email the author
or leave them a review? While not required, strictly-speaking, it really
does help things run more smoothly if authors aren't caught off-guard by the
nominations. This also lets you check that you're using the best contact
info.

3. If you have time to volunteer in a formal capacity, let me know! I've set
up a post over at LJ where you can let me know what you want to do:

http://mefas.livejournal.com/264837.html

You don't have to be an LJ member to comment there, btw. Just leave an
anonymous comment and type in your name. This simply lets me keep everyone's
volunteering all in one place.

For the first phase of the awards we will be looking for:

--- promoters (available at least every 3-4 days throughout the year)
--- liaisons (available pretty much daily, June 1-July 7)
--- ratings panel (available pretty much daily, June 1-July 7)
--- fan artists (no specific availability required)

I've put full descriptions of these roles over at the LJ link. If you want
to help out, please let me know.

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And that's it! Have fun getting ready for the 2011 MEFAs. I know I am.

Marta