Hey guys,
Here is your weekly admin post. As we're now just over half way through
voting season, it seemed like a good time to hold a membership drive to
encourage more people to join and cast their votes. This post is a call
to action and also looks at the dos and don'ts when encouraging people
to participate in the MEFAs.
First of all, I want to thank our existing team of dedicated promoters
who do a great job of spreading the news about the MEFAs at many sites
around the fandom. You can find a list of our promoters and the
communities they post at
http://mefawards.net/MEFA2008/index.php?page=FAQvolunteers.
But every MEFA member is welcome to do their bit in encouraging more
people to join and vote in the awards. If you're involved in a comm that
isn't listed, you could make an announcement about the awards there. You
could post in your LJ and tell your flist why you vote in the awards and
what you think is so great about them. Or if you've set a review target
and reached it, why not show off your achievement by picking a MEFA
Junkie banner from the banner site at
http://www.mefawards.net/fanart/
and flaunt it on your LJ profile?
However, a word of warning - you can't encourage people to join the
MEFAs specifically to vote for specific stories. This counts as
soliciting votes, which isn't allowed under the MEFA rules, to ensure a
level playing field for all competing stories. So, for example:
Saying "Author Y has story X competing in the MEFAs go vote for it" = bad.
Saying "Author Z is competing in the MEFAs go vote for their stuff" = bad.
Saying "My story ABC is competing in the MEFAs go vote for it" = bad.
Saying "Some of my favourite authors have stories competing in the MEFAs
you should check out the awards because there's lots of good fic
competing"= good.
Saying "The MEFAs is a way to find lots of good Tolkien fic why not
check it out and reward a good story with a review?" = good.
If you're unsure whether a comment is appropriate or not, you can always
email the MEFA admin at
mefasupport@mefawards.net before posting it.
The practical side: if someone wants to vote, they need to apply for a
membership of the MEFAAwards Yahoo goup at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAwards/. One of our volunteers (mostly
Elliska, who does an enormous amount of work behind the scenes to manage
memberships and doesn't get thanked nearly enough) will then contact
them within a few days to arrange a password for the MEFA voting
website at
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2008/.
Also, remember that all nominated authors are automatically allowed to
vote in the awards. You certainly don't have to vote if you're an author
it's not a requirement to take part. But taking the time to leave a
few reviews for deserving stories perhaps ones you've already read
elsewhere will allow other authors to enjoy the same warm glow I'm
sure most of us get when we receive a review.
So: go forth and pimp, and help make the MEFAs bigger and better than ever!
Tanaqui
(MEFA Tech Support)