2021 Ditmar Report
This page constitutes the Ditmar Sub-Committee Report for 2021.
Report
This will be an interim report covering nominations, as the 2021 Ditmar process is still ongoing.
Addendum for presentation to the resumed Business Meeting
Additions to the report after the conclusion of the Ditmar process appear in sections with the above heading.
A report covering voting should be presented to the next Natcon Business Meeting.
Nomination Process
Nominations were open for a period of 35 days.
A total of about 389 nominations were received from about 64 people. This is a recovery from last year's disastrous turnout (200 from 30), but not as good as 2019 where 500 nominations came from 100 people.
The requirement to be "active in fandom" caused fewer problems than previously: most uncertainties were resolved by the individuals being members of the Natcon, and the remaining couple were confirmed by querying the Standing Committee mailing list. However, it remains a source of confusion; posting a clarifying article could be helpful.
The provisional ballot has not yet released for community consultation. However, it looks much healthier than the one from last year, it contains:
- 7 novel nominees
- 4 novella or novelette nominees
- no short story nominees
- 4 collected work nominees
- no artwork nominee
- 2 fan writers nominees
- 1 fan artist nominee
- 4 fan publication nominees
- 1 best talent nominee
- 3 Atheling nominees
This year there were no nominations received by email, and as normal, none received via physical mail.
Once again all nominations were processed using the software developed by Peter Lyons. The intention of making this software public has not yet been realized.
Graphs showing the last decades trends follow:
Addendum for presentation to the resumed Business Meeting
Application of the amendment to Rule 5.2 caused these changes to the ballot:
- 3 short story nominees were added
- 3 artwork nominees were added
Voting
Voting is yet to open.
Addendum for presentation to the resumed Business Meeting
Voting was only open for 29 days, as the opening was delayed from Tuesday 19th October to Wednesday 20th October and closing on Thursday 18th November seemed necessary to allow sufficient time for counting. It is not certain that this had a material effect on the result. (Only one person made contact about being unable to vote, and they had attempted to vote after 9pm Perth time, because the notice had erroneously used GMT+10.)
Voting numbers recovered to 46. Only 6 of those failed validation as members of one of the last 5 natcons (as per the application of the new rule 6.6).
Only one email ballot was received. Postal ballots were not advertised as an option.
Summary
Nominations have returned to close to previous levels, though historically they have been higher: a 1000 or more nominations from up to 100 people at times. Unfortunately, we did not open nominations early as discussed last year, so it is unclear whether that would have increased participation. There was a good effort to use social media channels to promote the process.
Nomination and voting turnout continue to be a problem, and is something that the Natcon Business Meeting should consider in its discussion. We should continue to think about ways to better publicize the award process.
The idea of opening the nomination process earlier and for longer remains to be tested. (Along with regular promotions on social media, mailing lists, etc.) Considerations for voting also include ideas to extend voting eligibility. In both cases, proposals will need to take into account that the time available, given that some conventions take place earlier in the year than others.
It should also be noted that for the last few years, the Ditmar SubCommittee has consisted of only one person. Adding more people would add much needed redundancy to the process.
We would like to thank Jeremy Byrne for providing access to the online systems
used for administering the Ditmars.
Thanks are also due to the community members who maintain the eligibility wiki,
in particular Thomas Bull.
Addendum for presentation to the resumed Business Meeting
While voting numbers have recovered, they are still below historical levels.
We would like to recognize the contribution of Jeremy Byrne to the administration of the Ditmars, both directly while he was on the Ditmar Subcommittee and indirectly by provision of online systems.
Eligibility declarations
Peter: "I hereby declare any and all work of mine which might be nominated for the Awards to be ineligible".