[NancyBrooke]

On behalf of the MEFA Admin team:

The 2008 Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards (MEFAs) are up and running. You can nominate your favorite stories, drabbles, essays, poems, and whatever other eligible type of nomination you can dream up, now through June 15. Nominations are accepted through the website,

http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2008/

If you are not already a member, you will need to join the MEFAwards Yahoo group in order to nominate stories. Please sign up sooner rather than later, as it takes our volunteers a day or two to set up memberships at our nominations website. You can join the Yahoo group at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAwards/

Be advised, the MEFA day is based on GMT. For the current "official" time for the awards, go to our nominations website above and look in the bottom left corner - you will see a line beginning with "Page Served at: ", that will display when that page was loaded according to the site time.

If you have any questions, please direct them to mefasupport(at)mefawards(dot)net.

[NeumeIndil]

Good lord! Nomination season already! Seems like the awards just went out a few weeks ago! Now where'd my list run away and hide...

[NancyBrooke]

I know! Those folks are just way too organized ... I got caught by surprise, myself.

[NancyBrooke]

On Behalf of Marta:

The Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards are currently accepting nominations for our 2008 awards. But not for long! Our nomination period will end on June 15, in just over two weeks, so please get your nominations in now.

To nominate stories you must be a member of the MEFAwards Yahoo group. When you join this group you will be given a username and password at the awards website, where you can nominate stories. Please allow 24 hours for this information to be emailed to you; your Yahoo log-in information will not work.

If after twenty-four hours you haven't received a password please email mefasupport(.at.)mefawards(.dot.)net - I will look into the situation for you and send you your password ASAP.

Once you have your log-in information, you may nominate stories and vote for other peoples' nominations at www.mefawards.net/MEFA2008/ In the meantime you can begin familiarizing yourself with the site by using the "log in as guest" option.

REMEMBER:
--- you may nominate a piece until 11:59 PM GMT on June 15.
--- authors must finalize a nomination by 11:59 PM GMT on June 21, or it will not be able to compete. We really appreciate it if you can finish your form a day or two early, in case anything needs correcting.

(For the official time go to any MEFA2008 website. The time that page was loaded at will be displayed in the lower left corner, beside "Page Served At".

Thanks, Marta
(MEFA Admin.)

[Viv]

Also, Marta noted recently that there aren't a whole lot of poems nominated, so if you've been working on a poem for one of our OSA poetry challenges and you think it's good, post it quickly so we can nominate it.

[Viv]

We're in voting season, now. And look (points to mah new icon)! I've already logged 50 reviews! I rock!

Okay, enough with the self-congratulation.

The wonderful thing about these awards is that they're review-based. So every time you read a story on their nomination list and leave a review for it, you're *voting* for it. In the end, even if an author doesn't win an award, she or he gets the pleasure of having folks read and review the story.

So get on over there and read some stuff. You'll even see some familiar names from the OSA (Nancy Brooke, eiranae, and Alassante come to mind).

(If you set a review goal and achieve it, you too could have a shiny new icon!)

[NancyBrooke]

Calling All MEFA Reviewers!

The Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards (MEFAs) are currently underway and voting will continue until November 30. If you are already a MEFA member or would like to get involved, we'd love your participation. There's still plenty of time to vote, but as every veteran MEFA member will tell you, it's best not to leave this until the last minute. Why not vote for your first story this week?

Anyone can vote in the MEFAs. Simply write a review for any of the 600+ stories nominated for this year's competition. Points will be assigned a point value from 1-10 based on their length; the pieces in each subcategory with the most points win. And even if the piece you vote for doesn't win, you have given the author some nice feedback, which is always nice.

If you need help of any kind, just email mefasupport(.at.)mefawards(.dot)net, and we'll be glad to help you.

IF YOU ARE ALREADY A MEMBER:
You should have a username and password for our voting website, www.mefawards.net/MEFA2008/. If you've forgotten it, simply email mefasupport(.at.)mefawards(.dot.)net, and it can be emailed to you. Once you have your password, log in to the above website and click the "Stories" link at the top of the page. Then just find a story you like, read it, and enter a review.

IF YOU'RE NOT CURRENTLY A MEMBER:
You will need to join our announcement listserv, the Yahoo group MEFAwards (groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAwards). You will then be contacted by one of our volunteers with a short questionaire to fill out, so we can make sure you don't already have an account. You'll be emailed a username and password to our voting website within a day or two of answering our questions, and then you can start voting, too.

NOMINATED AUTHORS
If you are nominated in this year's awards, you can vote using the same account you used when your story was nominated. If you've forgotten your password, just email mefasupport(.at.)mefawards(.dot.)net and we'll get you squared away.

Happy voting!

Marta
(MEFA Admin.)