Beginning January 1, 2012 and continuing through December 31, 2012, all EG entries, artwork (including pictures, cartoons, videos, music, etc.), and stories appearing on the Orion's Arm website or in Voices:Future Tense, the OA ezine, will be eligible for consideration for the 2012 Best of the Year Awards.

Winning entries will be determined by vote of the OA membership, and First,Second, and Third Place prizes will be awarded in each category (EG entry,artwork, or story). Prizes will consist of:

First Place = $25 (USD)

Second Place = $15 (USD)

Third Place = $5 (USD)

The Polls
Best OA Stories of 2012
Best of the Year 2012 - EG Entries

How It Will Work: All EG entries and artwork appearing on the OA website, or in V:FT during the course of 2012 will automatically be eligible for consideration. In the first quarter of 2013, a survey will be sent to all members of the Orion's Arm Universe Project (Defined here as those individuals who are members in good standing* of any of the OA online discussion groups on Yahoo as of the time the survey is completed). Members will be asked to vote for their favorite EG entry, story, and artwork from a list of all such added to the project in the course of 2012. The item in each category with the most votes will win First Place, the item with the next largest number of votes will win Second Place, and so on.

Winning items in each category will be announced on the various OA discussion lists, in the next issue of Voices:Future Tense published after the vote, and on the OA Facebook and Twitter pages. Payments to the creators of the winning entries will be sent within 60 days of the announcement of the winners on the OA discussion lists.

How Entries Will Be Gathered: EG entries will be gathered using the What's New pages on the OA website. Stories will be gathered by review of all issues of V:FT for the 2012 calendar year. Copies of artwork added to the site throughout the year will be gathered in a gallery on the OA site created for this purpose.

How Voting Will Take Place: The OAUP will use an online survey tool to contact each member of the project and ask them to vote on their favorite item in each category (EG entry, story,and artwork). Survey tool functionality will be used to send the survey to each member of the project individually and to prevent non-members from taking part in the vote. Voting will be open for a limited period of time, after which the survey will be closed and the votes tallied (additional details will be provided before and during the voting period).

How the Winners Will Be Paid: Creators of the winning items in each category will preferentially be paid via PayPal. In the event that someone cannot/prefers not to use PayPal to receive payment, other arrangements will be made in consultation with the individual and the Treasurer of the OAUP Managing Board. Payments will be dispersed by the Treasurer or their designee.

Additional Rules and Information: Multiple Creator Works: In the event that a winning work has been produced by more than one creator, award monies will be divided equally among the credited creators at the time of disbursement by the Treasurer of the OAUP or their designee. In the event that the credited creators unanimously communicate a desire for some other disbursement arrangement to the Treasurer, the request will be presented for consideration to the OAUP Managing Board. Decisions of the Managing Board are final.

Serialized Stories: Serialized stories must be published in their entirety by the voting date to be eligible for consideration. The editorial staff of Voices:Future Tense will do everything possible to ensure complete publication of all serialized works introduced in the course of the award year, within the limitations of the needs of V:FT and the OAUP. In the event that a serialized work is not published in its entirety by the time the voting process begins, the work shall be considered eligible for consideration in whichever subsequent award period that it is completed in.

Revised Works: Works already published or displayed on the Orion's Arm Website or in Voices:Future Tense prior to the start of the award year are not generally eligible for consideration except under the following circumstances: In the event an already published or displayed work is altered, revised, or updated by its creator, or another project member with the consent of the Managing Board, the work may be eligible for voting consideration if, in the judgement of the OAUP Managing Board, the revisions involved are sufficiently significant to constitute the creation of what is effectively a new work replacing the prior one. Decisions by the Managing Board are final.

Revised works that are judged by the Board to be eligible for award consideration and that subsequently win one of the BOTY awards in their category will be subject to all award rules, including the rules for Multiple Creator Works.

Contest Works: Works submitted for participation in OAUP sponsored contests (writing, artwork, etc.) are not eligible for consideration for the Best of the Year Award until the completion of the contest they are submitted for. Upon becoming eligible for consideration, entries will be presented in Voices:Future Tense in as timely a manner as possible, allowing for the needs of the project. In the event that an entry cannot be presented within the year a given contest ends, it will be presented in the following year and eligible for BOTY consideration at that time. Winning contest entries are not eligible for consideration for the Best of the Year award.

Maintaining Contact Information: It is solely the responsibility of all creators of award eligible content to maintain current and accurate contact information on file with the OAUP through whatever medium of record the OAUP dictates. Until further notice, the medium of record consists of the email addresses associated with the user lists automatically maintained by the OAUP discussion lists currently provided by Yahoo.com. The OAUP is in no way responsible or liable for maintenance of creator contact information and reserves the right to change the medium of record at any time and as it sees fit.

In the event that the creator(s) of an award winning content piece cannot be contacted by the OAUP due to out-of-date, inaccurate, missing,or no longer active contact information, the award monies will be held by the OAUP for a period not longer than six months from the date the award winners are announced. At the end of this period, any monies still unawarded will be considered to be forfeited by the content creator(s) and shall revert back to the OAUP.

In the event that an award winning work is the product of multiple authors, of which some cannot be contacted due to out-of-date, inaccurate, missing, or no longer active contact information, award monies will be divided per the guidelines for Multiple Creator Works. Award monies earmarked for creators who cannot be contacted for the reasons above will be handled in accordance with the rules presented above regarding Maintaining Contact Information.

Taxes: Each creator is responsible for paying his/her own taxes on any payments received from the OAUP and is advised to keep accurate tax records.

Multiple Winning Entries: Creators may have winning entries in multiple categories (EG entries, artwork, and stories) in a single contest period. However creators may not have multiple winning entries within a single category. In the event that a creator wins more than once in a single category, the winning entry for the highest prize will 'get the win' and the entry from someone else with the next highest number of votes in the category will win the next prize down and so on. The logistics of these situations will be handled by the managing board.

Example: if someone wins both first and third prize, they win first prize and whoever came in fourth wins third prize.

*Membership in Good Standing: Membership in Good Standing is here defined as maintaining a membership on one of the OAUP discussion lists, including the maintenance of current, accurate, and active contact information as defined by the OAUP. In the event a member terminates their membership on all of the OAUP discussion lists, or has their membership terminated by Moderator action, they are automatically disqualified from receiving Best of the Year award prize monies, whether for current or future BOTY events, until and unless the renewal of their membership in good standing is approved by a vote of the OAUP Managing Board.