Last year when Alice was invited up on the stage to present this award, it was described as "services to conunning". Of course, this was just a throw away comment whilst the con-chair was thinking on her feet but it was commented to me by a previous winner. So this time I specifically said in my (faltering) speech (I really hate speaking in front of hundreds of people in incredibly bright lights and with no script) that the award was for services to fandomand conrunning. There is no doubt one of the biggest contributions to fandom these days is conrunning, so it is inevitable that this will be where the majority of winners will be drawn from. I agree that contributions to cons other than Eastercon is a good thing and certainly is true this year.

What I was most pleased with this year was, whilst the eventual result was clear cut, there were 13 different people nominated and almost all departments of conrunning represented and several from outside direct conrunning. This seems to me to be a good sign and we do seem to be drifting away from the single "fix" that used to be so common.