Chicon 7 has exercised its right under the WSFS Constitution to add a Special Category for 2012. The additional award category is Best Fancast, defined as “Any non-professional audio- or video-casting with at least four (4) episodes that had at least one (1) episode released in 2011.” (There is an amendment to the WSFS Constitution pending ratification at Chicon 7 that would make Best Fancast a permanent category.)

If you are eligible to nominate, you may cast a nominating ballot through the Chicon Hugo Nominating Website or by paper ballot by mail. No matter which method you use to vote, Chicon 7 must receive your ballot (postmarks/timestamps do not count) by Sunday, March 11, 2012, 23:59 Pacific Daylight Time. (Convert to your local time here.)

If you have questions about specific procedures for the 2012 Hugo Awards, address them to the Chicon 7 Hugo Awards Administrators. TheHugoAwards.org cannot answer specific questions about eligibility or procedures for a given election, since each Hugo Award election is administered by that year’s Worldcon.

Update, Jan 4: According to a statement posted by Jeff Orth on the File 770 web site, voter PINs (the code number required to cast your ballot online) “are being emailed to current members now. PR3 will be in the mail directly. You can also request a PIN at hugoadmin@chicon.org.”

Note: While this is a “nominating ballot,” and we say that you “nominate” people or works for a Hugo Award when you write them on the nominating ballot, only those people or works that appear on the final Hugo Award ballot later in the year are the actual “Hugo Award Nominees.” Merely writing a work in on your nominating ballot does not make that work a “Hugo Award Nominee” unless the work receives enough nominations from other Worldcon members to make the final ballot.

See the Chicon 7 web site for the official press release announcement.

To help you make an informed vote, the 2011 Hugo Voter Packet, an electronic package of nominated works and samples graciously made available to voters by nominees and their publishers, has also recently been expanded.

For more information about Worldcon and participating in the 2011 Hugo Awards, please visit Renovation’s website.

Members of Renovation who joined by January 31, 2011, and members of Aussiecon 4, the 2010 Worldcon, are eligible to submit nominating ballots. All ballots must be received by Saturday, March 26, 2011, 11:59pm PDT.

Online nomination ballots are available here. More information about the Hugo Awards, including details about how to submit a nominating ballot, is available here.

Nominating ballots may be submitted online or via mail by Renovation members who join before January 31, 2011, and by all supporting and attending members of Aussiecon 4, the 2010 Worldcon.  If you would like to nominate and are not a member, more information on how to join can be found on Renovation’s membership page.

For information on the 2011 Hugo Awards, including how to submit ballots, please visit the Renovation website.

Note that the deadline for nominations is Saturday, March 26th, 2011, 23:59 PDT.

If you are already an Aussiecon 4 member then an email explaining how to obtain your copy of the Packet will be on its way to you soon.

If you are not yet a member of Aussiecon 4, all you need in order to access the Packet is a Supporting Membership. The prices are as follows: AU$70, US$50, CA$50, £25, €35, ¥4,900, NZ$90. You can buy memberships online here. A supporting membership of Aussiecon 4 will give you the right to vote in the final ballot of the 2010 Hugo Awards, and nominate in the 2011 Hugo Awards. The deadline for voting in this year’s final ballot is 31 July 2010 23:59 PDT. You’ll want to sign up well before then because there’s a lot of reading material in that Packet.

Note that this is not the deadline for submitting nominations, it is just the deadline for securing eligibility to vote. That’s set much earlier to allow time for your membership to be processed, and for ballot papers to be mailed to anyone who does not wish to vote online.

This year’s Worldcon, Aussiecon 4, takes place in Melbourne, Australia in September. It is not necessary to buy an Attending Membership, or travel to Australia, in order to vote in the Hugo Awards. All you need is a Supporting Membership. Prices for these are: AU$70, US$50, CA$50, £25, €35 or ¥4,900. Further details, including online payment, can be found here.

As usual, the nominating stage of the process is open to anyone who was a member of last year’s Worldcon, Anticipation in Montréal, and to anyone who buys at least a supporting membership in Aussiecon 4. In order to give the Aussiecon 4 folks time to process memberships before the ballot closes you must buy your membership by January 31st. Supporting membership prices are as follows: US $50; AU $70; € 35; £25; ¥4,900. You can buy them online here.

Fans around the world are already discussing which works and people to nominate. You may wish to check the third party recommendation sites listed in our right-hand sidebar. If you are unsure about the eligibility of online works because of the changes to the WSFS Constitution that were made in Montréal you may find this public statement by Aussiecon 4’s Hugo Award Administrator helpful. And please remember that Best Graphic Story is now an official category so you can keep nominating such works.

The deadline for submitting nominating ballots is 23:59 PST on Saturday, March 13, 2010.

The deadline for voting is midnight (2359hrs.) Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) July 3, 2009. All ballots, paper or electronic, must be in the administrator’s hands by that time.