Starting in January, the Diana Jones Award committee members make nominations that include a written description of why they believe their nominee exhibits excellence in gaming. Nominations close at the end of February, at which point a complete list of all the nominations received is circulated to all the judges. They discuss the nominees and select four to seven finalists by vote.
Finalists are usually announced in late spring. After further deliberations, discussions, and playtests, the final winner is chosen from these finalists, again by committee vote. If the winner is a concept, several honorees exemplifying that concept are also identified. After the committee’s final deliberations, the winner/honorees for the Diana Jones Award are revealed at a gathering at the Gen Con game convention, where the trophy is presented.
Although in the past the Diana Jones Award committee accepted nominations from the public, today only committee members can make nominations. Any sort of item can be nominated, whether it’s a product, a person, a company, an event, a group, a trend, or anything else connected with hobby gaming. The only criterion is that the nominee must have first appeared or risen to prominence in the previous calendar year, or had some landmark event happen during that time period.
Timetable
Nominations Open: 1st January
Nominations Close: 28th February
Finalists Announced: Late Spring
Winner/Honorees Announced: Wednesday Preceding Gen Con
(Note that this timetable is necessarily more flexible during Covid.)
Contacts
To contact the Diana Jones Award committee, email committee@dianajonesaward.org. Committee chair Matt Forbeck is at matt@forbeck.com.