Our new Newsletter Editor has discovered that he doesn't have the time he thought he had to edit the newsletter. We missed the deadline for our early summer issue, and we apologize for that. There were several articles in the queue which we wanted to get out to you before the deadline for voting for the Prometheus and Hall of Fame awards in early July. So we're sending this issue of the newsletter via email instead of on paper.

The articles in this message include:

• this note from me giving updates on the state of the LFS.
• a summary of the finalists for the Prometheus and Hall Of Fame awards, as well as other news related to the awards ceremony, and the judging process.
• one review of a Prometheus finalist, along with two reviews of Charles Stross' "Singularity Sky", which is being promoted as a write-in for the Prometheus by some LFS members since it wasn't brought to the attention of the nominating committee in time for them to consider it.
• an electronic ballot that LFS members can use to vote on the Prometheus and Hall of Fame awards.
• two articles arguing the merits of two of the candidate sites for the 2007 WorldCon
• a long article prepared by Michael Grossberg, the chair of the Prometheus nominating committee, giving a view into the discussions among the nominating committee members as they considered this year's nominees. Michael's intent was to give other LFS members a peek into the process to help people decide whether they would be interested in joining the committee. It also shows a variety of viewpoints on this year's nominees, which might be useful as you fill out your ballot over the next week or so.

PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

by Chris Hibbert

The LFS annual calendar calls for appointing new awards committees along with officers and committee chairs at our September Board meeting. If you are interested in helping to select our finalists for the Prometheus Award, the Hall of Fame Award, or participating in the special awards committee, now is the time to let someone know. (Contact me at president@lfs.org, or the chair of the committee you want to join.) If you are interested in helping us run the organization, there is always interesting work to do. We usually select people to be officers and committee chairs from among the people who have been active in other capacities.

This year's WorldCon is Noreascon 4 in Boston 9/2-9/6. The deadline to join in order to be eligible to vote is July 31. Supporting membership (which allows voting but not attendance) costs $35. If you haven't been to a Con before, or have only been to a regional con, you should consider attending one of the big ones. There's a lot going on, and lots of interesting people to hang out with. If you are planning to attend the WorldCon, please let Fred Moulton (programming@lfs.org) know; as our Programming Chair, he coordinates our awards ceremony, and can let you know of any last minute changes. If you are willing to help out, he can always use an extra hand.

Each year, voters at the WorldCon get to choose the city for the third following year's WorldCon. The site of the 2007 Con is being decided this year. Two of the main contenders are Tokyo and Columbus, Ohio. Fred Moulton and Michael Grossberg have articles in this issue urging you to vote for one or the other.

Every year since the LFS reorganized our awards process in the 1990s and set up judging committees to select the finalists from which voting members choose the winners, all of the publishers of books that are nominated for the Prometheus have sent review copies to the 10 members of our Prometheus Best Novel nominating committee. That is one small sign that publishers have come to respect the stature of our award and appreciate the attention that the LFS annually gives to nominees and finalists.

The publishers of the five Best Novel finalists usually also send complimentary copies to a prioritized list of members--an unofficial benefit for our highest-level members. We send the publisher of each finalist a list of 30 names, and they can choose whether or not to send books. We limit the list to 30 names, following the advice of several major SF publishers, to encourage participation. If we added more names, not as many of the publishers would participate.

The list is prioritized starting with our highest-level contributors and volunteers: Benefactors, members of our board and committee chairs, followed by Sponsors when slots remain. (Members of the nominating committee received a copy earlier, so any who are also major contributors or board members don't receive a second copy.) There are sometimes slots left over after covering those categories, and when that happens, we add some Full members who haven't received free books recently to round out the list.

For the first time under our revised system, the publisher of one of our finalists declined to provide review copies for the final round of voting, though they did provide copies to the nominating committee. Scholastic Press, the publisher of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by J.K. Rowling, did not send a second round of complimentary copies.