Aurora Award Rules

The Aurora awards are run by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA), a federally registered non-profit society. The awards recognize the best Canadian professional and amateur (fan) achievements for the prior calendar year (January 1st through December 31st).

CSFFA requires everyone to purchase a society membership to nominate, vote or participate in the AGM. The annual dues are just $10 (on-line) and are valid from January to December of the calendar year no matter when in the year they are purchased. CSFFA members are those who have already paid for their membership for the current calendar year.

If you registered with CSFFA in the past your account is still valid and you do not need to create a new account.

The following rules cover both nominations and voting for an Aurora award. Submitting a nomination or voting ballot will be taken as your acknowledgment that you have read and agree to abide by these rules.

Members must adhere to the following rules. In the event that the Awards committee feels that one or more of these rules has been violated by a participant, they may reject any or all nominations or votes from or for that participant without notification. The decision of the Awards committee is final.

1. The Auroras are only for Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Canadian citizens living abroad are eligible.
2. There are annual dues to be a member of CSFFA which will be set by the CSFFA board of directors. This fee is used to administer the awards. All society members are required to pay this fee.
3. Canventions are where the Aurora awards are present and are hosted by Canadian genre conventions alternating between eastern and western Canada.
4. Members, those that have paid their annual dues, are permitted to submit one nomination form and one voting ballot per year.
5. Each member must purchase their own membership.  You may not purchase a membership for your staff or friends.
6. Nomination and voting deadlines will be set by the CSFFA board of directors
7. Each member is expected to fill in their own nomination form or voting ballot, reflecting their individual preferences.
8. You many nominate up to five (5) different works in each of the award categories.
9. All nominations and voting is done online.
10. The ballots are counted using the “Alternate Ballot System”. See detail explanation in “Voting Method” document from the link on your membership page.
11. No one may offer or accept an inducement in order to influence a nomination or vote.
12. The “No Award” option for each of the Aurora categories is to be used ONLY in a situation where you feel that one or more of the nominees do not deserve to be on the ballot. It is NOT to be used if you are unfamiliar with the category or have not read a nominee’s work.

Through the Aurora awards, CSFFA encourages Canadian fans to take an active role in selecting the best of genre fiction and related activities. It is our hope that Canadians will hold spirited discussions, but we discourage anyone from advising others on how to place their votes. In the spirit of fan based awards, it is the right and responsibility of every member to make their own decisions. Members are expected to be familiar with the works they are selecting. Members are asked to vote in categories where they are familiar with more than one of the nominees. Clubs should avoid influencing their members’ nominations or votes.

To support the ongoing costs of the awards and the society, a non-refundable fee is associated with being a member of CSFFA. This fee will be reviews by the CSFFA board each year. It will be clearly identified on the society’s website. Fees must be paid by individual members, not a third party. The awards committee will make every effort to honour the spirit of a voter’s intentions but has little flexibility if the member fails to make their intention clear.

Please visit www.prixaurorawards.ca to access your account.

Please note that the French professional categories are now being coordinated and held at the Congrès Boréal which is held in Quebec. For full details visit their website. (http://www.congresboreal.ca/)

How to Vote: Our ballots use a modified version of the Alternate Vote System, sometimes known as the Instant Runoff Ballot. To vote, place your choices in each category in order of preference: “1” for first place, “2” for second place, and so on. You are not required to rank all the nominees in any category, and we recommend that you not vote in any category in which you are not familiar with a majority of the nominees. If you decide not to vote in a given category don’t change anything. Note that “No Award” is not an abstention, but a vote that none of the nominees should be given the award in question. When the ballots are counted, all the first place votes will be tabulated. If no nominee receives half or more of the votes, the nominee with the fewest first place votes is eliminated, and those votes are transferred to the nominees ranked in second place on those ballots. This process of elimination continues until one nominee receives half or more of the votes, at which point it becomes the winner (unless the votes are outnumbered by “No Award” votes.

A few tips which may help you in voting:

1. Please keep in mind that second and further preferences play no part in the voting unless and until your first choice is eliminated. This is not a point system where the second choices of many voters can overwhelm the first choice of a few voters. We suggest that after placing your first choice, you proceed by imagining that it has disappeared from the ballot, and placing your second choice by your next favorite nominee, and so on. This mimics the way the ballots are actually counted.
2. Nevertheless, if your top choice is eliminated early, your lower preferences could be the tie-breaker between the remaining nominees, so choose all your preferences carefully!  Remember, if you rank it, your vote will be counted if all of your previous choices are eliminated.  If you prefer one work over another then make sure you rank them.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with a category or its nominated works do not rank any of them.

No Award Option: The “No Award” option for each of the Aurora categories is to be used ONLY in a situation where you feel that one or more of the nominees does not deserve to be on the ballot. It is NOT to be used if you are unfamiliar with a category or have not read a nominee’s work.