>>I would bump the dates from Jan/Feb to Feb/March; people are still recovering from the holidays in January and you'll probably get a lot better turn out if you bump the dates to the less holiday-affected months.<<

I'm willing to consider that, if enough people feel that it would help. I tend to prefer awards whose timing is easy to remember, and that generate findings promptly. I figured that allowing a month apiece for nomination and judging would be sufficient.

>> Crowdfunding revives, in a modern way, the concept of patronage. A "Patron Award" would be more appropriate for someone who has done the funding (and might be a nice parallel award at some point), <<

I like the idea of an award for crowdfunding patrons. Perhaps we could add this as a category in this award? It could be spun off later if people desire.

>>I think it would be nice, also, to have a tangible form of the award, even just a certificate.<<

I could do certificates.