//edit// Hey, if you need a drum for your war dance, we have some really cool ones here in the Congo. ;-)
//edit// If you perceive impediments to community involvement, I'm sure Michel Fournier can tell you how he runs the UT Personality of the year. To be clear: Michel sets the process but the community makes the decision.
//edit// Or you might ask the people running VFPX ;-) ... wasn't that name chosen by community poll?
Community involvement won't disenfranchise you (in the plural sense, not you personally;) it will create opportunities to engage with parts of the community you might not otherwise meet, there will be plenty of kudos and the award will be unassailable since it is based on community involvement. If somebody undermines the award by giving one to Crunchy or lampoons it by calling it the "Rick and Marcia's Buddies Award" (names chosen for illustration only,) you simply refer to the community decision.
To be honest, I'm rapidly entering the camp of those who don't care any more about who does or doesn't get one of these awards, so I'm happy to leave it there.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1