Since 2013, Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) has been the home of the “Heinlein Award”, given “For outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings to inspire the human exploration of space.” The history of this award goes back to 2003, and Ginny Heinlein (and Michael Flynn) were the first awardees.

Since BSFS has taken over being the “home” of the actual presentation of the award (the actual awardee each year is determined by an independent committee of Heinlein-friendly worthies) since 2013, THS has offered partial financial support for its continuation, and this support has increased over the years as we’ve been able to see how BSFS handles things, and as BSFS has had a chance to gain actual experience in how much it costs to maintain the presentation of the award on an annual basis.

So the first year, THS offered $300. Later this increased to $500. Now that BSFS has stated that in their experience the award presentation ceremony costs $2,000 per year to maintain, the board of THS recently voted to increase our contribution starting with the 2016 award to $1,000.00, or 50% of what BSFS has said it actually costs to maintain the award and ceremony. We send them these amounts a year in advance, so they can know and plan in advance with our support already in hand. THS has already sent BSFS a check for $500 for the 2016 award (the 2015 award support check was sent to BSFS last year, in 2014 –see how that works?). THS Director (and Treasurer) John Tilden will be attending Balticon this Memorial Day weekend and will present them with a second check for $500 at that time, increasing our contribution for 2016 to $1,000 in total.