The Gospel Music Association has just released its annual list of "submitted entries" for the next Dove Awards, in 2003. In plain English, here's what this means:

• All of the applicable record labels have already sent in their lists of artists, albums, songs, etc. that were active during the eligibility period for these Awards -- the eligibility period is November 1, 2001 - October 31, 2002. That's what the "submitted entries" list is, and it can be found at http://www.doveawards.com/voting2003/submitted.cfm. (Now.)
• Now, GMA Professional Members only (no Associate Members and no record labels), using the submitted entries list, vote for the songs, artists, albums etc. that they think most deserve to be nominated in all of the minor categories. For the major categories, everything is fair game. This step is called the Entry Form (clever and original, huh?). After a screening process, which involves the labels and a GMA committee, all of the products listed on the Entry Form are certified to be truly eligible for voting, and those that aren't, that might have gotten added in by mistake, are weeded out. (Early October through mid-November.)
• The artists, songs, whatever from the Entry Form voting, that get the most votes in each category are placed on the First Ballot, which goes out to all members. For Song of the Year, it's the top 50 vote-getters. For Male Vocalist, Female Vocalist, Group, New Artist, and Artist of the Year, it's the top 25. For all other categories, any submitted entry that receives more than three votes gets placed on the First Ballot. (December.)
• The 5 artists, songs, & albums that receive the most votes in each category are placed on the Second Ballot (Song of the Year gets 10), and these, at last, will be the official nominees for the 34th Annual Dove Awards. The nominees are usually announced sometime in late February or early March. Members vote on the entries in the Second Ballot and the winners are finally announced at the Dove Awards ceremony, which will take place on April 10, 2003 (and that's a few weeks earlier than usual).

So... What does all this mean, really? It means that the submitted entries which have just been announced (http://www.doveawards.com/voting2003/submitted.cfm) are not the nominees. They're not even the preliminary nominees that hope to become final nominees. But, all of the nominees and winners in the minor categories will come from the entries on this list. There's not a single entry that will win that's not on this list right now.

So let the speculation begin.