I think this is an idea that could work out. It would be an award not to vote about as it is obvious who took part in the project and who didn't. Then again I'm not really certain if there could uneasy feelings about such a kind of award which is not a voting issue. I reckon it is up to the community to deceide whether or not there ought to be such an award for the project or not.
I made two drafts for an award for the newbies.


As you can see I did not yet add any inscription to the awards. The reason is that I'm not quite sure about the actual title of the award. I think at an earlier time we already settled for "Shooting star award", but I'm not quite sure anymore that this would be a good idea. Of course I checked out for pictures with a shooting star but one pretty good I had had the major drawback of Littlefoot in that picture having closed eyes. The only one I found that befitted the name of the award is this one:

I'm not quite happy with it. I don't really like the "surrealistic" content.
I do see why most people would not really want to get a "Hatchling award" or a "Newby award". But could we make it "New member award"? The inscription would be "New member of 2006" in that case. Would that be alright with you?
While I don't see anything negative about this inscription I think it would be more to the point than the shooting star. Moreover it would fit to the first two drafts as well.
Another thing I'm wondering about is who "qualifies" for the newby award. Not to limit the number of candidates too much I suggest that only those who are here for less than one year can be given the award. Another suggestion (only a suggestion, it is entirely up to you to decide) I have is that perhaps this award should be only for those who didn't receive any other award already.