Since GenCon
I spoke with AV at GenCon (in passing, in the WOTC Booth, without actually pressing the case for my own specific setting) about the setting consideration process. His comments and my own opinions are mixed throughout the following.
First, he continued to make his comment that people were literally "suffering" through the process of reading all the entries. He said sitting in a chair and reading 500 entries at a time was giving people back problems.
That says that WOTC was being serious about considering each entry... having a responsible person read it thoroughly and conceivably take notes.
Second, AV isn't the only one doing the reading. So the "committee" will meet sometime after GenCon [this week?] and decide on The Ten. I suppose that means that all of the committee members will bring their best entries to the table, and some sort of voting procedure will take place.
Theoretically, once they decide on The Ten, notifications should be fairly quick. If I remember the cover legal piece, there was no space for a phone number (I put mine in anyway), so notifications will probably be by mail, with perhaps phone calls to those who gave phone numbers.
I theorize they have Monday and Tuesday to get back to work, then Wednesday and Thursday to discuss and reread candidate entries. Depending on lots of things, maybe some decisions Friday, but more likely decisions and notifications next week.
Norris