Good thoughts coming out, that's what I like to see! Focusing on what can realistically be done this year (or else bookmarked for next year), we can continue with:
1) Community hosting: Some input from deo would be good here - which duties could use the most help? Running noms, making the bracket, posting topics, tallying votes...maybe you would like a topic-posting break in that long period from May to August? I like the idea of requiring match votes to fall under some criteria, so it's easy for anyone to jump in and tally the obvious ones. Ambiguous votes wouldn't get discarded, but are tagged for deo in whatever shared tallying sheet we set up. Another idea for late topics: People could sign up for a chain of backup timeslots, i.e. azuarc posts if deo hasn't posted by 9:10, Max posts if azuarc hasn't posted by 9:12, P0 for 9:14...
2) Locks, limits and deadlines: This is just a catch-all for small tweaks to the nomination schedule. I don't have strong feelings here, just don't make it more complicated...
3) Multi-noms beyond doubles: The discussion's only just started in this topic, but these have come up enough in past years that they probably deserve consideration sooner rather than later. Like people have said before, it helps songs that are really strongly favoured by 1-2 users, compared to generally liked by 5 users. I'd enjoy a bracket with more of those songs! And we can implement them as gently as we'd like - maybe we just add one quadruple, or convert the existing doubles to triples if that's much easier for hosting.
For the rest, I realize that taking the bracket from 256 to 128 would be too sudden to announce on the spot, but I'm still curious about the reception if it's asked in advance (something like "Should the bracket size of 256 be kept the same, decreased, or increased in two years?"). I have faith that I'm not the only one who's getting too old and busy to handle 100 days of matches every year...just something I want to do a wider poll on, even if it takes a year or two (not sure if we'll do something special for VGMC 20?). Anything with drop protection, separating noms/supports, etc. also sounds drastic enough that it's better considered in a future year.