diff --git a/ietf/person/fields.py b/ietf/person/fields.py
index 88a700cb6..144001f68 100644
--- a/ietf/person/fields.py
+++ b/ietf/person/fields.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class EmailsField(forms.CharField):
         super(EmailsField, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
 
         self.widget.attrs["class"] = "tokenized-field"
-        self.widget.attrs["data-ajax-url"] = lazy(urlreverse, str)("ajax_search_emails") # make this lazy to prevent initialization problem
+        self.widget.attrs["data-ajax-url"] = lazy(urlreverse, str)("ajax_search_emails") # do this lazy to prevent form initialization problems
         self.widget.attrs["data-hint-text"] = hint_text
         if self.max_entries != None:
             self.widget.attrs["data-max-entries"] = self.max_entries
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ class EmailsField(forms.CharField):
         value = super(EmailsField, self).clean(value)
         addresses = self.parse_tokenized_value(value)
 
-        emails = Email.objects.filter(address__in=addresses).select_related("person")
+        emails = Email.objects.filter(address__in=addresses).exclude(person=None).select_related("person")
         found_addresses = [e.address for e in emails]
 
         failed_addresses = [x for x in addresses if x not in found_addresses]
diff --git a/ietf/person/models.py b/ietf/person/models.py
index 60b50d5a9..9842d9297 100644
--- a/ietf/person/models.py
+++ b/ietf/person/models.py
@@ -56,15 +56,15 @@ class PersonInfo(models.Model):
             return e[0]
         return None
     def email_address(self):
-        e = self.email_set.filter(active=True).order_by("-time")
+        e = self.email_set.filter(active=True).order_by("-time").first()
         if e:
-            return e[0].address
+            return e.address
         else:
             return ""
     def formatted_email(self):
-        e = self.email_set.order_by("-active", "-time")
+        e = self.email_set.order_by("-active", "-time").first()
         if e:
-            return e[0].formatted_email()
+            return e.formatted_email()
         else:
             return ""
     def full_name_as_key(self):