$dist is not passed to the template until MMA 0.15

e.g.
http://www.cpantesters.org/cpan/report/d3040ac6-6c01-1014-8f3a-37f4a19cdcdf
Dist-Zilla-Plugin-MakeMaker-Fallback-0.016

          - bump up prereq version for [MakeMaker::Awesome] to ensure needed
            template variables are made available