LALSimulation top-level disk check fails with: /usr/bin/sed: can't read AUTHORS: No such file or directory

In preparing the new release I'm running into a strange problem with LALSimulation, top-level distcheck builds are failing with:

make  check-local
make[6]: Entering directory `/home/ram/git/lalsuite/lalsuite-7.6.1/_build/lalsimulation'

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It looks like the following entries in AUTHORS are
not nicely formatted names:
/usr/bin/sed: can't read AUTHORS: No such file or directory
(By 'nicely formatted' we mean properly capitalised
human names, e.g. Albert Einstein, as opposed to
computer user names, e.g. albert.einstein.)
You may need to set up Git for the first time, for
help see https://git-scm.com/book.
You may also need to add an entry to the .mailmap 
file of the form
   Your Nicely Formatted Name <my.email@address>
For help please ask the LALSuite maintainers.
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make[6]: *** [check-AUTHORS] Error 1