Seeking feeback for MMHC judging rules change Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Hi all,

We've been having a discussion in the staff forum with regard to the rules we've had in place for this contest since it started.

These rules probably need to be revised. In the past, the Sollars family always chose the winner (as they had contributed the prize money). But that has changed in the last two years.

In the current rules it states: "The voting for the finalists will be conducted by the staff of Mosaic Musings. Each will select their top three choices, which will then be forwarded to the Sollars family. In the event that a submission receives multiple votes by the staff, those pieces are automatically included as a finalist."

Well, that is not applicable at this writing as I pay the winner the prize money and therefore we're thinking we should create a poll for the members to decide. We think the best was to go with this contest going forward is to have the members choose the winner in a poll. The problem is, what if we had the max of 50 submissions? This is why we had incorporated the 'finalist' process in the beginning. It limited the number of entries to vote on.

A suggestion for this question is to define the process based on a minimum number of entries that would then require a finalist process to take place beforehand? In other words: If there are less than X number of submissions in any given contest, a poll will be conducted whereby the members choose the winner following the closing date of each contest. If however, there are more than X number of submissions in any given year, the finalist selection process will take place by (5) appointed judges, who do not have any submissions that year. Each would choose 3 submissions, sending their nominations into the admins, who would tally the results and announce those submissions that received multiple nods. Once that process is completed, a poll would be opened for the membership to vote on the winning entry.

I'm thinking that the magic number would be 15. If less than 15 submissions, do a member poll straight away. If more than 15, seek out the 5 judges and their 3 nods each (of which any duplicates are finalists) determining the 'finalists' to be voted on in a subsequent poll.

What do you all think of this idea?

~Cleo and the Mosaic Musings Staff

[Cleo_Serapis]

Another route we could take (for the 2009 MMHC), is to ask 5 guest judges (either from MM or external or both) to use a points method (a similar method we use for determining the Odin comp winners). Each of the five would select their three favorites and assign a point score to them: 3 points for the favorite, 2 for the mid and 1 for the lowest of their three nods. This would equate to a total points scoring of 30. Whichever submission receives the largest score result in that process would be deemed the winner. We could also combine two processes by polling the members and taking those scores and adding them to the guest judge scores to determine the winner.

I'd like to get this underway as soon as possible - seeking your feedback ASAP.

Thanks all!
Lori

[Cleo_Serapis]

With regard to extending guest judge offers, I've just sent a PM to (5) members who have not particpated in this year's MMHC to see if they'd be interested in being a guest judge for our holiday contest. There are 13 entries in the MMHC forum and we'd like to close this out in the next few weeks if possible. We're incorporating new rules and believe the way we score the Odin comps would work well for the MMHC too in a similar fashion.

Here are the rules on being a judge:
1. Each judge (non-participants of the contest) will carefully read the entries submitted and select their top three, taking into consideration artistic quality, uniqueness, content, structure and interpretation.

2. Once each judge has chosen his/her top three entries, they will be given a points rating - 3 points for 1st place, 2 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd. The results will then be PM'd to the admins (AMETHYST, Cleo_Serapis & Imhotep) or another designee who is not in the competition or a judge.

3. The admins will enter the points onto a spreadsheet and then post an announcement listing the winner on the relevant thread on MM.

4. In the event of a tie, a tie-break will take place between the tied submissions. Judges will submit their votes to the admins, giving 2 points for 1st place and 1 point for 2nd. The admins will then post a revised announcement listing the winner on the relevant thread on MM.

Let's wait and see if they accept, and I'll update again later.
~Cleo

[Cleo_Serapis]

Great news!!!

I've received acceptances to judge from Peggy, Larry, Sylvia (Psyche), and John (Arnfinn). I'm waiting on the 5th invitation response now.

Stay tuned!
~Cleo