Re: [Harp-L] Re: SPAH award nominations--who's nominated, and how is the winner chosen?

[Bill Hines <billhines4@xxxxxxxxx>]

I just want to throw my two cents in because hopefully the talk about
changing SPAH to make it more personable and transparent is meaningful and
that's what the organization is trying to do. I was a member for about a
year but dropped it because of stuff like this, it came off as kind of a
secret clique-y thing and not very open/transparent/friendly and just not
very visible in terms of the web site presence, newsletters, things like
that. I know those things are changing. But if you really want to make
members feel like they are part of what is going on, things like this
should change. I agree with Richard and probably lots of others. At least
for those not chosen, it might be nice to see they were nominated, that
much is an honor. FWIW, Bill


On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 1:49 PM, Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> A little over two weeks ago, I sent the following message:
> >
> >About a month ago we were all reminded that the deadline for SPAH awards
> (June 30) was fast approaching.  Presumably the nominations are now all in,
> but I haven't seen any comments anywhere, including SPAH's website,
> regarding who was nominated for what.
> >
> >So who was nominated for what?  While we're on the topic, how are the
> winners chosen?  I don't see anything on SPAH's site that describes the
> process.
> >
>
> There's been input from SPAH since then on the second topic--how winners
> are chosen. The answer is essentially that the SPAH leadership votes,
> privately.  There's been no comment on the first question: who was
> nominated for what?
>
> There's also been no reply to my follow-up question: what's the (good)
> reason for keeping nominations a secret?
>
> Secret nominations and a secret vote: to me, the process sounds less
> transparent than a Nigerian election.  That's not a standard to which any
> elected body, such as SPAH leadership, should aspire.
>
> So I'll repeat my original and followup requests for information: who was
> nominated for what, and failing an answer to that, what's the rationale for
> secret nominations?
>
> Thanks, Richard Hunter
>
>
> author, "Jazz Harp"
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>