Another question about Contests... Opinions Please...

[crazyjim]

I like Danno's system.

[weasel]

Please understand , this is not pointed at you or anyone else . This is an opinion , based on my observations over the years while attending shows . Who knows ? Maybe some of the guilty parties will read this and it might give them pause ! There is always room for improvement !

totally understand...we've had a HUGE debates about this many times at meetings and my thoughts/feelings were for the 'regular' club member...and the Club does have a handfull 'those guys'...National Nameless Luminaries...lol

it's all gooood...

[Jantrix]

A couple of years ago, I hit upon an outstanding solution. We now run the events as completely peoples-choice balloting. We invite, encourage, and urge spectators to view the models and pick their favorite. This way, even the guys and gals who help operate the event can enter models and have a fair and equal chance to receive an award and there is no possibility of bias. We get between 1000 and 1300 ballots per event, so there's not much chance of ballot-stuffing, either.

I attended a contest last year that did the same thing. As the club members wanted to participate ALL the voting was people choice. They handed out a ballot sheet with all the classes on it and it was fill in the blank. Seems like a great idea in theory.

The downside is you are now being judged by many people who don't know squat about what work goes into building a model. A "judge" is generally familiar with most kits, and what work must have gone into acheiving the goal of any particular model. I passed a woman who was there with her husband who voted for a model because it was her favorite color. The best model there was a rather plain looking 57 Ford that the builder had converted from a hardtop to a base-model sedan. If you didn't know about the kit it would have been pretty easy to pass it by. But once you got looking at it and saw the effort it took to do the conversions, it was a shoe in for best of show. It was hardly noticed by most non-modelers. A real shame.

How would you like to lose a contest by one vote, when someone voted for the other one because it matched her nail polish?

Peoples choice is a two edged sword at best.

[moparmagiclives]

A lot of the car shows around here keep pretty small just by population of my area, there is usually a people's choice award, and club members are allowed to enter most of the time. But I've never seen one that was strictly by choice, because it does leave a lot of the skill and work put into a vehicle setting on the curb because most don't know what's involved only what they like. There is always a judged score for all the different classes ( club members excluded) with a people's choice in the end ( members included).... And for some reason, it's always a corvette or mustang that wins the publics choice.. Go figure.

Edited February 17, 2012 by moparmagiclives

[Rob McKee]

I attended a contest last year that did the same thing. As the club members wanted to participate ALL the voting was people choice. They handed out a ballot sheet with all the classes on it and it was fill in the blank. Seems like a great idea in theory.

The downside is you are now being judged by many people who don't know squat about what work goes into building a model. A "judge" is generally familiar with most kits, and what work must have gone into acheiving the goal of any particular model. I passed a woman who was there with her husband who voted for a model because it was her favorite color. The best model there was a rather plain looking 57 Ford that the builder had converted from a hardtop to a base-model sedan. If you didn't know about the kit it would have been pretty easy to pass it by. But once you got looking at it and saw the effort it took to do the conversions, it was a shoe in for best of show. It was hardly noticed by most non-modelers. A real shame.

How would you like to lose a contest by one vote, when someone voted for the other one because it matched her nail polish?

Peoples choice is a two edged sword at best.

Rob, that is a great point. I can just see people voting for the cute little box stock VW bug.

[Danno]

Oh, we've had our share of quirks ... young girls and teenagers voting for the pink jeep because it looked like a Barbie Jeep; people voting for a model because they had a car like that when they were younger; people voting for their favorite color; people voting for the biggest model; people voting for a certain year-make-version just because the 1:1 was their favorite; people voting for the model that looked most like theirs; people voting for the only monster truck or the only motorcycle or the only foreign make or ... you name it.

However, with a large pool of ballots, those quirks quickly disappeared into the field of also-rans. The fingernail polish is only gonna match so many women out of a large sampling of spectators.

What I observed over several trials was that usually the best models got enough votes to be within the "Top Twelve" and the "Top Twelve" often mirrored pretty closely what we would have selected through critical judging anyway (~~ understand, the alternative would have been 'table-top' or 'curbside' style judging, primarily due to the number of entrants and time constraints).

I also observed that the entry garnering the top number of votes was almost always very deserving of the award. It's hard to fool a lot of people, especially when the audience is primarily 1:1 rodders and custom car owners and their families, friends, and entourages.

I agree on one level; I would be hesitant to use the all-peoples choice balloting system if the audience was primarily people who knew nothing about cars.

While Rob makes a poignant point about a single somewhat flakey vote making a difference, our experience has been that none of the awards came down that close. And, we reserved the "Best of Show" award to selection by my staff and myself to ensure that a truly deserving model did not get completely shut out just because it lacked the 'gotcha factor' that would attract lots of 'uninformed' or 'non-modeler' votes.

Again, several events, hundreds of entries, entrants from multiple states, local entrants and long-distance entrants, and no complaints. Everybody understands exactly what peoples choice entails and takes their chances.

Actually, we had more complaints about award selections when we busted our buttolas to critically judge every entry. And, the local IPMS contest typically takes "critical judging" to stratospheric heights and generates far more 'fairness/unfairness' or 'I got robbed' complaints.

Just sayin'. It works very well for us!

Disclaimer: Like anything in life, your results may vary.

[Danno]

Rob, that is a great point. I can just see people voting for the cute little box stock VW bug.

Point-Counterpoint: I also recall the great clamor that erupted the first time a box-stock factory replica won best paint at GSL. Many/Most of the attendees hadn't even paid any attention to the model on the table because it looked so plain. But the execution was beyond belief and was unmatched by any other entries, even the exotic customs and impeccable street rods, etc.

'On any given Sunday ...'

[Jeff Johnston]

Normally I;d say no. members should not enter. Though I enter one "contest" every year, run by a local club in the area (I do not belong, the day/time does not work for me). The model club does allow entries of their own models into the show. Not once have I ever thought that a model of the club member who won wasn't deserving. It's judged fairly,

So normally I'd say no, I'd not feel right entering. But these guys run a very good fair contest.