Update on Merriweather Awards - 04/04/05 12:33 PM
FROM THE MERRIWEATHER COMMITTEE:
First off: Thank you very much to those of you who support us and have given us the benefit of the doubt during the past few weeks. We did everything in our power to insure that we would have a fair and anonymous contest. We tried to prepare for every contingency but there are always events that catch one completely unaware, that you never foresee. We went through our trial by fire right out of the starting gate and it truly was a never-to-be-forgotten learning experience. Again, we thank all of you who continue to support us as we try to make the Merriweather Award a competition that encourages and rewards excellence in writing.
In answer to several questions forwarded to us by Katrina:
We have discussed the suggestions you have made for making the Merriweathers better. We appreciate your support as we try to make this better for writers, judges, and readers.
The first suggestion was to get an assistant for Katrina (the gatekeeper). This has been taken care of and the assistant gatekeeper has introduced herself. We are currently in the process of dividing the duties between them. The additional gatekeeper was also installed to make sure that anyone who has a question for the M-Comm gets a faster response.
Additionally, not only will the gatekeepers see and total the scores, all the members of the M-Comm will double-check scores. No scores will be released and no winners will be announced until all the scores have gone through the double-checking process.
We were asked to update the website. This has been done.
The M-Comm has instituted much tighter rules for submissions and these rules have been posted to the updated website. Effective with the next submission, all stories must come from either the Archive or a Message Board. Writers will submit the link to their stories to the gatekeepers. Additionally, any author who uses and submits an older story under an old pseudonym must notify the gatekeepers of their current message board nickname. If the gatekeepers cannot verify the author, the story will be disqualified.
A new policy that the M-Comm implemented was to request that the gatekeepers double-check the entries against the Archive and Message Boards to verify the legitimacy of the author to the story submitted. Any story that is sent as an attachment to an e-mail will be disqualified for not being in compliance with the rules. This is to avoid any further problems with the authenticity of stories and/or authors and to protect all those who enter a story in good faith.
It also goes without saying that all stories must be completed prior to submission. No story that is still under construction (e.g., the story is only up to Part 10 of 20 when the submission cycle begins) will be allowed to enter.
The sample scoresheets remain on the website but the total points for each category have been deleted. The M-Comm will create a new scoresheet for each category. New points will be assigned to the categories for each new competition.
The M-Comm will not release scoresheets prior to the close of the competition. This is a policy used in other writing contests and we are simply following an established practice. Once the scores have been released, the scoresheet in its entirety will be released for those people who wish to see on what criteria they were judged.
Our next category is Episode Rewrites. This is in honor of the long-awaited, much-anticipated release of the DVDs. Stories can be up to 60,000 words in length. Submissions will begin April 30 and run through May 14. No scores will be released prior to June 30 in order to allow the judges plenty of time to thoughtfully read and critique each story.
Again, thank you for your support as we continue to move forward with making the Merriweathers better.
Sincerely,
The Merriweather Committee (all)
First off: Thank you very much to those of you who support us and have given us the benefit of the doubt during the past few weeks. We did everything in our power to insure that we would have a fair and anonymous contest. We tried to prepare for every contingency but there are always events that catch one completely unaware, that you never foresee. We went through our trial by fire right out of the starting gate and it truly was a never-to-be-forgotten learning experience. Again, we thank all of you who continue to support us as we try to make the Merriweather Award a competition that encourages and rewards excellence in writing.
In answer to several questions forwarded to us by Katrina:
We have discussed the suggestions you have made for making the Merriweathers better. We appreciate your support as we try to make this better for writers, judges, and readers.
The first suggestion was to get an assistant for Katrina (the gatekeeper). This has been taken care of and the assistant gatekeeper has introduced herself. We are currently in the process of dividing the duties between them. The additional gatekeeper was also installed to make sure that anyone who has a question for the M-Comm gets a faster response.
Additionally, not only will the gatekeepers see and total the scores, all the members of the M-Comm will double-check scores. No scores will be released and no winners will be announced until all the scores have gone through the double-checking process.
We were asked to update the website. This has been done.
The M-Comm has instituted much tighter rules for submissions and these rules have been posted to the updated website. Effective with the next submission, all stories must come from either the Archive or a Message Board. Writers will submit the link to their stories to the gatekeepers. Additionally, any author who uses and submits an older story under an old pseudonym must notify the gatekeepers of their current message board nickname. If the gatekeepers cannot verify the author, the story will be disqualified.
A new policy that the M-Comm implemented was to request that the gatekeepers double-check the entries against the Archive and Message Boards to verify the legitimacy of the author to the story submitted. Any story that is sent as an attachment to an e-mail will be disqualified for not being in compliance with the rules. This is to avoid any further problems with the authenticity of stories and/or authors and to protect all those who enter a story in good faith.
It also goes without saying that all stories must be completed prior to submission. No story that is still under construction (e.g., the story is only up to Part 10 of 20 when the submission cycle begins) will be allowed to enter.
The sample scoresheets remain on the website but the total points for each category have been deleted. The M-Comm will create a new scoresheet for each category. New points will be assigned to the categories for each new competition.
The M-Comm will not release scoresheets prior to the close of the competition. This is a policy used in other writing contests and we are simply following an established practice. Once the scores have been released, the scoresheet in its entirety will be released for those people who wish to see on what criteria they were judged.
Our next category is Episode Rewrites. This is in honor of the long-awaited, much-anticipated release of the DVDs. Stories can be up to 60,000 words in length. Submissions will begin April 30 and run through May 14. No scores will be released prior to June 30 in order to allow the judges plenty of time to thoughtfully read and critique each story.
Again, thank you for your support as we continue to move forward with making the Merriweathers better.
Sincerely,
The Merriweather Committee (all)