A
GM’s Plea | GMs of
the Year | GM Guidelines
Prior to 2005 this award was based on
GM ratings slips that all players were encouraged
to complete and return to the Registration Desk or submit online
up to 30 days after the convention. The intent
was twofold—to give us an objective way of determining
a winner, and more importantly, a means of
feedback for the GMs. Players were encouraged
to make anonymous comments that they might not otherwise communicate
to the GM. The results were tabulated and returned to each GM so
that he/she could reflect on the comments. While recognizing the
shortcomings in such a system, we always worked on the theory that
any feedback is better than none at all.
Only those Century group GMs with at least ten entrants providing
ratings were eligible for the Annual GM of
the Year Award. Unfortunately, many people
based their ratings on things outside a GM's
control—such
as the room, the game itself, or events scheduled
against it. Still others simply held a higher standard, so missing
this group was no claim to shame. To protect GMs from the grousing
of a poor sport, the lowest rating was tossed out for every multiple
of 10 ratings received. This was the best system we had to single
someone out of a group of deserving GMs—and
as similar to the Sportsmanship Award in that
regard. We may not have actually always picked
the "best"—but we certainly were honoring one of
the best every year.
Despite our efforts to increase their use, it
became increasingly difficult to get meaningful
feedback for the ratings. Only 25% of Century events received the
necessary minimum responses to be considered—presumably because only those GMs
made a concentrated effort to distribute and collect the slips.
Of those, 23 scored 9 or higher and seven scored a perfect 10. "Grade
inflation" had rendered
the numerical ratings nearly worthless and
few raters took the time to make non-numeric comments explaining
their ratings. Given the expense and effort of distributing, collecting,
recording and returning these ratings, we felt our resources were
better spent by going to the current, more subjective system to
select our GM of the Year.
In 2005, we changed the selection process and upped
the ante—awarding a free room for the five
days of WBC. This selection process iinstituted
a system whereby players were urged to nominate
their favorites instead and left the voting
to the Board of Directors. The Convention Director reviews the recommendations
of the players and then nominates 12 GMs of Century events
for the honor based on the following criteria:
- Size of event
- Suitability of Event Format
- Prompt Maintenance of Event webpages for
Previews and After Action Report
- Prompt submission of required paperwork
- Firmness & Fairness
- Player comments/complaints
- Scheduling Co-operation
- Playing vs Non-Playing GM status
- Accessability (hosts own web page or newsletters,
responsive to inquiries pre- & post-con)
- Bonus services above & beyond the call (newsletters, extra
prizes, supporting AREA, etc)
- Length or quantity of service (running multiple
events)
- Degree of Difficulty
Each member of the Board of Directors—armed
with the Convention Director's detailed recommendations—then
casts a weighted vote for each of the nominees
ranging from 12 points (most worthy) down to
1 point (least worthy)—thus ranking
the 12 nominees from top to bottom using his/her
own preferences as to the significance of each
category. This results in a maximum possible
score of 96 points and a minimum score of 12.
The Convention Director votes only as a tie-breaker.