The Brian Guilmant Memorial Award 2021

[The Sales Team]

       
      THE BRIAN GUILMANT MEMORIAL AWARD

After Brian died last year it was agreed that it would be good to set up an annual award to help keep his memory and legacy alive among the Society's membership. For the first Award it was agreed that it would be made to the author of the article appearing in the 009 News during 2020 which was judged the most encouraging and/or inspirational to the average Society modeller. Obviously this is largely a subjective and personal judgment which is why it was decided to give all the membership an opportunity to help decide the winner.

The Sales Team were charged with compiling a shortlist of five articles (as the forum only allows for five options in a poll) and these appear above. Every member is entitled to vote and each member has up to three votes, which you are free to award as you choose. Voting will end by 28th February (so the winner can hopefully be announced in the next issue of the News). The prize will be a £50 voucher for the author of the winning article to spend with Society Sales (we thought it's what Brian would have wanted!)

Please encourage other members who may not visit the forum so frequently to come and vote so that the views of as many members can be represented as possible.

The Sales Team.

[The Sales Team]

At the time of writing, it seems that 34 members have cast 63 votes - which is an average of fewer than two each. It's curious that clearly not everyone is using their three allowed votes - maybe no-one feels strongly enough about any of the articles? (The original intention was that votes could be distributed among more than one option but it seems that this is not allowed - perhaps this has deflected some votes?)

The Sales Team.

[Frank]

To be honest, I saw the poll and voted.   I  did not notice the fact that I had three votes until after I had voted and submitted my (single) vote.

Frank

[The Sales Team]

No worries, Frank - the idea was that folk could spread their votes around if they wanted to. Sadly, I think that if you've voted once you don't get a second chance!

The Sales Team.

[MickT]

I have some feedback comments to make David but as this poll is still ongoing, it is probably in the category of "how can the award be tuned to improve the number of members who participate next time" etc, and whilst this inaugural poll is still "live" I don't think it is appropriate to fire up a big debate until afterwards,  so I have sent my own comments to you by email.

Mick

[Barry Witteridge]

I have only been a member since November so have not seen all the articles nominated so didn't feel it was correct to vote on articles I hadn't seen, so only cast two votes.
Barry

[Webmaster]

NOTE : ALL THE 2020 009 NEWS BACK ISSUES ARE IN THE MEMBERS' ARCHIVE ON THE WEBSITE

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

I just gave one vote to my favorite thinking it was the best way of helping it win.  I didn't realize I could have given it three.

[MickT]

I just gave one vote to my favorite thinking it was the best way of helping it win.  I didn't realize I could have given it three.

That is a very interesting interpretation and raises further questions about the whole thing! I understand from what has been published on the original post that each member may each cast up to 3 votes spread amongst the 5 shortlisted "entries" to the competition, in other words, pick your own top 3 out of the 5 and give them a vote each. I don't believe that it was ever intended to have up to 3 votes per member which may be all given to one article!

However, reading the original post again, I can see how you might have interpreted it this way as there is nothing to say you can't do that. Has anyone actually given their 3 votes to one entrant and indeed is it technically possible to do that? If it is, then we could be in for a Donald Trump "fake votes" riot and a storming of 009 Towers!!

Mick

[clayliner]

Why not give three votes to one option if you feel it deserves them? (I gave two to one choice.)

David.

[MickT]

If it is technically possible to do that then why wasn't it made clear at the outset?

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

While I wish I had tried to give three votes to my choice, and agree that the process could have been clearer (or improved by only allowing one overall vote), I am sure that it is very difficult to get these things spot on on the first go.

It will be a great memorial year after year, and giving recognition to a best article is a great aim too.

[The Sales Team]

If it is technically possible to do that then why wasn't it made clear at the outset?

The opening post clearly said: "each member has up to three votes, which you are free to award as you choose" which wouldn't seem to suggest any restrictions on how or where members place their vote.

When you set up a poll you are asked how many votes each member should have. For reasons I won't go into here we opted for three per member. If the forum software doesn't allow that in practice that's a technical issue beyond our control, I'm afraid.

If we'd just allowed one vote per member, Tom, I'm sure people would now be queueing up to say how much better it would have been to have had multiple votes!

The Sales Team.

[Julian Evison]

This is the first time we have run this and clearly we have lessons to learn for any future memorial award. Thanks to everyone who has taken part so far and I look forward to a winner being declared after the poll closes on 28th February.

Regards, Julian (Chairman)

[The Sales Team]

Voting in the first Brian Guilmant Memorial Award competition is now closed and we are happy to confirm Hugh Milward as the worthy winner with his multi-part article 'Bridges'. This series kept us entertained through much of 2020 and provided a masterclass in layout design and construction with plenty of inspiration for other members planning a new layout (i.e. many of us, if only in our imagination!) Whoever has bought the layout (assuming he has sold it as he said he planned to) will have made a very well documented acquisition.

Hugh, congratulations and as your prize you can now consider yourself £50 in credit with 009 Sales to spend as and when you choose, just as soon as the service re-opens (hopefully quite soon now). Please remind us when you place your order!

At the same time our commiserations to the other short-listed nominations for the award, and thanks to all those members who made the effort to revisit the contending articles and cast their votes.

We apologise for the glitches which became apparent this year but as members will appreciate this is the first time we have run this competition and hopefully another time the process will be smoother; we will look carefully at how we can improve it, particularly getting more involvement from members.

Perhaps the most important outcome has been the reminder of Brian and his long and valuable contribution the the life of the Society, which was the original intention of the Award.

The Sales Team.