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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Time to nominate candidates for SPAH awards
Time to nominate candidates for SPAH awards
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WinslowYerxa
888 posts
Jun 19, 2015
3:45 PM
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Every year at its annual convention SPAH bestows awards on deserving players and organizations:
The only way anyone can win, though, is for a SPAH member to nominate them in writing.
This year's deadline is June 30.
To read the criteria for SPAH awards and nominate a deserving candidate, download the Awards package here, and start writing in praise of a worthy candidate:
http://090211d.membershipsoftware.org//Files/2015_Convention_Packet.zip
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
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Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Jun 19, 2015 3:48 PM
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WinslowYerxa
889 posts
Jun 21, 2015
9:25 AM
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There's still time.
Ever wonder why your favorite deserving player has never been honored? Maybe it's because nobody took the trouble to nominate him or her.
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
Deepen your playing at the Harmonica Collective
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The Iceman
2526 posts
Jun 21, 2015
9:42 AM
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Seeing as how SPAH membership is required in order to nominate, I'd be interesting in knowing how many members are also on this list as well as a feeling for demographics on SPAH memberships - age related, harmonica style related, etc.
If you are not getting many responses, you may want to reconsider some of your qualifying protocol, as this may be where the lack of nominee problems arises...
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The Iceman
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WinslowYerxa
890 posts
Jun 21, 2015
8:01 PM
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What do you mean by qualifying protocol?
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
Deepen your playing at the Harmonica Collective
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The Iceman
2531 posts
Jun 22, 2015
3:52 AM
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One qualifying protocol that has been in place for years is requirement to be a member of SPAH in order to make a nomination - how's that been working out for you?
Guess it's my way of saying that if you are not getting enough interest in the nomination process (which goes back many years, btw), perhaps there is something SPAH should do to change the situation rather than wait for the people to change.
Having answered your question, why not reciprocate and respond to mine?
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The Iceman
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florida-trader
713 posts
Jun 22, 2015
4:22 AM
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SPAH stands for the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica. It is by far the largest harmonica related organization in the US and probably one of the largest in the world. An annual membership costs a whopping $50.00. Just as I believe we should buy CD's and/or download music to support harmonica artists, I believe that everyone who cares about the harmonica as an instrument should be a member of SPAH.
Iceman - you are being deliberately provocative. If I read between the lines it would appear that this is a subject that has been previously discussed and the outcome was not what you wanted. You've been in the game a long time. Winslow has been in the game a long time. Is there a history?
As a card carrying member and supporter of SPAH (through advertising, vendors's booths, attendance of and leading workshops at the SPAH convention) I would be a bit peeved if the nomination process was open to non-members. What other organization opens itself to the potential nightmare of allowing non-members to participate in a decision making process - be that a nomination or other?
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
Last Edited by florida-trader on Jun 22, 2015 4:25 AM
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The Iceman
2533 posts
Jun 22, 2015
4:56 AM
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I am being deliberately provocative?
I'm just asking questions. I don't recall this subject being previously discussed. Perhaps Tom can point me to an old thread.
Of course there is a history. Both Winslow and I were very active in the early days of developing harmonica awareness from before days of internet chat groups. It is no secret that I used to be on SPAH BOD and was the Convention Director for three years.
Even back in the old days, nominations for awards was not very well supported. Of course, we had that same mind-set. One must be a member.
Here it is 15 years later and nothing much has changed, so I merely suggest that the flaw may be in the protocol.
Remember, no matter what is decided, there are always some that are peeved. However, organizations should evolve and problem solve issues if possible.
I am open to any solution, not just mine.
Tom, how would you solve this problem of non-interest in nomination of awards?
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The Iceman
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florida-trader
714 posts
Jun 22, 2015
7:27 AM
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Iceman - I do not see where anyone has articulated a "problem of non-interest in nomination of awards."
Winslow said, "Ever wonder why your favorite deserving player has never been honored? Maybe it's because nobody took the trouble to nominate him or her."
I don't read that as a non-interest. I read that as an encouragement to SPAH members to participate in the process. The non-interest is assumed on your part and now that I know your history (thanks for sharing that info - I was not aware of it) I can see why.
However, if it was a problem, then the solution would be be communication. In the good old days that would have meant snail mail but today it is far easier. I will say that the "powers that be" are much more on top of things this year than in years past. Phil Duncan and Manfred Wewers started communicating with me back in January about participating in SPAH this year as both a vendor and a seminar presenter. In previous years, things such as this were a little less organized, IMO. As of this moment, there are 46 seminars/workshops scheduled. I am looking forward to attending a lot of them.
So the simple answer to your question would simply be to encourage participation in the nominating process via emails, newsletters, tweets, etc. I do not believe that the solution would be to open the nomination process to non-members.
Just my 2 cents.
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
Last Edited by florida-trader on Jun 22, 2015 10:36 AM
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dougharps
950 posts
Jun 22, 2015
7:40 AM
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SPAH is the organization that will again be honoring some selected harmonica players with awards recognizing their contributions toward preserving and advancing harmonica. It makes perfect sense to me that you have to be a SPAH member to nominate someone for recognition by the organization.
I maintain my membership even when I am not attending the convention. The organization encompasses harmonica playing in a variety of genres, instruments, and ensembles. As in any organization that persists over time, there is an ongoing transition of generations in the membership, with the associated transition of popularity of genres and styles of play being recognized and awarded.
Every year I read the lists of prior recipients and thus far have found myself at a loss in trying to choose a nominee. I will review my packet to see if I can identify any individuals to nominate this year, before the deadline.
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Doug S.
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The Iceman
2534 posts
Jun 22, 2015
9:17 AM
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Yes, perhaps my info was wrong and I made an incorrect assumption.
For years, nominations would be minimal at best - 3 votes for A, 2 for B, 3 for C, 1 for D, etc.
Sitting on the BOD, we would actually decide in house, as the voting tally never gave a clear consensus.
If things are much better, I am glad.
Actually, Winslow should be able to clear up this discussion with a response.
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The Iceman
Last Edited by The Iceman on Jun 22, 2015 9:20 AM
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eharp
2279 posts
Jun 22, 2015
9:53 AM
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Florida-trader, Major League Baseball has nonmembers vote for awards.
I think the NBA does, too.
As well as other entertainment awards.
You brought me into this discussion.
I am NOT a member of SPAH, but do support the instrument and musicians whenever I can. I am on several forums. I have attended several conventions.
I was a member of SPAH for 1 year; the year I went to my 1st SPAH. That will be the only time I joined because I got ripped off by the ticket people. MY fault, I should have paid closer attention.
It was X amount for the ticket at the convention. Or, you could become a member for Y amount and the equivalent amount was discounted from your ticket price. I joined but did not get a discounted price.
When I caught it an hour later, I was told, basically, too bad. I wrote it off as still a good value for the convention. And I never received my magazines, either.
Anyway, being a member for that 1 year, I was never asked about nominations.
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florida-trader
715 posts
Jun 22, 2015
10:45 AM
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eharp - good points about MLB and NBA. I stand corrected.
Sorry to hear about your less-than-stellar experience with SPAH. I have no official capacity with SPAH. As mentioned above, I am just a card carrying member. However, your experience is a classic example of how easy it is to ruin the relationship with a good customer.
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
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WinslowYerxa
891 posts
Jun 22, 2015
11:49 AM
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In any campaign responses tend to be very low – 5 percent on a direct mail campaign is considered a glowing success. A more normal rate is 2 percent.
With 800-ish members, that would translate to around 16 nominations. I’ve never seen that many in a single year (though it’s come close once or twice) and, as always with a membership organization staffed by volunteers, apathy tends to run higher than one might wish.
Allowing non-members to make nominations could increase traffic, but my feeling is that it would be a non-starter with the present board and probably with members as well. Someone could start a campaign to nominate Justin Bieber for Harmonica Player of the Year. How many SPAH members would support that?
Award recipients have been decided by a variety of methods over the years, but in my experience, the number of nominations has never been a deciding factor. This is partly because response is so low and partly because number of nominations, while worthy of note, is not a leading indicator of merit. Rather, the merits of each nominee are carefully considered in relation to the criteria of the award and relative to the other nominees.
One tip for those considering making a nomination: Some nominators merely name their candidate but provide no supporting information or rationale. This doesn’t help their cause. If you believe in someone, make your case. The board is not all-knowing, although I tend to have a wider acquaintance than most and will make the case for some of the less well known nominees so that they may receive due consideration.
The board discusses and then votes on the written nominations submitted by SPAH members. Here’s how it works:
When nominations have been received, I verify the membership of each nominator and then vet the nominee for eligibility – have they been alive in the last 12 months? Have they received the same award previously? I prepare a table of nominees, their nominators, and their statements, and then forward these materials to the members of the board for their review. I then schedule a meeting where we discuss the merits of the qualified nominees (those that made the cut of being alive in the last 12 months and not a previous winner of that award) relative to the criteria for each award. We discuss the nominees, then take a series of votes and eventually agree on the recipients.
By the way, I do not allow board members to bring up new names for consideration in the meeting. All nominees must be nominated in writing by the deadline. Board members are bound by the same rules and procedures as all SPAH members.
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
Join us in Denver for a mile-high SPAH experience!
Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Jun 22, 2015 11:53 AM
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WinslowYerxa
892 posts
Jun 22, 2015
12:04 PM
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As to Larry's question about SPAH demographics, I don't have hard data at hand, but membership skews older, and for obvious reasons - older folks tend to have the available time and disposable income to come to conventions.
That said, we do have a younger contingent of teens and twenty-somethings who find a way to come to the convention, and we award up to five youth scholarships each year to cover the cost of registration and hotel stay for the scholarship awardees. We see some continued involvement as a result - our two youth coordinators this year, Grant Whitson and Kaleena Hutchins, are both previous scholarship recipients.
As to instrument types, that continues to shift. When Larry and I started attending SPAH conventions in the early 1990s, the majority of attendees played chromatic, chord, and bass harmonicas and many looked very unfavorably on the diatonic, the people who played it, and the "noise" they made with it. Now the chord and bass players are dying out - quite literally - and we've made an effort to promote those instruments via the Harmonica Band Reboot, with seminars to introduce new players to bass and chord and by encouraging performers to include bass and chord on one or two numbers in their performance sets. Chromatic as a main instrument is also now a minority although it still has a contingent of strong players, partly in the jazz community and also as an adjunct instrument in the blues community.
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
Join us in Denver for a mile-high SPAH experience!
Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Jun 22, 2015 12:05 PM
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Frank101
97 posts
Jun 22, 2015
3:08 PM
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WY - thank you for a very informative and well-considered response.
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WinslowYerxa
893 posts
Jun 22, 2015
3:54 PM
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By the way, this morning I received by snail mail a nomination that I'm pretty sure was in response to my online posts here and elsewhere.
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
Deepen your playing at the Harmonica Collective
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WinslowYerxa
894 posts
Jun 22, 2015
3:55 PM
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By the way, eharp, would yo contact me directly about the details of what happened to you with the SPAH convention. My email is myname(my actual name written as all one word)-at-yahoo.com
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
Deepen your playing at the Harmonica Collective
Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Jun 22, 2015 3:56 PM
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nacoran
8548 posts
Jun 22, 2015
6:59 PM
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Perhaps you could allow anyone to nominate but only members vote? That would keep Justin Bieber from getting serious consideration (I just learned Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran is a harp player, how weird?!)
I know some organizations have different levels of support too, and have ways to get involved even if you fall below the full membership level. I don't know all that much about what SPAH actually offers. I remember a couple years ago someone posting asking for nominations and going to the page and seeing the price and deciding not to join or participate, but again, that's my budget, not a reflection on the value. Price is often the gatekeeper on organizations and it can, for instance, help you keep Justin Bieber out of the running. :)
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
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WinslowYerxa
895 posts
Jun 23, 2015
10:13 AM
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Members nominate but don't vote (see my post above on how award recipients are chosen). AFAIK with things like the motion picture academy, etc., a small group always makes the final decision.
One potential difficulty with open nominations is the deluge (yeah, right!) of nominations that might be difficult for our small volunteer staff to process. Right now it's just me (not because I'm president but because I took on the task of reforming and updating the awards process before I was elected; I may continue to shepherd the process after I step down).
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
Deepen your playing at the Harmonica Collective
Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Jun 23, 2015 10:13 AM
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Rontana
121 posts
Jun 23, 2015
10:51 AM
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"Someone could start a campaign to nominate Justin Bieber for Harmonica Player of the Year. How many SPAH members would support that?"
They wouldn't have to worry about it, because
"When nominations have been received, I verify the membership of each nominator and then vet the nominee for eligibility"
So, wisely, it sounds like the board uses common sense to determine if a nomination is justified. Open the nominations to the public, and you might get names like Yogi Bear, Spongebob, the Bieb, and Bob Dylan. Obviously you could just throw three of those out (I mean . . . if ever there was a blues bear, it's Yogi).
Open voting to the public, and publicize it on the forums, and you might see an uptick in membership. When people feel they are interacting, even in a small manner, their personal investment sometimes deepens to the point of parting with folding green. They begin to feel they're a part of something.
Just food for thought . . . I'm not a member either.
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America's foremost Demotivational Speaker.
Co-Founder of the Demotivational Organization of Missouri (D.O.O.M.)
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WinslowYerxa
896 posts
Jun 23, 2015
11:05 AM
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Thanks, Rontana. While the original intent of this thread was to get members of their duffs, it's interesting to hear more open-ended ideas.
Yogi the blues bear. Interesting connection. He was definitley the hippest bear in the park.
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
Deepen your playing at the Harmonica Collective
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The Iceman
2539 posts
Jun 23, 2015
11:06 AM
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Rontana...
now, that's what I'm talking about. Great concept and justification.
Hopefully SPAH will embrace this bold and creative suggestion.
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The Iceman
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timeistight
1798 posts
Jun 23, 2015
12:21 PM
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I've read the nomination packet but I'm still a bit unsure about the criteria for each award.
Winslow, could you please briefly describe each award and maybe given an example of a successful nomination from a previous year?
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WinslowYerxa
897 posts
Jun 23, 2015
1:35 PM
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OK, timeistight.
The award packet states the criteria for each award (Page 3), and also lists all previous recipients of each award (Pages 5, 7, and 9). Award recipients are also listed here on the SPAH website: SPAH Award Recipients
However, I'll give a summary and some highlights here.
The Bernie Bray Harmonica Player of the Year Award is for excellence in playing the harmonica, preferably for some notable achievement in the last 12 months. For years this was SPAH's only award and was given, in my view, with no regard to the actual criteria. Recent famous recipients who do fit the criteria include Howard Levy, Brendan Power, and Toots Thielemans.
The Pete Pedersen Lifetime Achievement Award is for achievements over a long period that may be considered the equivalent of a lifetime. Excellence in playing is desirable but equally important are engagement in preserving and advancing the harmonica and sharing of knowledge (these last two disqualified Toots Thielemans when he was nominated because he doesn't share or engage with the harmonica community). Past recipients include Charlie McCoy, Buzz Krantz, Charlie Musselwhite, and James Cotton.
The SPAH Award of Special Merit can be given to organizations as well as to individuals who are not harmonica players, and is given for having benefited the harmonica community in a manner that is deserving of singular honor. Past recipients include Martin Haeffner (director of the Deutsches Harmonikamuseum in Trossingen), bluegrass player Mike Caldwell, harp-l. and Slidemeister harmonica forums (though the last two were erroneously omitted from the list in the packet).
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Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com
Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff
Deepen your playing at the Harmonica Collective
Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Jun 23, 2015 1:40 PM
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