The 'Shroom talk:Issue 188/Awards Director Election

__NONEWSECTIONLINK__ Awards Director Election

Here is where you can post your campaign! Have fun, and good luck!

Roserade/Superchao
Greetings, beautiful Awards nomination readers! My name is Rose, and with the omnipresent Perch by my side, we are running for Director positions for the 2023 Awards Season. Our community continues to be an exciting and immensely creative place to reside, and with this nomination, I hope to assist in further fostering that environment. Without formal words, I love the people here, and I want to give back where I can. Hardly anything compares to the feeling of a fun Awards Season, so taking the helm is a thrilling prospect.

Hey, it's me, Perch! If you're looking at this, you know who I am and what I do. That's all I really need. So Rose gets to say the rest!

Although the two of us are technically running for Directorship positions, we want to explore a new opportunity for Awards Committee leadership during 2023. Simply put, the task of being the Awards Director is a task that can be hard for any one or two user(s) to meet, due to its high degree of responsibility and investment. In conversation with other community members, a running thread emerged: multiple people are interested in leadership for the Awards Committee, but no one feels fully capable of inheriting the role of Awards Director and all the responsibilities associated with it. In response to this, we took the opportunity to brainstorm and dialogue, and we have developed what we feel might be a valuable solution. Rather than have the tasks primarily designated to Directors, we would like to introduce a group leadership component into the Committee.

Call it what you like – Board of Directorship, Group of Executives, Awards Parliament, The Clowncil – but the main function of this group would be to ensure an equitable and successful distribution of tasks and responsibilities. For instance, while I may formally carry the position of Director and work to coordinate the Committee’s formation and activities, I might not be the one to run meetings, or tally results to distribute. I might instead choose to focus on community outreach and preparation for the ceremony as my primary tasks. In this way, I could be seen as a member of group leadership, rather than “The Director.” Moving into this mode would allow a support system between users, wherein they can contribute to Awards Directorship with their individual strengths while also having the space to apply their energy where they feel most comfortable. It would also provide greater support in all areas, because without anyone being spread too thin, they could have more opportunity to help another leader who needs support. Truthfully, this is not much different from the systems that are already in place – current Awards Consultants are capable of sharing responsibilities in tasks, should the Director seek them out for assistance. The intent here, then, is to put more emphasis on a distribution of responsibilities, ensuring that this is directly integrated to our structure rather than acting as an emergency resource to fall back on.

Due to the nature of this arrangement, we also want to be transparent that we have not currently decided the other members who will be part of this leadership group. We are not yet aware of who will be fulfilling which responsibilities, a decision process that, should we be elected, we will approach moving into next year, as we will be trying to draw from people interested in the Awards Committee and who are aiming to participate with a greater level of work in Awards.

Ultimately, we hope that this structural change will have inherent benefits for everyone involved in the Committee, and might serve as a sustainability model for future Awards seasons to come. Of course, as with any new framework, our setup will experience growing pains, so please feel free to ask us questions or start up a dialogue if you’d like to hear more or discuss concerns!

Other Ideas and Goals

The following are further considerations we have with our campaign:
 * Intentionally schedule time for Awards conversations beyond polls: In this year’s meeting schedule, nearly all time was dedicated to preparing the polls, without much room for other discussion. Next year, we intend to create space to discuss commitments, responsibilities, and structural ideas, particularly at the front end of the Awards Season. This will help ensure that members are comfortable with their workload, and that any ideas can be heard and discussed fully.
 * Make adjustments to voting and presentation timeframes: This year, we received excellent feedback from community members, particularly former Awards Director, about how to improve the scheduling for the Awards Season. The idea was proposed to shorten the window for voting, which would help mitigate potential issues with users re-voting in polls, as well as give a greater window of time for users to create presentations. We adore this idea, and will continue to discuss and explore the possibility moving into Awards 2023.
 * Be cognizant of community energy for Awards: Lots of discussion followed this year’s season in regards to community burnout and whether the event was larger than necessary. Though we do not have concrete plans set in stone, we will absolutely be open to conversation and action that can help mitigate these issues. Ideas such as downsizing the number of awards, receiving widespread community input on what users believe they’ll contribute to the Awards Season, and similar solutions have all been proposed, and we intend to seriously consider them.
 * Continue utilizing a specialized Awards Discord server: We found this choice to be remarkably effective during this last Awards Season, and we will continue to work with the idea.
 * Explore more methods for unique Awards aesthetics: Ideas were presented this year on unique ways to make certain facets of Awards feel more aesthetically fun, such as decorating the Discord server in a particular way or creating special advertisements on the Boards. We intend to explore these ideas.
 * Continue efforts to renew Awards polls: A large effort was spent on reassessing the necessity or relevancy for certain Awards polls, and we intend to keep that conversation consistent throughout this upcoming year.
 * Do all the other things: We will do all the other things.

If elected, we will strive to make an amazing Awards Season for all community members. Thank you so much for reading, and we hope to see you next year!

Votes

 * 1) Right now this is my vote as I find Roserade and Superchao to have more experience, with Roserade having some good ideas even when not part of the Poll Committee during my work then, and Superchao being the most active in moderation out of the forum moderators. I’ll need to see every candidate running to determine if this will be my final vote, however. Especially as Roserade has been unresponsive to some of my (admittedly in private and informal) Discord messages based on me asking questions and responsiveness is an important characteristic to have no matter what.
 * 2) Roserade will, I am fully confident, make an excellent Awards Director. He not only contributes all over the community, with a good knowledge of what people are doing and what catches their interest, but he has extensive experience encouraging people to get involved and managing projects. I trust he knows his limits, and really knows how to divide up the workload effectively to make Awards a smooth process that, hopefully, leaves no one person in too much of a bind despite the workload.
 * 3) – Per Pito.