Award Show Committees: Improve Selection Processes With Online Voting

Review committees for award shows face a daunting task:

How can they narrow down a huge pool of nominees into something from which their voting constituencies can reasonably choose a winner?

Groups like the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (aka the Emmys) have to reduce a submissions list with potentially hundreds of TV episodes into a far more manageable list of four to seven nominees (depending upon the category). The same goes for the Grammys and the Oscars.

That process can be daunting even for shows that aren’t as large as the Emmys or the Oscars.

Online Voting Can Help Review Committees

An Overview

With an online balloting platform, those who are submitting plays, shows, or songs have the opportunity to provide relevant information, such as biographies, photos, and statements. Your review board can see all that with a simple click and can browse it at their leisure.

Online voting with eBallot allows your review committee to vote on nominees from anywhere. As long as they have access to the Internet, they can cast a vote. For large organizations with voters in many regions, this allows review committee members to perform their tasks without having to gather in a central location.

Online voting can also keep your nomination criteria in a prominent position on the ballot while your review committee makes its selections. Having the criteria so prominent can help your committee make the best choices while voting.

theatreWashington: A Real-World Example of Nominee Selection

In 2016, theatreWashington judges attended 200 theatre productions across Washington, DC, including 41 world premieres. They needed to view all of the shows that were eligible for their prestigious Helen Hayes Awards.

With so much time and energy spent on just reviewing submissions or potential candidates, they also needed to narrow down their selections as quickly and easily as possible.

They ended up reviewing committee votes on the submissions, and then choosing the nominees from among those who received the most votes.

Best Practices For Online Balloting

Check out our Award Show Review Committee use case page to review the best practices for online voting. Key points include the following:

• Require a response to each category. Make sure that your committee doesn’t accidentally miss reviewing a category by requiring them to respond to a question before being allowed to submit their vote.

• Set ballot anonymity to “Not Anonymous.” Holding an open ballot allows for a transparent review process that can be documented at any time for a governing body.

• Send reminder emails. Collect as many responses as you can from your review committee members by sending out emails to remind them to vote on submissions.

Does your award show review committee need some assistance narrowing down submissions to a good list of nominees? Help them out with online voting through eBallot.