Requesting and discussing, no. Certainly not. Bitching is another thing. And, no, I'm not accusing anyone.

But then what is that supposed to mean?

That implies some people are 'bitching' for bringing up an issue many of us have chatted about since the last URAs. I was even going to bring it up this year myself, but before I posted a little thought on that three people posted about the same issue. Maybe it's a good issue to chat about.

I read all the posts here and thought that people made good arguments (that I happen to agree with) and were quite polite and humourous. In the "spirit" of the URAs themselves.

If anybody disagrees with the points made by Meghan or anyone else, they can refute their arguments and let the people decide who they agree with. I felt like you were instead trying to put them down by saying: "it makes it seem all the sillier when people get their knickers in a twist over the rules over an ephemeral thing like internet awards. That's not important; real life is!"

Well duh, of course. Everybody knows that. That's why they aren't getting offended or pissed off, they're just lobbying for changes they think should be made in the awards they are a part of. I felt badly for Meghan and Tora when I read that. I can see how Meghan might have thought you were saying she and others who posted were being petty.


Frankly, I do not see it that way at all. I do have the right to make the rules, since the original URA people last year gave me the OK to do them myself.

The first URAs had no "rules", they were just starting out and who knew what was going on? It was messy and fun and very quick. The second URAs were more structured, but that's where the 'previous winners' rule came into play. I don't see any reason why at this early stage in the development of an awards ceremony why committee members or the community at large can't change rules if they want to. Now's the time for the people who have the experience in the URAs to set a standard of excellence to make something meaningful for all of us.

Meghan>> Not to sound harsh, but the rules of the URAs aren't yours to make.

Hmm. By that logic, the original URA committee didn't have any right to make rules either, since they were the awards of the fans. And I didn't have any right to make rules last year.

Okay maybe this is the crux of the problem.

The original "committee" there is mentioned as making rules (the few there were in the beginning!). Does the "committee" of fans involved in URA (Meghan etc) have a say or not?

Who has 'ownership', ie 'accountability'? If the URAs are Kim's, by virtue of having been passed on by the original ghosts of URA 1.0, then they're Kim's and nobody can quibble on issues even committee bean counters. That's fine. Let's just get that message out there so we can avoid hurt feelings.

If the URA are answerable to a larger committee, or even the fans in some kind of democratic process, then it's fair to give people a say and not be offended when they want to have that say.

I guess we just want to know which of the two options it's going to be and then we'll all understand.

Meghan>> I know that spearheading the URAs means a lot of work for you, Kim. All the more reason to turn to your committee!

There's a point we can agree on. As I have said before, the main task assigned to the committee (me included) is bean counting (mainly because if I were the only vote counter nobody would accept the results as unbiased!)

Here you seem to imply that you would do it all yourself, if not for the appearance of impropriety.

but it is not limited to that. If you want to help beyond that, tell me what your ideas are. Give me specifics. How would you go about doing what you want to do?

Meghan has already suggested something to do with ficlets and that sort. She's said a few times that you look like you are handling too much and she and others would take on whatever she could to help. You could try to delegate the things you have mentioned are overwhelming or a "headache". Committee members can't automatically know what needs to get done without your input, and committee members can't feel their opinions don't count, or worse, are bothersome ... at the very same time they're being told to "help".


People, please keep in mind that, as I have stated before, the URA thing is a lot of work for me. I have enough going on in real life as it is, and I'm under a lot of stress and pressure that I'm sure nobody wants to hear me bleat about. I've had an ulcer.

It's the holidays, all of our lives suck in various horrible ways. I wouldn't want all the work right now either, which is one good reason to turn to your committee and any volunteers for support. Besides the people here who have already promised to help, with doing a fic category or anything else, you'd only have to appeal on MG's forum and lots of people would take nominations or HTML text. Hanako could bully a hundred "neutral" newbies on her forum into helping at any time. They have no particular preferences in fics or sites yet, but are eager to join in a community activity. Then we can all deck the halls and sleep in heavenly peace!