2022 Carper Award community discussion

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2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by theMoMA »

Each year, ACF awards up to two Carper Awards to honor people who have, over their quizbowl careers, sustained and enriched collegiate academic competitions. One of those awards is (as it has been since 1999) decided by membership vote, and the other (created four years ago) is decided by a committee of former Carper winners who are members of ACF.

Although there are no stringent eligibility criteria (such as number of years since retirement from active play, etc.), the committee award is meant to recognize the contributions of people whom the membership vote has overlooked. Because of the passage of time, it may not occur to the present ACF membership to nominate people who have made a lasting impact on college quizbowl in more remote times, and these are the people we're especially looking to honor with the committee award. In the past three years, the committee has recognized Kelly McKenzie, Mike Sorice, and Jim Dendy.

In response to an excellent idea from the ACF membership, I'd like to invite the community to suggest names for the committee to consider for its 2022 Carper Award. (We have already nominated a slate of finalists for the membership vote.) These will just be suggestions rather than formal nominations, but we'll consider all the information carefully, and it will us in our internal nomination and voting process. Suggestions before February 1 will be particularly helpful. Thanks in advance!
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Cheynem »

These are the previous winners, for reference:

[I am assuming that you cannot win this Carper award if you already won an ACF membership Carper--I do not know if this is true, to be clear.]

Previous winners:

1999: Dr. N. Gordon Carper
2000: Dr. Carol Guthrie
2001: Dr. Robert Meredith
2002: not presented
2003: Eric Hillemann
2004: Don Windham and Gaius Stern
2005: Charlie Steinhice
2006: R. Robert Hentzel
2007: Andrew Yaphe
2008: Chris Sewell
2009: Ezequiel Berdichevsky
2010: Subash Maddipoti
2011: Dr. Seth Teitler
2012: Jeff Hoppes
2013: Matt Weiner
2014: Dr. Susan Ferrari
2015: Dr. Jerry Vinokurov
2016: Andrew Hart
2017: Jonathan Magin
2018: Mike Bentley
2019: Rob Carson and Kelly McKenzie
2020: Alex Damisch and Mike Sorice
2021: Matt Bollinger and Jim Dendy
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Cheynem »

There are many modern/active people who are widely deserving of a Carper, but I assume these are pretty known to ACF membership.

Can some oldsters comment on Matt Keller's candidacy? He seems like he was one of the most respected writers/editors for a few years before (at least to my knowledge) disappearing from the game around 2010. If I'm missing stuff he's doing, I'd like to know.

I myself would like to push for Ryan Westbrook. Ryan acquired (through his own making, somewhat) a reputation as an eccentric who posts poorly. But he was one of the best editors of his era, producing many acclaimed tournaments and events.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

Cheynem wrote: Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:09 pm I myself would like to push for Ryan Westbrook. Ryan acquired (through his own making, somewhat) a reputation as an eccentric who posts poorly. But he was one of the best editors of his era, producing many acclaimed tournaments and events.
Has the Ryan Westbrook era truly ended? The guy has had a freakishly long career as an editor of high-level tournaments and either adapted to or juked around many fads, trends, etc. that came and went during that time.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by reindeer »

Cheynem wrote: Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:09 pm There are many modern/active people who are widely deserving of a Carper, but I assume these are pretty known to ACF membership.
Please feel free to discuss these people anyway! It helps us to know who the community wants to recognize, even if they might seem like "obvious" choices.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Cheynem »

As far as I know, Ryan hasn't worked on any tournaments in a while.

In terms of modern candidates (these comments will be short):

Matt Jackson seems a no-brainer. An extremely good writer and editor and very much a force for promoting good quizbowl.

While Ike Jose had a rather problematic exit strategy, Ike was also a very prolific and talented writer/editor.

Kevin Wang has had an extremely influential impact on the broader community of quizbowl through maintaining the Discord chat server and through his diligent work at improving Qbwiki.

Those immediately come to mind. There are obviously many others, probably many who have even stronger arguments that I will leave to those more capable of explaining them.

I would like to see ACF recognize someone in Canada or the U.K. for their work in dramatically improving those collegiate circuits in recent years. I do not know who specifically offhand though, so perhaps someone who has more knowledge of those locations can weigh in.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Gene Harrogate »

Cheynem wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 3:14 pm I would like to see ACF recognize someone in Canada or the U.K. for their work in dramatically improving those collegiate circuits in recent years. I do not know who specifically offhand though, so perhaps someone who has more knowledge of those locations can weigh in.
If any Canadian deserves a lifetime achievement award, it's surely Joe Su, who I think most Canadians would agree has been the most important force for quizbowl in Canada in the past 10 years. Besides basically building the McGill club Joe has:

-Rescued the eastern half of the circuit (Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal) through outreach, communication, and directing all sorts of tournaments (for other clubs!). Carleton novice was Joe's project, and gave me (and many other non-Torontians) their start in collegiate quizbowl.
-Been a primary staffer at pretty much every Canadian event from 2013-2022--no mean feat when Waterloo and McMaster are a 5 hour train ride plus an hour car ride away!
-Run stats for those tournaments (promptly and accurately) and taught others how to run stats.
-Been the main connector to collegiate quizbowl for a high school circuit that's still mostly stuck on Reach for the Top.
-Been an essential part (possibly the driving force, I'm not sure) of high school quizbowl's growth in Canada.

Joe knows someone from every club, dispenses much advice in anything related to quizbowl, and has been in some way involved in every major Canadian quizbowl development of the past 10 years or so. He's also done plenty of writing and editing work, but, to my mind, that sort of thing isn't as important for a circuit as outreach and logistics. He's been a true mentor and friend to many.

Joe's dialed back his involvement a bit now that he's teaching full time. That's the circuit's loss, but it's in a position to surive to a large degree because of Joe's efforts.

Some other names that come to mind are Aaron Dos Remedios, Meghan Torchia, and Brendan McKendy, who are all valuable long-time contributors who usually choose running things over playing. Joe, though, is unique in the sheer quanity and geographic scope of his efforts.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Cheynem »

Thanks for posting this--I think Joe is an extremely worthy candidate.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Red Panda Cub »

Edmund Dickinson is the stand-out candidate for a UK Carper nominee. Alongside Kyle Haddad-Fonda, he's the most important person in the early-mid '10s revival in British quizbowl. His chief contribution is probably the many years he spent heading up the arduous Briticisation efforts needed to make NAQT sets appropriate for the British Student Quiz Championships and various universities' intramural quiz events. On top of that, he is of course a regular and excellent staffer at various events, and has contributed excellent questions to several tournaments.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by wd4gdz »

Chris Borglum has done some stuff for (community) colleges in Florida and beyond.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by adosreme »

Echoing Henry above, if there was ever a case to be made for a member of the Canadian circuit, there is no doubt in my mind that it should be for Joe Su. His enthusiasm towards promoting quizbowl in Canada at both the University and High School levels, the latter of which has become nearly non-existent since the pandemic began, is unmatched by anyone I've encountered in over a decade on the circuit. The man lives and breathes quizbowl and nobody on the Canadian circuit deserves it more than Joe.

I'd also like to briefly mention Erik Christensen and his contributions to the Canadian circuit. While I agree with Henry regarding the relative importance of writing for this award, I don't think there is anyone who has taken as keenly to it as Erik. He constantly contributes to producing wider circuit tournaments, has solo-written multiple side events, headed the best trash tournament I've ever played, and has maintained Canadian Hybrid for probably 3-4 years running by now (including taking a bunch of new writers under his wing for 2022).
wd4gdz wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:39 am Chris Borglum has done some stuff for (community) colleges in Florida and beyond.
When I decided to make a visit to Orlando for a summer tournament on a whim, Chris was nothing but welcoming (you too, Billy!). Also a very deserving candidate.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Slightly Less British »

Seconding everything Joey has said above. Simply put, there would not be a British circuit today without the efforts Edmund has put in over the years, and while I understand there's not much chance of any Brits getting an award from ACF he is head and shoulders above any other people you could think to nominate in terms of worthiness of recognition. There are probably about five or six people whose organisational acumen has at various times kept the British circuit going and in a good and healthy shape over the last ten years, and who deserve some kind of award; I think every single one of them would agree Edmund deserves it most of all.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Mike Bentley »

Cheynem wrote: Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:09 pm Can some oldsters comment on Matt Keller's candidacy? He seems like he was one of the most respected writers/editors for a few years before (at least to my knowledge) disappearing from the game around 2010. If I'm missing stuff he's doing, I'd like to know.
As far as I know, he moved out to Seattle around 2008, played one or two UW tournaments, then retired from quizbowl.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by LoganMathis »

As someone who came from the community college scene, it wouldn't be possible without the handful of passionate coaches who put on tournaments and create regional circuits (KCQRL and the state-wide regionals in Kansas) that keep the small scene alive (Chris Borglum, Peter Rodski, Dianne Flickinger, etc) Given that I'm from the midwest, my experiences have primarily been with Rodski, who has always offered tournaments at cheaper prices with better accommodations and prizes than the large universities I have been to in my college career.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Ewan MacAulay »

Red Panda Cub wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:02 am Edmund Dickinson is the stand-out candidate for a UK Carper nominee. Alongside Kyle Haddad-Fonda, he's the most important person in the early-mid '10s revival in British quizbowl. His chief contribution is probably the many years he spent heading up the arduous Briticisation efforts needed to make NAQT sets appropriate for the British Student Quiz Championships and various universities' intramural quiz events. On top of that, he is of course a regular and excellent staffer at various events, and has contributed excellent questions to several tournaments.
I'll also back Dr. Edmund Dickinson, as would I think everyone who has played quizbowl in Britain in the past decade. As Joey and Frances have said, his writing, editing and organisational efforts have been vital in maintaining and expanding the UK circuit.

Edmund has also gone out of his way to try and build bridges between different spheres of the British quizzing world - wokring to keep alumni involved, going out of his way to find teammates for new players, and talking down certain British quizzers from their most vicious "anti-quizbowl" tirades.

Although it might not be usual for ACF to honour nominees from outside the USA, on this side of the Atlantic at least Edmund is the standout candidate.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

I think one of (Ike, Matt Jackson) is a no-brainer.

I would also very strongly endorse a UK candidate, with Edmund being around long enough that he might reasonably be a fit for the "older" Carper? I know that's largely intended for folks from bygone QB eras, but Edmund seems more than deserving.
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Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion

Post by Good Goblin Housekeeping »

naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:57 pm I think one of (Ike, Matt Jackson) is a no-brainer.

I would also very strongly endorse a UK candidate, with Edmund being around long enough that he might reasonably be a fit for the "older" Carper? I know that's largely intended for folks from bygone QB eras, but Edmund seems more than deserving.
With all due respect towards the corpus of Ikes work I think he has done enough harm that I can’t ever think of him as a serious candidate
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