2024 Carper Award community discussion

[theMoMA]

Each year, ACF awards up to two Carper Awards to honor individuals 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 a few 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 few years, the committee has recognized Kelly McKenzie, Mike Sorice, Jim Dendy, Chris Borglum, and Joe Su; the ACF membership vote has recognized Rob Carson, Alex Damisch, Matt Bollinger, Matt Jackson, and Edmund Dickinson in those same years.

I invite the community to suggest names for ACF's membership and the Carper committee to consider for the 2024 Carper Awards. These will just be suggestions rather than formal nominations, but we'll consider all the information carefully, and it will help us in our internal nomination and voting processes.

[Cheynem]

I'm unfortunately too far removed from the outreach/community service aspect of the college game, so the people I'm thinking of, while they obviously played a role in that, are more about recognizing their vast amount of writing/editing service:

John Lawrence--John is a meticulous, organized craftsman. Put him on a set and you know at least his categories are going to be run as a tight ship. He's produced a diverse array of sets, including some of my personal favorite side events.

Eric Mukherjee--Eric is extremely prolific, and has probably written or edited more science questions than anyone in quizbowl history. He's a very hard worker and has worn every hat possible when it comes to tournaments. I don't wish to embarrass him, but I would also say that he provided a good model of how to come back from a personal transgression.

Will Alston--Will is also very prolific--I feel like there was a time in which he was editing and writing for so many high quality collegiate sets that I was unsure of where he was getting his time. Will's also worn a lot of hats, from writer/editor/organizer/bon vivant, and while I don't tend to click with his sets, there's no question that they are high-quality. (For whatever reason...I do better on his side events.)

Ike Jose--It's a shame that I doubt Ike will ever win a Carper due to his ill-advised exit strategy. He poured out his heart and soul on the game. It's also a shame that some of his more idiosyncratic, harder sets might dominate public perception of him. He was also very prolific and assured in his writing and editing, and did a lot of NAQT work where it is harder to really have a personal flair.

Will Nediger--Will has written some of my favorite sets ever. His sets are always full of whimsy and invention. I wish I had a better way of judging his whole body of work, as I think those sets are so good that I can't think offhand of his other stuff. Will is also, I have to say, a lot funnier than any of these other candidates (and aside from Sam Bailey, funnier than anyone in quizbowl).

[quizbowlchamp1]

Here are my picks.

Eric Mukherjee - He is the best science player to ever live. He is one of the most prolific editors. Here is a list of all his sets. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z2_A5D ... 7UNFW/view

Jordan Brownstein- He's super underrated, but he deserves it. Phenomenal literature player. Great editor of sets including 2023 PACE and 2023 ACF Nats

These are the guys I think should win. Here are some other notable mentions.
Dwight Wynne
Ganon Evans
Guy Tabachnick
Ryan Westbrook

[Cheynem]

I'm not sure anyone thinks of Jordan as "super underrated," haha. I do think he should win this at some point, although I confess I wasn't around to play much of his collegiate sets.

Dwight, Ryan, and Ganon are all very deserving for various reasons.

I'm not sure why Guy is deserving; his involvement in quizbowl was fairly short, and I'm not even sure what his contributions were, to be honest.

[Adventure Temple Trail]

I'm not sure why Guy is deserving; his involvement in quizbowl was fairly short, and I'm not even sure what his contributions were, to be honest.

At the risk of very literally Remembering Some Guys:

Guy Tabachnick founded the Hunter College High School quizbowl team in 2006, which became a powerhouse very quickly and is still one to this day; as part of that, he also started Prison Bowl, which had (has?) a very long run as one of the best-regarded regular-plus housewrites with a nationwide mirroring audience. I personally think it's a big shame he never got the Benjamin Cooper Young Ambassador Award, the most appropriate award for those contributions, though their continuation very much informed Lily Chen's award in 2012.

He played and staffed for a few years after that at Brown, and did some generally-well-regarded subject editing while doing so (ACF Regionals 2012 being the main example), but my impression is he had largely moved onto other pursuits by his junior year (2011-12) and has largely stayed moved on since.

[Cheynem]

I should have clarified to ask about Guy's contributions to college quizbowl. I agree he would have been a deserving Young Ambassador winner for his work at Hunter. In terms of contributions specifically worthy of a Carper is what I am unsure about.

[quizbowlchamp1]

The main reason I put him in was
a.) he works for ACF and
b.) he was instrumental in writing the 2010 ACF Fall and 2012 ACF Regionals

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

The main reason I put him in was
a.) he works for ACF and
b.) he was instrumental in writing the 2011 NSC

Hey buddy, Guy did subject editing for I believe two ACF sets well over a decade ago and NSC is a high school tournament :)

I appreciate the enthusiasm though

[hokie168]

Have Dave Hamilton and Raj (Roger) Bhan been considered? Both of them edited ACF Nationals multiple times, from 1999 to 2003. The 2020s QB community is struggling with how few people are willing and able to edit difficult tournaments. This situation was much worse in the late-90s and early-00s.

These days, nobody thinks about head-editing a Nats-difficulty tournament without having a team of specialists to help edit categories they aren't completely comfortable with. As far as I know, Dave and Raj did most or all of it on their own.

ACF was also in a more tenuous, less-professional state then. I'm not sure how well the organization would have done had they had to skip a Nationals, so in some sense editing Nats was a key feature of keeping ACF alive.

The committee would have to do due diligence to make sure they haven't done anything problematic that I'm unaware of, but keeping in mind that it's been two decades since I've talked to him, Dave Hamilton always seemed like a good guy. I'm not sure I've ever interacted with Raj Bhan.

[ValenciaQBowl]

I'll second support for Raj Bhan as a very good Carper candidate from the Veteran's Committee (as it were). Raj played for Broward (Community) College (as it was known in the late 90s) before the CCCT existed, winning two Florida CC state titles, which means his team would very likely have been CCCT champs twice. And he's the rare player from our vibrant circuit who went on to be a real pillar of the larger quiz bowl committee. His "How to Get Good at This Game" was a quality early blueprint for new players who wanted to excel. I hope he'll be considered.