What's This? A New Board? (The 2018 Diamond Awards Are Here!)

[Don Boyer]

Good morning, everyone!

You might have noticed, if you were paying attention, that there's a new sub-board of the Playing Card Plethora.  It's dedicated to the 2018 Diamond Awards.

All members of 52 Plus Joker get to vote in the annual Diamond Awards, which are generally held in late summer - this year, voting begins today, August 1st, and concludes on Saturday, September 8th at 12:01 am Eastern time (04:01 UTC).  Three awards are given out at the Gala Dinner, scheduled for Saturday, October 13th, which closes the 52 Plus Joker Annual Convention, to be held this year in Cleveland, Ohio.  Those awards are:

• The Dawson Award - for major lifetime contributions to the hobby of collecting American playing cards.
• Playing Card Artist of the Year
• Playing Card Deck of the Year

The first award is selected by the Board of Directors of 52 Plus Joker, while the remaining two are voted on by the membership.  A list of nominees for those two awards is selected by the Diamond Awards Committee, five for each award, and you'll see topics dedicated to those nominees in that sub-board.  Artist of the Year nominees who are also up for Deck of the Year have a single topic to cover both nominations.

While forum users who aren't in the club aren't eligible to vote, you are all free to look at the topics and make posts discussing the nominees.  The artists themselves have all been invited to join in the discussion and answer any questions you may pose for them as well as to promote their work and encourage people to vote for them.

If you aren't in 52+J and want to vote, it's not too late to join!  Head over to 52plusjoker.org now and sign up!  Click here to see a list of the benefits of membership and click here to sign up now.

[Don Boyer]

ADDENDUM: If you are a 52 Plus Joker member and do not receive an email from Lee Asher today telling you where to find the Google Forms ballot, FIRST, check your email account's spam folder in case it got "stuck" there, THEN log into the club website and CHECK YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!  Invitations are being sent to the email addresses we have on record.  At least one club member last year did not receive their ballot because they either failed to update or simply MISSPELLED their email address!

Contact ME to get a copy of the link AFTER you've verified your address - Lee might not be available as he's preparing to leave the country on business.  I will check for your name and email on the club roster and, once verified, will send you the link.

[Don Boyer]

And before I forget...

I'd like to say a special, deeply-felt THANK YOU to the members of the Diamond Awards Committee who participated in the nominee selection process and made it run as smoothly as silk.  They all helped with selecting potential nominees and then voting to determine which of them would become the nominees that appear on your ballot.  Your help was very much appreciated!!!

Listed here by their forum screen names and real names, in no particular order:
Eddie Hughlett
RandyButterfield
JenniferDawson
pokereaq (Lee Donelson)
kplittle89 (Kelsey Binford, formerly Kelsey Little)
Thedoc318 (Mike Wilson)
Cardfool (Sherman Tsao)
PrincessTrouble (Andrea Whitlock)
quinn1295 (Mike Quinn)

As a side note for everyone's edification, when selecting potential nominees and later voting for them to become nominees and appear on the ballot, people who created eligible works or were involved in playing card projects (such as producers, consultants, etc.) are NOT permitted to nominate their own work, nor are they permitted to vote for their own work to appear on the ballot as a nominee.  They may ask other members to vote for their work, but electioneering is as far as it goes - and for the record, there was NO electioneering that took place on this year's committee.  After the nomination process is completed and the ballot is set, they're free to vote for whatever they wish, including their own work!  The entire selection process is handled in topics on a closed board accessible by forum staff and Diamond Awards Committee members only.

WE'RE SEEKING VOLUNTEERS FOR NEXT YEAR'S DIAMOND AWARDS COMMITTEE!  Contact me for more information.  Just ask anyone who participated this year - the process is pretty simple and rather painless, taking relatively little time and effort, just a passion for and knowledge of modern playing cards...