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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dextra" data-source="post: 4393675" data-attributes="member: 5705">To chime in...There's an interesting paradigm shift that seems to have been re-occuring over the past few years in the gaming community as more gamers are getting married and having kids.  Finally, the judging panel has started to reflect that.  This year one judge is married to a staffer (who is running for judge for next year), and another judge (who was a former staffer) is dating a staffer.  Not that getting to be an ENnies judge or staffer is a great opportunity to meet people to date- it's that people want to bring their significant others into the experience.  It's very important for a judge or any staff member to have the unequivocal support of his or her family.  When I asked the new submissions coordinator if he was interested to take on the position, I made sure that his wife, also a friend of mine, was behind him 100%.  Some people have questioned if I'm for this, and I can assure you, I am fully behind my chosen life partner.I cannot think of any other person I know with such a breadth and depth of knowledge of gaming systems (well, I guess the more experienced judges have seen a lot recently, but if it was released in the past 25 years, chance are he's played it, read it, or (unfortunately for my dusting) owns it.  He has an entire family clamouring for him to run games, and various gaming groups trying to horn in on the family gaming time.  As some have pointed out, some issue or individual has to raise a stink about the Awards.  And if a democratically-selected judge is the centre of this year's controversy, that's the least of my worries.  The only headache I'm really worried about is if someone submits another Ptolus-esque tome.  Hound tends to put whatever book he's reading on the headboard of our bed, and our cats frequently knocks over whatever is up there onto my face in the middle of the night.  As the Business Manager, I oversee all aspects of the Awards as the middle-person between the staff and the owner.  I do not hand out money or privileges to the judges.  Each judge gets the pile of books and an ENnies pass, that's it that's all.  In the interests of propriety, however, I have asked that a third party with a proven track record for valueing democratic process take over as returning officer for the judging panel elections.  I believe that so long as a judge candidate is up front about their potential conflicts, and with the oversight of a neutral observer for returning officer, it should be up to the people to decide.</blockquote>

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