Competitions Behaving Badly

One of my pet peeves, as someone who fairly frequently enters composition contests, is the professionalism and respect that some of these competition organizers seem to lack.

I recently was made aware of the results of two competitions I had entered over the last few months, and the stark contrast between the two made me mad. I even sent an email praising the application process to the organizers of the first competition after I entered because they tried so hard to have each applicant remain anonymous (they even wanted the bios to be anonymous, which is somewhat impossible but a valiant effort nonetheless, as it makes it more likely that compositions will be selected based on merit alone). Some other great competitions email you to inform you that they have received your application and sometimes even include the date of when they will make decisions (and these are usually the same ones that send timely notifications of the results). The best competitions send semi-personalized rejection (or acceptance) emails in addition to the larger announcement, as opposed to the ones that merely send a mass email with the winners to inform you that you haven’t won, although that is far better than no notification whatsoever.

These competitions are all professional, respectful, and a pleasure to enter (as much as it can ever be a pleasure to enter a competition). The fact that they take the time to let me know what’s going on indicates to me that they value the time I spent putting together an application (not to mention the time it took to write the piece!), and therefore take me seriously as a composer. People who take the time to send rejection notifications, whether it is for a competition you didn’t win or a job you didn’t get, are usually good people. They care to let you know that you didn’t make it (and sometimes even feel quite bad about it!), instead of letting you just wonder and eventually find out from someone else, or not at all.

So now that I’ve praised many of the great competitions I’ve entered, here are some common transgressions I have noticed in not-so-great competitions:

• Neglecting to send out notifications of any kind to the people who were not selected (some competitions don’t send rejections, but they at least notify you that someone else won).

• Neglecting to return scores/parts/other materials, even if (and especially if) you have mailed in a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

• Inviting you to apply to their next round of the competition, even though they never informed you of the results of the previous round (especially if there are application fees- why would I pump more money into an organization when there's no indication they did anything with it the first time around?).

• Neglecting to select a winner if they did not make it clear in the application announcement that they reserved this right (this was the subject of much discussion (and anger) on the Society of Composers, Inc. email list-serv recently, and I may address this further in a future blog post to give the topic its due).  
  
• Selecting a disproportionate number of male composers as winners (as I have written about extensively on this blog). While this is a slightly different issue, I think it is important to bring up now and then to remind everyone that it exists.

These behaviors are bad enough, but they are so much worse when accompanied by an application fee (which Natalie has written about previously). Application fees magnify the poor behaviors, making them ten (or a hundred, or a thousand) times more unprofessional and disrespectful. Now, there are valid arguments both for and against application fees, and I am not here to argue either side right now. But if an organization charges an application fee to enter a competition, the least the organizers can do is be respectful of applicants' time and work, and that means conducting themselves with the utmost professionalism.

A fee says to me, “I am a professional competition (not that the ones without fees are unprofessional, in fact I like those much better, but read on). If I was not a professional competition, I would not even dream of charging a fee, because that would be unfair to the applicants. Charging a fee implies that I know how to manage money, that I will properly steward this money, that I have staff members and separate bank accounts and accountants and proper IRS status and all those other things that make it professional and acceptable to charge fees. Finally, there must be a reason I am charging this fee. I must be paying staff members, judges, funding a concert- something related to the competition, hopefully. And I really should disclose to applicants what their fee is being used for- if they are donating to support the general operating expenses of my organization, that's very different than helping compensate the judges. Whatever it is, they should be aware of what their money is going toward so they can decide whether they really want to donate- excuse me, apply- in the first place. Applicants should not be donors, unless they choose to be.

Charging me a fee and then being too disorganized to notify me of the results or mail back my materials just adds insult to injury. Still, regardless of whether there is an application fee involved, any of the above-mentioned behaviors are simply unacceptable, and the new music community should not stand for them. When I apply for a competition and never hear from the organizers again, it seems that applying was a colossal waste of time (and perhaps money).

You might think I’m complaining about being rejected. I’m not- I got over that a long time ago. I have praised rejection letters in the past (mostly for jobs, but same idea). I’m complaining that I haven’t even heard that anyone else won. All I’m asking for is notification. And my scores back, minus coffee and pizza stains!

Having been on the other end of a "competition" (reviewing grant applications), I really do respect and understand the amount of time, energy, and money, as well as the long, arduous process, that goes into holding a competition and/or call for scores. In return, all I ask is that the organizations holding competitions respect my time, energy and occasional money that goes into applying for these competitions. Thank you.

Posted by Sarah