The judging and presentation were handled by committee, (mostly because no one wanted to do it by themselves – afterall, misery loves company). All in all, I think the endeavor was a success, but I believe all those involved would probably agree that we learned a lot and can make future awards even better.
Brian (54reo) was in charge of building the trophy, so he had the most recent contact with Chris (steelsoldiers). Brian gathered us up on Friday night to get a game plan together. There were many steel soldiers involved in making this award become a reality. I apologize in advance if I leave anyone out.
Several of us were concerned about the scope of this task, so we set out to determine the number of eligible vehicles. As we began walking and counting, the first dilemma that we encountered was deciding which vehicles should be included. Since the award was titled “ The Steel Soldiers Excellence in M-Series Award”, we knew that this would include most modern MVs built after WWII, . . . but what about the M8 armored car or the M5 Stuart? We decided that the MVPA already covers the WWII vehicles pretty well with its own awards, and that the Steel Soldiers award should go to a post-WWII vehicle.
Our preliminary count was 50+ eligible vehicles. 54reo volunteered to print out the judging score sheets, and Stan took task to pick up some clipboards. We would begin the daunting chore of selecting a winner on Saturday morning.
The next obstacle was the difficulty in gathering information to complete the score sheets. Much of the criteria used in the selection had to be obtained from asking questions of the vehicles’ owners. Unfortunately, many of the vehicle owners were not aware of our award, and consequently were off enjoying other events at the convention. 54reo managed to obtain a few minutes in front of the convention’s Public Address system and made an announcement to the crowd. He asked all owners of M-series MVs to stand by their vehicles so that a new award could be judged. A small group of us then set out to rate the entries. Gimpy, Stan, 1621, 54reo, and myself grabbed the clipboards and started asking questions.
The total number of vehicles actually judged was about half of those eligible because of the difficulty in locating and interviewing all of the potential entries. However, we did end up with a very good cross-section of vehicles. Some of those that I can remember ranged from the M274 mule, M38, M715 family, many of the ubiquitous M37 and M35s and variants, a M818 (with trailer that handled support duties on the Transcontinental Convoy) and even a very nice M915 which the owner used to haul a couple of his other MVs to the convention.
By the time we got all of the judging finished and tallied the results, it was nearing the end of the day on Saturday, just in time for banquet / awards ceremony. We rushed in to meet with David Welch (MVPA president) and David Doyle (Supply Line Editor). I would like to apologize to those two gentlemen for our delay in meeting with them. At this point, they had very little idea of what we were going to do and say in front of the membership, but they trusted with our part.
We divided the award presentation into three parts. I would speak first, beginning with a thanks to the MVPA and then a brief introduction of the Steel Soldiers website. Stan would then take the microphone and explain the criteria used in the judging, following with the announcement of the winners. 54reo then unveiled the trophy and explained its creation. (BTW, Brian (54reo) did a fantastic job on the trophy. It was outstanding)
We were then wisked away for the obligatory photograph, and then returned to our seats.
I am sorry, I have no pictures to add. It may be hard to understand, but I don't think we could have chosen a winner based on a picture anyway. The stories that came out during the interviews were what made the participants unique.
The eventual winners of the award scored very well on the judging sheet, and also seemed to embody the Steel Soldiers spirit.
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