Organizing a "Popular Model" contest

[Otto Vondrak]

We would like to have a "Popular Model Contest" at our next train show, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with that. I was going to invite people to bring their best models, and then have passer-by vote simply for the one they liked the best, and declare three winners.

Does it need to be more complicated than that? Limit the number of entries? Have elegiability requirements? Separate models into age categories (School Age and Adult?)?

Your comments and suggestions are appreciated.

-otto-

[Espeelark]

Otto,
We hold "popular vote" contests at our monthly Cincinnati NMRA Div 7 meeting. The formula that we found to work for us is to have each month be a seperate topic: one month diesels, the next steamers, off-line structures, cabooses, freight cars, and so on and so forth.
It might make your contest more fair/balanced if you limited it to one category as a stream-lined passenger loco,might over-shadow a boxcar or off-line structure.
We also divide each month's entries into three categories: box-stock, kit-bashed and scratch-built. This also tries to level the playing field and give those who may not have as much talent a chance to win and thereby give them encouragement to aspire to the levels of some of the scratchbuilders.
Good luck!
Paul Mac
Modeling the SP in Ohio

[Roger Hensley]

And we (CID, NMRA) also hold a popular vote contest at each meet (4 Meets a year) with two categories. Every Meet has a 'Favorite Train' contest which can be anything that makes up a complete train, no locos running lite. The second category varies from meet to meet and may be Favorite Off-Line Structure, or Favorite Caboose, or Favorite Load... any scale may be entered.

We do not break down according to age.