Monday, February 16, 2009

2009 Benchley Humor Competition Entries Due April 1st

Entries for the 2009 Robert Benchley Society Humor Award Competition are due by April 1, 2009. Enter on the Robert Benchley Society website competition page at http://www.robertbenchley.org/competition/index.htm. The winners will be announced the summer.

And be sure to save the dates of October 9-12, 2009 for the Seventh Annual Gathering and Awards Dinner of the Robert Benchley Society. This year the event will be in Boston, Massachusetts.

8 comments:

Matthew Coniam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shalanna said...

Any word on who the judge(s) will be? Did Newhart and Barry run and hide THAT well so they couldn't be tapped again?? Can't blame them, for the entries are ALL great, and unless they want to spend DAYS reading and re-reading and ranking, the decision-making would have to be sort of a dartboard deal. *grin* But anyhow, is there any word yet? Haven't seen a blog post here for a while.

Ikkaren said...

Wonder if the semi-finalists have been identified?

Carl Vine said...

It would seem that the July 1 "announcement" is really more of a notification - or a private announcement to the semi-finalists, at best.

Jonathan Caws-Elwitt said...

I wrote to the competition officials last week, having entered the contest and having not seen an update on July 1. I was told that the judging was behind schedule.

Carl Vine said...

Why didn't I think of that!

Thanks, Jonathan.

Shalanna said...

I got the same answer when I asked the question by e-mail . . . but what I'm wondering is what's preventing someone from doing a blog post explaining this to the world at large. The last blog post here is about the Wodehouse society. If there's going to be a two-week delay, someone should acknowledge that on the blog. It's for the sake of the contest's reputation--perhaps I'm being a worrywart, but some people COULD be thinking some dark thoughts, and we want to avert those.
I know the contestants are all wondering what has happened, as every year they've posted the semifinalists very promptly. It affects the public perception of the contest, so it's important to keep the blog and/or the news page current with any new information.

If they do have an estimate regarding when semifinalists might be announced, that'd be a good thing to post. I imagine that the date to announce a winner is being moved forward similarly. But I suspect there's a health problem or serious other problem going on with whoever is in charge of all this, and so it makes things more unpredictable.

Positive thoughts being sent from this quarter.

And (to quote my word verification tag), "dookeyboo," clan!

Jonathan Caws-Elwitt said...

I agree with you, Shalanna. No matter what the reason for the delay, somebody from the RBS could have and should have taken five minutes to post an update.

The answer I received when I queried on July 1 did not suggest any extenuating circumstances. They were "running late," I was told.

This competition may or may not ever run to completion—past experience with organizations that behave this way suggests we may never hear from the RBS again, though I hope that's not the case—but, in any event, there's a limit to how long I'm willing to trust people with my money and my expectations, in the absence of any concrete indicators that things are actually moving forward. If there's no sign of progress by August 1, I will be asking for a refund of my entry fee.

Robert Benchley Society

For more information about the Robert Benchley Society, local chapters near you, our annual Award for Humor, and our Annual Gathering, visit The RBS Website