Food Writing Awards Committee

The Food Writing Awards Committee includes a general judging committee (3 judges per category), an Awards Committee Chair, and a non-voting IACP Staff Liaison. Committee members and judges serve without compensation.

Judges

Judges shall be chosen from food and beverage professionals with ongoing experience in writing, journalism, publishing and related fields. A person shall not be eligible to judge an article he or she has written, edited or significantly contributed to, nor one that is published by an entity with which the judge has a professional connection. The Food Writing Awards Committee shall consist of three judges for each category and the Committee Chair/Chair-in-Training, plus the IACP staff liaison and IACP CEO. The names of two alternate judges should be kept on hand in case of an emergency. At the discretion of the Chair, a judge may be assigned to more than one category.

Members of the Food Writing Awards Committee shall be appointed by the Committee Chair with final approval by the CEO and/or Board of Directors. Candidates for the judging committee may be recommended by the outgoing Awards Chair, past Chair, and/or IACP Board members or executive staff. Committee members shall serve without compensation. All committee members are invited to submit names of candidates to be considered for the Food Writing Awards Committee for the following year.

Judges on the Food Writing Awards Committee shall be appointed to a one-year term, and cannot serve two years in a row. Any committee member may be re-appointed to serve additional terms, with a maximum of five terms in their lifetime, as long as the terms are not on consecutive years. Judges must be invited to serve, regardless of whether they have served before.

Procedures

1. Entries will be checked by the Chair/Chair-in-training for completeness and timeliness. All eligible entries will then be submitted to each judge of the Food Writing Awards committee.

2. The judges will review the nominees and score each by electronic ballots.

3. The top three in each category will be selected as finalists.

4. The highest scoring entry in each category will be selected as the winner.

5. Judges are expected to inform the Chair/Chair-in-Training should they encounter a submission that is a conflict of interest based on works they have contributed to, or organization/affiliations they are partnered with.

6. The Committee may decide not to present an award in any category.

Decisions of the Food Writing Awards Committee are final.