Member of the Year

I'm thinking of giving out a Member of the Year award to a member on my forum each year.

My main concern is, how are we going to choose this member? There are several members of the community who are extremely dedicated and really have put a lot into the community out of pure devotion to its existence. But there are multiple members that fit that description. Should members be able to nominate each other and then we go by the most nominations? Or have some sort of poll? Or maybe it should be a staff-selection? I'm not sure how to go about choosing just one member.

 

I am planning on something similar on my upcoming community and the best way to go would be to let the staff member only nominate some people and then all members can vote on thoose users. Maybe let users nominate other but only staff decide wich one would be able to win somehow.

 

Why not. allow the staff to make a shortlist of people for member of the year and then migrate that list to a poll where the members vote for this member of the year?

This allows both the staff and community to involve themselves in the decision and in my opinion it's a fair way rather than leaving it for one group to choose.

 

This.
That's how we did it on Pisoga.

 

Good idea. I had all sorts of idea combinations, but I think this one makes the most sense.

 

I've thought of doing something like this on my forum but what would you have in mind as a prize? (not on my forum but here)

 

Well I wasn't planning on doing it here. The prize would just be an award through the award system we use (for contest winners, Member of the Month, etc.). It's just an honorary nomination; no prize.

 

Would the winner get a spiffy graphic in their profile? That's enough to motivate many people.

 

Yeah, with our award system, the award is displayed on 1) the awards page, 2) the user's postbit, and 3) their profile.

 

Yeah, I would definitely let the community have the final vote.