The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 35, August 14, 2005, Article 10

NUMISMATIC LITERARY GUILD RULES CLARIFIED

Kerry Wetterstrom writes: "I read Tom Fort's recap in the latest
E-Sylum about the NLG award given to David Fanning for the
25th Anniversary issue of The Asylum. Unfortunately, there is a
major misconception that either an officer of the NLG or a close
perusal of the submission rules could have cleared up. A NLG
member must submit the piece/work being nominated, but the
actual recipient of the award does not have to be a member of
the NLG.

I can personally attest to this as editor of The Celator. Every
year I submit various articles or columns from The Celator that
I deem worthy, and rarely is the author also a member of the
NLG. (This year three individuals received awards from the
NLG for articles/columns in The Celator, and none of them
were/are NLG members.)

On the original nomination form, it should have been stated
that the NLG member making the nomination on behalf of
NBS was David Fanning, but that the actual recipient would
be Tom Fort. I also believe that NLG award rules stipulate
that an individual (Fort) must be an nominee and not an
organization (NBS), hence the reason that David Fanning's
name ended up on the plaque.

In the end, the scapegoat should not be the NLG as their rules
are printed every year in the NLG Newsletter that announces
the competition, and I find them to be clear if not redundantly
so."

Ed Reiter writes: "I'd like to set the record straight regarding
the Numismatic Literary Guild Writers' Competition. As
executive director of the Guild, I was concerned by the
misconceptions contained in a report in the latest edition of
The E-Sylum.

Anyone can enter the NLG Writers' Competition. We do not
prohibit entries from non-members, and we judge all entries,
determine all winners and inscribe all award plaques without
regard to whether an entrant is a member of the Guild.

Strictly speaking, "Best Issue" awards do indeed honor the
winning publications, not their editors. However, it has been
our long-standing practice to recognize the editor in presenting
each "Best Issue" award, since he or she is pivotal to the
publication's success. In determining whose name should appear
on a plaque, we rely on the information furnished to us with the
entry. The special issue of The Asylum submitted for consideration
in this year's contest -- and judged to have Extraordinary Merit
-- was accompanied by a letter from Pete Smith stating that
David Fanning, the Editor-in-Chief, was the entrant. Accordingly,
we placed Mr. Fanning's name on the award plaque. The letter
made no mention of E. Tomlinson Fort.

We certainly want to give credit where credit is due, so we'll
modify our list to reflect Mr. Fort's role as Editor of the award-
winning issue. We'll also send him a plaque with our hearty
congratulations for a job well done.

I can appreciate Mr. Fort's distress at not being recognized for
what obviously was a real labor of love. I cannot agree, however,
that the NLG is somehow to "blame" for not recognizing his work.
We simply acknowledged the person named in the entry. This
may have been Mr. Fort's "baby," as he says, but until now we
never got a birth announcement."

Tom DeLorey writes: "Regarding the NLG award given to the
25th anniversary issue, I was one of the judges in this category,
and considered the issue to be wonderful. As to the naming on
the plaque, all I can say is that we conscientiously attempt to
correctly reflect the entries as presented to us, and if Pete Smith
erred with the best of intentions by telling us that the entrant in
this case was David Fanning, there was no way that we could
know this."

Tom Fort writes: "Regarding the NLG award being open to
non-members, a couple of NLG members have written me and
also said that this was the case. However, if you look at the rules
on the NLG web site, they state for the 2005 NLG Writers
Competition: "1. All NLG members are eligible to participate
if their dues have been paid." It nowhere states that NLG members
may submit the work of non-members. From the published rules,
both David Fanning and Pete Smith assumed (wrongly as it may
seem) that the competition was only open to NLG members.
Since I am not an NLG member they felt that they could not submit
The Asylum in my name, since from the text on the web it would
appear that I was not eligible.

The best award that I can receive for the issue is that people
thought it was pretty good."

[Hopefully this exchange sheds enough light on the matter that
future nominations and awards will not be subject to the same
confusion. Clearly the 25th Anniversary Asylum issue was a
deserving winner, and the recognition by our sister organization
is welcome and appreciated. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum