Globex Corporation Newsletter

Received this from Mark Houston this morning about the so-called "Songwriter's Shootout" (and no firearms were used in the competition, well, maybe there were, I guess I didn't read all of the conditions of the competition):

Doug,

Read your blog, here's my reply...

We needed enough entries to eventually make a CD, we didn't get enough entries to justify the cost of making a CD, so the contest was cancelled.
What about that is so hard to understand? You didn't "win" a songwriter's competition, because there was no competition! In order for there to have been a competiton, we needed the proper number of entries. Yes, you sent in an entry, but there were not enough entries sent in, so the criteria for the contest was not met. We needed at least 14 entries to make the Shootout work, we only received seven. If we had received the 14 that we would needed, they then would have been judged. So again, no guarantee you would have won anything. If you have questions or issues, yes, call me. Don't hide behind a blog. And just to be on the safe side, if you're going to include this in your blog, you should remove my phone number. It's not a public number. Thanks.


Mark Houston
Program Director/KOUT
Rapid City, SD

Everybody forget the phone number previously posted. My bad.

So many comments I could make here. Sent the following a few minutes ago:

-com·pe·ti·tion–noun
1. the act of competing; rivalry for supremacy, a prize, etc.: The competition between the two teams was bitter.
2. a contest for some prize, honor, or advantage: Both girls entered the competition.
3. the rivalry offered by a competitor: The small merchant gets powerful competition from the chain stores.
4. a competitor or competitors: What is your competition offering?
5. Sociology. rivalry between two or more persons or groups for an object desired in common, usually resulting in a victor and a loser but not necessarily involving the destruction of the latter.
6. Ecology. the struggle among organisms, both of the same and of different species, for food, space, and other vital requirements.


Nowhere in this definition do I see anything about a qualifying number of applicants. Nowhere in the rules for you competition did I see anything about a qualifying number of applicants.

What is so hard to understand? Now you're questioning my intelligence? That's going to put me in a great mood. You think I don't understand that you can do anything you want? You can. I understand. Don't you understand that this is a pretty crappy way to treat people? To run a competition, to tell people that there will be winners then offer no explanation when none are given?

And hiding behind a blog? Geez, maybe I don't understand the concept of hiding. I figured that hiding was done in a surreptitious (pretty good word for a guy who isn't smart enough to understand all of this) manner, not completely in public.

I have no issues other than if you're going to try something like this in the future that you let the people who enter know that if you don't like how it all turns out that you're not going through with it. Other organizations don't do things that way, but feel free to do it in yours. Just let us know.

So I didn't win a country songwriting competition. Maybe there wasn't one, maybe I just imagined it all. I don't know, I'm not really intelligent enought o understand all of this.

BOJ