NPS - Prizes for Poets

[suziqsmith]

Greetings all,

Let's start a group brainstorm on how we can enhance the prize packages awarded at the National Poetry Slam.

What would you like to see given to the top 5 teams at NPS in the years to come? 

And what would you be willing/able to contribute - can you host a car wash/bake sale/poetry showcase/80s music dance-off or any other sort of fundraiser in your community?

Please share your thoughts.

[AmyD]

So, in corporate America, when you want a raise, and there is no money in the budget, the best thing to do is ask for non-monetary things, i.e. vacation, work-from-home days, etc.  I am trying to think along those lines for the winners of NPS.  How about...

1.  Automatic spot in next year's NPS (i.e. exempt from W&YI)
2.  Spots in the anthology
3.  Feature slots...I don't know exactly how this would work, but let's say that you could get 5 SM's willing to have each team feature in the upcoming year or something

[Ransacked]

As a newbie I'll go ahead and ask:  What are the current prizes for winning NPS?

Also, I'd suggest
1.  Free dinner or round of drinks at the hotel where everybody's staying in Madison.  PSI is bringing hundreds of paying guests to the hotel at Madison next year; asking for a little something in return wouldn't be at all out of line.  Plus the SlamMaster(s) would be sure to say nice things about the hotel as they announce the winners.

2.  Give the winning team the star-treatment on the www.poetryslam.com Website for a week or two after the event.  Specifically, the Website should run headlines with the winners' names (and team photo?) as soon as the Webmasters can possibly manage.  Then flesh out the headlines with an interview/profile of the winners, maybe the text or audio of the finals-night poems, etc.  The trick is to get this up on the Web while people are still buzzing about NPS.  I realize the NPS Webmaster(s) wear(s) a bunch of hats and there were plenty of projects requiring follow-up in the days and weeks after NPS, but how great would it be for the winning team to fly home and proudly show off their big news?
  This "prize" costs nothing except the additional wear-and-tear on the beleaguered Webmaster and other NPS volunteers.  It's also a nice way to ride out the wave of publicity a big event such as NPS can bring.  There's a reason they give out the World Series MVP award just 30 minutes after the final strikeout; they want to celebrate while the whole world is already watching.

3.  I'd wager that PSI needn't do much in terms of "guaranteeing" feature slots to the winning team; my understanding is that any team member who makes it to the final round of NPS gets plenty of offers (poetic and otherwise) as soon as the curtain comes down.  Of course, more can always be done in terms of coordinating features in nearby areas, and Nationals is a great time to gather all the slammasters in a given tri-state area so they can say "We'll all book an NPS finalist the week of ______."

4.  See who's talented and generous.  I'm a decent portrait photographer.  Maybe somebody out there can draw carricatures, or is a licensed massage therapist, or somebody would compose on-the-fly haiku about the winners.  Congratulations on winning Nationals!  Smile for the camera!  David is going to give you folks a backrub while Patti here draws a team carricature.  Who knows?

-Ransacked

[Delrica]

I probably shouldn't admit this on such a public forum, but at a quick glance, I swear that #2 read "the whining team".

sorry! i'm tired!

[AmyD]

The right to sell merch in the PSi store for a year?

[inkera]

Peace and Blessings_

My thoughts for prize packages:

1. Mini-tour
2. paid entry into the next NPS
3. front page press release with team photo on website
4. press release sent to local newspaper for winning team
5. paid hotel stay at next NPS
6. reduced airfare or travel cost
7. cd or book deal for team
8. ability to sell merch in PSI store with page for team or individuals (whichever is easier and more cost effective)

[Delrica]

Inkera and Amy, your suggestion for ability to sell merch in PSi store is already a package/option that's available. I just pulled this from the Prize money thread in the SM forum.

Don't forget, folks. Two (or maybe three) years ago we made all Champs, individual and Team, members for life (that's only $15 a year but it lasts a long time) and if they have product in the store, the value of their membership jumps to $35 a year AND if they participate in the Poet Gallery, if and when we get that running again, that will be worth $100 a year. So, there has been a pretty good trend to increasing value of the prizes over the past few years.

Now the value of basic membership has increased to $20. But the rest of it still applies.

[Kit]

I love the idea of being exempt from W&YI.  Partly it's because I don't like that rule anyway, but I think it would shake things up a bit. If the top finishers know they get a "bye," then they aren't out there beating up on smaller teams who are trying to get in.  Also, they might be freed to field an unorthodox team without fear of not making the cut.  Plus, it's a serious benefit with zero cost attached.

How much would it cost to run a post-NPS ad in a magazine or two with the winners, and links to their websites/product?  Something like that would both reward the teams and raise the profile of slam in the outside world by highlighting "the good stuff".  Where the ad goes would depend on costs and which publications are a likely fit for us, of course.

- Topher
 

[Ransacked]

Point taken about W&YI, but I think exempting a wining team from such requirements is going to be a poison apple of a prize.  Win-and-You're-In gets poetry slams out on the road, cross-pollinating and seeing what other teams are doing.  The kind of poem that wins a slam in Boise might not go anywhere in Boston.  A team in Philadelphia can unknowingly fall into a rut, a formula that works well on Walnut St. but won't play in Peoria.

Boston recently hosted an 8-team double-header slam tournament for Win-and-You're-In, drawing teams from six states, and it really showed off how different teams come at you from different directions.

In football, some teams like to run the ball, some teams win with defense, and a few teams get the job done with field goals. (The Pats win games with long camera lenses and a poetic re-interpretation of the rules.)  You send a team to the Superbowl that hasn't had to deal with all of those different tactics, and that team is going to get stomped.

You can't be a great poet if you don't read all sorts of books and magazines.  You can't be a great rock band if you listen to the same 20 CDs and never go to clubs.  An NPS Finalist team that doesn't need to hit the road and <i>earn</i> its stripes every year might be a team that gets caught flat-footed at Nationals.

Of course, it's entirely possible that PSI wishes to discourage repeat winners and dynasties, in which case exempting NPS winners from Win and You're In obligations might be an effective and palatable way to make this happen.

I love the idea of being exempt from W&YI.  Partly it's because I don't like that rule anyway, but I think it would shake things up a bit. If the top finishers know they get a "bye," then they aren't out there beating up on smaller teams who are trying to get in.  Also, they might be freed to field an unorthodox team without fear of not making the cut.  Plus, it's a serious benefit with zero cost attached.

[inkera]

Don't forget, folks. Two (or maybe three) years ago we made all Champs, individual and Team, members for life (that's only $15 a year but it lasts a long time) and if they have product in the store, the value of their membership jumps to $35 a year AND if they participate in the Poet Gallery, if and when we get that running again, that will be worth $100 a year. So, there has been a pretty good trend to increasing value of the prizes over the past few years.

Peace and Blessings_

The abillity to sell merch is already available but I was referring specifically to the poet gallery for the team or each individual poet which to my knowledge is not operating currently.

[Steve]

Inkera, not to tip our hand too much, but Poet Gallery may be going away in favor of a much cooler future feature. Nothing certain yet, but, for now Poet Gallery is on hold.

[Delrica]

Don't forget, folks. Two (or maybe three) years ago we made all Champs, individual and Team, members for life (that's only $15 a year but it lasts a long time) and if they have product in the store, the value of their membership jumps to $35 a year AND if they participate in the Poet Gallery, if and when we get that running again, that will be worth $100 a year. So, there has been a pretty good trend to increasing value of the prizes over the past few years.

Peace and Blessings_

The abillity to sell merch is already available but I was referring specifically to the poet gallery for the team or each individual poet which to my knowledge is not operating currently.

This response is not intended to counteract anything that Steve just said, but here's a link to the current poet gallery (accessible on the main menu of the site):

http://poetryslam.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=22&Itemid=49

This is a duplicate of the old poet gallery we had before updating the site (but it's still active).  As you can see, there are not new additions (ie. past champs) in there as of yet. But this is where they would go (if they had product available in our store to sell). But if you click on any of the artists listed, you'll see what can be listed for past champs and their product (links to the product in the store, bio, etc.).

The poet gallery (under the current format) would [ideally] include:

- PSi members who have purchased levels of "Sustainer" or higher (click here for a list of membership bennies)
- past champs w/ product in the online store (for example: if we had photo and bio info for Sonya Renee, we could put her in the poet gallery because she was a former NPS champ that currently has product in the store; same thing for Patricia Smith or Taylor Mali, who was a member of Team Providence that won in 96(?) - he's already in the gallery though, so bad example)

So once we have their product in hand, we can add that information to the site (if we stay w/ the current format or even in the future if we change the format).

Just a little bit of additional info (more than you probably needed, I'm sure).