Printz: Some Internal Stuff

And I'm back highlighting the policies & procedures of the Printz Award, all wording taken verbatim from the YALSA site. As usual, I'm posting without commenting; and since all this is available on the public YALSA website, it's no big secret. Still, I think some of you may be interested in stuff like voting.

Straw Votes
At the discretion of the chair straw votes may be conducted periodically. The sole purpose of such votes is to guide discussion by revealing levels of support for individual titles.

Voting Procedures
Members must be present to vote. Proxies will not be accepted. Following discussion, balloting will begin. Paper ballots will be used and tallied either by the chair or her/his designee(s). On each ballot each member will vote for her/his top three choices. First choice receives five points; second choice receives three points, and third choice receives one point. Members are reminded that, at this point, they are voting for the winner, NOT for honor titles. A separate ballot will be conducted for honor titles. To win, a title must receive five first‑place votes and must also receive at least five more points than the second‑place title. If no title meets these criteria on the first ballot, any title receiving no votes is removed from consideration and a period of discussion of remaining titles follows. A second ballot is then conducted. Balloting continues in this fashion until a winner is declared.

Honor Books
All nominated titles are eligible for honor book consideration. Following the selection of a winner, a straw vote is conducted. Any title receiving no votes is removed from consideration. A formal, weighted ballot will follow. Based on the results of this ballot, the committee will decide if it wishes to name honor books and, if so, how many.

Annotations and Press Release
The committee is responsible for writing a press release and annotations for the winning title and honor books. Both the annotations and the press release will include discussion of the literary merits of the titles. The annotations and press release must be written prior to the Monday awards press conference. Immediately after the press conference, the committee must provide the Best Books for Young Adults Committee with winning and honor book titles, bibliographic information and draft annotations, for automatic inclusion on the final Best Books list.