I. CHOOSING OF ADJUDICATORS: Adjudicators are chosen at the recommendation of an Arts and Letters sub-committee, consisting of four people –– one Committee member representing each of the disciplines (literary arts, visual arts, and music), as well as the Chair. The sub-committee meets in the fall and adjudicators are generally in place by the end of January. The sub-committee brings forward a new slate of adjudicators each year.

II. WHO SEES THE ENTRIES: The adjudication of entries takes place at arms-length from the Arts and Letters Committee. Following drop-off or mail-in, entries are seen only by the Arts and Letters Co-ordinator and her assistant(s), who process them, and the adjudicators themselves. After the adjudication process is complete, winning entries may then be viewed by the organizers of the Awards ceremony, for the purposes of the ceremony itself. Only after the announcement of the winners are any entries presented to the public. In the case of visual arts, this consists of a public exhibition of selected entries. In the case of literary arts and music, some winning entries may be read or performed during the Arts and Letters Awards ceremony. Following the ceremony, award-winning entries (or excerpts thereof) in all categories may appear on the Arts and Letters website. In each case, this is done only with the permission of the entrant. Non-winning entries (except in the case of visual art chosen for the exhibition) are returned to the entrant, unseen by anyone but the Cc-oordinator, her assistant(s), and the adjudicators.

III. RESTRICTIONS ON ENTRY: An adjudicator may not submit an entry in the section s/he is adjudicating. Neither are immediate family members (parents, siblings, spouse or children) of adjudicators permitted to enter that particular section of the Arts and Letters Awards. Adjudicators (and family members) are permitted to enter in any other section for which they are not adjudicating and for which they are otherwise eligible. Members of the Arts and Letters Committee are not permitted to submit entries. However, this restriction does not apply to family members of the Committee.

IV. BLIND JUDGING: Every measure is undertaken to ensure that the adjudication is a blind judging process, i.e. the identity of the entrants remains unknown to the adjudicators. In the case of the literary and music sections, no names are attached to the entries. In the case of the visual arts section any names attached to the pieces, including signatures on the work itself, are hidden. The Committee recognizes the fact that, because we live in a relatively small artistic community, the style of a piece may be an indication to an adjudicator that it is the work of a particular artist known to her/him. In such cases the Committee requests of the adjudicator that discussion of who the creator of a particular piece might be not be brought into the adjudication process.

V. ROLE OF THE CO-ORDINATOR: The Co-ordinator's role is to facilitate the adjudication process. She records the entries and distributes them to the adjudicators, as well as receives the results. She returns the entries to the entrants (or in the case of some visual art, arranges for pick-up), following the adjudication process. The Co-ordinator alone is the person who notifies the winners, and releases the list of winners to the media.

VI. RELEASE OF NAMES OF ADJUDICATORS: A list of the names of the adjudicators is released to the general public at the time the winners are announced. Adjudicators are asked to restrict the awareness of their participation in the judging of the Arts and Letters Awards to immediate family members, until such time as the list of names of the adjudicators is released.

VII. WRITTEN ADJUDICATIONS: For those entrants who request it, adjudicators are required to complete a written adjudication, to be returned with the entry to the entrant following the end of the
adjudication process. (If there is more than one adjudicator in a section, then the task of writing the comments is shared evenly between adjudicators.)