The Bismarck Human Relations Committee on an unspecified September meeting reviewed outcomes from its recent Humanitarian Award ceremony and discussed changes to nomination outreach, scoring and award timing. Members agreed that giving commemorative items (“swag”) to winners is permissible with committee funds but that monetary awards are not to be paid from city funds.
Committee members said they had mixed results with outreach and media coverage compared with the previous year and discussed informing nominees who do not win that they had been nominated. That change, members said, produced positive responses from nominees who previously had not been told they were nominated.
Members also discussed the scoring rubric used this year. Several said the numeric scale was confusing because some reviewers misread whether higher or lower scores signaled stronger nominations. Committee members asked the subcommittee to review whether to keep the same questions and whether to move the nomination window earlier (members suggested opening nominations in February–March for an award given in May).
The committee agreed swag for winners should be budgeted going forward and asked staff to include a line in next year’s budget for those items. No committee member proposed using city operating funds to pay cash prizes; staff clarified that paying a monetary prize from city funds would not be appropriate.
Next steps included reviewing last year’s application questions and scoring approach, deciding whether to change the nomination timeline, and budgeting for winner swag in the next fiscal year.