Should Members of a Club Sponsoring a Car Show Be Eligible for Awards

We had a Mopar club in Topeka for about 7 years, until people got lazy and lost interest. We sponsored an all Mopar car show every year, and we had a hard rule that club members were not eligible for awards. I firmly believe that members of the club sponsoring the show should not be eligible for awards. How do you all feel about that?

About 35 years ago, I did a body off restoration of a 65 Corvette Convertible. It looked beautiful inside and out and under the hood. I took it to a car show sponsored by the Arkansas street rod association. There was an award category for Corvettes, and there were only 3 Vettes in the show. I thought I was a lock for first place, since the other two were very 'rough around the edges'. Turns out that the other two Vettes were owned by club members, and I got third place. It was my first car show, and I was very disappointed.

There used to be a BIG annual car show in Topeka over the Labor Day weekend. It was sponsored by the Topeka Classic Chevy Club, and all money raised went to Muscular Dystrophy. Well, every single year most of the awards went to club members. People did not care for that at all, and the show just died away.