Within 30 seconds of receiving the documentation, it was blindingly obvious that one proposal met the criteria and the other two didn't. Nevertheless, 12 academics and the departmental secretary had to spend an hour discussing it before coming to a conclusion that, frankly, the photocopying machine could have told us.
In the days of empire, a little man in a suit and tie would have made the decision on his own and saved the rest of us from the tiresome exercise of going through the motions. Today, we have "due process" instead.
I may sound like I'm griping here, but I'm not: if they had due process in the book publishing industry then maybe some agent would have picked up my YA novel