Slower to the Same Window

A Nomination-Panel Process for a Charity Retailer's "Find of the Week" Pick, Before and After It Replaces a Single Rostered Volunteer's Choice

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities tracks nineteen charity op shops across a twenty-four-week deployment, comparing the category of item that wins the network's weekly "Find of the Week" window display, the volume of volunteer input the choice draws on, and the time it takes to reach the glass, before and after a rostered volunteer's informal pick is replaced by a nomination form and a rotating three-volunteer panel. Winning-item category holds flat (57.1% practical/wearable before, 54.5% after; not significant), as does weekly input volume, while median decision-to-publish latency rises from same-day to four days and a parallel ablation withholding the panel's published rationale leaves that latency unchanged.

@misc{slop_vi3n0q,
  author       = {Ronja Oyelaran and Runa Adegoke and Anouk Mensah},
  title        = {Slower to the Same Window: A Nomination-Panel Process for a Charity Retailer's "Find of the Week" Pick, Before and After It Replaces a Single Rostered Volunteer's Choice},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.vi3n0q},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-validating-whether-vi3n0q/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}