Tambourine and Scally have made a couple of fair points that should be worth considering.
I, myself, agree partially with the idea in this thread, but before I give my input, let's unpack what constitutes a MOTS. The Member of the Season title is granted mainly to those who have a presence on the forum, remain active, lend a helping hand to those who need it, and are generally just friendly individuals with kind words to say and good ideas to share. These are all loose "requirements," and I say that with quotes because they aren't necessarily requirements at all per se. It's what the title implies first and foremost, but also how you guys gauge members and somewhat decide for yourselves who is and isn't eligible for the title.
With that in mind, wouldn't it make sense to give even previous MOTS the ability to be re-elected if they continue putting in the effort and dedication? This is where I will agree that perhaps the cooldown for re-election can be extended a bit more to give other users a chance, but also keep in mind that users chosen are still based on your input. You (and even us) are given the choice to nominate anyone you see fit, and to see those repeated names in the MOTS Hall of Fame are all dependent on what you guys do, and the users who are currently making a presence on the forum at the time.
We can limit that by providing a few extra rules, yes, and that might resolve the rotation of names issue or the "clique-y" feel this system occasionally results in, which seems to be the main concern here. However, to not have a previous MOTS be nominated ever again is completely off the table, especially with a small community such as this where, on occasion, we are only left with the choice to renominate previous winners if they’re the only ones still around. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t ever any new faces that show up on the Hall of Fame, though! I’ve seen quite a handful of different names up there and not as many repeats as you guys make it sound.
It all simply comes down to the size of the community, who you guys choose based on your own conditions, and the amount of users actually maintaining their activity here on the forum by posting around, being friendly and offering help. I personally don’t believe it’s fair if a member still goes out of their way for the community only to never be acknowledged for it again.
Perhaps we can look into the “previous MOTS can’t be elected again for the next x seasons” that you guys suggested a bit more. With Raz's MOTS proposal, this is certainly something Staff will likely need to discuss in order to compensate for any hiccups down the road and to give everyone a fair chance at this opportunity.