I haven't voted above because as MacMosher says, there isn't a "As long as they like" option. The people who have been organising the assignments have doing a great job, particularly as it's a thankless task, and have been giving up their own time to do it. I don't really see why they're getting attacked for this. 😕
To be quite honest, this is entirely doing my head in. The one single thing that is putting me off the assignments is all the crazy politics about them! I don't understand why would we need another sunrise/sunset assignment when the other one is great.
Can we try and keep this fun, and in the spirit in which it was meant and not bitch about the topic or the way in which it's run? In my opinion it's been fine so far, with the exception of some of the topics.
------------my suggestion----------------
To be quite honest, I would be happy if we didn't have voting for topics, and the organisers selected a topic themselves and posted a thread with it in at the start of the month. Said topic should be open, achieveable, and able to be shot by people in different countries, climates and cultures. There could be an ongoing thread with suggestions for topics that the organisers could use for inspiration, but the final call is theirs. As long as they aren't excluding a whole load of people with a topic that they can't take a photo for, I don't see how people can bitch about it. Having a topic you wouldn't have selected yourself is part of the challenge, and I would happily entrust the current organisers to do this. Sunsets, metal, lines, busy, <-------- just a few open suggestions that might work across different areas and genres.
If someone then has an idea for a different topic, such as your Memorial Day one, Chip, then post it as a alongside assigment that people who would be able to take photos for can enjoy. Equally, if you take a great photo of a mountain range, post a "post your mountain photos" thread.
I know this isn't as democratic as voting and discussing as all that, but sometimes you just have to make the decisions. The current organisers have my full backing to make these decisions.