Re: AIS Photo contest


HI ALL AND KITTY....MY COMMENTS ARE IN CAPITAL LETTERS UNDER EACH NUMBERED PARAGRAPH....JILL BONINO

----- Original Message ----- From: <loberg@adelphia.net>
To: <AISDiscuss@aisboard.org>
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 10:01 PM
Subject: [AISdiscuss] AIS Photo contest


Hello everyone,

I apologize that this is coming to you several weeks after Jeanne
forwarded the first post to AISconfer on the Photo Contest. Jeanne and I
have had email correspondence back and forth numerous times, and I have
received copies of individual messages from several Board members or officers.
However, both Jeanne and I only suspected yesterday, confirmed today by phone
with John Jones, that my responses that I sent to AISconfer were not being
posted on AISconfer.

I am going through the comments I received and have my thoughts, and some
questions or requests to all of you:



#1 Adding a third judge to the panel. I confess the reason I was adding
stickers to the back and numbering the photos, was for ease of organizing,
tracking, and scoring. I anticipate quite a few photos, and the more
organized I can prepare them so that the judges can review all that I send
them, in a single weeks time before it's forwarded to the next judge, was
primarily on my mind. However, I understand the point for having 3 judges
other than myself. When Jeanne Plank, Bob and I discussed this project, I
mentioned the fact that we could have so many photos that it would be very
difficult to send 250 photos to all of the judges, and have any meaningful
scoring upon return. and no clear winner. I plan to pre-screen the photos,
using some sort of local panel. and try to pick the obvious better photos, and
forward just the top of each group for the final panel. I will develop and
ask the judges to use some sort of point scoring, such as 10, 9, 9, 8, 8, 7,
6. etc. and then when the scores are received, I will add all the scores and
see who is on top. If three judges select from 250 photos, I predict they
are likely to NOT select the same top photo(s), and it would result in NO
clear winner(s).

If the judges were all sitting in my house doing the judging, we could
have discussions and work towards a consensus, but the idea came forth to have
judges from through USA, which means I have to forward the photos by Fed. Ex,
and have a judging method which will result in a clear winner. I hope you
can understand why I feel I need to narrow down the group of photos to a
manageable group, by using a smaller pre-screening panel locally. I honestly
don't think I can say, in advance, that we will prescreen to a specific
number, I'm going to have to wait and see. We will have the option of holding
ANY photo over to be judged in any following contest.
KITTY.  THIS IS FINE WITH ME....JILL



#2 we should put a sentence in the application letter that states that the
photographers should not write or attach labels of any kind to the back of
the photos. Because there is limited space in the AIS bulletin for all the
rules, I'm trying not to add any more instructions than necessary. I think I
can handle this without making it an instruction. In my experience, most
photographers won't write on the back. For the few who might, I can take a
simple white label, and paste it over whatever is written, to cover it up.

THIS IS FINE TOO...JILL

#3 Shouldn't the line in the rules that says "Any entrant who is not a member
of the American Iris Society will automatically win a single annual
membership to A.I.S." read instead "Any winner who is not a member of the
American Iris Society will." Gary is CORRECT, I appreciate his eyes
catching that oversight. I had meant to say "any winner", and I will correct
this. And it would be fair to extend the membership for any existing
member, so I'd like to incorporate that, and strike the part "who is not a
member of AIS".

YES. THIS IS GOOD AND INCLUDES EVERYONE WHO MIGHT WIN...EITHER A MEMBER OR A NON-MEMBER. JILL

#4 "And then if we do that, what do we do if a life member wins". I am
stuck, I haven't yet thought of an idea for what to do for life members, and
would appreciate ideas on this. Shall we offer a membership in one of the
Sections?

THIS IS OK TOO. JUST SO I UNDERSTAND, ALL WINNERS WILL RECEIVE A NEW IRIS INTRO FROM THE PORTLAND GUEST BEDS, PLUS A ONE-YEAR AIS MEMBERSHIP IF THE WINNER IS A NON-MEMBER , AN EXTENSION OF ONE-YEAR TO A CURRENT AIS MEMBER'S MEMBERSHIP, UNLESS THEY ARE ALREADY A LIFE MEMBER, IN WHICH CASE THEY WILL GET A MEMBERSHIP FOR ONE YEAR IN THE SECTION OF THEIR CHOICE. RUNNERS UP WILL RECEIVE A 2004-05 INTRODUCTION.....JILL

#5 "I think we should acknowledge the receipt of the photos by email". I
would like to handle this differently. There is about a one month period
between receiving the final photos, scoring, and then being able to return
photos to those who requested them. It would save ME work, if I was to ask
those who want an acknowledgement of receipt of photos, to include a SASE
envelope. the same concept as those who want their photos returned. It will
keep costs down for the contest. If there is no objection, I have changed
the contest statement to "Please provide AIS with a stamped, addressed return
envelope if you want an acknowledgement of the receipt of photos, and an
additional SASE envelope if you want the photo(s) returned."

THIS IS GREAT. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WAS MY POINT...HOW IS WHATEVER WORKS BEST. JILL

#6 "should we put the deadline to August 31st so it can also be included in
the July Bulletin". I do have one thought pertaining to this idea, and I
need your feedback please. For the purposes of getting it announced twice, I
have no problem. My concern has to do with the timing of the shipment of the
rhizomes. If the deadline is pushed to August 31st, prescreening and routing
the photos via Fed Ex to 3 judges is going to take more than 4 weeks. That
means the earliest winners are selected is October 1st, if that. If rhizomes
from the convention are held out of the ground, they probably are not going to
look the best if held that long. A bigger concern, is if any contest winner
in the northern States. Idaho, Wisconsin, or even Canada, can afford to plant
rhizomes mid to late October (upon receipt), and have a good likelihood than
enough root growth will occur such that they won't lose the plant in the
Winter. What do you all think?
I AGREE WITH JIM. I THINK WE SHOULD KEEP THE AUGUST 31 DEADLINE TO GIVE PEOPLE THE MAX TIME TO PARTICIPATE. IN REGION 15, THE HOST CLUB DIGS THE GUEST IRIS FROM THAT YEAR'S REGION TREK IN AUGUST AND SEND THEM OUT TO THE REGION CLUBS FOR FUNDRAISING AUCTIONS. SOMETIMES THESE AUCTIONS TAKE PLACE TWO MONTHS AFTER THE IRISES ARE DUG. YES, THEY ARE NOT IN THE BEST SHAPE, BUT CAN BE POTTED....AND HOW MANY OF THESE ARE WE GOING TO HAVE? PERHAPS NOT THAT MANY....JILL



#7 "Are there to be a total (or maximum) of 10 winners (one adult in each
category and one youth in each category."

With Gary's question on how many categories, for #6 youth I had intended
just one youth category. I plan to change the wording to "Youth, any photo
with irises".

I AGREE WITH ONE YOUTH WINNER IN THE YOUTH CATEGORY, NOT A YOUTH WINNER IS EACH OF THE CONTEST CATEGORIES...JILL

#8 "). I think we need to have some flexibility on the categories... If we
only have 10 entries," I agree in that I want to have flexibility. I
expect to have hundreds of entries. but there is no reason why the judges
couldn't withhold awards, at their discretion, if no photo(s) were worthy of
an award in any particular category. John Ludi has sent me the following
message recently, so I believe we have the rhizomes needed for our six contest
winners.

"At our convention planning meeting last Saturday, it was suggested
besides a 2006 introduction to the winner of each category, that we also award
a recent introduction (2004-2005) to the runner up. Our local hybridizers have
indicated they will provide 2006 intros to support the contest. John"



Those are my thoughts. Again I am sorry my earlier responses didn't make it
to AISconfer. I understand that our timeframe for getting this to Bruce
Filardi is now tight. Will it be possible for everyone to get their final
comments to me within one week. by Jan. 30th? I'd appreciate it very much,
and thanks for your earlier comments.



Kitty Loberg

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