Re: [AISdiscuss] 2007 calendars

[PlankMail@aol.com]

Thank You Clarence:
    I do appreciate you comments.  I am  frustrated, however, in knowing how 
AIS can remedy the needs to  improve while sustaining and increasing the 
judges' roster.
    We'll keep trying.
    Cheers!
        Jeanne
         
In a message dated 5/13/2006 1:34:53 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
CEMahan@aol.com writes:

On  many  levels, I really have 
no love for the current AIS Garden Judges  Training  requirements -- I think 
the 
worst thing about it is  that I don't think it  will produce BETTER ballot 
judges, and it will  reduce the available show  judge numbers. And, while I 
am 
not a  
Show enthusiast, I know that the  demand for Show Judges is frantic  -- and 
NOT 
an area where we should be  reducing the number of  available judges.



I applaud your concern about this issue,  Jeanne! The lack of enough show  
judges may not be a problem in some  regions but it is a real problem in 
others.  
The strong feelings that  some people have about tightening the standards and 
 
rules for garden  judges versus the impact on having enough judges to promote 
  
exhibitions is what has caused me to advocate a return to the system  of  
garden judges and show judges. 

Like you, I have become  convinced that all the training in the world will  
not make some of  our judges into "good judges." I think it is like the 
British  
TV  show where the experts take a woman and change her wardrobe to get her   
to 
wear clothes that highlight her good points and downplay her   "problems."  
Most of the women they are trying to help, when turned  loose  in a store to 
chose 
clothes, go right back to selecting the  same type  of clothes they were 
wearing before they received the  instruction. So  it is  with some iris 
judges.

It is not  nuclear science to understand that a tall bearded iris with an   
average of only 4 buds does not deserve an award. But if the flower is  
gorgeous  
it is not surprising to learn the iris has received an AM.  'Ruffled  
Ballet,' 
which seldom, if ever, has more than 5 flowers  even won the Dykes.  Could 
there possibly be a judge who does not  understand that this is wrong? But  
even 
the judges who voted for  such an iris can judge iris on the show bench in  
an 
acceptable  manner. Clarence

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