Re: Judging

["James Purchase" <jpurch@interlog.com>]

Amano does not speak English. However, he does have several employees who
do - Hideki Higuchi is one who comes to mind. I have corresponded with him
on several occassions regarding Nature Aquarium concepts and products, and
have found his attitude and replies to be very helpful. I don't know what
kind of an aquascaper he is.

But if we are looking for someone from the Pacific (oriental) area, Yoshino
and/or Kobayashi (The Natural Aquarium) might be considered as well. I don't
know if they speak English.

Regarding the language issue - this is really only a problem with the
comments of the judges on their decisions. For most of them, especially
those who are associated with large companies, they might have their
comments translated for us. We might also be able to have non-English
speaking Judges' comments translated ourselves, for use on the Web.

I really liked Karen's suggestion of Kaspar Horst (retired head of Dupla).
I'd have every confidence in _his_ abilities to handle this well. Her
remarks about my suggestion of Don Dewey are well taken and well
understood - but as Don has told me in private correspondence he prefers to
not make editiorial censorship his policy - he prefers to let the reader
decide who is "full of it" instead. I might not agree with this, but I
respect his work with hobbyists over the years.

One person I do _not_ wish to see suggested is Owen Jefferies.

Other folks that I mentioned as possibly good candidates include -

Claus Christensen (Tropica)
Barry James (British - author of several aquarium plant books)
Christel Kasselmann (Germany - author of Aquarienpflanzen) - however, does
she speak English???

Regarding Kasselman, the following is an exerpt from a review of her book
which appears on the Tropica website and is alsoon the KRIB. I reproduce it
to stress _why_ I think that she would a a prefect candidate for us to
consider:

"In releasing this book, Christel Kasselmann has cemented her position as
one of the worlds' leading amateur scientists. It is to be hoped that this
book will soon be translated into English so that it becomes the
international reference source that it deserves to be. An indispensable
book for aquarium keepers as well as water plant botanists."

"The author Christel Kasselmann has been internationally known for years as
the very competent editor of the German aquarium plant magazine "Aqua
Planta". In addition she has written innumerable articles about water
plants ! Christel passes on her experience from approximately 25
expeditions to the tropics."

-----------
I question using an AGA member as a judge, not because I don't think that
there aren't any experts in the organization, but more due to the fact that
we probably won't let Judges submit enteries, and I don't want to exclude
any AGA members automatically.

Again, remember that at this point in time our main aim _right now_ is to
draw up a list of potential people to approach, not to actually nail anyone
down as certain. Additionally, we want to discuss whether we provide general
guidelines to the judges. I definately do NOT want us to get as anal as the
_Dutch_ apparently do.

I don't think Judges should be charged with producing a First, Second and/or
Third place type of scale. I liked the idea of using such concepts as
"superior", "excellent", etc. For our first stab at this, I think that this
way we would be more encouraging to people.

James Purchase
Toronto


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