Re: My give on Olga's take

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

Oh dear, it seems to be a slow news day....

Olga gave us her thoughts, so I'll take a stab at responding to at least
some of them...

Judges: I wonder if it is necessary, at this point in time, before we have
received the approval/acceptance of the AGA MC, for us to be approaching
_anybody_. We can consider them among ourselves, and make up our little wish
lists of possibilities, but I'm not going to approach anybody until I know
that this is going to go ahead.

But I do like the list of possibilites that Olga has suggested. Since George
is now on the list, I guess the cat is out of the bag....
so what about it George? Wanna be put on our list of possible people to
contact to act as Judges?

Scoring: Nothing to add.

Plastic plants: Hey, I was trying to be expansive <g>, give me a break! But
we really should reach concencus on this - where are we drawing the line?
I've gotten shot down, both publicly and privately, for attempting to make
everyone aware that there are _some_ people who can get very serious about
the more artictic aspects of this hobby. I know that my post intimidated a
lot of you. Well, I'm sorry, but get over it. If I'm willing to accept tanks
with artifical photographs for backgrounds and sunken galleons embeded in
coloured gravel, you all should be willing to accept the possibility that
someone might enter a work of art.

What we are attempting to plan here _should_ have room for everyone -
without anyone feeling like a weenie. That's why I think the "showcase"
aspect of this is more important than the "contest".

But, since this is hopefully going to be hosted by the AGA, are plastic
plants going to be ruled out or not?

Categories / Entry Numbers - you folks continue to confound me. On the one
hand you want a "kinder, gentler affair" and on the other hand you insist on
getting bogged down with nit picking over how many categories there should
be, how many enteries per category before we move to awarding 1st, 2nd and
3rd place prizes/awards, etc.

I  have suggested that we invite entries and once we have the images, we set
a group of people to the task of sorting them out according to some general
guidelines - nothing overly complicated. Once they are sorted, we pass
everything to the Judges. This continues to be ignored.

Art etc. - See my comments above. I know that there are more Al Bundy's out
there than there are Fraser Crane's but we _should_ at least agree that both
might want to enter, and both should feel free to do so. Sheesh!

Making Decisions - a few days ago, I asked everyone to e-mail me privately
with their top three choices for a contest name. I thought I would make it
easy by giving you a hyper link to my e-mail and I re-stated the list of
possibilities. Out of over 25 people on the list, 8 people bothered to
respond as I requested. Several responded to the list, one did so but only
gave his top choice. If you didn't e-mail me by the deadline, your vote was
not counted. How's THAT for making a decision?

Folks, I weighted the top three choices to make it fairer for everybody, but
when you fail to speak up, in the manner requested and in a timely fashion,
I wonder if I'm talking to the wall here. A lot of you have expressed
concern that there is too much talk and too much to read. You have obviously
never been involved in a planning meeting for a proposal before. This is
where the excess talk is supposed to happen. This is where wild ideas get
thrashed out.

Did anyone read my posted 2nd Draft of the Proposal to the AGA? Notice how
short it was? A Proposal is a summary - this discussion is where the chatter
happens.

Thank you,

James Purchase
Toronto

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