Dave's post

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

Good luck with the move Dave - I hope that it goes smoothly.

>With the way the latest line of thinking has been going, I don't see why we
>should limit the entries at all (as long as Erik is able and willing to
>organize the entries).  If we do not give people anything for
participating,
>an increase in entries will not increase the cost of the contest.

The prime reason (I think) that Karen suggested an upper limit is primarily
to ensure that we don't get caught in a bind with too many entries to be
able to handle properly. For a "first try" at this, I have to concur. We
could be swamped with entries and find that we lack the people to be able to
scan them and arrange them in a reasonable time frame. A smaller event which
runs well is much better than a hugh event which is delayed because of
limited resources. This first year should point out any errors or omissions
in our planning and we will have the chance to work the kinks out in a
smaller venu. However, three hundred entries (which was the lower number
suggested) is still a lot of images and if we get that many I'll be very
gratified.

I would like people to speak up on the idea I posted regarding the idea of
foregoing  any mailed out awards, be they prizes, certificates or ribbons.
We could post the "winners" names and send PDF format "certificates" to them
to allow them to have something to hang in their fish room if they wish.

Jose has also suggested memberships in the AGA as another option as
"prizes". This would work with this idea, as the "Contest" would not be
responsibe for sending anything out in the mail to the people who win. It
would require the agreement of the AGA. We could also ask the various
magazines for "gift subscriptions" as well.

My prime reason to couple this idea with the idea of "no entrance fees" was
to bring home the fact that this was not conceived as a money making venture
and if we can keep a very tight lid on costs it need not be a money losing
one either. If anyone has any thoughts of this, I'd like to hear them - one
way or the other. Have I missed or forgotten about anything which would cost
money in my calculations?

Would levying a nominal "entry fee" ($5.00/entry) make this more "serious"
or more or less likely to garner attention and attract entries?

Do you think that doing away with mailed out ribbons or certificates would
hurt the event? Would people be less likely to enter if they know that we
are not going to give them a prize, in the traditional sense of the word?
Would notification of their efforts via the Web be enough?

James Purchase
Toronto

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