Prizes, Ribbons, Categorization, Notification and Enumerification

["David VanderWall" <dvanderwall@uswest.net>]

Hi,

When we started putting the publicity contact listings together one of the
questions we had was, "can we contact these people to see if their email
addresses are correct and to see if a showcase/contest is something that
they find interesting?"  It seemed obvious to me that we could not until we
had a fully-formed contest/showcase.  I think the same thing would apply to
contacting vendors for prizes.

Just to get you started, though, in Jim's list we have 243 different
companies, all with snail mail addresses.  At $0.33 for each letter that's
$80.19 in postage alone.  Alternately we could send postcards at $0.20 or
$48.60.  Granted, I don't know that we want to send to all of the companies
on Jim's list, but it gives us a rough idea anyway.  I also don't know that
sending postcards would be very professional.

Or we could rely on email contact.  There are 60 companies on Jim's list
that have email addresses.  That would cost ... well, I pay something like
$17 a month for internet access ... of course I'm kidding, obviously it
costs nothing.  I've never heard of some of these companies and I don't know
what they do.  Some of the email addresses are info@ (which could just be an
auto-responder) and some are sales@ addresses.

I think a balance between the two might work.  Someone will have to distill
the list a little more.  Any volunteers?  Actually, James, it seems like
something you might want to do since you have mentioned a few before.  See
if they are on there and let's start with them.

But first we need to submit the proposal.  Right?  I agree with Erik that we
can request smaller, lighter items (gift certificates would be perfect as
the shipping arrangements for the actual product would be taken care of by
the winner).  And we will need a person to collect and redistribute the
prizes, but I don't think we absolutely _need_ to identify that person right
now.  Maybe I can have these things shipped to my place of work where I
could collect them, maybe someone else will step forward.  Let's just assume
for right now that it will be done.  Read on.

I think we can assume it will be done because it seems like we're talking
about 15 items or so at the most.  One for first place in each category.  I
also think we need to put a cap on the number of categories.  I vote 15
because I will give us some flexibility, and it just psychologically seems
like a more manageable number than 20.  Maybe that's just me.  We should
also put together a list of categories that we _will_ have, and leave some
room to add more as we see fit.  This could also allow us to eliminate a
number of categories if there are no tanks that fit into them, and we could
use the extra prizes to award a prize for 2nd place in some categories, etc.

Here are some category suggestions:
(please, please note that these are suggestions, I don't have any contest
experience  :-)

Planted aquascape
Rocky aquascape
Artificial aquascape
Paludarium aquascape
Brackish aquascape

Okay, there's five general ones.  Give some input on any that I missed or
any of these that need to be sub-divided.  Tank size we could leave till we
receive the entries and figure out how that shakes out -- another reason to
leave a few empty spots on our category roster.

Don't know why I feel the need to do the financials at this point, but this
is what I see so far:

Prizes contact cost (email and 60 snail mail) - $20
15 prizes - Free
US domestic shipping (priority mail) of 15 prizes @ 3lbs. - $64.50
Shipping "fudge factor" (for larger prizes and intl. shipping) - $50
Ribbons - $79 (see below)
Shipping the ribbons:
    45 @ $1.50 per tube - $67.50
    45 mailed (US domestic) assuming < 4 oz. weight - $45
    Ribbon shipping "fudge factor" - $25
Judge's CDs:
    CDs are a buck a piece.  I burn 'em too.  @ 5 judges - $5
    It costs about $1.20 to ship one first class, just did it - $6
    "Fudge factor" (intl. shipping, etc.) - $10

Sub Total - $372

60 entrants @ $5 offsets it $300

Actual cost of showcase/contest thus far - $72 (+/- ???)


Ribbons!  I searched the web and the first thing I came across was
http://www.hodgesbadge.com, which is Hodges Badge Company, Inc.  The
following is a description of one of their equestrian ribbons.  I'm assuming
we could get them without the picture of the horse. :-)  I'll contact them
and find out for sure -- that doesn't cost anything.

The "Ideal"
'4" across rosette; 12" top to bottom; 2"x9" streamers.
Our most popular rosette. Classic simplicity and an enduring design executed
in high quality satin.'

These are $1.40 a piece plus a $10 typesetting charge.  You can order them
online and it doesn't appear that the typesetting fee increases per design
(i.e. the online price calculator just tacked on $10 even though my shopping
cart had 15 blue ribbons that said one thing, 15 red that said another,
etc., so we may be able to get the actual category name printed on each set
of three at no additional cost).  There is a three-week turnaround time on
non-rush orders.



Other miscellaneous thoughts:

I think prizes and ribbons should be handled by two different people.

If we needed to send around photos for scanning (I don't think anyone else
here besides Karen can do slides) it is $1.40 plus postage to send it
certified mail through the USPS.  Record of receipt is available to the
sender.  Registered mail is $6 plus postage and provides additional
insurance.  ???  All in all it's probably not any safer than just sending
things first class, though.  Heck, you could send it FedEx overnight
priority, at about $20, and a package _still_ might get lost or damaged.

It is impossible to give a accurate accounting of all the costs up front.
Let's face that.  I think the AGA MC will understand that we are trying to
provide a reasonable estimate.  I think the AGA MC will also have their own
ideas, hopefully the same as ours, on how many entrants we might receive.
300 sounds like a lot to me.  We could put a further clamp down on this by
limiting the entry timeframe, say 3 weeks?  I dunno if any of this stuff can
even be "reasonably estimated," but we have to try.

I really don't think we need to announce a limit on the entries other than 1
or 2 per person.  At $5 a pop we're not going to get _that_ many.  I expect
this is the most controversial item right now.  I don't really have a
problem with limiting the number, and it seems some of the more vocal
opponents are offering to help with the overages (I have access to a scanner
at work and would be willing to help), provided we can find a shipping
method we are comfortable with.  There's a compromise in here somewhere.
Keep in mind also that we could stand to see _a lot_ of electronic
submissions.  I think we should encourage this behavior as it would keep
scanning time down.  Arrangements for the winner's actual photographs could
be made later, if necessary.  ('Cause, anyway, if they isn't "publication
quality" then they isn't "publication quality.")  This sort of keeps the
contest on the internet, keeps it accessible to AGA members, and keeps our
efforts (Erik's efforts?) down with regard to scanning.  (Then again, will
we be able to see what's in the !@$% picture? ;-)  But that's always been an
acceptable risk, right?)

Probably too much in one email. :-)  Sorry 'bout the long post.


Regards,

Dave VanderWall
Minneapolis, MN

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