Re: Ken's suggestions

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

Thanks for the input Ken.

"I have a suggestion: why not combine classes if there were no more than
five
entries in anyone class. "

That had already been suggested and as far as I know, accepted. If you look
at the "Prize Distribution... Take 2" post, you will see that it has now
been done that way.

Aquatic Gardens Small - 1st, 2nd, 3rd  -  (8 entries)
Aquatic Gardens Medium - 1st, 2nd, 3rd  -  (26 entries)
Aquatic Gardens Large - 1st, 2nd, 3rd  -  (28 entries)
Natural/Biotope Tanks - 1st, 2nd, 3rd  -  (4 entries)
Artificial - 1st, 2nd, 3rd  -  (5 entries)
Paludarium - 1st, 2nd, 3rd  -  (7 entries)

Best of Show - 1 prize (contrary to popular thought, this will not
necessarily be an Aquatic Garden. The Judges may very well decide that the
BEST aquascape is one of the winners of another category. Nobody, other than
Erik, has SEEN any of the entries, so we can't _assume_ anything about who
or what is going to win. This is how it should be.)

"I have a problem with awarding a $400 prize for 1st place in one
category and only a $66 prize for a 1st in another category. After all, the
people who entered the contest had no control over how many others entered
their particular category."

I initially had a problem with it as well, but that was before I saw the
breakdown of how many entrants we had in each category. If the prizes are of
equal value, for a particular ranking, over the entire group of categories,
regardless of the level of competition within each category, it means that
people would have been more likely to walk away with a plum prize by
mislabelling their entries, or by just entering a non-aquatic garden tank
into the event.

As it is, those people who entered the other categories DO stand a better
chance of winning a prize than does someone who entered an aquatic garden,
especially one of medium or large size. That's something we just have to
live with - maybe next year we can attract more entries in the non-garden
categories.

But I see no need to apologize for making sure that someone who has to face
stiffer competition in order to win a prize gets a more valuable prize at
the end of the day.

It's slightly mind-boggling to realize that we have so much to give away.
But our biggest constituency is obviously the aquatic gardening community
(otherwise, we would have had more non-garden entries), and I would prefer
to award the winners in the heavily subscribed categories at a level based
upon their numbers.

The only alternative to this would be to break apart the  Medium and Large
Aquatic Garden categories more finely, into a number of sub-categories. As
only Erik has actually seen the entries, only he could suggest or even do
something like this. And of course, doing so would also open him/us to
charges of favouritism, should someone still not win something. So, I would
prefer that this further division not be even contemplated.

We are going to have winners and we are going to have WINNERS. Some people
might be ticked that they didn't get a bigger "share" of the prize pool than
others, but hey, that's life and it is the nature of a competition. They
will get over it. The merchandise prizes are really only "gravy" anyway -
that isn't what this thing is about. Anyone who entered solely for that
reason doesn't really concern me.

I have maintained throughout this that everyone who went to the trouble of
entering is a winner - its the participation that is the key, not the gravy
at the end of the road. I mentioned very early on in our discussions that I
thought it would be nice if we could manage to send each and every entrant a
"Thank You for Participating" note - something that they could hang next to
their aquarium if they wished would be nice. But it was poo-poo'ed down by a
departed member and never reveived. To do something like that would probably
cost us something like $50.00 for copying and mailing, but its not in our
budget for this year.

James


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