[AGA-Contest] Some of the Jobs (Long)

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Thu, 5 May 2005, S. Hieber wrote:

> I think the bulk of the work is putting up the pics. Which
> Erik has done inthe past. Don't know if Erik wants to do
> that this year. He'd probably like to have someone with
> some 'puter smarts handle that.

All the web parts are programmed and automated, so I'm planning on 
handling it again with the same software.  That's about the most stable 
part of the system, having changed little in the last three years.  The 
only programming change I made for this year (barring discussions we're 
going to have now) is the addition of "Do you want your entry to be 
automatically sent to ADA?"  If the contest were purely a matter of 
collecting entries and making sure the website were running, it would be a 
piece of cake.

At this point, the bulk of the work is deciding on specific direction for 
the year (changes to rules, theme, graphics, etc), PR, getting folks to 
enter, following up to insure folks have paid their fee & signed the 
release, selecting and communicating with judges, and coordinating prizes 
and ribbons.  Oh, and lack-of-convention issues.  In more detail...

* We should review issues brought up with last year's event and decide 
what, if any, changes need to be made to the rules, guidelines, and 
procedures.  Here is a summary of all the "issues" I found archived from 
the end of the previous contest (this doesn't mean we should actually DO 
all these... just that they're open for discussion):

        1. Handle the photo release electronically? by FAX?
        2. Request to overhaul the judging point system, number, and/or
           national make-up of the judges
        3. Request to subdivide categories by style or ability
        4. Changes in how judges leave comments
        5. Show all rankings, not just top scorers?
        6. Keep the fee waiver for folks entering from countries without
           PayPal access?

* Graphics and theme.  I've been a little obsessive here.  Every year up 
to now, I have created a "theme" of the event & the graphics.  The first 
year I was worried people wouldn't understand the diversity of the 
categories, so I made the "morphing multi-aquascape" banner (including 
rocks and space-agey plastic crap). 2001 was a series of different tanks, 
again trying to show the diversity of entries.  No big deal.  2002's logo 
was "Ingredients of an Aquascape", emphasizing the close-up components 
(and hopefully trying to nudge people to not just include five identical 
photos of the whole tank).  2003 was "Design into Action", where a 
planting plan morphed into the final aquascape.  And 2004 was "Aquascaping 
As Art", tying in with the convention display, with the people looking at 
the framed "pictures" in a gallery (except for the kid in the corner 
blowing it all off and checking out the fish tank on the crummy wood 
stand).  Any ideas for 2005?  I'm plumb out of them right now!

* PR will involve posting on forums, contacting magazines, and in general 
drumming up support.  This is THE most important job, and one which I 
cannot do.  Carlos did a great job last year, but I am doubtful he will 
want to do it again (that judge spot is still open for you Carlos!).

* Our contact with a forum should forward feedback and requests BACK to 
this list so we aren't working in a vaccuum.  Last year, for instance, it 
became a big deal whether Amano would comment on every entry (we didn't 
know if he would or not, but at least we could reply to those people and 
say as much).

* Last year was just plain PAINFUL getting people to pay their fee and 
sign the release.  I'm not sure why it was.  Perhaps it was because I was 
more lenient in the drop-dead dates, but I got an endless stream of whiny 
letters from people who couldn't drop the release form in the post office 
(one person actually wrote "I just don't do well with postal mail").  It 
would be nice to offload this task onto another person!!

* Another thing that's not too big of a deal is offloading some of the 
snail-mail correspondence, i.e., physical entries sent by post.  We have 
very few of these.  But if it's unmanageable, I have already gotten 
someone local in Seattle who has stepped up to this job.

* Judges.  Though this can all change, my approach to selection has been 
this:

	1. have a balance of one "longstanding famous person" in the hobby 
from overseas (Amano, Claus Christensen, Kaspar Horst, etc.), one fairly 
high-scorer in last year or previous years who didn't enter this year, a 
wild-card, and Karen Randall (who has judged every year and brings a 
certain amount of continuity).
	2. No repeats, if possible.  Aside from Karen, we've managed to 
have all different judges every year.
	3. No judges that are also entering the contest.  For this reason, 
I have often picked the wildcard right when the contest closes.
	4. Don't have too many judges in the same "circle".  And by that I 
mean that I have not wanted to have four judges who, for instance, all 
heavily participate on APC's aquascaping BB.
	5. No volunteers.  Made an exception for Phil last year, but we 
probably would have asked him anyway.  I don't like the idea of someone 
WANTING to be judging the event.  I question if they have an agenda.
	6. Four seems to be about the right number.  Last year it worked 
exceptionally well, enough that it might be worth considering a fifth, but 
the year before we had a fifth judge "forced" on us when a husband and 
wife team decided they'd split up and judge separately.  Coordinating all 
five was painful.
	7. Special consideration to convention speakers and attendees, so 
they can speak live at the presentation.  Not relevant this year.

Now I don't think these are mutually exclusive of getting one person from 
Europe, one from Japan, one from the US, etc.; or one "Dutch style", one 
"Amano Style".  But we will have to work with the pool we have available. 
So please throw out some suggestions for this year's judges.

Oh, one other thing.  Used to be that we required the judges to all have a 
certain amount of computer saavy.  Last year with Amano, we had to mail 
him physical photos.  As a result of this, I now have an automated system 
to produce and print all the materials for a non-computer-saavy judge. 
But it'll cost about $125-150 in ink and paper per judge of this type.

* Awards Ceremony Replacement for 2005 - I wonder if there's any 
interesting ideas for what to do in lieu of this.  For instance, we could 
hold a chat with the judges as things are unveiled?

* Prize mailing/coordination/etc.  Order ribbons, decide which prize 
donations will go to which winners, mail em all out.

* Thank-you gifts for judges.

OK, that's enough for me.  It's rare I get an hour for e-mail; won't be 
doing this very much this year.  But I am looking for volunteers for ALL 
these areas.  So if any of those sounds right up your alley, please say 
so!

  - Erik

--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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