Re: [AGA-Contest] Contest update and forum updates.

My comments are limted to just a few toics:

RE naming judges. I'm not sure it's a good idea to announce who the judges are before the judging is finalized. Keeping them anonymous helps ensure that the judges make their assessments without any influence from others or knowing who submitted what. It also helps to remove any mere appearance of such improprieties.

RE sponsorship. I think there is plenty of room for more sponsors. While a sponsor can be named for a certain catgory or class, we pool the money to cover the cost of all the prizes. So technically, we could receive an infinite amount of money and not have too much for prizes -- in any event, we would be lucky to have eonough to cover the nominal value of prizes we have given in the past. Last year we came close with a large number of sponsors and one especially gracious benefactor ;-)

RE advertizing. I think it is kind of pricey and I have my doubts that it has any significant impact on the amount of participation but, because he is so much more familiar with the contest and for a much longer time, I defer to Erik's judgement if he is of another mind.

* * * *
show up, show off,
The AGA 8th Annual International Aquascaping Contest is Open.
Info is at
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2007.cgi

----- Original Message ----
From: Bailin Shaw <bailin_shaw@hotmail.com>
To: aga-contest@thekrib.com
Cc: mpetranek@fulbright.com; gelenius@optusnet.com.au; gporray@sbcglobal.net
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:43:43 AM
Subject: [AGA-Contest] Contest update and forum updates.

Hi All,

I've put together a short document to update the forums about the number of
contestants and judges we have for this year's contest.  Please let me know
if there are any changes you would like before we start posting to the
forums.  I also wanted to know what the status of the prizes/awards are at
this point.  NEAPS is still interested in sponsoring a category if these is
still a need for additional prizes.  Also, what are the advertising needs
for periodicals like FAMA, TFH, etc?

In addition to the document, I've also attached the list of current forums
that I and others have been posting on.  All of the forums have the
username: aga-member and password: aquaticplants.  This should simplify
postings on the forum in the future.  I would like to change the email to
the an AGA based email in the near future.  Is there a way I can be assigned
contest coordinator email for this purpose and for other coordinators in the
future?

Finally, I have some people I'd like to invite onto the contest list.  These
are people who responded about helping with the postings in the forums and
any additional help they could provide.