ANST - Judging and Guidelines (was Looking for the heat)

[Bob Dewart]

(Many wonderful things snipped.)


As a past local MoAS I find all of the below to be very interesting.  As I
am still much involved in local A & S and frequently find myself recruited
to help run local A & S competitions I will keep all of this in mind for our
next event in the fall.

However, (see below)
>
>We could always have better, more objective judging if people who are in
>charge of A&S competitions would:
>
>(1) make sure that there is an area where the judges can sit down and get
>off their feet occasionally. Better yet if we can drag a chair around with
>us as we judge and sit down in front of the widget while we write the
>comments.
>
>(2) make sure that there are pens and paper for judges to write comments
with
>
>(3) make arrangements for refreshments (even water would be nice) for the
>judges,
>
>(4) explicitly set up the competition so that there will be group judging
>
>(5) arrange ahead of time to have enough judges - perhaps ask for letters
>of intent from artisans to be allowed to compete in the first place, then
>use the received letters as a guide to how many judges are needed.
>Consider how many judges you have, how much time it takes to realistically
>think about one item and write intelligent commenst (never less than 5
>minutes per item, allowing 15 is better), and get more judges if needed.
>Contact the Laurels and other talented artisans BEFORE the event and ask
>them to judge.  Maybe even offer a drawing for a "judges doorprize" to help
>recruit more judges -- Laurels judge out of sense of duty, but look at Gulf
>Wars how few of the Laurels present actually help with the actual judging
>because there is so much else to do!
>
>If all those conditions are met, you will get better judging and more
>objective commentary.  If you let the judges be harried, hassled,
>overworked, hungry, thirsty and on their feet on a concrete floor for 3
>hours while fun is going on everywhere else except where they are, you're
>going to have a distracted, less than happy, not objective judge. If it is
>difficult to write comments, comments will not get written, so always
>provide paper and pens and a place to write comments.  If it is physically
>painful or too hot or otherwise too uncomfortable, judges won't spend the
>time necessary to do a good job.
>
>
>I just have to wonder how much bad judging is really because the judges'
>feet hurt, they were thirsty, hypoglycemic, and hadn't been able to get to
>the privy since the judging started since we're rushing to get all these
>widgets judged before they have to set up for feast...
>

Continuation of however.

Where does one _get_  judges?  I remember for Ice Axe IX we sent out
invitations to every Laurel in the kingdom we had an address for with an
SASE inclosed.  We heard back from three of them - 2 no's, 1 yes.

Generally we have to make do with the Irises and Thistles we have in our
group and hope that other Irises or maybe a Laurel or two will be in
attendance that we can ask to help.

So, it's all very well to talk about improving judging standards and forms
and criteria but, it doesn't do any good if you can't find the judges to
start with.

HL Darcy Evaline o Lasgwm



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