Re: GWA Award Musings (From Graham Rice)

**"* R* B* <g*@enter.net>**

 "These award programs are generally all about the revenue."

I can speak intelligently and personnaly about the awards programs for GWA
as well as Perennial Plant Association, Association of Professional
Landscape Designers, American Nursery and Landscape Association (When they
had both the landscape awards and the Herald Awards to recognize excellence
in Garden Communications) and Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery
Association.  

None of them were conceived--nor continue--to generate revenue for the
sponsoring associations.  They are, in fact, enormous loss leaders if you
factor the enormous contribution of volunteer and "paid" labor needed to
catalogue the entries, judge the submissions, design and produce the often
elaborate presentation shows and define the criteria.

It is very ofter the criteria of judging that elicits the most comment from
entrants.  In my experience, it is up to those entrants to more clearly
define the merits by which they wish their submissions to be judged.  This
year for GWA, there was a great deal of debate about Blogs.  The debate
changed the submission guidelines.  If you would want to change anything for
future years, I would encourage you to draft your proposal for
consideration. 

The awards programs function as a way for groups to recognize and value
contributions by the membership for some perceived greater good.  While it
has been argued that they are all just an elaborate attempt at
self-aggrandizement, I am convinced that those people who make the effort to
enter take the first step toward personal and business evaluation.  For me
it's never been about winning and losing as much as it's about establishing
comparable or improving bench marks of relative quality.  "Where do I stack
up against the competition?" is determined by the way I craft a submissio

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