Re: Iris Show

:Linda writes in an earlier e-mail:
:
:> we (east tennessee iris society) are planning our 3rd demonstration
:>show this spring.  we haven't done a judged show yet -but we just
:>are more interested in sharing the beauty and diversity of iris with the
:>public than competition at the moment.

and Bill replies (in part)
:
:Three years of demonstration shows and no AIS sanctioned show yet? ? ? That's a
:shame!   You're already doing about 85 per cent of the work required to have an
:AIS Show.  You're also doing the hybridizers in your area a great dis-service?
:An AIS Show gives hybridizers the opportunity to have their seedling evaluated
:by AIS judges. Five AIS Judges attending the show can encourage
:hybridizers with
:their voting of ECs (Exhibition Certificates).  I'll stop at that and ask other
:AIS members, hybridizers and judges to jump in on this thread to help me out!

I confess to the heresy of having some sympathy for nonjudged shows.
Bill's points are well taken, of course, particularly regarding
giving hybridizers the chance to have seedlings evaluated. Yet I have
seen *so many* otherwise fine people become obsessive maniacs at the
prospect of competition that I wonder if we really need as much intensity
as judged shows produce. I think the first and foremost purpose of an
iris show should be to share the beauty of the flowers you raise with
others who otherwise wouldn't see them. If people can keep that purpose
in mind during an official judged show, then the judging is an added
bonus: it encourages deeper learning and appreciation. But in practice,
it seems like the purpose of "sharing" is the first casualty of
competition.

I have seen iris societies split apart, people leave clubs (or be
banished from clubs), and cultivate decade-long animosities over what
happens at a show. These things don't seem to result from my current way
of showing my irises: inviting people to my garden at bloom time.

FWIW.

[Where will this thread go---]


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Tom Tadfor Little         tlittle@lanl.gov  -or-  telp@Rt66.com
technical writer/editor   Los Alamos National Laboratory
---------------------------------------------------------------
Telperion Productions     http://www.rt66.com/~telp/
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