Shows -- Classification & Placement

Linda Mann wrote"

:   why don't the people putting the show
:  together help the entrants get their iris labelled correctly?

They certainly do try -- but the entry/classification/placement process
sometimes gets pretty hectic!  Things can, and do, go wrong. 

Sometimes accidentally.   Like the time a new member who was working placement
got mixed up and took everything from the classification committee's reject
table out to the show tables.  I do THINK I caught all of them during the final
floor check, but under such conditions is hard to be sure.

Sometimes "accidently on purpose".  Never underestimate the determination of an
entrant who doesn't want to accept the judgement of the classification committee
that a stalk has been mislabeled.  Sometimes entrants try to take their own
rejected entries to the show tables.  One year, I caught a young man at this
THREE times with the same stalk.   He must have been watching me, too -- because
the disputed entry was not on the show tables when I made the final floor check
but it was there when I returned to talley after judging was over.  

Unfortunately, those who have the least grounds for questioning a decision do
tend to be the most vociferous. I'll never forget the woman who returned to the
classification table with an entry I'd rejected, hoping to have better luck with
my replacement.  The name was of an arilbred that has delicate dotting and
veining, while the would-be entrant's flower was a bitone with a large signal --
so of course the second committee member also rejected it.   The entrant
adamantly insisted her label was correct, even after she was shown the R&I
description the second time.  At that point, Ann very diplomatically said "Well,
let's check with the hybridizer!" -- called me over and introduced me.     (Yes.
I'd been wearing a name-tag all along -- but the would-be entrant hadn't noticed
it.)

Sharon McAllister
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