"official" weighoff sites......why go?

Gang,
   A good thing about going to a GPC site ( or a WPC or a major independent 
site) really comes into play if you have a very large (World Class) pumpkin 
that may be in contention for a world record. If you go to a GPC site, 
Clarence or a few of the major independents you will find a calibrated 
digital scale so you can be confident that the weight is correct. Topsfield 
pays almost 1,000 dollars each year for the Fairbanks scale company to bring 
2 digital scales, a back up scale, 2 digital readouts and they pay for the 
Fairbanks factory technician to set them up, calibrate them and remain for 
the entire weighoff to assure things go right. Small sites can't afford to do 
this, but if you are in the gpc or the wpc they have rules that you must have 
a digital scale that is accurate or you can't be a site. That way if you have 
a big one, there will be no doubt if it is a world record. I don't weigh off 
at Clarence, but if Ray had a 1200 pound pumpkin this year I would believe 
him because I know he has a good scale, just like I would believe Howard 
Dill, Joel Holland or Tom Norlin.........they all run proper equipment.  
Where you get into trouble, and it has happened a few times before (and I 
will not go into specifics)..........Joe Blow from pinhead Junction grows a 
supposed 1,500 pounder, took it to the local feed store or gravel bank and 
had it weighed. You have no credibility, is it an accurate weight? is it a 
hoax? You'll never know. I would discount it. Now let me tell you something 
about the GPC. They're big, they are powerful, they are not perfect, they 
have made mistakes, there have been bumps along the way, there have been 
growing pains, there are some smaller sites that don't receive  GPC prize 
money on a given year and I'll tell you something else...THEY ARE A DAMN FINE 
ORGANIZATION. Let me give you some specifics: Last year the GPC had 22 sites 
so they collected 11,000 dollars. Last year they gave back to the GPC sites 
14,000 dollars!!!!! Jack's Classic Fertilizer put up the extra 5 grand so 
they paid out more than they took in as far as site fees. Now you say, "wait 
a minute, where did the other 2,000 bucks go"? Every site receives a first 
place plaque (500bucks), they have a 500 dollar balance in the checking 
account and it took roughly 1,000 bucks for internal operating expenses. Not 
a bad accounting of where the money goes!  You can see where the money went 
in the Dec. issue of the NEPGA Newsletter.The GPC is very sensitive to trying 
to get some of the money back to the smaller sites. Last year all the sites 
received plaques and 11 sites shared in the prize money. To spread the money 
around better they increased to 20 cash prizes that included pumpkins, 
squash, watermellon, tomato and cantaloupe so the southern sites could get a 
shot too. The GPC returned 127% of the site fees as prize money....Not bad. 
You can get a list of the site coordinators in the GPC from Hugh Wiberg. Ask 
the site coordinators if they were hunted down and solicited to join the GPC. 
The vast majority of the existing sites contacted the GPC to join. The GPC is 
not on a massive hunt to solicit new sites. Don't believe me...ask the site 
coordinators. I don't agree with everything that the GPC does but they are a 
fine organization and I ,for one, am proud to be a member.
                             Wayne Hackney (pumkinguy)  

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