Seattle Judging Center No More

[ehanes7612]

Looks like Seattle judging center will be no more after march

 

[ehanes7612]

ooops, wrong category

 

[Tom Reddick]

Have specific reasons been given? Was it a lack of judges or a lack of plants being submitted- or both?

 

[ehanes7612]

They have not trained any new judges in years, so they have trouble having minimum number needed for a iudging and plant entries are fairly low to non existent

 

[Tom Reddick]

A shame- but finding new judges is difficult.

Twice in my life I went through the initial application process, but then decided I just could not do it. I understand and appreciate that judges- both as trainees and as full judges- need to make a major time commitment, but that kind of commitment does not translate well into many modern careers- including mine.

It varies by Center, but the Center where I was to be trained- Houston- has expectations of its judges and trainees far beyond the minimums. As a result, they had- and still have- some of the finest in the country, but I think I will have to retire before I could make the kind of time commitment they require. Their roster is pretty stable last time I looked, but there are certainly fewer people in the training process than 15-20 years ago.

 

[NYEric]

Wow, that sucks. Hmmmm, time to re-do my Student Judge application.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[littlefrog]

Even most of our 'new' judges are retired from other careers. The average age of all judges is pretty darn high. I am practically a spring chicken...

We are still getting students at Great Lakes. But not many. One a year perhaps. Might get two this year. Yes, it is a substantial time commitment. But if you were going to go to shows anyway, and orchids are a source of enjoyment to you, then it is really not that bad. Plus even after... lord only knows, 25 years?.. of judging I learn something new at every show. Helps keep me sharp. And most of us are pretty good people.

 

[ehanes7612]

I suppose the judges up here will be called to go to Portland on occasion.. But the Northwest in general has shown too much of a decrease in orchid outreach ...shows are terrible ...I know it has decreased a lot all around but it's really low here.

 

[Tom Reddick]

Even most of our 'new' judges are retired from other careers. The average age of all judges is pretty darn high. I am practically a spring chicken...

We are still getting students at Great Lakes. But not many. One a year perhaps. Might get two this year. Yes, it is a substantial time commitment. But if you were going to go to shows anyway, and orchids are a source of enjoyment to you, then it is really not that bad. Plus even after... lord only knows, 25 years?.. of judging I learn something new at every show. Helps keep me sharp. And most of us are pretty good people.

All good and fair points. I know if I had gone in at age 34, I would have been one of the youngest in memory.

I cannot argue with your logic on experience. While I was disappointed to pull back, I just knew that with me working on weekends at times (and often without warning) or traveling to deal with a client emergency (also without warning), it was not going to work out. I would LOVE to be doing 2 orchid events a month during peak show season in any capacity, but it is not meant to be right now.

And we have it good here in Texas. 3 judging centers in the state, plus a few more not too far away, and a large number of orchid societies which stage shows that include AOS judging. I would imagine the travel demands are significantly greater for many in other parts of the US.