David Toppin wrote:
> How about making all the awards peoples choice. My club, the
> Wheelmen, quit
> judging many years ago, and I miss it. It used to be kind of informal
> judging, best restored & best unrestored in the differnet
> categories they
> had. For some reason, they decided to go to a points system, like
> the old
> car guys, and what a mess it made. I think there were too many hurt
> feelings so they just dumped it all together. I wish that didn't
> happen, I
> miss judging, it brought out the good bikes.
Hi David,
As I mentioned, the first couple of Velo Rendezvous I had Entrant's Choice awards for first, second and third. I did this to keep the mood light... no white gloved judges poking around the nether regions of people's wheeled mistresses.
I also didn't want it to be a People's Choice award because the general public makes a very poor judge (distracted by bright shiny objects I think) so I made just the people that entered bikes eligible to judge the bikes. But the judging criteria was still left up to each person. When asked, I told people it could be as frivolous as just picking the three nicest blue bikes!
I think it did help show attendees by highlighting three highly regarded bikes regardless of the judging criteria.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
.