BCOE&M 2.7.2: Competition Organization with BCOE&M

This document will (hopefully) help competition organizers to effectively run their competition when utilizing BCOE&M as their primary tool for gathering entries and organizing their competitions.

This is by no means a definitive guide to competition organization...there are many ways to run a competition.

This guide is for organizers to effectively run a competition with BCOE&M as their main organizational tool.

Preparing

A significant amount of headaches for organizers can be mitigated with thorough competition preparation.

First and foremost, recruit dependable people. You won't be able to pull off the competition alone, so don't even try.

Getting at least two to three dependable people to help you organize will help you keep things running smoothly, not to mention help you keep your sanity.

Size Does Matter

Really. It does. If your competition is small, you should be able to have great success in organizing the competition with a small cadre of people - maybe three to four core team members and other ancillary volunteers to help with large tasks like picking up entry bottles and sorting.

For instance, the steward coordinator may be able to serve as the cellar master, the judge coordinator can be in charge of getting sponsors, etc.

At minimum, you will need one or more dependable people to serve in the following roles (some may have dual functions):

• Overall Competition Organizer (you)
• Judge Coordinator
• Steward Coordinator
• Sponsor Coordinator
• Awards/Medal Coordinator
• Sponsor/Swag Coordinator
• Website and/or Social Media Coordinator (also may be in charge of promoting the competition)
• Cellar Master
• Cellar Staff
• Sorting Staff
• Data Entry Staff

However, the larger the competition, the more cooks need to be in the kitchen. Once your competition moves past the 250-300 entry mark, you'll need at least one person dedicated to each of the roles above, plus others as your competition needs dictate.

Just remember, though, you are the head chef, the big cheese – so you'll need to be able to organize and delegate tasks effectively and efficiently.

Competition Judging Date(s)

First, decide on a competition date or set of dates. If your competition is well established and is on a regularly scheduled interval, you should be good to go.

However, if your competition is new, choose your dates carefully, since there are a number of factors that play into success or failure:

• Are there any other competitions in the area at the same time that may draw judges away from yours?
• Are any judging dates around a holiday that may impact recruitment of judges?
• Are any judging dates close to the date of a major national event (Super Bowl, election, national holiday)?
• Are any judging dates a weekday?

Before Judging

You'll need to consider a lot of things well in advance of the judging date(s). Keep in mind these are my suggestions based upon what has worked for me in the past.

At Least Three Months Out... More

Two to Three Months Out... More

One to Two Months Out... More

One Month Out... More

Two to Three Weeks Out... More

One Week Out... More

A Day or Two Before... More

Competition Judging

The time has arrived. All the logistical wrangling and all of the planning has come to fruition.

Now, I'm not going to tell you how to run your competition. The way you do things is totally up to you and your staff.

First, consider implementing Electronic Scoresheets. They are essential to successful virtual judging sessions, but they are also very handy to implement when conducting in-person judging sessions as well. If your competition implements Electronic Scoresheets, you'll save a lot of overhead - in terms of time, money, and opportunity. The advantages are many, but the top ones are:

• Increased legibility of judge commentary. They type instead of write. And luckily, most modern browsers now feature inline spell check.
• Elimination of printing costs, not to mention the environmental impacts, associated with paper-based scoresheets.
• Distribution of scoresheets to participants is instantaneous upon publishing of results. They can log in, access their entry list, and download/print scoresheets immediately.
• Score calculations are more accurate.

Here are some best practices on how to utilize BCOE&M to your greatest advantage during the judging session(s).

• Data entry of scores via the Admin Dashboard > Scoring functions:
  • Add/Edit/Manage scores by table. Here is where you will record the score each entry earns. There are various ways stewards can record scores - the BCOE&M pullsheets do feature a box for score and whether an entry advanced to the Mini-BOS at the table.
    • If you are using Electronic Scoresheets, there's no manual entry of scores. Simply import the judges' consensus scores from the Admin Entry Evaluations screen. Done!
  • Add/Edit/Manage BOS entries and places.
  • Add/Edit/Manage Custom BOS Categories and their associated entries (such as Pro-Ams, etc.).
• For judging sessions using paper-based scoresheets, and if you have a auto-feed scanner available, consider scanning each entry's scoring documentation as it comes in. This will save some time on the back end and will have the added advantage of making scoresheets available to entrants quickly via their User Account page of your BCOE&M installation.
  • See the Upload Scanned Judges' Scoresheets page for directions.
  • This isn't a thing if you've implemented Electronic Scoresheets. All scoresheet data is stored in your competition database.
• Utilize the various reports available by going to the Admin Dashboard > Reports section of your BCOE&M installation.
  • If your competition does separate Mini-Best Of Show rounds, there are pullsheets available when used in conjunction with the Scoring Mini-BOS check box data entry feature.
  • There's a section called "During Judging" that provides some great Best of Show (BOS) preparation materials:
    • BOS pullsheets by style type.
    • BOS cup mats to help BOS judges to accurately separate and evaluate the BOS entries.