Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 01:10:01 -0500
Message-Id: <199602270610.BAA04124 at synchro.com>
To: judge-recipients at synchro.com (JudgeNet Recipients)
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Subject: JudgeNet Digest #1222 (Feb 26, 1996)

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JudgeNet Digest #1222                              Mon 26 Feb 1996

                               JudgeNet
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Contents:

  Points per beer.                         (Alan Folsom)
  Continuing Education                     (Tom Leith)

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Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 05:41:47 -0800
From: folsom at ix.netcom.com (Alan Folsom)
Subject: Points per beer.

Regarding awarding judging points on a per-beer basis:  it's an  
interesting idea, but I have a couple of concerns.

  1) After 10 or more beers in a flight, your taste buds (at least 
mine!) are pretty well shot.  Do we run the risk of encouraging the 
awarding of points for bad judging?

  2) Organizers rarely have the chance to completely balance all 
flights of beers.  Should a judge that gets assigned to a flight of 7 
beers be penalized compared to a judge that gets 12?  This could lead 
to some interesting criteria in the assigning of judges.

As a small alternative, how about point awards based on flights judged? 
That way the person who has to judge three flights morning noon and 
night get recognized for it, without the above problems.

Al Folsom 

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Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 08:11:09 -0600 (CST)
From: Tom Leith <trl at wuerl.wustl.edu>
Subject: Continuing Education

Mark Johnston <msjohnst at srvr.third-wave.com> writes:

>While ongoing training would be beneficial, I believe
>that Mr. Leith's proposal is a bit extreme.

Hmmmmm. How come everything not status quo is "extreme" these days? Oh well.

>First off is the logistic and capital cost to the fledgling BJCP
>program itself. 

This is why we contract with a Beer-of-the-Month outfit, and with some
kind of data-processing firm. It pushes the costs out to the prime 
beneficiaries -- the participants and the contractors.

>If someone judges casually, merely judging for 1 or 2 competitions a year,
>with no aspirations to Master ranking, are they any less necessary at a
>competition than someone with National standing who obtained half their
>points by organizing competitions? 

I'd say you need to ask the guy who paid $4 - $7 to have his beer
evaluated in competition. And maybe the organizer. As it stands right now,
homebrew competitions are a real crapshoot. Is this what people are 
paying for?

>I believe that the secret to judge quality control, at least in
>terms of ranking, is in the initial qualification process. 

Absolutely. This is why a comprehensive education program is important. 
It forms the judge's qualifications. 

>The major part of a judges quality lies in his/her palate 

I don't think so, given the way competitions are structured. Style
knowledge is at least as important as a discerning palate. Maybe more. 
And as best I can tell, this is the sort of knowledge most lacking, and 
is what an education program like I described would primarily address.

	t


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