At least we have someone to thank for hard work, Jim.
That being said....You gave an earnest effort and did a great job. I
don't know how hard others have worked but how can it take 3 years to
process and mail out the certificates? If I won a certificate, then send
an email and I'll prepay the postage.
ARRL has all their ducks in a row. CQ has been dying a slow death for
years. In fact, I'm surprised the magazine has lived through the past
few years. It seems it will go the way of 73 Magazine someday soon. The
CQ contests are still a lot of fun though.
73,
Korey
YI9VCQ/KA5VCQ
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:cq-contest-
> bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Monahan
> Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 6:21 PM
> To: cq-contest
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] An idea for contest support
>
> There has been a great deal of commentary about results reporting and
> delays in
> issuing certificates and plaques to the winners.
>
> I don't see any particular comments from the other side of the fence
since
> much of
> this is done by volunteers as has been noted.
>
> My point in the following is not for looking for any credit but to
provide
> some insight
> into the certificate process from my personal experience.
>
> A few years ago, I decided to volunteer for doing certificates for a
CQ
> contest (not
> the CQWW). The idea was to give something back rather than complain
about
> how long
> it took to do it.
>
> The contest director, who is quite diligent about his work, sent me a
> template
> for Word to print out the certificates, blank certificates, inked
stamps
> for signatures and a
> sample of how to determine what level of award to print from the
results.
>
> I was, in fact, reimbursed for materials which were primarily
purchasing
> the mailing envelopes
> locally along with the blank sheets and for the postage to send the
> package to CQ.
>
> What I mean is that I took the results, in bold, and then determined
what
> place that person
> had won along with their full name, mode, score and section or country
and
> printed it.
>
> You also have to look up the addresses and I found that Buckmaster is
> setup so you can't
> copy an address without subscribing these days which I had to do.
QRZ.com
> is not as
> current as Buckmaster sometimes which I found out the hard way.
>
> And, there are some stations whose addresses is seemingly unavailable
by
> any normal means.
> So, that has to be dealt with.
>
> Of course, you have to address the envelope, fill out the certificate,
> stamp it, put plain sheets
> in front of and behind and seal the envelope.
>
> It turned out that there were some 300 or so certificates for the SSB
mode.
> After all of this
> is done, it has to be boxed up and shipped to CQ Magazine so they can
> apply the postage and send
> it out from there.
>
> As it turned out, the person who volunteered to do the CW mode backed
out
> and I ended up
> doing those also with nearly 350 certificates as I recall.
>
> Needless to say, if you think about it a moment, it took many, many
hours
> to do these. And,
> given my work schedule, it took a few months to get both modes
completed.
>
> Then a sort of strange thing happened. I got this terse e-mail from
one of
> the senior staff
> members of CQ Magazine indicating that the way these envelopes were
> packaged (and
> done exactly as requested), they weighed 1.1 ounces and therefore had
> caused a double postage
> rate rather than if they were 1.0 ounce or under.
>
> I guess it never occurred to me to check the weight of any of the
> envelopes.
>
> I really don't want to sound like I'm making a big deal out of this.
But,
> for those of you that
> are concerned, and I'm not saying that there isn't room for
improvement,
> maybe you should
> consider being part of the solution. I think once you find out how
much
> work is involved,
> you might be a little more understanding about this situation.
>
> It is so easy to criticize and, while some of it is warranted, then
> volunteer and help solve the
> problem. It will make you feel good!
>
> I also think there are a lot of people who do, and on a regular basis,
a
> whole lot more work
> then this in log checking, verifying results year in and year out and
> other assorted tasks
> involved with running the contests. They are seldom thanked and seldom
are
> there any kind
> words sent their way.
>
> I'm sure there will be flame throwers out there but this is a little
bit
> of the other side.
>
> I like the idea that people should be kind to each other as much as
> possible and this,
> after all, is only a hobby.
>
> 73, Jim, K1PX
>
> K1PX@msn.com<mailto:K1PX@msn.com>
>
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