BCSS Judges Course

[Ian Thwaites]

BCSS JUDGES COURSE - Moulton College nr Northampton- 31st August - 2nd September

If you are interested in all aspects of showing your plants, there are still spaces available on the 2018 Judges Course.

This is a very social weekend set in new updated facilities with all meals and accommodation included.
You can rub shoulders with other like minded cactophiles - talks on various aspects of the hobby during
the weekend and a set of classes for Cacti & Succulents to test your knowledge.
Full Package cost £150

Bookings to Bill Darbon -william.darbon77@bt77@btinternet.com or 01993 881926

Bookings will close after BCSS Convention on Sunday 22nd July

[Terry S.]

Isn't this course now an anachronism? It was certainly needed to ensure consistent standards when first introduced, but surely isn't needed now, particularly on an annual basis. It has resulted in losing some top quality plants people from the list of accepted judges simply because they do not want to have to requalify every five years. Wouldn't one on one mentoring of prospective new judges at real shows now be a better way forwards?

[Stuart]

I think the Judges Course is still needed and still the only way to ensure consistent standards. The five year requalification could be done by turning up on the Sunday morning once every five years and spending a couple of hours doing the tests which isn't asking too much of anyone. However, most who go on the course go every year for the full weekend, apart from the 'car boot sale' it's simply a great social weekend and a way of learning more about the plants we grow. The course includes an identification section which has to be passed to qualify, one part for cacti and one part for succulents and is the only way to see if a judge 'knows their plants'. I think that the way we operate a judging selection is unique amongst specialist plant societies in the UK.
The Shows Committee put a lot of work into the weekend and, to be honest, I don't go because I want to judge shows, I just go for the social / learning side and the 'car boot sale' where just about anything can turn up!!
I's recommend it to anyone who wants a good friendly plant-based weekend.
Stuart

[Ian Thwaites]

It is a very good weekend and I have to agree with Stuart that its probably for the company, lectures and car boot that I and most of the members attend. It is intended to instruct and help all members interested in showing and judging to become more aware of what is needed at shows. It also means that once qualified and let loose of the shows the society can be assured of a high standard of judging.

Years ago when I first qualified it was difficult to get a place on the judges course as it was such a popular event. Over the years it appears to me that apathy has affected many in the cactus world and the society has lost 50% of its members since its hay days in the 80's.

Apart from the Convention and National the judges course is the largest event staged by the main society each year. If it is not appropriate is there anything else we should do?

Having been elected this year I am determined to make the society successful and capitalise on the popularity of our plants. I really want to bring people out from behind the keyboards to enjoy the hobby of growing our plants and talking to like minded members at events up and down the country.

[Terry S.]

There are quite a few Society branches that are doomed, they will fall by the wayside over the next few years because of lack of members or lack of anybody willing to run them. There will still be a place for real rather than virtual meetings and I greatly favour regional events, zone meetings etc, where more people can get together and speakers can be enticed from further afield. From what has been said above, this appears to be what the Judges' Course is. Therefore why not put all this effort into arranging an annual convention?

I presume that the main purpose of the Judge's exam is to enable the Shows Committee to control who becomes an official judge, but they could still do this without the quantisation of exam results, based on feed-back of mentors. Which other Societies set exams for its judges?

[Ian Thwaites]

Terry, in my new role as Chairman I intend to try and address a lot of the issues that you have highlighted and many of the points you have raised I have already started to address with my vision of the future. Unless we do something to attract the next generation of succulent plant enthusiasts sooner rather than later I fear your vision will materialise.

I can't say too much now as I have already gained approval from the BoT to start some of my initiatives and I am pleased to say that they were all behind me at the last meeting. I am currently drafting my vision for the society for the journal where it will be published and at the same time here and on social media.

I am also negotiating member benefits with external suppliers so that it makes membership of the society even better value than we currently offer (Can't believe what good value it is already).

My vision is that the society should be synonymous with the growing of succulent plants world wide and the society needs to be open and welcoming and MUST provide what members want!

Finally I have been having initial discussions with Kew and the RHS about working much closer together and I have made great progress with the RHS - more on this to come.

Just so people know, apart from my family, the growing of succulent plants (inc Cacti of course) and the friends I have made in the hobby are the most important things in my life and I will fight tooth and nail to grow the BCSS for the benefit of all.

If anyone wants to call me I am happy to discuss further.

[Terry S.]

Ian: I feel sure that you will get the backing of most members in trying to make the BCSS more relevant to present day interests and communication methods. However, I never cease to be amazed at how resistant some members are to change.

However, this is not entirely relevant to my initial contention that there could be changes to the way that judging is organised and that an exam for judges and 5 yearly re-examination should now be things of the past. I am somewhat surprised that few contributors to the Forum seem to have any opinions on this.

I do not judge BCSS shows, one of the reasons being that when I see the results at e.g. National Shows, I find that my opinions are often out of kilter with the perceived wisdom of the Shows Committee. For example, there would have been no way that I would have given a first to that immature Othonna armiana with one flower and no foliage at the last National Show. Also, I would have ranked my own cono exhibits in different orders. My opinions would be based on over 50 years of growing those genera rather than anything told to me at a Judges Course. Furthermore, I freely admit that there are plant families such as the Crassulaceae and Euphorbiaceae for which I have minimal experience and I doubt whether there is a single qualified judge who could feel competent in assessing all the species that could be seen at a show.

[Mike]

Whether the judges course and means of qualification need review is a reasonable question.

But I think we do need to bear in mind that there are around 2,000 species of cacti, with extraordinary diversity in ecology and morphology. And cacti are just one of perhaps 60+ plant families that contain succulents. In that context the task of a judge is clearly incredibly difficult, and I applaud anyone who has even a fraction of the knowledge and resilience to attempt the task. The judges course and qualification frankly attempts the impossible. However, even with its inevitable imperfections, I suspect that BCSS has a system that's way ahead of many comparable societies, and is to be congratulated for that. Long may it continue, in its present or any updated form (and the fact that as many shows as there are are judged as well as they are must be partly down to the present system).

I've twice, at branch level, had plants that didn't even achieve a 'highly commended' that at the previous year's show ware awarded best cactus or succulent in show (and that had not declined in the intervening period). And I've also failed the 'exams' having passed the previous year. And I'm quite prepared to accept that and carry on showing my plants, and attending the course for the pleasure of the process, the people one meets, what I've learned, and any small contribution I can make to the qualities of BCSS.

I suspect the best judges in any walk of life are those who acknowledge their limitations and thirst for ever better understanding?

Cheers!

Mike

[ragamala]

In response to Ian -

I am a recent returner to the Society after a long (more than two decades) absence, so do not feel fully qualified to judge the Society in its current form. In some ways I have found it reassuring that people with names that were familiar to me - and respected - from the eighties (like Terry's) are still vitally active in the Society. But I do get also the impression that they are there in Society positions (I include Mamm Soc and MSG) partly because active people from the younger generations have not taken their place. This is I am sure a concern to all, and Ian if you are taking active measures to draw younger people into not only the Society by joining but making a welcoming society in which to participate you have my total support. I shall look forward to hearing more of your plans. The major issue to me seems whether the society is to focus on a benefit-led membership with attraction internationally as you seem to be suggesting, or to get back to roots and focus on a British society which has appeal on a physical local real-life membership communication. These pull in two different directions. And against the idea of local ties being paramount I have to admit that since the Society had its origins the concept of remaining within a local community has disappeared with society in general's changing values and mobility.

If I can take one example of how things must change, I can quote the AGM. I recognise that there may be not many nominations for officers, and it is a great pity that there was only one nomination for each of the posts Chair/Vice-Chair (if you want to modernise ditch the chairMAN!) and Secretary. Frankly if I feel that this is an indication that the society is in the hands of an old guard (rightly or wrongly, or by necessity) it would not be surprising if younger members felt similarly.

Frankly re the AGM this can change, because the lack of applicants for posts for whatever reason is not as bad as disenfranchising the ordinary member by having firstly no opportunity for online voting for the AGM, secondly for no election statement by nominees. I appreciate that you personally Ian may have great ideas about reforming the society, but these should have been be promoted before and not after election, and not only at an AGM attended by a small proportion of the membership. It is this single instance which to my mind exemplifies the approach of a society which needs to pull its bootstraps up pdq.

I agree with Terry it is disappointing this sort of issue has little member input in the forum, and this is why I have been prompted to respond. Maybe I am speaking out of turn because I have no data on eg member distribution, or age range. Maybe the issue can only addressed by a full member survey and results including this sort of data, and by asking what members want from the society. If all they want is a journal and a seed distribution then fine, and if all they want is sharing pics of flowers on the forum that's fine too!

[ragamala]

Ian: I feel sure that you will get the backing of most members in trying to make the BCSS more relevant to present day interests and communication methods. However, I never cease to be amazed at how resistant some members are to change.

Terry I have no info on which to support your view about resistance, but as my last post indicated I would not be surprised.

Re the judges course again I may be speaking out of turn, ie outside the inner circle, but I do feel that there is a good reason why judges' decisions should be seen to have some consistency. The only way to do this seems to have if not a rigid judges course and requalification (the latter seems to me a bit of a nonsense) then at least some pre-meeting before important shows. If we accept the judges courses should be also a time of a jolly get-together, there is also room there for suggesting that the judging criteria need examination in view of the suggestion that shows should be a means of attracting the public rather than rewarding members. It is questionable, for example, that rarity is at all relevant here. The issue becomes one of whether competitiveness has an overriding role in shows, particularly in branch shows, where to my knowledge BCSS advice is still to employ a judge qualified from the approved list.

I agree, Terry, this all needs a rethink.