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AFMS 2009 Webmasters Contest is Off And Running
By Phyllis George AFMS
Webmasters Contest Chair
This
contest exists to help the various webmasters enhance their club Web sites in an
effort to increase the interest of the general public in the gem and mineral
hobby, to gain new members, and to serve as a source of current club information
for their members. Through this contest the judges assigned to the seven
regional federations Mike Baldwin, Stephen Douglas, Dan Imel, Wes Lingerfeldt,
Al Pennington, Win Robertson, and Don Shurtz are serving as mentors for these
various clubs by giving the webmasters encouragement and friendly constructive
criticism on what they are doing right and where they need to improve.
The
Webmaster Contest also has its own logo! Ron Gibbs, editor and webmaster for the
Charlotte Gem & Mineral Club of Charlotte, North Carolina, is also a graphic
artiste extraordinaire. Ron donated his time and expertise to design and develop
our logo. Thank you to Marty Hart for steering me to Ron and his skill.
I've
received e-mails telling me that the judging information and guidelines
published for the contest have already helped some of the webmasters who want to
improve their sites.
Dan
Alfrey, webmaster of Lake George Gem & Mineral Club, Lake George, Colorado
wrote: We've had a lot of fun with our site. This contest truly has motivated
our club to update our site and make sure everything is fully functional! We
sincerely appreciate the guidelines and scoring references in order to help make
the site more informative and complete!
Bob
Loeffler, webmaster of North Jeffco Gem & Mineral Club, Arvada, Colorado wrote:
I think this contest is a great idea because it might help push clubs to create
a Web site (if they haven't already done so) or keep their existing Web site
updated with fun and relevant info to help educate the public.
All
the entries submitted to this brand new contest from the various regional
federations are now in the hands of their assigned judges. Two judges are
assigned to each region, but none of the judges is from the regions they are
judging. Each contestants combined scores from the two judges will be averaged
to determine his or her final placement in their region.
No trophies will be awarded at the
regional level. The original plan was to award a
trophy to the first place winner in each regional federation. I just learned
that the regional federations have not had an opportunity to vote on whether
they support the Webmaster Contest, so no regional first place plaques can be
awarded this year. However, we will be awarding certificates for each of the top
ten places and for honorable mention. I apologize to to everyone who is
disappointed about this, but the contest will be running for at least two more
years, so maybe the policy can be changed going forward.
So
there will not be a plaque awarded to the first place regional federation
winners, but I think they will receive something far better than a plaque. The
first place winners will each have their entries forwarded to Bob Keller, the
man who is judging at the AFMS level.
Bob
is the first rockhound webmaster to have a presence on the World Wide Web - the
Internet. Bob put the first rock shop up on the Internet in March 1995, and he
called it Bobs Rock Shop. It began as a home page with eight or so images of
rocks from his own collection. It is still called Bobs Rock Shop and is still at
www.rockhounds.com, but it is now far
more than that.
Bob
will give the regional first place winners the benefit of his wisdom, his
extensive Web experience, and his knowledge of what works and what doesnt. He
will analyze each of the sites forwarded to him, and he will give useful
feedback on what is being done well and how each site can be improved. Thank
you, Bob, for agreeing to participate in our contest, for giving our first place
regional winners the benefit of your hard-won wisdom as the worlds premier
rockhound webmaster, and for helping us achieve our goal of having rock and gem
club Web sites that are as good as they can be.
All
the contestants at the AFMS level will receive a certificate signifying their
rank, and the first place winner will also receive an AFMS first place plaque.
The
results of the various regional Webmaster Contests will be announced at the
annual meetings of the regional federations during their Bulletin Editors
Breakfast. The results of the AFMS Webmaster Contest will be announced at the
NFMS/AFMS joint Show & Convention in Billings, Montana on August 1 during the
Bulletin Editors Breakfast.
AFMS 2009 Webmasters Contest
By Phyllis George AFMS
Webmasters Contest Chair
We are working at a feverish pace to get this new contest up and
running. The Webmasters Contest Committee Members (one for each regional
federation) are in place, and they are the ones running the Webmasters Contest
for their regional federation. The Committee Members receive the entries, they
forward the entries to the judges for that region, they receive from the judges
the completed score sheets, and they rank the results and award the first-place
plaque and the certificates (places one through ten and honorable mention) at
the Bulletin Editors’ Breakfast at their regional federation’s annual show. The
first-place entry is forwarded to the AFMS level for judging. Currently the
Committee Members are notifying webmasters in their region and the regional
newsletter editor about the details of the contest, the due date for entries,
and of the schedule for their regional contest.
Members of the Webmasters Contest Committee are as
follows:
California Federation (CFMS) |
Merryan O’Neill |
mvoneill comcast.net |
Eastern Federation (EFMS) |
Dan Imel |
lapidry aol.com |
Midwest Federation (MWFMGS) |
Cindy Root |
d-root sbcglobal.net |
Northwest Federation (NFMS) |
Cheri George |
lizardwoman3 yahoo.com |
Rocky Mountain Federation (RMFMS) |
Phyllis George |
pgeorge4 comcast.net |
South Central Federation (SCFMS) |
Don Shurtz |
don.shurtz gmail.com |
Southeast Federation (SFMS) |
Jim Flora |
jimflora alltel.net |
Contact the Committee Member for your region for information
about the contest and the deadlines. This information varies by region according
to when their annual show is scheduled. Since I had no takers for the RMFMS
position, I’m going to fill it myself. The deadline for RMFMS entries to be sent
to me is January 15, 2009.
Webmasters wishing to enter their Web sites into the contest
should download from the AFMS Web site (or from their regional federation’s Web
site) the contest Guidelines, the Entry Form, and the Score
Sheet form. These are in PDF format, and they can be opened with Adobe
Acrobat Reader®. Free Acrobat
Reader® software is available at
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/. The contest information on the AFMS
Web site can be found at
http://www.amfed.org/web/webmasters_contest.htm.
To enter the contest, the webmaster needs to fill out the Entry
Form completely and fill out the information requested in the top part of the
Score sheet. These forms can be filled-in on your computer and saved to your
hard drive. Note: You need Acrobat Reader version 8 or later to be able to
save the forms to your hard drive once you fill them in. Send the two
completed forms as e mail attachments to your regional Committee Member before
the due date in your region.
My plan is to have two judges for each regional competition
(their scores for each contestant will be averaged) and one judge for the AFMS
level. Each pair of judges probably will be judging two different regions, but
they will not be judging their own region. Right now I have a total of eight
judges. If I can get seven more judges, each pair would judge the entrants from
only one regional federation. If you are a current (or former) webmaster or are
very Web-site savvy, please help make the contest a success by volunteering a
little of your time to act as a judge. Read the Guidelines to see what the
judges will be looking for on the sites that they judge, and contact me at
pgeorge4 comcast.net
to help this new contest be a success in its first year. 
New—2009 AFMS Webmaster Contest
By Phyllis George AFMS Webmaster Contest Chair
It’s official—the AFMS Officers and Directors have just voted to
create a Webmaster Contest on a three-year trial basis. Ike House (new president
of the SCFMS) first started a Webmaster Contest within his region while he was
the SCFMS Bulletin Aids Chair. Marty Hart, AFMS Webmaster, took the SCFMS
Webmaster Contest judging sheet as a start, and he did an outstanding job of
developing the documents that are now available for download on the AFMS Web
site. The entry form, judging score sheets, and the score sheet guidelines will
all be available on the AFMS Web site <http://www.amfed.org/> by the time you
read this.
I am assembling a Webmaster Contest Committee that will have one
member from each regional federation, and that person should be knowledgeable
about Web sites and webmasters. Dan Imel has already agreed to be the Committee
member from the Eastern Federation. Marty Hart will be our advisor and mentor.
I’m open to suggestions for committee members from the other regions. I hope
many people will send in the names and e-mail addresses of webmasters whom they
feel would be great on the committee. We will be lining up two contest judges
from each region, but these judges will be judging entries outside their own
region. So I also want suggestions from all over the U.S. for club webmasters
who would do a great job of judging Web sites.
Each Committee member is tasked with announcing the new contest
to all the club webmasters in their regional federation and with sending out all
the Webmaster Contest forms by e mail. To participate in the contest, club
webmasters need to fill out the entry form and return it to the Webmaster
Contest Committee member from their region. The Committee members will send all
the entrants’ Web site addresses to their two regional judges. When the
completed judging forms come back, the Committee members will determine the
regional winner and send that winning entry off to the two AFMS judges for
evaluation. Since this contest is “on probation” so to speak for three years,
the decision was made to have only one winner from each regional federation and
one winner at the AFMS level during that time.
This contest runs concurrently with the Bulletin Editors’
Contest, but each Committee member sets the due dates for the contest entries
that are to be sent to him or her. The regional judging results will be
announced at the regional Bulletin Editors’ Contest. The AFMS judging results
will be announced at the AFMS Bulletin Editor’s Breakfast. The AFMS schedule is
as follows:
By |
February 28, 2009 |
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AFMS Judges List is sent to all regional Webmaster Contest Judges |
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March 31, 2009 |
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All regional entries forwarded to the AFMS contest are due to the
two AFMS Judges. |
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May 15, 2009 |
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All AFMS contest entries judged and the results returned to Phyllis
George by the two AFMS judges. |
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July 31–August 2, 2009 |
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NFMS/AFMS joint Show & Convention in Billings, Montana. Results will
be announced at the Bulletin Editors’ Breakfast. |
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