A question for ABA candidates

[Neil E. Grassbaugh]

Do you think that the President and Vice President of the ABA who may also be judges should take judging assignments at the Annual and Semi Annual meets?

Spending the greater portion of the day removed from members by an "Aisle closed for judging" sign limits the members access to these officers.

[MattL]

Neil,
The past practice of hiring Officers and Directors to Judge Semi Annual and Annual meets enabled the hosting club to employ judges they would not normally be able to afford judge their shows. Since the Officers and Directors were coming anyways, the cost was lower to hire them to judge. This is a good thing in areas with a limited selection of judges are available to work the show.
Personally if elected, I will not take any open judging assignments at National or Semi Annual ABA meets as I feel it is more important for Officers to work the ABA table and meet the membership. I have no problem with Directors who are judges working these meets. At the upcoming ABA Annual meet in Lake City, I have accepted a showmanship Judging assignment for the APA/ABA Youth Program as I feel this is more important than anything else in building our hobby. ABA ballots are being mailed Jan. 2, please take the time to vote as I feel this election is one of the most important elections in recent years for our hobby!

Matt Lhamon
Halbach/Lhamon for the ABA!
http://aba2009.blogspot.com/

[Bob308]

I am neither a judge nor the president but if I was I would probably choose not to take a judging assignment at an ABA national. But this is just my personal choice and I see nothing wrong with the practice especially under the circumstances as Matt pointed out where the host club is trying to save some money. ABA Nationals are basically 3 day shows and there are plenty of occasions to talk to the officers that are present if you wanted to. I definitely don't think there should be any action or rule instated.

Bob