Stewarding for BOO

First Post of the Day

Since Labor Day weekend, I have been stewarding BOO, Breyer's Online Open Photo Show.

What a show! There were at least 6,500 photos entered by around 140 hobbyists.

Screenshot from Instagram.

It was a lot of work to steward BOO. Each steward was assigned a portion of the show, and my assignment was to check every model in every class of two divisions. That meant there were 96 classes that I was stewarding to be sure their entries were ready to be judged. I had to check each photo for correct formatting, make sure the model had been placed in the right class, that its name, breed, and gender were listed, and more. 

I spent at least an hour a day looking at entries and contacting owners if there was a problem that needed fixing. (Even during Feast weekend I was stewarding after spending the day out at Fort Ouiatenon!)

When stewarding ended and judging began, stewards were asked to continue checking as the classes were judged to be sure that every class had first through tenth places marked and then two honorable mentions given if there were enough entries to warrant it.

It was fun but a huge task. Kudos to Admins Liz LaRose and Julia Turner who did a fabulous job supporting stewards, entrants, and judges as the massive show progressed over the course of a month and a half.

Compared to Breyer Boot Camp, which I also stewarded this spring, this was a much larger show and the participants were, for the most part, experienced at photo showing. Thus the issues that needed to be fixed were generally more technical/formatting ones and different from the problems the first time or inexperienced showers had in Boot Camp.

BOO is wrapping up this week - my stewarding of the judging portion of my assignment has been completed and so I am finished. I had fun, saw some incredibly beautiful models, and I got to interact with some hobbyists I'd never met before.

Now I move on to preparing for the October Great Lakes Congress show. Can't wait!

A second, non-horsey post is coming in just a bit. Stay 'tooned!