*Design Competition* Your Best Dozen Roses - Discussion

[Rhonda]

oh, my!! Geez, I thought it was just fun...........
And it was...........I'm not a politico so what the heck........
It was great to see the difference in design, what we do for our areas....etc. That was the dam spirit of the thing.......
Get with it fellas.......enjoy comraderie.........don't be so uptight!
Twas fun......on with the next one!!

 

[CHR]

My intention was not to offend you Cathy

No offense taken - really. I tried to use the smilies. Since we're trying something new and need to work with our software, we tried to craft rules that would work within that framework.

It didn't lower someone's score if you didn't vote for them but, it didn't raise their score either.

Right. No one's score was lowered. I really didn't feel comfortable relying on the average score since low votes near the end of the voting period could torpedo a leader.

I was threatened with a green vase, crushed styrofoam, #40 "colossal bow", babies breath infused, gross nasty design with a BANNER concoction with my name on it if I didn't enter...

And I thank you for heeding my warning. :>

4 give me, agan cathee, i justed learded 2 reed

Dr. Cathy says you may have been text messaging a bit too much lately. *hugs*

 

[Seasonals]

Well I didn't enter, didn't vote and didn't comment, but I want all of you who did enter to know I throughly enjoyed each and every entry. I did study them, read the comments and tried to understand each of the comments pros & cons. I considered this to be a very good educational tool.
If you weren't happy with the results I'm sorry, but go back and look at all of them and use it as a study guide. There is something in each of them that we can learn from and use to improve our own skills.
I look forward to the next Design Competition and I may even join in.

 

[Dazeal]

So is there a winner? lol Did I miss the announcement?

And... where did RC's post go? *edit* Oh, I see he deleted it



Yeeeeeeeeeehhaaaaawwww! :spin - Is it final, did BJ win? I missed the post if you said he did Cathy.

 

[CHR]

The announcement is coming form the Big Cheese - and there's no 'the winner'. We have 12 winners since we're featuring a "Dozen Ways to Send a Dozen Roses".

 

[Dazeal]

Ahhhh, cool Cathy, see I told you I don't know how to read. Well congratz to all and ty so much for the comments.

I just wanted to now tell you that the design I listed was create by one of my designers, Mary. Her mother's cancer returned and is under going heavy chemotherapy. Mary sometimes cries and and is very emotional right now. She is such a wonderful person and we love her dearly. When she would come to work, during the past two weeks, she would check the comments you all made about her design, smile and it really help her emotionally. So thanks to you who left the comments, you never knew that at the time you were making a difference. I am going to print out your comments and make a card for her and let her know how much we appreciate her. I asked her about the sea holly breaking up the roses and she thinks maybe unconsciously it was the cancer breaking up the body. God I love artists and their passion. Her design sold the day after we took the picture for $85.

So, thanks again Cathy, you'll always be the big cheese to me here and I look forward to your next competition.

Wooooohoooooooooooo FLOWERS!

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

So is there a winner? lol Did I miss the announcement?

And... where did RC's post go? *edit* Oh, I see he deleted it



Yeeeeeeeeeehhaaaaawwww! :spin - Is it final, did BJ win? I missed the post if you said he did Cathy.

well I guess my REPLY to RC's POST doesn't make much sense now does it since his post is gone????

Whatever, I'll leave it up anyway....

 

[Beth]

I just wanted to now tell you that the design I listed was create by one of my designers, Mary. Her mother's cancer returned and is under going heavy chemotherapy. Mary sometimes cries and and is very emotional right now. She is such a wonderful person and we love her dearly. When she would come to work, during the past two weeks, she would check the comments you all made about her design, smile and it really help her emotionally. So thanks to you who left the comments, you never knew that at the time you were making a difference. I am going to print out your comments and make a card for her and let her know how much we appreciate her. I asked her about the sea holly breaking up the roses and she thinks maybe unconsciously it was the cancer breaking up the body. God I love artists and their passion. Her design sold the day after we took the picture for $85.

Please give Mary a huge hug for me. I have been where she is, and it's indescribably sad and scary. I'll be thinking of her.

 

[Victoria]

While it was a long process, I too voted on each design. My thinking was if someone took the time to put a dozen roses together, photograph it, name it, describe it, upload it, it seemed only fair that I spend some time admiring and voting.

Congratulations to all... it was well done and fun (although with all the discussion I missed, is there billion dollars in prize money somewhere ).

V

Brandon, tell Mary she's in our thoughts and please tell her also, I love her work.

 

[bloomz]

I do think you should have been able to vote without your name being connected to the rating.

 

[master J]

I think everybody made some good points about the rules, however this was the first time they tried anything like this on FC. As most of us know, the first time you try something out, there is always room for improvement. I'm sure we can make the process easier for everybody to understand in future contests. That is if Cathy doesn't become crazy & crosseyed and ban FC contests all together

 

[Sher]

This post is in response to another post that has since been deleted by the poster, I decided to leave it up anyway:

BJ is a wonderful person. At the Colorado Cup He stood right next to me COMPETING AGAINST ME and told me such encouraging words! I was so bummed to see him on the roster the day before the competition, I actually cried and I almost bailed. But I didn't. I sucked it up. Then they go and put us side by side. Talk about scarry... I told him about me crying and almost bailing. That's when he told me not to sweat it, but in his own BJ way. Then after it was all over told me how he was watching me design and how I good he thought I did.

So no shame is to be had by BJ.
BJ is one of the most helpful and smart designers I have ever met!
You don't get AAF by being a jerk!




P.S.
I'm really shocked that there seems to be a bit of pouting. When I was the one told not to pout. We all new that there was only going to be 12 winners. We all knew that if you entered you might get told stuff you don't want to hear. What was that about bruised egos????? humm... Just chalk it up to experience, learn from it and let it go.

FYI, my first competition I BOMBED big time. I'm sure I will bomb again. It goes without saying. And SO WHAT.

BJ is a great guy and so is RC...I do not think that RC ws "pouting" and quite frankly he made a few valid observations...none of us should have solicited votes..the folks voting were here..they knew who had posted a picture..there was no need to solicit votes..that was RC's complaint...but "pouting" I seriously doubt that RC pouts....no does BJ need defending...imho
Sher

 

[RC in Dayton and Cincinnati]

I removed my post because Ryan said it was beneath me to post what I did.

My point was BJ received 28 votes after 8PM on Sunday night, obviously a campaign job on his part. He ruined the spirit of the competition by doing this, at least for me.

If he would have publicly campaigned for votes it might have been fun or funny, but he didn't. Instead he privately campaigned to gain an unfair, untrue advantage then posted to us about playing fair, which he obviously didn't. This was tough to stomach, and I felt compelled to call him on the carpet for it, even though I knew people such as Shannon would run to his defense and call me a sore loser.

There is nothing at stake here so it doesn't matter, but it should be pointed out that this kind of behavior is the very reason I despise organizations and one-upmanship clubs such as AIFD.

There's a saying "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything"
I should probably follow that advice more, but sometimes even if it's not nice it needs to be said. I felt the need to say it.

RC

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

Oh please.....

If I remember correctly RC's post ended with "Shame on you BJ, Hope you don't conduct your life the way you did in this contest" Or something to that effect.

Yeah, I will defend that because obviously he doesn't know BJ AND he needed a little insight.
It must have struck a nerve, cause the post is gone......

I don't know RC I'm sure he's a great guy and a wonderful business person. I do know BJ, he's my friend and I can't believe someone would think for a second he's unethical.



And seriously what would be wrong with asking people to vote?? I thought about it but seriously I was just too lazy to take the time to ask AND I was much more interested in watching my "views" climb at an insane rate. That to me was more fun than anything.

This contest wasn't blind. We all knew who posted and we knew who voted.

This was different than any other contest I ever entered. And I have to say watching all the reactions to every aspect of the contest is really the most fun for me, or should I say most interesting. There's a lot to be said about human nature.

For my design it was interesting to me not just who voted but the vote they gave me.
Did anyone notice MY BOSS didn't even vote on mine?? Nor anyone else's, but she has been busy.
I also noticed that some people voted on others but not mine. And that's OK. For me it's no big whoop..

Like I told my boss, if the prize was a prize for me I might have cared more. Meaning it would have affected my ego more if everyone didn't vote for me, even if they gave me a low score. And I like cash prizes but mostly I like Scholarship prizes, those are my favorite.
And I'm not saying the prize isn't worth going for either. But let's face it the prize is for the store, not me, I just work here. But I do all I can to try to make the store successful...

I was mostly just interested to see what would happen all the way around. And pretty much what I thought would happen did.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

Oh Brother...

So now you are bagging on AIFD?? Give me a break. People who are AIFD took a lot of time and effort to become AIFD.

It has nothing to do with one upmanship and it's not a "club"

I never called you a sore loser...

The design that your designer made is beautiful.


I could cry just as loud that you didn't make the design you entered. What's fair about that? I made the design I entered.

FTR: It doesn't bother me one bit that you and a few others didn't actually design your entry.
I'm just saying, let's not get into what is fair and what is not.

 

[LJVF]

This is better than a Survivor (tv show) tribal council meeting, where's the popcorn? :ssmoke

 

[LJVF]

BTW, this thread is visible to the public.

 

[CHR]

A couple points:

1) The members who cast their votes could do so any time within the voting period. Voting later rather than earlier was a member's prerogative.

2) Members used their own personal scales with respect to ratings. Some only voted for one, others cast votes for just a few and rated them all 10's and still others rated every design. (BTW - I am especially thankful to the members who took the time to write comments of an educational nature.)

3) We knew there would be a social aspect, with friends voting for each other. Making the photos or the votes anonymous wouldn't change that at all. But making them anonymous could allow anonymous "low" votes. IMO that would be damaging to the spirit of community and to the spirit of this competition.

4) We had some leeway as far as changes go. In at least three or four instances, members add/minorly changed/fixed their entries after the voting commenced. The changes were minor and IMO would not affect the outcome.

5) I liked that members could vote for multiple designs since being forced to pick just one would be extremely difficult and would probably turn into a popularity contest about the designer rather than the design.

I thank members for their feedback. As has been said many times in this thread, this was a learning experience for all of us.

 

[thebloomcloset]

Ya'll Forgive Me

I must be having one of my "special" days, who were the top 12? Thanks....

 

[pinklily]

was going to ask the same ~ :dunno: