Here is the scoop as I know it.
Last year for example, there were roughly 150 who tested. 46 were invited to join AIFD. Of those 46, I think 24 or 25 were from China, Korea, Thailand. I believe there were 170 testing this year and I can tell you a good portion of those testing were of asian family. I sat with one young girl who drove down from New York, (asian). She was so very nervous, she even cried. This is a very big deal to us, but even bigger for some.
I went into it realizing I had about a 12% chance of being invited. Maybe that's why I did not take it so hard, and since they started the CFD, it's even easier to take. Imagine if I (like so very many who have tested) missed by that 1.32 points and had nothing to show for it. Would be devastating!
Basically, if you take one design with one judge. There are 10 categories each design is judged by, with a score from 1 to 5. That design has to recieve at least 40 points from that one judge. They move the decimal point, so then it becomes 0.4. Now you take the other four judges final scores for that design.
Here is an example. My duplicate. Really, how could you screw that up, but some people used the wrong container I guess.
Out of seven judges, the top score 4.9, (49points) and the lowest, 3.7 (37points), were taken away to leave a median. The other five judges scores for that one design were added together, and then divided by 5 to reach a 4.2, or 420 points. Each of the five designs has a maximum of 250 points between all five judges, or 1250 points, and the minimum would be 1000 points in order to have a high enough score. That 1.32 points I missed by sounds horrible with those numbers, but it is really 13 times between those five judges, between five designs, that they gave me a 3 instead of a four out of 50 categories. In Lori's case, it would be 18 times. So my 1.32 is actually 132 points. Does that make sense?
For CFD, you need a minimum score of 16, for AIFD a minimum score of 20. But that is actually a difference of 400 points when you take each category of each design. Then it becomes more significant.
So, that explained, for AIFD membership aside from the invitation. You need three letters of recommendation, two from current AIFD members. You need to re-certify every three years, but you can get that certification by "merely" going to symposium once every three years. There are other education pathways that count toward it, too, such as attending shows and classes or even giving classes. You also pay $250 per year to maintain membership.
For CFD, you also need to re-certify every three years in the same manner above. The difference is that there is no yearly membership fee. Well, and of course, the letters that go behind your name.
Also, after 25 years membership to AIFD, you no longer need to pay yearly dues, your are a lifetime member. I don't know if those are added into the numbers, but I don't think so. I think it is just active members who maintain their dues who are actually in that count.
Does that answer your questions?
