Trophie/Awards

[john e. holliday]

Down in the Nostalgia section it was brought up about the number of trophies/awards needed for a contest.  Some places have enough contestants that warrant separating the classes for each type of stunt event.  Brodaks is one of those places as well as the NATS for precision aerobatics.   Here at our annual meet trophies/awards are left in the box to be stored somewhere.  I do not know what the little medallions cost the club, but I like them.  They don't take up much space and I have them hanging on the door of one of my cabinets in the shop.  If you go look at my ISW pics you will see one. 

Bob Reeves, I beleive has a  computor program for making awards in which the picture frame is the main cost of them.  Maybe he will see this and jump in.  When the Sky Devils of KCMo were holding monthly meets, we went to the printed certificates that only needed the event, date and placing filled in.  Mine were put in a clear folder and inserted into a note book binder.  But I can see it putting a bind on some club finances with the big trophies that only collect dust once at home.  But, I do appreciate the little trophy I got for Spirit of 52 award my ISW earned me. 

Also with  lowering in award costs, maybe it would make for lower entry fees.  My thoughts of the moment.

[john e. holliday]

Well I did the search and found the picture and now have it back in  my pictures.  Seems when the brainless person caused my computor to crash it wiped out all my pictures.  Will have to pull the card and reload.

The medallion is hanging around my neck and the trophy is the Spirit of 52 Award. 

[Bill Little]

Hi Doc,

I believe many local contests (actually the sponsoring clubs) place too much emphasis on trophys.  I have received wood plaques with an engraved plate on them, and various other types of awards.  I don't  think the contestants come to a meet because of the trophys presented.  I would suspect most stunt meet trophys get hung on the shop wall or put in a drawer, anyway.  The NATS is a totally different ball game!  But a lot less oney could be spent at local meets with no adverse effects on attendance.

BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM

[peabody]

The GSCB has been using photo plaques for several years...inexpensive, sure, but more importantly, they provide competitors with information: the contest and date, as well as their placement.

[Dalton Hammett]

Rich  -  that is a neat looking award..........

[Bob Reeves]

I also believe photo plaques are better for everyone than trophies. The contestant can just hang them on a wall rather than something that just takes up shelf space and you have to dust/clean all the time. Real advantage to the club as they can make however many awards are needed at the time and not be spending money on trophies before the fact.

Bigest caveat is someone will either need to create the certificates ahead of time or the club needs facilities to be able to set up a computer and printer at the field. The software I wrote works well but the club needs someone that has and understands PhotoShop well enough to be able to create the background images.  It also takes longer to load the photos on the computer and create the award than it does to simply print a photo and tape it to a pre-printed certificate.

This is the background we used at our Postal Carrier meet last year and will be using something like it for the Carrier meet we have coming up first weekend in August. The event and place gets written in just below the photo at the time the award is created and I reduced the size for the forum. Makes for really nice awards but being the guy that does it for the Gluedobbers it's allot of work before and during the contest.

[Steve Helmick]

Bigest caveat is someone will either need to create the certificates ahead of time or the club needs facilities to be able to set up a computer and printer at the field. The software I wrote works well but the club needs someone that has and understands PhotoShop well enough to be able to create the background images.  It also takes longer to load the photos on the computer and create the award than it does to simply print a photo and tape it to a pre-printed certificate.

Dave Gardner pretty much spent all day every day of our contests doing this chore...so gave it up. Coming up with 110v. at our sites isn't easy, and running a computer off a genset is risky business (power surges). Besides, our on-site computer is busy doing score sheet tabulation, flight order and other minutiae, mostly with Howard Rush, Esq. at the helm. The two Canadian clubs I'm familiar with make very respectable trophy awards by taking the pictures, sending somebody to K-Mart (?) to get the pictures printed, and shoving them into pre-made frames onsite.  Steve

[Jim Thomerson]

I like the certificate with picture awards.  They used to be done with a Polaroid camera.  I have mine up on my shop wall and often consult them to bolster my failing memory.  However, the best awards I have seen were from the Lafayette Esquadrille contests in St. Louis.  They were made by club members and were unique, artistic, and fanciful.  Maybe someone can post a photo of an awards table.

[john e. holliday]

Thanks Jim,  that reminds me of Emmy's first contest which was the Ice-O-Lated in St Louis quite a few years ago.  Bob handed her the little plate and told her to pick the trophy.  Everybody was telling her to take the big one.  She  looked at me and said she wanted the little one.  I think it was the smallest one on the table.   She slept with it all the way home and took it to school the next day.  She still has it some where and states she does not need any more trophies.