Bulletin Editor of the Year (BETY) contests

By W. Grant Carson, VP-BE

This year PROBE again will support BETY contests in all 16 districts of the Society. PROBE provides the judges and the PROBE District Contest Coordinator (DCC) runs the contest. Most districts use the International Bulletin Competition (IBC) rules for the BETY, but there are options. Some districts allow bulletins to be entered for advice only or for scoring and advice but score not published, for example. As another example, some districts modify or waive the IBC rule concerning the number of issues published during the year. If you plan to enter, look for an announcement in your district bulletin, with rules for your district. If there isn't an announcement, check with your DCC for any special district rules. If you don't know who your DCC is, ask me. The deadline for having three consecutive months of bulletins to the DCC is January 1. The winner is generally announced at the district's spring preliminaries contest and convention.

International Bulletin Contest

The IBC chairman this year as last is Dick Girvin. The two top scoring bulletins for each district's BETY are automatically entered if otherwise eligible. One eligibility requirement is that the editor must have published eight monthly issues or the equivalent for weeklies or bi-weeklies. Bi-monthlies aren't eligible.

The BETY has a single panel of judges, that is, one judge each for the three categories of Content, Layout and Reproduction, and Grammar and Style. The IBC has a triple panel of judges. New this year is that advice by judges is at the option of the judges. The judges must score and may advise.

The reasoning is that the editors entered into the IBC were just critiqued by the BETY judges and that lessening the burden of IBC judges may cause more to volunteer. Having enough volunteers has been a problem in the past.

The deadline for DCCs to send the district entries to Dick Girvin is April 1. The IBC winner is announced at the Society's International convention and contest. Complete information about the BETY and IBC is at PROBE's Internet web site.

Monthly is better

We have some mighty fine bi-monthly chapter bulletins. A couple of editors have opined that PROBE should change the rules for the BETY to make bi-monthlies eligible.

First, PROBE doesn't make the rules for the BETY. The districts do. If a district wishes to make bi-monthlies eligible for the BETY, it may do so, although I don't think that's a good idea. Second, the PROBE judging criteria are set up on the basis of monthly increments. Bi-monthlies would cause major perturbations of the system. PROBE will handle the situation if called upon to do so, but there would be a lot of head scratching.

Third, in my opinion, PROBE should encourage publishing more frequently. Those fine bi-monthly bulletins would be even better if published monthly.

We're trying to improve consistency in bulletin judging There is a rigorous process for certifying new judges, but there is no process for periodic re-certification. Some judges have been volunteering their time for over a decade. Things change in ten years, score sheets, for example.

PROBE is currently in the process of providing an opportunity for all certified judges to check signals by judging one issue of a bulletin. The judges' score sheets will be sent to the category specialists. The specialists will compile statistical information for feedback. Judges whose scores deviate significantly from the norm will have an opportunity to discuss with the specialists the reasons for the deviations.

New score sheets will be used

After much work over many months, especially by the category specialists, there are revised score sheets that will be used in the BETY and IBC contests. The changes aren't substantial. Some changes were made to provide better explanations of how points are distributed. Some nagging little problems that had been noted for years were corrected. Copies of the new score sheets have been provided to district bulletin editors, district contest coordinators, and bulletin judges. Copies are available from PROBE Secretary Brian Lynch.

Certifying new bulletin judges

We have about a dozen men in the process of being certified by the category specialists. However, we're gaining only small ground because of attrition. If you would like to try for certification, let me know. This includes our non-Society PROBE members. There is no way PROBE can undertake helping SAI and HI with bulletin contests or allowing SAI and HI bulletins in Society contests, because there aren't enough judges. This could change if there were volunteers. Ladies, consider volunteering for certification. After all, women direct Society choruses. Why shouldn't women judge Society chapter bulletins?

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