By John Moorhead
The topics discussed in this article are only suggestions and areas to consider when competition organizers decide to hold a competition and are not guidelines to condone a competition. Organizers should continuously monitor local, state, and federal restrictions, as well as guidance from the Center for Disease Control and World Health Organization. There are a lot of variables and the situation is as fluid as beer running from a left open tap faucet.
Many homebrew clubs host competitions. Since the novel coronavirus has handcuffed our normal way of life, competitions have been cancelled and postponed as we scramble to find a, if any, viable and worthwhile solution. At the time this article reaches your eyes, it may be extended well into summer. As of now, the fall will be quite active. So, what should organizers consider when deciding to host a competition moving forward?
Prioritizing Volunteers and Entrants
The health and safety of all personnel, including the host location and employees is paramount. Organizers want to make the best decisions for everyone involved, and may end up postponing or cancelling the event. Organizers will need to re-imagine how these groups interact and work together with limited contact and social distancing protocols to decide if a competition is feasible. Organizers must thoroughly think how stewards interact with judges, how judges interact with one another, and if the host location is adequately set up to make everyone feel comfortable by providing safety measures like personal proactive equipment and sanitation when possible (face mask, gloves, hand sanitizer, etc.).
Operations, Logistics, & Planning
Organizers should reconsider planning and operating a competition through a health and safety lens. The usual run-of-the-mill approach must be scrutinized, from earlier judge recruitment and options of how comfortable people are judging, shipping and drop-off locations, receiving packages and precautions during check-in and sorting (e.g. sanitizing each bottle when unpacked), to delivering beer to judges and feedback to entrants.
Organizers will realize the operational and logistical changes have a consequence on oversight of quality and integrity, and those changes should be clearly communicated to everyone involved.
New Expectations
With any changes to your competition, the expectations are going to shift. Organizers should first ask what is considered a success in the current circumstances and clearly communicate new expectations in the Rules & Regulations. The shifts could affect the budget, entry fee, number of bottles needed, expectations on feedback, adjusted competition timeline, overall entry count, who can touch entries, how bottles are delivered, and how the judging will be conducted.
Entrants will need to adjust their expectations of a competition, too. Judging from the same bottle in a controlled environment may be temporarily put on hold and potentially mean more bottles are needed for each judge to evaluate a separate bottle of the same entry. Will that deter entrants from entering? Probably some. On the flip side, the entrant will receive feedback for both bottles and possibly identify packaging issues the entrant may not have been otherwise aware of. Everything’s a trade-off.
In the balance of all this must be the local, state, and federal guidelines and restrictions. As the guidelines and restrictions change, so will go your competition, and may well determine the fate of your competition despite the work of the organizing team’s efforts.
New Horizons
The term virtual judging has been thrown around quite a bit in the past few months. I prefer alternative judging. Groups are beginning to explore what a virtual competition could look like (and how it could be pulled off), and these experiments could be useful tools in the proverbial judge coordinator’s toolbox when executing a competition moving forward. There are a lot of ideas out there and a lot of follow up questions and concerns that need to be addressed before anything concrete is adopted. I remain hopeful, though.
A few highlights I am excited about are electronic scoresheets. The idea of electronic scoresheets has been discussed on and off for years, and the current situation has accelerated the development (and adoption) of them. Another idea I am excited about is more abstract – thorough feedback. If judges are judging virtually, collating notes with one another and discussing entries in depth over more than just one flight will require more diligent feedback overall. That will directly benefit the entrant and could provide more value than otherwise at a “normal” competition.
Just Suggestions, Not Answers
We’ve compiled a list of creative and alternative suggestions to hold a competition. These are only suggestions, not guidelines. Organizers should be continuously monitoring the health and safety circumstances in the area when deciding about hosting a competition:
- Virtual Judging
- Mini-Best-of-Show only judging
- Offset seating
- Limited handling of entries and documentation
- Clear cleaning protocols
- Limited judge sessions to avoid mealtimes
- Small satellite judging (if permissible and advisable)
- Reduced entry count
- Increase in number of bottles needed
Scenario 1: You hold a 300-400 entry club competition that is a marquee event for the club and crucial to the club’s budget. With social distancing and concerns of safety, the organizing team wants to make sure they hold the competition with safety as the top priority.
The team discusses what a successful competition looks like and weighs options. The team decides the judging will be done virtually. With lack of oversight and risk of judging an entry from two different bottles, the expectations are clearly communicated to entrants and judges before payment and registration.
With limited capacity of judges, the judge coordinator recruits early. Judge sign up is down 25%. The organizing team cuts entry count to 150 and asks entrants for three bottles to accommodate the lower judge turn out and virtual judging.
All entries are consolidated at a drop-off location and safety and sanitation protocols are followed. Everyone is required to wear masks and gloves, and each bottle is sanitized before check-in and sorting.
The judging timeline is extended two weeks and judges are assigned a category to complete with another judge. A case box is dropped off at each judge’s location with all the necessary documentation compiled. Organizers give the judge pair clear expectations on treatment of entries and a timeframe to complete the category and choose winners. There is no mini-Best-of-Show.
Once a category is complete, judges scan in scoresheets to a shared folder along with the other documentation needed and results are returned to entrants by email.
After all categories are judged, organizers choose three judges for the Best of Show panel and drop the remaining bottles off at each judges’ location to be judged virtually.
Parting Words
Life as we know it has come to a screeching halt. The novel coronoavirus has led to unprecedented social distancing protocol and shelter-in-place mandates that have effectively shut down any sort of gathering for the foreseeable future, freezing homebrewing meetings and events. Whether or not to host a competition will be solely on the organizing team, and there should be no regret in postponing or cancelling the competition if the circumstances aren’t safe.
John Moorhead is Competition Manager/Gov’t Affairs Specialist for the American Homebrewers Association.