Labels for moving exhibits out of collections

Here’s the complete information on the labels for tracking candidates for
top awards at daffodil shows.

The labels are Post-it 2100-J labels compatible with Avery 5027 template. They come in
packs of 25 sheets. Each sheet has 9 rows and two columns. The actual size of the
labels is 15/16″ by 3-7/16″. As I said yesterday, these are removable labels; you don’t want to use permanent labels that won’t easily come off your test tubes and wood blocks.

(I suspect that Mike Berrigan’s enthusiasm stems not just from his show this weekend
but from the fact that he works for the company that manufactures these labels.) I’m
attaching the same PDF file as yesterday in case you have now decided to use it. If
your ink jet or laser printer can handle these sheets, just print the file on them. If not,
print the master on paper and take the paper copy and labels to a shop that can
photocopy onto the label sheets.

Why and how does the system work? Let’s start with the problem that it’s trying to
solve. Candidates are taken to the head table for voting for various major awards.
The winners are left at the head table, and others are taken back to the benches.
If a candidate is a 1-stem exhibit or a 3-stem exhibit, it will have an entry tag
and presents no problem whether it wins or not. The problem arises when one
stem (test tube) is taken out of a collection. I have seen instances of a non-winner
going back to the wrong collection or to the wrong location in the right collection.
When photographing an ADS award winning collection with a missing flower, the
obvious question is, “What’s missing and where is it?”

Let’s look at the labels. They come in pairs with serial numbers. The left column
label asks the clerk or judge to attach it to the test tube, and the right column label
says to leave it on the bench or platform where the candidate originally stood.
Both labels ask for the Daffodil Name. In reality, the exhibitor will have attached
the name to the test tube of to the platform. We don’t know which, so this covers
both cases. If your judges and clerks are paying attention, you could say the
name needs to be at the location and on the test tube so that the Daffodil Name
is needed on only one of the label pair; however, I think a simple rule is better
than a complex rule. The Class Number on the test tube label obviously helps
find the exhibit on the show bench for putting a non-winner back. This even
works for the miniature hybridizer classes where the identity of the flower is
concealed and a check mark indicates the flower is eligible for the Miniature
Rose Ribbon. You’ll have to open the exhibitor’s label to read the seedling
number, but the number should not give away the identity of the exhibitor.

Next, let’s see how the information is used when the candidates that didn’t
win major awards need to be returned to their original locations. The Class
Number takes you to a particular bench. If you’re holding a stem of Homestead
and there was only one Homestead taken from all the Bozievich collections,
the name is sufficient to put it back. If two Homesteads were taken from
separate Bozievich collections, you need the serial number to decide
which is the originating collection. The pre-printed serial numbers save you
from having to write something that identifies which collection in a class was
the origin.

The judging is now finished, and you’re looking at a Quinn collection that’s
missing two flowers. The table labels tell you it’s missing Homestead and
River Queen. You go to the head table and find the River Queen and two
Homesteads (one was best white and the other was best bloom in the
Youth Section taken from the Youth collection of 5). The serial numbers
tell you which one came from the Quinn collection and which one came
from the Youth collection. This makes it possible to reassemble the
collections in order to photograph them. Most of the time, the Daffodil
Name left at the collection is sufficient, and it will be rare (like the
situation just described) that you need the serial number to find the
flowers for reassembling a collection. Notice by the way that we can
get the Homestead and River Queen back where the exhibitor placed
them and not have their positions swapped.

So that’s how and why the system works for tracking the awards candidates.
Our initial attempt required more writing on the labels, but subsequent
refinements have reduced it to a near minimum. It would be a minimum if
judges and clerks can be relied upon to attach the Daffodil Name only to
the place (table for test tube) where the exhibitor didn’t put it.

Kirby Fong

Candidate_Labels