PRESIDENT'S COMMUNICATION
AOS Judging: Simply the Finest

ONE OF THE AMERICAN ORCHID Society's greatest strengths is its judging system, which is recognized all over the world as being the finest. It is not the oldest, as the Royal Horticultural Society in London, England, has been judging orchids since the 19th century. But the AOS judging system has been around since 1932, when judging occurred only at national shows. At the first show, 13 awards were given, with the first one recorded going to Cattleya schroederae 'Hercules' for an Award of Merit. The highest award for flower quality, the First Class Certificate, was given to Rhyncholaeliocattleya (syn. Brassocattleya) Moira 'The Bride', FCC/AOS (Digbyana-Warneri × C. gaskelliana). Judging at shows continued until 1948, when the first organized judging center was created in New York City and judging started to occur at a predetermined location on a monthly basis in addition to the orchid shows around the country. Then, judges were selected based on their orchid knowledge, and they were invited to become AOS judges. Today, there is a structured judging program managed by the Judging Committee.

Ken Roberts evaluates a Masdevallia while Ursula Ploch does research. SOEM Show, Caracas.

Since those early days, judging centers have expanded across the United States and Canada. Today, there are 24 judging centers (23 in the United States and one in Canada). Many of these centers have multiple judging sites. For example, the Hawaii Judging Center has three: one in Honolulu, one in Maui and a third one in Hilo. In total, there are 35 judging sites, all meeting on a monthly basis. There are more than 680 judging personnel working at the different centers, with more than 480 being certified judges, more than 50 emeritus judges, 75 senior judges and more than 70 students in the judging program. All of them are volunteers, helping orchid growers get their plants evaluated for possible awards. In addition to the monthly judgings at these centers, judges also travel throughout the country and Canada and even to South America, Central America, the Caribbean and Asia to judge sanctioned orchid shows - around 250 of them - and in most cases judges cover their own travel expenses.

The numbers are staggering when you add the times that judging occurs at the centers to the times that judging occurs at shows. AOS judging is happening somewhere more than 600 times a year. The number of awards given averages 2,000 annually. Every award is recorded with a description of the flower and its measurements, and every single flower and plant is photographed.

All of this information is captured in one computer program: AQ Plus. This program was originally developed by Howard Bronstein and Ursula Hoffman, both volunteers, and now is in the hands of Bronstein alone. What does this program contain? The description and measurements of the flowers for every award given since 1932, which exceeds 66,000 awards, and the images of every award given since 1971, when pictures became mandatory for every award, total around 55,000. Forty-eight thousand three hundred of those pictures have been scanned to digital format or were taken as digital images (because the requirements changed to allow centers and shows to submit slides to digital about a year and a half ago). There are still another 6,000 images that need to be added, but that takes time because the slides have to be scanned. This is done by volunteers at AOS headquarters under the guidance of Ted Kellogg, chair of the Technology Committee. But AQ Plus is more than just the awards and the images, as it contains the complete Sander's List of Orchid Hybrid Registration under license to us by the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain. While AQ Plus contains the RHS's registration database, if your computer is connected to the Internet, it provides a link to the actual on-line database, the most up-to-date ref-erence. It also provides a link to the World Checklist of Monocotyledons, the Kew Monocot Checklist for short, which provides information regarding the priority of species names and references to synonyms.

It also contains the list of all approved genera with an abbreviation and pronunciation guide by genus, the current edition of the AOS Handbook on Judging and Exhibition, the AOS judging style book and the training aids manual. It lists all of the special annual awards, myriad Judges Forum articles from Awards Quarterly, and the current roster of AOS judges listed by judging centers.You can read more about this program on the Society's Web site.

The entire judging system is managed by the Judging Committee, which comprises a few Board-selected volunteers and the chairs of the 24 judging centers. At headquarters, Pam Giust, the awards registrar, keeps track of all of the awards paperwork and images, and Ron McHatton, PhD, our current chief operating officer, verifies each and every one of the awards to make sure that the species are valid, the hybrid names are properly spelled and that the description contains all of the necessary information.

So, if you happen to meet some of the chairs of our judging centers, any of our judges or our awards registrar, Giust, please take a minute to shake their hands, talk to them and thank them for a job well done. They are our best volunteers, our ambassadors and the core of the AOS.

Carlos Fighetti
AOS President
cf3@columbia.edu

PS Remember to register for the 2009 AOS Fall Members Meeting, (registration packet is here.).