Danny: That's not the only thing that's going to break AOS, as I think you
can see from this thread. Membership is already either voting, or
threatening to vote, with their feet/$$. As membership and prestige
decline, the awards become less valuable -- on that point, I have to say
that for $60 or even $40 to register an award, I really think I should get a
copy of the award photo to use on my website, but NO, that's not included.
And because they do insist on using slides, it doesn't even pay for me to
buy one from the photographer, because I have no use for the slide, I need a
digital or at least something I could scan.

I should perhaps also note that AOS HQ suffered major damage from Hurricane
Wilma. I expect it's well-insured, but that never covers everything ...
even after the deductible. So, cynical though this may sound, I will not be
surprised by more price increases.

And if I don't get 2 more awards this year, the membership will lapse again.
Kenni


"danny" wrote in message
news
Photography costs can eat up a lot of the award fee. For those of us who
get slides duplicated instead of shooting a whole roll of the flower it
eats up almost the entire award fee. We send in 36 slides for every award
so that they can be distributed to all of the other judging centers. If
AOS keeps adding new judging centers this system is going to break
eventually (or a switch to digital will need to happen.)
-danny