NHC Lottery Limbo

I know the plan is to notify entrants not picked in the lottery next week, after selecting some of them to fill unpaid spots. I think this plan is causing a bit of stress by leaving some contestants in limbo. They know emails have gone out, they don’t know if they all went out, and they’re being left to slooooowly come to the realization that they didn’t get in.

I think it would be better/kinder/more humane to let the unlucky ones know for sure what their status is. They can be reminded that they might get another chance if some don’t pay. It won’t make the news better, but at least they won’t be left in agony wondering.

Agreed.

If that is feasible on the AHA side of things I think that’s an excellent idea. However, not being on the inside it’s hard to say what is feasible. I’d be interested to hear what someone at the AHA has to say.

If they log into www.brewingcompetition.com with their email and aha number and don’t get in or see anything, I think it’s safe to say they didn’t get in this first go around.  Doesn’t easy the pain but at least they are not wondering if their email got lost somewhere along the way.

I assume if there are some that don’t pay and they start filling those, the entries would show up on their login.

Yeah, if you lost the lottery and try to log in, it says your email is not recognized. Not really the most decisive answer. I’m more concerned about bad PR for AHA by not communicating with some unlucky members. I think they’ll feel left out and that AHA doesn’t care. (And I know that’s not at all true).

I still wish we could have gotten everyone in…  :-\

…but I can only feel so bad when there are four regions with empty slots left.

Seems like the message is:  If you want this bad enough, you’ll ship anywhere.

I see your point.  I guess it wouldn’t be hard to send out an email to the 7% who didn’t get in and tell them to watch in case spots open up.

Today is a cutoff for the first day’s emails so hopefully you’ll get some good news soon.  I’m sure some spots are going to open up.

I included every region but the West Coast.  Luckily I got in my primary location.

I believe the wait is to see who doesn’t register and pay for their entries. Once that number is figured out I think they may be sweeping back through to say: “Didn’t get in on the first pass - now’s your chance” to the next group. Hence, no notification until they know for certain that you’re not getting in.

Yes, open slots will be filled next week. I’m just saying that not communicating is going to make those members feel left in the dark. Causing some stress that AHA is specifically trying to avoid.

I did not know that. I wonder how many would enter anywhere knowing now that they didn’t get in. A lot I bet.

I’m in since I judged last year. I know some that aren’t though.

perhaps, but it was made pretty clear in the instructions for the registration. and again on the registration page itself it specified that selecting more alternate sites would likely improve your chances of being selected.

If there’s one thing that I’ve been saying again and again is that there needs to be more open communication when things are happening. The org used to be very tight lipped and play its cards close to the vest. I think the repeated ‘be clear’ is working as the messaging has gotten more transparent. It ain’t perfect, but what is?

I agree with what is being said here. It maybe would of been better to send a rejection email to those that didn’t get in first with a note that they are still in the running if other people drop out.

In my opinion most of the stress is because we’re excited. I think it will all work out and the lessons learned will be learned. I’m still very grateful for all these guys do!

I will try not to get too pissy yet…the site said they have until the 19th to notify everyone.

As one of the people waiting to see if I get in or not, I have a few suggestions for future iterations of the lottery system.

(First off, I would like to say that I respect the difficult position of setting up a fair competition, and very much appreciate the many hours of consideration that went into creating the system we have in place this year.  If we were still running under the system we had in place two years ago, NO ONE would be happy!  What we have today is a vast improvement on where we would have been sitting without the many hours of effort and thought put in by our board members and competition organizers.  THANK YOU! )

Some thoughts on beneficial tweaks for future competitions…

1.)  As a an AHA member, one of the stated “benefits” is being able to participate in the National Homebrew Competition.  At this time, I appear to be one of the 200 some members that are not being extended this benefit.

2.) In my entry, I listed that I would be willing to ship ANYWHERE, and I see that a number of entry sites are not at full capacity.  (Gary and Janis, thanks for the transparency on the process that was followed, it is appreciated, and helpful in allowing beneficial discussions on how to further improve the system).  I am confused that with the stated system, why I did not receive an entry position?  I would have thought by being flexible in where I shipped, I would not have been excluded unless all the entry sites we within 4 or less of being filled up.

3.) As has been stated elsewhere, the wisdom of allowing some members four entries, and some members none… seems counter intuitive.    I would be more supportive of a system that increments up the number of beers that can be entered by ALL entrants  (lottery system put in place like this year to govern what location your beers get entered), and then a second lottery to fill up any spaces left.  In other words, everyone this year would get to enter three beers, and then the remaining sites with space, go up for lottery.  What was done this year was not bad, but I am in the camp that would like to see everyone have at least one shot.

4.) Lets start this whole process a few months earlier.  Some frustration I have felt on this process, is that I cannot execute beers for the competition now as we drift to less than 4 weeks until shipping time.  A big part of getting the best examples of beer to the competition is scheduling them to be at their prime at the right time…  Doing this lottery process by December (or November if December is too busy) would allow for a much higher quality, and larger variety of beers to be entered.  (The process for getting 6 beers ready at the right time is very different than getting ready!)

5.) PLEASE PELASE Send out notification E-mails to those that are in limbo next time.  Just something stating that you are not necessarily “out” but an acknowledgement that we are in limbo and thank/ask us for patience while the system plays out.  The personal touch goes a long way to sooth disappointment, and it helps to feel included in the process.  (having to piece together my status from reading the update on the website had me fuming for a day or two… even more so than being in limbo)

Overall, I think the system put in place this year is a VERY GOOD system put in place by the AHA, and I look forward to the continued discussion and evolution over the next year.  I know “the ship has sailed” on how this years competition will be executed, but I look forward to the discussions over the next year that will further improve the competition experience.      Thanks again to all involved!

Thanks  - This is exactly my point!

Now this has me baffled too. I thought sites were not filled because not enough contestants were willing to send entries to them.

Great post by wingnut.

I especially agree with #4, and am mystified by #2.  Everyone I know that put Kansas City as “would ship” got in.  There’s still 143 empty spots if I remember correctly.

We know who volunteered by June.  We know the approximate level of interest.  Let’s have this lottery way in advance.

Good suggestions for sure.

On your question number 2 just to be totally sure did you actually select each alternate shipping center from the list our simply enter ‘anywhere’ on the form? I’m just truing to be sure. If you did indeed select every judging site as acceptable I agree that it seems like something went wrong there.

On your question about the limit selected, I thought the response from the aha on why they ended up at 4 made alot of sense, it allowed for the maximum number of entrants access while still balancing the judging sites work load.