Hello!
 
Hi Epi and all,
 
Epitonium wrote:
>
> At the risk of offending a lot of people, I have decided to heed the advice of
> a fellow Conch-L'er and air my feelings about a few things.  Lots of folks
> couldn't care less.
 
I do!
 
First the unfortunate controversy (or wrong button pushing) has nothing
to do with exhibits or exhibitors.
 
I started exhibiting a very short time ago (1994) with my Liguus. My
only shell expenses were field trips to the Everglades & Keys habitats.
I did spend a lot of time doing this even when I was going to school
(BSEE at Univ of Miami). Not a fortune spent, no dealers involved. Built
my own cases.
 
I won a blue ribbon (mine was the only exhibit in that category, HA!). I
was happy. My shells were laid out in alphabetical order, in neat little
groups and rows in each exhibit case. I knew everything about the shells
because I made labels for them with extremely accurate information.
 
I knew about the shells but the people that visited the show did not!!
I had no backboards with info, only a cardboard with a stick-on title.
 
When I walked about I saw that some exhibits had won trophies. Hey neat,
why didnt I win? I saw the winning exhibits had info about where, how
collected, some bio info etc. on backboards.  Next year I will go for
the gold!!
 
I put together the same Liguus shells with a kick ass tile, some
distribution maps done on my mac, some habitat photos, some ecological
info etc etc. and the shells displayed in regional groups.
 
Lo and behold I won a COA, a DuPont, a shell of the show and Neil Hepler
award. Not bad my second show!
 
To make a short story shorter. The trophies did make a difference. My
going for the hardware made me aware that the exhibit had to tell a
story to the judges AND to the public. Everyone congratulated me on how
educational the exhibit was.
 
So Carol, the answer is yes the trophies cause exhibits to maintain a
high level of quality and do indeed educate the public more.
 
As for buying shells. I happened to get interested in endemic shells and
the isolation of populations within the genus etc etc. I started
collecting the South African Cypraeovula (bring money), from dealers of
course. I am not about to travel to SA and dive to 250 meters to collect
deepwater edentulas, 300 meters to collect a cruickshanki or brave the
sharks and currents in the COLD water to get a castanea(=verhoeffi). The
dealers get these from boat operators and deckhands as bycatch of
lobster trawling or trapping (some shallower are dived by the dealers
themselves). They are not raping the ocean of shells as in the case of
the craft or tourist trade wholesale shell collectors. Now those should
be shot at sundown, but they are a different bunch. Yeah! I also won
with that exhibit (and my shells are still in my collection).  Did I buy
the trophies? NO! I put together one of the best educational exhibits
ever!! It is probably the smallest exhibit ever to win the Masters. You
can put a lot of expensive shells in neat little rows with no info and
you will not win!
 
So I suppose it is a matter of opinion. Why not suspend the medals at
the Olympics, a pat in the back will do or a written record (to fall
next time). HA! Most of the kids wont show up.
 
Nuff said, I do hope you change your opinion of the show trophies. There
are a lot of honest hard working people among the dealers, collectors
and show committees.
--
Later,
 
Emilio Jorge Power
 
Please visit;
"The Liguus Home Page"
http://pw1.netcom.com/~ejpower/lighompage.html