isWASMEx News: Updated 07 July 2024
Pre-Registration of Competition Entries Open Now! With just one month remaining now until WASMEx 2024 we have now opened pre-registration for the competition. Pre-Registering your competition entries is not compulsory - you can still register on the day - but pre-registering will save you and the committee time on the day will and reduce the length of queues. The pre-registration sheet and full instructions on how to complete it can be found HERE. For your convenience we strongly recommend pre-registration. Detailed Final Schedule for WASMEx 2024 published HERE If you are involved with the setting up of WASMEx please refer to this published schedule as it shows several important times such as when the venue will be unlocked and when setting up begins. Next Meeting The next committee meeting is at Saturday 27 July 2024 10:00AM upstairs in the Bassendean Dome cafe. Changes to the Competition (Changes announced Nov 2023) Following much discussion and careful consideration the WASMEx Committee has decided to make a few changes to the competition. These changes are outlined below. Entry to the competition will be free. In order to encourage entries and simplify the registration process we have decided to waive the $2.00 fee for each model entered into the competition. Please note that entrants will still need to pay the $10.00 door fee for entry to WASMEx (this has always been the case). A donation box will be provided in case you wish to make a voluntary gold coin donation. Judges and Committee Members will not be eligible to take home prizes of financial value. Judges and WASMEx committee members will be fully eligible to enter the competition and will compete on the same basis as any other modeler. However, if judges or committee members win a prize of financial value, such as kits, supplies or vouchers from sponsors, then they will be required to surrender the prize to a prize pool. The prize pool will be administered by WASMEx for the benefit of the show. Note that this clause does not include medals and similar trophies. We will Introduce Gold, Silver, Bronze judging. In an effort to simplify judging and reduce the number of difficult 'hair-breadth' decisions between 'First, Second and Third' within each category we will adopt 'Gold, Silver, Bronze' Judging. Under this system each model is judged against pre-determined criteria of excellence. Those that meet the criteria for a truly outstanding achievement will be awarded a 'Gold' award, those that are excellent will be awarded a 'Silver' award and those that are 'Very Good' Bronze. Prior to the competition a full description of the criteria will be published on this website. As this remains a competition, it will still be possible for models to not gain an award. Each model that wins a 'Gold' ranking will win an appropriate gold prize (most likely a medal) for its builder. Each Silver a Silver prize etc. The existing categories will remain. Categories help us to organize the competition and give structure to the display, they also help inform the judges about the models they are viewing. If a particular model gains the highest award within a category then - logically - it will have won that category, however WASMEx will no longer be awarding prizes for each category. All other special prizes, for example, best RAAF, People's Choice, Best Co-operative build, Best Australian Subject and Best on Show will remain and will be run in the same way as before. We are introducing two Australian Defence Force prizes. Several people have pointed out that it is unfair that we have a 'Best RAAF' prize but no matching prizes for the other two Australian Armed Services. With this in mind 2024 will see the first award of WASMEx's new 'Best Australian Army' & 'Best RAN' prizes. Winners of these prizes will still be eligible for 'Best Australian Subject'. We strongly believe that these are positive changes for WASMEx and look forward to the community's ongoing support of the competition. Get building folks, there's only nine months to go! We are introducing a new 'Best Intermediate in Show' Prize and Trophy Previously all younger modelers (up to the age of 17) have competed for one trophy even though there is a category for junior up to and including 12 years and intermediate 13 - 17 years. This year we will introduce a new trophy for the intermediates so that the kids up to 12 have their own trophy and the intermediates another one. This is to ensure that the youngest kids have a fair crack at winning a major award and their own trophy. |