The adjudication day for the credit (print) for the PAGB was organised by the Chilterns Association of Camera Clubs on November 23rd 2019. This held in the James Theatre of Watford Grammar School for Boys.
After failing to reach the required number of votes back in April I had replaced 5 of my prints in order to try again.
Watford Grammar School for Boys
The good news for the day was that I could easily get to Watford without having to stay over overnight unlike in April in Wales. The M3/M25 were relatively clear and I was at the school by 08.20 am. A group of pupils were being shepherded by a sports master onto a coach by the car park entrance. Arriving early meant that I was able to park close to the entrance.
The Theatre doors were open and after my ticket was scanned I was given a green sticker and asked to take my entries to the ‘green’table. There my entry was checked that it indeed matched the entry form and I was then free to wait until the proceedings started.
Close by the entrance to the theatre was a cafe and I had a welcome cup of tea. Outside the play ground was filling up with cars both from entrants and from parents dropping off their children.
The adjudication preamble
The doors to the Theatre opened at 09.45. On stage we could see the tables for the adjudicators and the PAGB support staff. Beyond them was the screen onto which the PDI image copy of prints would be displayed.
After presentations from the CACC and the PAGB President we listened to the description of the day from Bob Whelan. This helpfully described the voting system.
Each adjudicator voted yes or no that an image met the standard as follows:
2: was a no
3: was a near miss to the standard
4: was a yes
5: exceeded the standard
This meant that 22-24 was the range for a passing image. Overall entrants had to have more 200 votes in total to achieve a Credit. Bob added that entries that ‘nearly’ made the pass mark would be reviewed and the PAGB, experienced in lots of these events, might decide that a near miss should have been a pass. This would be, for example, entries which had images that scored 18-24 that had ‘near miss’ votes on re-evaluation were in indeed meeting the standard.
There were 58 print and 23 PDI entries to be adjudicated on the day.
The adjudication
Once the adjudication started the house lights were all turned off. Around me I could see entrants using their smartphones to illuminate their scoring sheets as the prints were adjudicated.
We had a short break before the adjudication re-started.
Once the last image had been voted on we broke for lunch. We were told that there were a large number of entries that had to be reviewed by the PAGB support team.
Lunch, a delayed restart and results
I had lunch in the cafe while we waited for re-start. At 2 pm we were all back in the Theatre and an announcement was made that due to the large number of entries that had to be reviewed the restart would be delayed.
We were then told that passing entries now had one of their images (retained by the PAGB for training purposes) displayed outside the Theatre. There had been 28 entries awarded the Credit.
I went and checked the prints and as I suspected I had not achieved the Credit. All that remained was to wait until the PDI entries had been adjudicated and then I could pick up my entries and leave.