The Budgerigar Society - Best Practice - Duties of the Show Manager

Running a show is team work and at all times you, as the show manager, will need to establish a good working relationship with other officials of the show team. Other officers who may join you on this team are the show secretary, patronage secretary, treasurer, staging manager, publicity officer, fund raising officer, bio-security officer, sales officer, trophy officer (if any) and others depending on the size of the show.

Before the morning of the show, certain duties will have been carried out in the months prior to the show; but it is still your duty to ensure that they have been acted upon. Teamwork and a good line of communication are of paramount importance in running any event.

Before the show (for some tasks many months before) you will need to ensure that:

hall has been booked
judges booked
patronage applied for
DEFRA has been notified and a vet has been booked on a standby basis
Public Liability Insurance obtained
schedules printed and sent to past exhibitors and judges
publicity has been carried out to promote the show
accommodation for the judges booked if required
catalogues have been printed
catering for the day has been sorted out
staging has been brought to the show hall, erected and numbered
chief stewards have been booked
all bio-security materials are available
all relevant patronage and show office paper work is ready for each judge
all relevant equipment like photocopier/PC are ready when judging commences

Of course other officers will have carried out some of the above tasks, but you will need to ensure that they have been carried out and all the results are available on the day.

Remember that, on the day, the show falls on your shoulders and you need to run the event efficiently.

On the morning of the show:

ensure you have sufficient stewards to do the bio security on the birds entered
ensure you have sufficient booking in & staging stewards
ensure judging stands are located in good well-lit areas and all have the bio security measures available
ensure you brief your chief stewards and stewards on how to carry out their duties when judging commences including staging layout
ensure stewards carry no more than four cages at a time, do not place cages facing each other, on the floor, or stack them on top of each other
welcome your judges and subsidiary judges on arrival and escort them to an isolated area away from the birds and stewards. Ensure that they have refreshments and are well looked after
at the closing time for acceptance of birds, if there are still exhibitors who have not turned up, phone them (always best to have a space on the entry form for home and mobile telephone numbers) to ascertain if they are coming and have been held up or if they are not coming at all
allow a few extra minutes before closing as you do not wish to delay the show but at the same time you do not wish to turn late exhibitors away. A fine line
when ready for the start of judging ensure that the show office has provided the necessary paper work & bio security measures for each judge
introduce your chief stewards to their respective judges/subsidiary judges and ask them to escort them to their allocated judging stands
ensure you direct your judges and chief stewards to judge the specialist varieties first before the main stream colours so that specialist societies patronage can be allocated
ensure to liaise with the catering staff on when to have your mid morning refreshments ready
ensure that judges are working at the desired speed to finish the complete task by the agreed lunch time with the catering staff
ensure that you have sufficient space and stewards for the “holding” area for all colour dots birds and first class winners for the sections judging
ensure that judges are filling in the small box on the cage label for the colour rundown order while they are judging (the same applies to the section rundown later on)

When all the judges have completed judging the colours you will now be in the position to judge for the major specials.

Ensure that your stewards have placed all the same colour dot birds on separate judging stands then invite your judges (including your subsidiary judges) to judge for the major specials.

At Bronze and Silver Championship Patronage Shows there are 5 major specials that must be judged in the following order:

Best in Show all Red colour dots
Best Any Age all Orange colour dots (if the BIS was not an adult bird)
Best Any Age Opposite Sex all Yellow (and some Orange) colour dots (all same sex)
Best Young Bird all Blue colour dots (if the BIS was not a young bird)
Best Y/Bird Opposite Sex all Green (and some Blue) colour dots (all same sex)

At Gold and Area Championship Patronage Shows there are 5 major specials that must be judged in the following order:

Best Any Age all Red colour dots
Best Any Age Opposite Sex all Yellow (and some Red) colour dots (all same sex)
Best Young Bird all Blue colour dots
Best Y/Bird Opposite Sex all Green (and some Blue) colour dots (all same sex)
Best in Show between the winners in 1 & 3

For BIS you must have at least 50% of the vote of the judges and not just a simple majority.
Have in your mind a system to implement in the event of a tie when judges cannot reach a decision.

When there is an overall Best Opposite Sex in Show award then the selection will be from the best opposite sex adult and young bird that are opposite sex to the BIS.
For example: if the BIS is a cock then you need to judge between the best adult hen and best young hen for such an award.

Familiarise yourself with Guidelines 26 – 30 on page 39 of the new Colour Standards 2009 booklet.

Having completed this task of judging for the major specials then instruct your stewards to take all the colour dot birds back to the holding area to be placed in their individual sections.

For Specialist & Rare Variety shows there is no judging for BIS or sections.

Commence judging for the section awards ensuring that all the necessary paper work is available.

When all the judging is complete then ensure that your chief stewards collect all the necessary paper work, birds and bio security material for ring checking by the judges in the allocated area.

After completion of this task your judges will be ready for lunch and a well deserved rest.

Ensure that you give them a catalogue and result sheet when ready.

At all times be sure to treat your subsidiary judges with the same respect that you treat your main judges and provide them with all that you provide your main judges apart from expenses.

At the allocated opening time to the public ensure that you have the necessary staff, catalogues/result sheets, float and bio security available.

Ensure that all birds are back on the staging, all the rosettes and CCs are up and raffles on display and the various officers are in position.

In a one day show there is only a maximum of 3 hours between opening and closing time and you, like all other officers will be doing your best to complete all the necessary tasks of running a show. Try to keep cool, friendly and pleasant but firm in your directives. Remember that all are working for the love of the hobby.

At closing time, ensure that you have sufficient staff to carry out the checking out process at the designated areas as well as stewards ready to dismantle and store away the staging.

Ensure that the hall has been left clean and tidy before you hand over to the caretaker.

After all this you are ready to drive home and earn a well deserved rest!

GOOD LUCK