Australian Facetors' Guild Limited

I have noticed that interest in competitions varies from club to club, as does the interpretation of whether a level 2 faceting competition should require entrants to submit more than one stone.

Many club competitions only cover a subset of the groups in the j&r manual ostensibly because only a few people enter or that is all most people are interested in

If a section receives few entries, one of the questions is whether the section should be dropped next year. 

This approach doesn't provide an incentive to try out other aspects of the craft.

Given the judging guidelines in faceting are about as qualitative as we can get them, why can't we have a faceting section in a level 2 comp which gives entrants the opportunity to choose a stone from two or more set designs in groups 8 to 11.

After all:

• Stewards should be able to easily match the stones to the set designs in the schedule
• Results from each section are standardised to 100% 
• Competitors can chose the cut so it shouldn't matter if one design seems easier than another
• Each design has its own challenges
• Judges are competant to judge all groups so it should be just as easy for a judge to judge one group as another.

Thanks Paul,

However some committees are fixated on having a limited number of sections to avoid having one or two entries in a section.

In those cases giving cutters a choice of designs to use for one section allows cutters to expand their horizons without being the only entrant.  It would also be a good way for clubs to open competitions to areas that are being developed.

But it seems there is an aversion to the idea.  Hence my question

Regards Gordon