Here are links to a site I was sent recently. There are great tips for Vendors and Promoters:
http://www.craftshowplace.com/beginners.htm
http://www.craftshowplace.com/promoter_tips.htm
NOT ACCEPTED??!!!?
If you did a juried event many years in a row, that did not mention on the app that they cycled vendors out periodically or that prior acceptance does not guarantee a spot this year, would you be surprised to be suddenly NOT accepted one year? I've heard of this happening to some folks and so have revised the event questions to now explicitly ask promoters this if they cycle folks out. Getting bit by this bug is painful, more so when not expected!
Watch Wording! The littlest things like wording matter allot ;-) Registration Form does not carry the same conditional air that Application does... If someone is going to be judged, then they are not 'registering' for anything other than maybe the right to be judged. Registration forms are for street fairs and other events that accept all that want in. We register to vote, apply for finantial aid, register our cars, apply for a gun licenses, register domain names, apply for grants, register as sex offenders, etc, etc....
I've seen one 'Registration Form' that's only mention of jurying was: “This show is juried for the sole purpose of retaining highly qualified craftspeople/fine artisans.” Are they accepting new artisans? Is everyone invited back or is it re-juried yearly to ensure each persons quality has not gone down? Must each's quality IMPROVE yearly to be accepted or does the yardstick stay the same? Most importantly, does prior acceptance guarantee re-acceptance? Your wording of the purpose of your jurying and your jury process criteria should be as clear as possible! Please elaborate on what you are looking for and who will be accepted and by what conditions/process and finally, mention when they will hear back at the latest. If applicants are unqualified for your event yet your app does not leave them with that impression and they waste time waiting to hear back that they are ultimately and inevitably rejected, you could probably do better with your requirement wording. This will save you time and get you fewer less-than-qualified applicants. Now if you make most of your $ on lots of rejected shmucks' app fees that never had a chance, my above advice will probably not be wise to follow - fewer might jump in your pit.
Promoters, Elaborate upon:
What needs to be sent? Photos, slides? How many, of what? Returnable? SASE for return or day of?
What is the quality level sought? Product wise? Display wise?
What vendors categories, sub-categories, are you NOT seeking?
Will prior accepted be automatically re-accepted if their quality has not declined, they applied on time, and they were not notified of not being welcome back? Or is each year a crap shoot? Or are x% cycled out each year? Or is there a 4 year on, 1 year off policy? Do you only pick the best from the entire pool of applicants each year? Etc, etc.
DETAIL YOUR ACCEPTANCE POLICY PLEASE!!!!!
“Juried.” is not descriptive enough.
Don't want a vendor back? You could simply not send next years app to any vendors you do not want at your event again. Rather than turning them a cold shoulder, I would suggest sending a letter/email to each notifying them of this fact and detailing your decision, enabling them to improve their act for other parties. This should hold particularly true if you have a gripe with them for something such as arriving late, selling non-hand-made as their own, etc. They should not be left alone to possibly be expecting your app next year which is never to arrive. Cut their chain so they can seek out other shows and earn a living elsewhere! Don't get back at them by ignoring them. Notify them of their transgression even if you think they should have already 'gotten the point'. If you had an argument with the vendor and do not consider yourself on good terms with them or even think they are a rude ash hole, still notify them! As a promoter, you need to be above their bad behavior; it should be expected that you WILL encounter folks you do NOT want back. Letting them know rather than leaving them hanging is the above thing to do. Make notifying such vendors a step in your event production plan, which should extend to after the event for many items anyway besides cleanup and vendor survey forms and advertising effectiveness analysis, this is just another step to being a promoter of unquestionable integrity.
Relatedly, if your reason for non-re-invite is a report that the vendor does not make their product, ask for the report in writing detailing the reasons for the belief. Give a discount for the writer's effort to help improve the quality of your show! If true, they should not hesitate to respond with a whole novel! Unfortunately, jealousy is as common in this industry as in any and has caused countless authentic, hand-made artists to not be invited back to great events on account of just one unfounded complaint. That promoters would act so abruptly on one unverified complaint is another injustice entirely. As a promoter, you are agreeing to play the he says/she says game. It's unfortunate and most promoters would rather not, but you need to, lest you cause undue hardship to those that actually make your event what it is. The plurality of juried events will get complaints that some vendors are not making their items. Many of these will be true and obviously so to most other artists and crafter or anyone that browses the retail craft stores with any regularity. There will be a few vendors that you only get one complaint about or that you are unsure of if they make if or not. This is certainly not to say that anyone complained about by multiple others is unconditionally guilty, indeed sometimes simply the biggest perceived threat will be attacked. A hard-working artist with a then-so deserved wide selection of handmade items that outsells most others is a likely target of such attack. Let these possibly victimized and previously slandered, now libeled, folks have a chance to prove to you that they do make it - in case they actually do, as many of us whom are complained about ironically do. You should not kick someone out because you heard one side of a he/she said tale. YOU need to throw the ball to the other side and see how they react to your skillful play... Be Aware! There are many complainers out there who do harm to others willfully and entirely intentionally. Having the complaints in writing will help the victimized if they are continually harassed and need to resort to suing the wrong-sayer, should the promoters in receipt of said libel want to help the attacked. Routinely, many of these complainers do so about the same victims to many shows on the circuit that they happen to overlap coverage areas with. It's how they play their cut-throat game and it's wrong and it's addressable in a civil suit even if not illegal, which I suspect it is mostwhere. The majority of states must have some applicable statute to such dishonest business actions, they seem to legislate everything else these days.... GL & Play Nice!
I've recently been made aware of an event that apparently selects applicants by 'Lottery'? and then refines the resultant winners to the necessary quality. This is a 20 something year event too... Now, the unusual always seems odd, by definition, but is this even effective let alone efficient? Does it work at all? By the event's duo-deco Sun orbital transgressions, it must if it's a standing policy, but personally I'd sift the non-desired bad clumps out before I mixed my muffin drys and wets. Guess thats why I'm a geek and not a baker.... Maybe they don't get many clumps or maybe it's not a very high quality show. They may also have pre-sifted by only handing out apps to people they actually saw the quality in the work of in person and of cource those previously accepted. Admittedly, the lottery nomenclature may dray in the gambling-artist crowd, thats a large group, right? We're all out rolling dice against dark clouds weekendly! Anyone up for 3 porta-john monte? Which has the paper??? Naither! AGHHH! $@%!**#$^!%@ Something more for ye 'ol junk box...
Applicants should be made aware of their rejection as soon as possible! If your response date is near the event's date please consider breaking up your jury process into multiple rounds, such that you throw out the entirely unacceptables IMMEDIATELY after someone opens their app packet and casually looks at their photos. A second round should be rejected as you get more apps in and can be choosy enough to do so. It will then be easier to do your final selection since all the distractions that are not even considerations will have been removed already and thankfully notified of their inevitable rejection earlier than they otherwise would be. It would also be nice to know you received our app, to facilitate such, each event should ask for multiple SASE's, one to be used for notification of app receipt. Promoters that do not ask for such a SASE would still likely mail out such a SASE if you spontaniously enclosed one with your app. Then again, the post office offers return receipts....
Show fees are hard enough for artists and crafters to pony up for that we don't need to have our cash sitting in the bank account of events we WILL NOT be accepted to. Ever. Promoters should notify rejects asap and refund any spot fees they collected from said undesirables. Idealy, events should ask for 2 checks, one for jurying, one for the spot fee. However, we live in a money-tight world and events can get away with holding onto vendors money for months because of the vendors desire to participate. Vendors will jump through any hoop put before us. Having such power, promoters should not hold up un-necessary, hollow, circleish disks in front of us with treats on the opp-side and instead use discretion with their demands. I seriously doubt the promoters engaging in the collecting all fees at once and refunding some later game are even using the money in the meantime. It's probably just sitting in their bank account since if they did spend it on ads or liquor, how are they repaying it then upon rejections yet before the event date? Are they planning on hawking plasma or another state of matter for payback funds? So, if not needed and not used, do not collect it! We need it for supplies, gas, rent, etc ;-) You shouldn't be surprised of that.
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