Degree Requirement Discussions

[Keith_A_Howe]

WPPI is NOT a part of PPA, so no you cannot get a merit for attending their conventions.

Keith

[Keith_A_Howe]

Here are some of my questions:
#1:Can you use 'speaking' points towards your 'service' for another degree if you aren't going for Craftsman any time soon? (I know you won't be able to reuse them later)

The extra 12 merits can be any kind - they don't have to be service. So yes you can use speaking merits toward your Master's or you can use extra print merits over 13 if you have them.

#2: There is nothing about earning a gold bar for your Masters. I found out you have to have 25 additional merits to earn this. Are these print merits or service? If you have your Masters and are going for your Master EI, I assume you have to place the merits towards either Master EI or your bar and they can't go towards both? Do you have to have all three 'degrees' before you can earn towards your bar?

The gold bars are for 25 additional after your degree - in any combination of print/service/speaking merits. If you have a Master's and are working toward Craftsman - or vice versus obviously you would not want to use up any merits on a gold bar. Unless say you were working toward a masters and you had 37 speaking merits above and beyond what you used for your craftsmen. You would have 25 to use on a gold bar and still have the 12 "other" merits you would need for the Master's once you earned 13 print. No you do not have to have all three degrees before you get gold bars. Some people never speak or never enter but still earn gold bars toward which ever degree they do have.

#3: The Imaging Excellence Award is for 13 loan prints. Can they be loans in both PO & EI or would that be 2 different 'Excellence"awards?

Imaging Excellance can be any combination of loan prints. I earned mine with a combination of photographic open prints, art tech prints and EI prints. So no, there is not a seperate Imaging Excellance award for each degree. Once you get the Imaging Excellance award you can earn a gold bar with a diamond in it for an additional 13 loan - 26 total loan prints. It's a pretty small group that has that bar.

Keith

[Keith_A_Howe]

Here are some of my questions:
#1:Can you use 'speaking' points towards your 'service' for another degree if you aren't going for Craftsman any time soon? (I know you won't be able to reuse them later)

The extra 12 merits can be any kind - they don't have to be service. So yes you can use speaking merits toward your Master's or you can use extra print merits over 13 if you have them.

#2: There is nothing about earning a gold bar for your Masters. I found out you have to have 25 additional merits to earn this. Are these print merits or service? If you have your Masters and are going for your Master EI, I assume you have to place the merits towards either Master EI or your bar and they can't go towards both? Do you have to have all three 'degrees' before you can earn towards your bar?

The gold bars are for 25 additional after your degree - in any combination of print/service/speaking merits. If you have a Master's and are working toward Craftsman - or vice versus obviously you would not want to use up any merits on a gold bar. Unless say you were working toward a masters and you had 37 speaking merits above and beyond what you used for your craftsmen. You would have 25 to use on a gold bar and still have the 12 "other" merits you would need for the Master's once you earned 13 print. No you do not have to have all three degrees before you get gold bars. Some people never speak or never enter but still earn gold bars toward which ever degree they do have.

#3: The Imaging Excellence Award is for 13 loan prints. Can they be loans in both PO & EI or would that be 2 different 'Excellence"awards?

Imaging Excellance can be any combination of loan prints. I earned mine with a combination of photographic open prints, art tech prints and EI prints. So no, there is not a seperate Imaging Excellance award for each degree. Once you get the Imaging Excellance award you can earn a gold bar with a diamond in it for an additional 13 loan - 26 total loan prints. It's a pretty small group that has that bar.

Keith

[Christine_Walsh-Newton]

This was my first year in print competition, so I'm very happy with the PPA *bling* I got in the mail today:

[Keith_A_Howe]

That's odd. In the past you got those pins when you checked in for the Awards ceremony at IUSA - at least that's where I always got mine. I know last year there was some contraversy because people arrived at IUSA and were told that only the Diamond POTY's would actually walk up on stage and be recognized. A lot of people were really upset that they had spent the money to come, bought a dress or rented a tux and then found out they were just gonna have their name read while they stayed seated in the audience. At the last minute, I think literally at the awards ceremony, it was changed and all POTY levels were recognized on stage. So now I am wondering if they are sending the pins out in advance and won't be announcing those names at all this year. Maybe they are just sending out the pins so people don't have to wait so long to get them.

Keith

[Jeff_Dachowski]

Christine,
Congrats! That came in the mail today? Usually you get those at the convention. Do you have a degree to put that on?
Jeff

[Christine_Walsh-Newton]

The letter said...

"...While we will celebrate your accomplishment officially at Imaging USA in San Antonio, Texas, we want you to share this news immediately with the rest of the photographic community and the general public. Therefore, we are enclosing your certificate and your pin, which you can wear immediately."

Thanks guys!

No - no degree ribbon to pin it on. These are my first 4 print merits towards the Master's. At current count, I will be one merit shy of the Craftsman by the end of October, so I may have to wait until 2012 to get it. So - no ribbon for the bling...

[Keith_A_Howe]

Officially you are not supposed to pin anything to your degree ribbon. FWIW.

Keith

[Stephanie_Millner]

Yep, mine came in too (or at least to my parents' house - address on file with PPA). Note to self: buy more frames.

Which brings up another point... they also sent a press-release. Um, why has no one run a grammar check on this thing? I need to completely re-write it (and will be happy to share if anyone needs). There's some case mistakes, a "his/her"-->"their" tense error, and the quote that really gets me is something about "achieving a prestigious achievement" - I see we couldn't find a thesaurus?

Plus, still need to get it translated. Riccardo, are you reading this?

[Michael_Gan]

Officially you are not supposed to pin anything to your degree ribbon. FWIW.

Keith

Hmm, as I understood it, you aren't supposed to pin non-PPA pins on the degree ribbons, like the kodak/fuji awards and even the certification pin. It would be good to research this.