A New Search For Excellence application form is available at http://mastergardener.tennessee.edu Two formats are available:  a Word document and a fillable PDF document.  Note that if you want to use the PDF version, you must use Adobe Reader 8 or higher in order to save your typing. 

A committee of past Search For Excellence entrants from around the state asked all 2010entrants how they perceived their experience with the SFE entry and judging.  While all comments were considered, the main complaint about the 2010 application was that there was not enough space todescribe the project.   The committee felt that not restricting the number of words would make it easier for applicants to tell their stories.

This new application form will also be more compatible with the International entry system, which will allow our Tennessee winners to be competitive with the entries from all over the country.

The committee also addressed the judging process, which has been perceived as less than consistent in the past.  The 2011 judges will receive written guidelines and will be asked to include writtencomments explaining and expanding on their scoring.  We hope that theses comments will enable the applicants to better understand the numerical grade.  At least three judges will review each entry.   The scores of each judge will be totaled and averaged and the project with the highest average score will be the winner in that category. 

We hope that the revised application and judging process will encourage more entries in the Search for Excellence competition.  Let’s have fun and remember that the goal is to learn from each other how to bestrepresent Tennessee Master Gardening to our communities!

Sincerely,

TMG Alliance Outreach Project Committee