From

Location

Message

Date Posted

President - GPC

Fellow Growers, Site and Weigh Off Representatives and Friends,

The GPC Committee met this morning and we discussed the weigh off season for 2020. None of us thought we would be in the situation that the world is in today. If there is anything any of us could of done, or could do, we would have done it.

We are, by staying at home, keeping a safe distance, and washing hands, to flatten the curve.

No one has exact answers on how long. The world is on High Alert, and should be, as this affects lives everywhere. But we have hope, and as long as we do, our will for change will make it so.
We know our sites will have difficulty deciding, we will respect their decision. We do know some things will be forever changed going forward.

3/29/2020 8:52:21 PM

President - GPC

We have been in contact with our awards manufacturers. They assured us they are still working, on a skeleton crew, but working, and still want the work. They want to keep the flow of work and funds coming in like all businesses. Yes, they will be affected but expect to get their business back to normal.

What we don’t have is the ability to say, “Hey let’s wait a month or two and see”. If we are to have any weigh off season for 2020 with awards, we will need sites to register for their weigh off by May 1st.
Sites not able to register and pay for their weigh offs by this deadline, will not be able to get awards/ribbons packages for their site, they won’t make it on time, and we can’t delay those that do want to have an event.

The GPC decided the following:

3/29/2020 8:52:54 PM

President - GPC

•The GPC will not stamp any dates on the awards this year, so if the worst does happen, these awards can be used for the following year, but we don’t think that will be the case.

•The GPC will freeze the sites as is. This means if a site cannot schedule a weigh off this year, they won’t lose their place in the date rotation to another site that wants to permanently change dates, sites still remain a GPC Weigh Off site within their current dates and rotation.
•The GPC will offer up a $100 registration that includes no awards and no ribbons, but allows the site to enter their growers weigh off data on BP for International recognition. The sites still need to register by the time line stated.
•The GPC will not make any decisions on the IGC at this time, too far off in the future.

We want to encourage weigh offs to happen, we bank on the positive that this will resolve itself and folks will be wanting to get out come fall, especially due to the hardships we all have endured. But we also understand that some areas are harder hit than others, and respect that sites decision to not have a weigh off at this time.
This is a fluid moment, it changes by the day. We hope for all to stay safe, stay home, and stay calm. Let’s flatten the curve, and get back to growing world records.

Let’s GROW BIG Together,

Your GPC Committe

3/29/2020 8:53:10 PM

Knopp, Germany

The sites still need to register by the time line stated.

I live in a small village, but we have 4 growers that go to the Kaiserslautern weigh off. Pretty obvious that's not happening this year. I have a inline scale calibrated to 1000 kgs. If we do individual weighing in each others patch can we also have our data added to the GPC? Please email me at giantsquash@gmail.com

Stay safe all.

4/15/2020 12:55:02 PM

Georgetown, Ontario

So if a site pays the $100 and the weigh off gets cancelled would that $100 be put towards the following year weigh off? I ask this because the deadline is May 1st but the weigh off my company pays the GPC registration for will be making a decision after that date. So far they are plannin* to go ahead but if the government cancels all fairs like some provinces then it will not happen.

4/17/2020 6:04:56 PM

Quebec

Hi John and all,
Any and all monies received for registration and award packages will definitely move forward to next year if their events are shut down this year.
Todd

4/18/2020 9:41:13 AM

Poland

The $100 option looks great. We were interested in that option but looks like some important information is missing here. From information provided by the person responsible for International Sites that option is only for watermelon contests and is limited to Italy only.

4/19/2020 1:55:53 PM

Hamilton - New Zealand

Hiya, we're one of the first weigh off's for any season as we're down here in NZ.

All of our rosettes already had the date on them, and we couldn't run our event. Hopefully the GPC can sort out some sort of deal or plan for us next year. I know it's ages away, but just wanted to mention it.

4/20/2020 4:32:57 PM