Criteria to Become a Trial Ground

• 2-3 years minimum history of conducting side-by-side comparison trials with a person (or team) responsible for the note-taking and evaluation of performance on a regular basis.
  
  
• The AAS trials should be incorporated into an existing comparison trial.
  
  
• The AAS trials will not be conducted at a private residence.
  
  
• The person to be considered for a Judge should have a record of careful and methodical evaluation of flowers or vegetables. Academic credentials will be considered also.
  
  
• The trial ground must have a record of conducting trials in an environmentally safe and attractive landscape. For example, we encourage applicants to send photos of the existing trials. We expect trials to be carefully maintained. Growing practices are outlined in the guidelines.
  
  
• The geographical location of the trial site will be given careful consideration by the AAS Board. The Board approves applications that are located a distance from a current AAS trial. The Board refused an application (Vermont Bean Seed Co.) because it was too close to an existing trial (Johnny's Selected Seeds) and the population did not justify two trials.
  
  
• Each prospective Judge is interviewed to learn the available resources the organization or company currently has allocated to conducting trials. The Judge is interviewed to learn testing and evaluation procedures and willingness to commit the time to the AAS program.
  
  
• There is no rule, but AAS is very cautious regarding a trial ground that relies entirely on volunteers to evaluate and/or maintain the trial grounds.

If you meet this criteria and have an interest in becoming an AAS Trial Ground, please contact us at aas@aas-ngb.org with your name, affiliation and phone number and we will respond in a timely manner.