The Mash Monster Certification Process

[Bill Piche]

The Mash Monster process has been going on for about 3 years now. With its growing popularity and presence on this board, as evidenced by the recent discussions of the Mash Monster Set versus other set techniques, it is apparent that this process deserves continued attention and efforts to refine it.

For some time now, the "witness" has acted more of a videographer and logistics manager than a true witness or judge of the close. The video (and the standardized gripper pool) are the essential keys to the MM process. The video is reviewed by 3 judges, who then make their ruling on the outcome of the certification attempt. For some time now, the judges have been taken from the pool of moderators. This added consistency, experience, and cohesiveness to the judging panel. This is a living process and it evolves as the Gripboard evolves. We must ensure the intregity of this process as it stands today and realize there might be modifications as we move forward.

In addition, one more change will be made to this ever evolving process. We will be adding a modification to the rule set to include; showing of the handles (to be stated in the rules) and also the showing of a new Mash Monster Seal. Both of these duties are assigned to the witness and need to be done prior to breaking the seal and handing it to the athlete. This will enable Gripboard members in good standing to serve as witness regardless of relationship (good friend, spouse, etc.) provided they are GripBoard members in good standing. Good standing is defined as a member who has not been placed on probation or review for any actions in direct conflict of our rules or deemed inappropriate.

What brings us to the the addition of a Gripboard "seal"? Because we are now entering into the top levels and want to be sure to 100% certainty (rather than 99.99%) of the integrity of the certs.

The seal will be added to all grippers by the administrator of the certification process prior to sending to the witness.

As stated before, this process has and will continue to evolve. We will strive to keep this certification the Benchmark of Gripper certifications. The additions of these new rules will ensure that this is always so.

The rules can be reviewed in the Mash Monster forum with the post entitled The Rules and pinned at the top of the forum.

We'll also be composing a "Witness Responsbilities" help list that will help the witness to know exactly what needs to be done.

Thank you everyone for the continued support of the Gripboard and the Mash Monster Certification.

[twig]

The seal is a v good idea, as the reputation grows, there will be people out there that will want to cheat.

[bencrush]

Sounds good! I want to keep rolling through them regardless of seal, no seal, baby seal...