We already know not all the members of AMSAT or the satellite community read the messages on the AMSAT-BB. You all are assuming that every member of AMSAT has a computer and email. Unfortunately there are some that do not. If someone can answer how to give the postal submissions the same possibility of receiving number 500 as the email entries, I would be happy to do it in that way. I only go to the post office regularly once a week on my day off (tues/wed).
Pulling the mail out of the box will create a random order. Did the postal person place the first one on the left or the right and did they do it the same way the next day or did they shove it between the ones there already? I can't use the post mark to determine which arrived first because one letter could have taken 2 days to reach me and another 5 days. I will have no way of knowing when the postal person put the letter in my box.
Now, I have the mail out of box and am walking to the car. One or two letters might slip out of my hand in the parking lot and placed either on top of the pile or the bottom not knowing where they actually were. Then on the trip home, someone might stop short in front of me and some of the mail on the seat slides on to the floor. There would be a random selection for the person that gets number 500 simply from the events of getting the mail to my house.
What if I send my daughter to pick up the mail and she comes home and there is a Priority Mail notice that has to be signed for. That person might have sent it in perfect time to be number 500 and now I have to go back to the post office to pick it up, unfortunately, I processed all the awards before going back and he now gets number 532.
As those sending email submissions are date and time stamped, where do I place someone's u.s. mail submission when I only go to the post office once a week? Does that person go to the end of the line because it did not get into my house until after all the emails were received or is it assumed to have been received first and go to the top of the pile?
The world is not perfect and I am just trying to make it fair for everyone.
73...bruce