The (sometime) Daily Prophet

Hello, all!!

It's been eons since I've written you last. I've been in the deepest, deepest depths of Hogwarts with nary a minute to spare. I spent all of 20 minutes at my house yesterday in between two jobs, two soccer games, and a mid-week church service. Winnie loves her husband because he helps me soooo much!! Wednesdays are very busy, but I'm glad that I was able to fit in a little Snotch hunting for you all. It seems that more than just the Ravenclaws have some smarts in their heads. Very, very good job, Centy!

Okay, now for some business!

House Points

You will all notice a change in the percentages because I had to re-work the numbers. I entered the first two weeks of posting into my database wrong. Gasp!!! Could it be?? Yes, I did. Sorry about that. Let me see if I can explain what I did. Of course, this means that I will have to give you a better explanation of the points all around.

Click on image to see a larger picture

We're going to use Gryffindor as an example since they are first on my sheet. So, what happens is all houses are able to earn points through various activities. During the posting weeks you are only able to maintain or lose points based on who does not post that week. For each person that does not post that is a negative 10 points. During the Quidditch weeks the possible points include the 150 Snitch points. What I do, after both the possible points and the actual points have been determined, is divide the actual points by the possible points to get the percentage of participation. The reason that points are reflected in percentages? Because previous to this swap the houses did not have such an even population, so I had to show the percentage of participation rather than the points.

What I did in the first two weeks of posting was to add the number of posters by 10. What I was supposed to do was to subtract the number of people that did not post by 10. So, basically, Tuesday night I went through the whole sheet and standardized the numbers so that I made sure that I added everything that I was supposed to and subtract whatever I needed to. Thus, the change in the percentages. This actually lowered everyone's percentage, but it did it evenly across the board. You are basically still in the same place in relation to each other. And now, the points:

Previous Percentages

Gryffindor 74%

Hufflepuff 98%

Ravenclaw 90%

Slytherin 93%

Current percentages

1st place ~ Hufflepuff ~ 99%

2nd place ~ Slytherin ~ 82%

3rd place ~ Ravenclaw ~ 79%

4th place ~ Gryffindor ~ 75%

Dumbledore's Army Points
These points will be updated soon and posted by Lavender Ackerly. You badges will be sent out to you this weekend. Each badge will be personalized with your Potter name.
We are taking away the points for "Sending something specific to your pals tastes" because what one defines as specific another will not think so. Because that one was so fuzzy we've decided to eliminate it.

Tracking numbers
When you email your tracking numbers, please send a copy to your prefects email address, so that they can have a copy, but also to me and Lavender Ackerly at lavackerly AT gmail.com. Lavender will be entering the numbers into the database.
Why do we need the tracking numbers? For proof that you sent your package, because last term 3 packages got lost and the tracking number lets us know that your pal wasn't a flake - the post office was just inept, and in order to qualify for any of the contests that we give out prizes for, you have to have proof of delivery that your package was sent by July 11th. If you want to be entered in the Best Kit contest you will also need to take a picture of your package and send along with your tracking number. If we can't see your package then we can't vote on it.