In response to this and because I am trying to be truthful in my calculations, I will offer the following: Quote from a dumb cartoon I watch, and probably shouldn't, and won't now that I'm finally enrolled and have work to do building my fiancé's freedom with her: "[IBOFB,] your logic is flawless... but I'm transmitting a better idea." ;^) A. 1 Week vs 12 Month You have a bit of a point; however, I cannot tell you "how many MV distributors make Gold for the whole year." I simply don't know. It is more than likely not "significantly less than 100%" as MVDs tend to build their businesses based on Auto-Ship. I would say the Auto-Ship percentages are extremely high from what I have heard. (Orrin, is that true for your group? High Autoship Percentage?) This would mean that in all likelihood the majority of Golds are re qualifying every 4 week period. In fact if they are not they are more than likely moving up to Ruby. If those assertions are not true then I have one other theory. I think the IDS numbers may be meant to reflect people qualifying at that level? Think about it, the IDS shows "Average Weekly Number of Distributors Paid at this Rank During 2007." The fact that it says "Average Weekly Number" flat out tells me that every week the number of Golds may vary slightly, but there are roughly 225 every week, and wouldn't it stand to reason that it is the same 225 people re qualifying as well as new Golds coming in as old ones move to Ruby from time to time? Lets test this theory shall we. The IDS shows 41 Emeralds EACH WEEK, yet the recognition site shows (I believe my count is correct, please verify) 208 Emeralds. That tells me that using the numbers from the IDS is a correct way to do the math which I have done, and it is assumed that roughly the weekly average means they are qualifying year round. What, did you think they just picked their best week of the year and put that on the IDS? They aren't like your favorite MLM you know. B. % Applied to *all distributors* To be honest, I'm not sure what exactly you mean by this. I don't see where it says the percentages are of "all distributors" rather than just the ones that received a bonus during 2005. I thought those were the percentages for the "Active" EBOs (enslaved business owners) If not then let me recalculate, because I'm starting to see what you may be getting at... maybe. 370000 EBOs Active divided by 66% (%-of-Actives) = 560606 Total EBOs .0120% of 560606 = 67.2 Diamond EBOs .0320% of 560606 = 179.4 Emerald EBOs .1683% of 560606 = 943.5 Platinum EBOs So even if their percentages are of total IBOs and not of just active ones, (Doesn't sound like something they would do... it would be almost transparent... that isn't like them.) It is still a far cry from "halve the real # of Q* qualifiers." I'm starting to see what people mean when they say SPIN. Also don't get me started on percentage normalization. i.e. if MV and QX were to have the same number of active distributors, whether 370,000 or whatever is on the IDS, and the percentages were applied there, it would give some people heart attacks. Which is why I haven't done it. Think about it, 1% golds versus .1683 platinums? even if both businesses only had 100k distribs, that would mean MV has 1000 people making 50k and QX would have 168 people making 50k.