(Note: Supplemental Activities are no longer a part of the testing process. This article has only historical value.)
Hello everyone, Jared Sylva here! Jeff has kindly lent me the keys to this blog for a few weeks to talk about a topic that is dear to my heart – Supplemental Activities. Over the next three weeks I’ll lay out everything that you need to know about how we handle candidates who do not pass their first Level 3 Panel.
Since I was promoted to Level 4, one of the areas that I have focused is on the candidates for Level 3 who do not pass their panels. Now that we are starting to hone the process, including the first successful transition from Supplemental Activities to Level 3, I wanted to share the structure that we have developed publicly.
First off, what are Supplemental Activities? These are new goals set before a candidate who does not pass his or her Level 3 panel. The point of these activities is to offer the candidate a structured and measurable way to address the deficiencies identified during the initial Level 3 process. The idea of Supplemental Activities predates my direct involvement, but I have been able to provide more hands on support than was previously available.
The Level 3 process is an exhaustive evaluation, but for a long time, we would often be confounded by what to do with the information that we gathered along the way. If we were uncomfortable promoting someone, we told them what areas they needed to improve, but there was little direction in how to do that. With a more structured Supplemental Activities process, we are able to lay out a better, clearer path for candidates who fail a panel.
Assigning a Candidate’s Supplemental Activities
As I mentioned earlier, the Level 3 process has changed a lot during my time in the Judge Program. Transparency and clarification over the past few years have really helped both candidates and panels to frame their feelings and concerns about complex issues in terms of qualities. If you haven’t read the description of the qualities of Level 3 on the Judge Wiki, you should hop over there now. I’ll wait.
Back? Good.
Throughout the Level 3 process, candidates are constantly being evaluated on these qualities. Level 3 recommendations, the Pre Event Interview (PEI), and the panel itself, can all be stripped down to evaluating the candidate on each of these qualities. By the end of a panel, it is the Panel Lead’s responsibility to lay out any concerns with the candidate’s readiness for Level 3, and to do so clearly in terms of minor and major deficiencies.To pass a Level 3 panel, a candidate must have no more than two minor deficiencies and may not have a major deficiency in any area.
If a candidate has a major deficiency in any area, or three or more minor deficiencies, then they will be recommended for Supplemental Activities. At that point, a Supplemental Activities Advisor will contact the panel, the Level 3 Testing Coordinator, the candidate’s Regional Coordinator, and the recommending Level 3 judges, as well as any local level 3+ judges who may have a special interest in the candidate. Together, they will start the process of creating Supplemental Activities for the candidate.
The number and focus of the Supplemental Activities are determined by the deficiencies. For every minor deficiency, that quality will be assigned one Supplemental Activity with every major receiving two. Rules & Policy is the only exception to this. Failing the written exam is considered to be a major deficiency since a candidate is not allowed to pass without it, but it only warrants a single, consistent, Supplemental Activity: Pass the Level 3 Assessment Exam followed by passing the Level 3 written exam.
Next week we will talk about the design and anatomy of a Supplemental Activity as we look at a recent example.