Here are the June 2017 judge anniversaries!
15 years
Dave GaleLian Pizzey
David Pope
Dan Smith
Francesco Spognardi
Gareth Tanner
Nicholas Taylor
Lloyd Dodson
Kenji Suzuki
Kaname Kamishima
10 years
Alexander SyomkinBrian Hellevang
Junichi Yabuta
Chris Nguyen
Toshiki Ogihara
Luke Powell
5 years
Andre DiamantIvan Saenz
Luis Guadarrama
Susan Waldbiesser
Nita Flaskerud
Dennis Pedersen
Pavel Krasheninnikov
Dylan Burrows
Shin’ichi Katagiri
Nicolas Baptiste
Nazzer Nicerio
Marcie Eaddy
Elliot Raff
Tommy Liu
Derek Vandiver
Brian Cooper
Seth Black
Ioannis Economides
Kobi McLeod
Roman Chekhonin
Tomislav Trnski
Sean Stackhouse
Erik Robertson
Brandon Qing
Katie Temple
Mattia Rebecchi
Diego Roca Suarez
Dane Looman
Phillip Konkle
Hyun-myung Park
James Risner
Oscar Amado
Louis Kaplan
Ricardo Vicente
Alessandra Mottini
Victor Gutierrez
Jose Moreira
Davide Forti
Timmy Tossavainen
Marcello Klingelfus
Petit Arnaud
Wind Pang
Sigurour Andresson
Matthew Karr
Josh Oratz
David Park
Saverio Adamo
Daniel Brandt
Max Ackerman
Sergey Jmaylov
Eric Drotzer
Hampus Bergqvist
Brian Henrichs
Alessandro Ingargiola
Patricio Ponce
Yu Win Yew
Christopher Thompson
Rick Lee Hup Beng
Jeremy Rich
Nathan Horne
Casey Sutliff
Adam Cai
Yue Ming
Robert Towers
Junsuke Miyamoto
Chikara Aoki
Leonardo Morena Labruna
Martin Varga
Daniel Bleck
Guido Quintana
Quang Vu
Kazuhiko Saito
Bruno Gomes da Fonseca
Darlam Da Costa
Frantisek Kascak
Randy Sheffield
Casey Chong
Emmanuel Leal
Jorge Rodriguez de leon
Alessandro Riva
Vincent Chin
Pablo Sandoval
Christopher Vizzone
Sarah Lockwood
Kiennan Materne
Kush Singhal
Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!
This month, we have a total of 4 anniversaries to celebrate: Kenji Suzuki“It was 2008 I met Kenji first time when he came back to Japan from Canada and started judging again. Many judges were pleased with Kenji’s return. He is actually elder judge. We are on his 15th anniversary for certification but we know he helped GP Tokyo 1999. But at that point 2008 I did not know anything about him. Now he is one of best the judge I really want you to know about him.
Kenji has a lot of success story, HJed GP Hiroshima, our RC … but such topics that you can find easily are not featured today. Father. I believe he is a role model of active retiree-L3. I respect his judge-work-life balance.
Kenji decided to step down to L2 when his second baby became about 9 month old. His announcement was humble and polite but we could find an important thing in it. Always he was able to rebalance and keep himself being judge when life changes. He found the way of judge with one baby. He found another way of judge with two baby. *note: I am sorry but he is a little stereotype-busy-Japanese. He has great job, literally our future rely on it.
Normally, it is a pleasure to bless but lonesome when my friends stop judging because they got better job, married, baby, second baby or various event happened on their life. But I felt honestly ,at Kenji’s farewell speech in GP Chiba, expectation to next season. Kenji put a period to L3 and play new role.
Today, he join XP team and dedicate broadcasting fellow judges’ exemplary actions. And sometimes he give us valuable forum post. One more thing, he judge at store as much as he is comfortable.”
Next, Carlos“Emmanuel is one of the few L2s in the northern reaches of Mexico and has been actively involved in mentoring, certifying and helping other judges grow in his country. Fellow judges Erick López Basulto and Alejandro Reynoso
, who were tested by him, mentioned that he has always been a great teacher, someone who has opened their eyes to new ideas and has encouraged them to take a step forward as judges. Noé Alfredo Álvarez
also remembers how invested Emmanuel has been in improving the community in the northern states of Mexico, helping out at multiple events throughout those states and certifying a new generation of judges who are now key members of the Mexican judge community. Omar González
commented that one of Emmanuel’s greatest strengths is his project work, which has shown other judges in Mexico that there are infinite ways to participate in the judge program and help it grow. Finally, both Álvaro Ibáñez
and Pedro Márquez
wanted to let Emmanuel know that they admire his leadership within the Mexican community, which wouldn’t be the same without his participation in it.
Thanks for these last 5 years, Emmanuel!”
Rounding out the last of the normal anniversaries is Gareth Tanner, who is celebrating 15 years! Jack“Gareth Tanner was a long-respected name in the UK community when I entered it. His tireless work on forums and mailing lists brought education and policy updates to many judges, myself included. I have strong memories of an intermittent quiz and question project that Gareth spearheaded in the UK community, keeping judges engaged and thinking about rules and policy. Although family commitments have reduced Gareth’s event density, he still co-manages a Level 2 Study Group that a significant number of recent Level 2 judges in the region have praised for help along the way. Gareth is always thinking about similar ideas, trying to find a way to contribute in any way that he can, to build infrastructure and systems where he sees them lacking. Fifteen years is a long time commitment from anyone, and I know that Gareth has contributed significantly to my own knowledge, as well as that of many, many other judges. Gareth, it was a pleasure to see you back on the floor recently at a large UK event, and I hope to see more of you – and your work – in the near future.”
Finally, we have one L3 anniversary this month: the Anniversary project’s very own Shawn Doherty! His RC, John“Shawn Doherty has been a Level 3 judge for 15 years.
Wow. While I am nowhere near the gifted storyteller that Shawn is (few are – his knowledge of the history of the program and his sense of humor combine to make for some wonderful narrations), I do want to take a little space to commemorate this anniversary. But where to start?
I could start with the fact that he spent almost a third of that period (about 5 years) as the Regional Coordinator for the Northeast US. His home state of Delaware was tacked on to the region so that he could “temporarily” take the blue shirt. He was no stranger to community work, having previously grown the Chicago community while living there. As his successor, I can attest that the Northeast has definitely benefited from his guidance through these years.
Similarly, I could highlight his excellence at tournaments. Shawn is a member of a small group of judges who has been on staff for over 100 premier events (Grand Prix, Pro Tours, etc.) with a long history of local events as well. It is my opinion that his understanding of events, what needs to happen and what can go wrong is strong enough that he pulls off the impressive feat of making whatever task he’s assigned to look easy (I mentioned earlier that he has a reputation as a storyteller – I’ve seen lesser judges steer into trouble emulating his style without realizing just how much is happening in the background).
Wherever you look, it’s clear that we, our events, and our community have greatly benefited from Shawn’s contributions. Congratulations on 15 years at Level 3, Shawn, and thank you.”
Happy anniversary to all of you! We look forward to many more years of judging from you all.