Here are the November 2018 judge anniversaries for which we have historical data!
20 years
John Shannon15 years
Mario ContrerasPedro de Diego
Cesar Baldellon
Ville Kovelo
Brian Bradshaw
Michael Wiese
10 years
Mike KrasnitskiRoss Bower
James Mckay
Dylan Headley
Alli Medwin
Christopher Hiles
Bruce Mills
Kevin Lowrey
Fabio Vegnuti
5 years
William HendricksWataru Otsuka
Ricardo Machado
Adrien Saint-Mars
XiaoPeng Wu
Alfredo Celis Orozco
David Hernandez
Martin Nanik
Lars Rosengren
Alex Moore
Olivier Jansen
Rune Hyldkrog
Tayfun Turgut
Dustin Jones
Matthew Philps
Cindomar Ferreira
Landan Heinricy
Phil Scutter-Cairns
David Murray
Todor Vladimirov
Domen Kuncic
Frieder-Michel Drenger
Felipe Gaboardi
Samuel Hopkins
Norman Ralph
Gene-Paul Russell
Warren Roberts
Russell Tanchel
Joey Valente
Sampo Suomalainen
Jonathan Harrison
Michael Schultz
Alexandra Stokes
Kevin Chong
Jonathan Brewer
Dustin Pyle
Sebastian Heene
Dennis Nolting
Robert Heisler
Bruno Neyra
Duane Young
peter spoto
John Stock
Giulio Tedeschi
Artur Panfilow
wilson salas
Christian Kragelund Pedersen
Mike Garner
Anttu Kaipainen
Joe Steinhoff
Patrick Cossel
scott munro
Bertil Angermann
Marshall Sweet
Brandon Capps
Harrison Hite
Lucius Penn
Andrew Cohen
Jeff Kruchkow
Anders Almerlöv
Justin Whitehouse
Cyril Ford
Donald Phillips
Willian Brandimarte
Guy Montuelle
Marc Lunde
Kendra Smith
Lucas Kuster
April Schmidt
Jian Liang Chu
Sam Oransky
Patrick Hesselbach
Jeremy Tilley
Natalia Nadezhdina
Kirstin “Kir” Jarchow
Ville Teräväinen
Ally R
Jeremy Tilley
Rhys Kennewell
Connor Kelly
Lukas Jurnicek
Daniel Ankiewicz
Nathan Hudson
Russell Busch
Tamara Komatar
Ignacio QUiroz
Raimundo Meza
Kevin Guinn
Joshua Kimbrough
Brandon Welch
Alyssa Windsor
David Garcia
Johan Jernmo
Andreas Frederiksen
Dustin Bingham
Graham Schofield
Tatsuya Masatsugu
shinpei motoyama
Artur Sanchez
Kyle Gorbski
Ian Groombridge
Allan John Shaquel Suson
John Paolo Bago
justo chacon
Patrick Morina
Ronald Lehmann
Taylor Wilson
Hirokazu Suenaga
Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!
This month we are featuring 3 judges: Michael Wiese, Norman Ralph, and Jürgen Baert. RC, StefanWe don’t have that many judges in the program that have been active for 15 years or more. Michael can look back on an incredible career: Tested at GP Amsterdam in 2003, and only 4 years later, at US Nationals in 2007, where he was scheduled to test for L2 tester (that was a thing back then), Michael managed to convince his interviewees to make him L3, an incredible achievement. Michael became a logistics expert at events big and small, traveling the whole world, and was soon the leading judge in Germany. It was no surprise to anyone that he became RC, a role in which he served 7 years before passing on the mantle in 2016.
But I think I can speak for the many judges whose life Michael touched that his crowning achievement are the many connections he built with other judges in the program, and the many judges he inspired and mentored. Michael has a way with people. With his friendly and outgoing manner, his warmth and empathy, and his capability to listen and give advice and encouragement, everyone around him feels welcome and appreciated and at ease.
In recent years, Michael has been less active in the program. He built a family and a house, so he didn’t have as much time as he used to have. But now his house is completed, he is hungry for more. Here’s to another 15 years!
JackWhen an RC looks at a member of their region that is such an integral lynch-pin, and has to come to terms with the fact that it’s “only” been five years since they were certified, it’s a really wonderful feeling. For UKISA, Norman Ralph is one of those lynch-pins. I met Norman at a PTQ in Sheffield, in the north of England, where he took his L1 test. Already a confident figure (it’s hard not to be when one towers over mere mortals), it wasn’t particularly difficult to envisage Norman going far.
That said, I didn’t quite expect all of the accolades that Norman has gathered in that time — an internationally experienced scorekeeper; a diligent Operations lead at Grands Prix and, soon, MagicFests; a motivated Area Captain; and a travel companion I’m proud to call a friend. Norman is incapable of leaving things worse than, or the same as, he found them, and that innate willingness to improve things has been invaluable for the entire region.
Under Norman’s wise leadership, the country (and area) of Wales went from an under-served area with very few judges, to a self-sustaining community-focused area with one of the most tight-knit judge families and store relationships that I’ve seen in the region. After moving, the South West of England is now under that same wisdom, and while leading remotely, I’m hopeful for the same growth in that area.
In a relatively short space of time, Norman has become synonymous with leadership in the region, and integrates himself effortlessly into any situation. It’s impossible to think of the shape of the region without him, and judges like him. Thank you, Norman, for the last five years, and to many more.
November marks the 10-year anniversary of Jürgen Baert certifying for Level 3. We asked new Regional Coordinator of BeNeLux, Niels ViaeneBut of course, Jürgen isn’t perfect. He has some deeply rooted false beliefs. For example, he still thinks that his cat Tora is cuter than my cat Luce. Maybe someday he’ll better his life…
Emilien WildJürgen is someone who never shied away from pushing people out of their comfort zone, and as such, show them their untapped potential. He does so while providing caring support, and is never afraid of getting his own hands dirty – even in the top leading position, he’ll still push in chairs and deliver floor rulings as any other member of his team, while being a charisma monster that will attract the attention of a whole room in what seems to be infuriatingly effortless.
Back in the old days where we had 5 levels of judges, Riccardo Tessitori used to describe the difference between L3 and L4+ as the latter being not only judges performing roles, but icons who, through their actions, inspire people to be more like them. While we’re now at a 3 levels system, Jürgen is still that judge to me: being at his sides shows me all the ways I can still grow and train myself.”
He is a logistical mastermind at large events, but you can just as well find him at a Two-Headed-Giant Pre-Release (making horrible play-mistakes), or just around for some old-fashioned feedback when you need it.
Niels ViaeneBeyond the personal mentor aspect Jürgen is amazing as a passive mentor, by leading by example as mentioned plenty by my peers before. He leads by demonstration, inspires by action and finds ways to simplify and formulate things he learned in easily digested bits of information hidden in a broad spectrum of seminars. Even though he has never taken center stage in the region he was a driving force in the development of the Belgian part of it when the community needed it the most.
It seems like the only limiting factor to what Jürgen can achieve is time and I think a lot of people would be amazed to see in just how many subtle ways he has influenced the program, its projects and many of its judges. And I, for one, am proud to count myself in those.
Thank you, Jürgen, and I hope we’re just getting started.
P.S. Don’t listen to Dustin, everybody knows the Kami-Tora combo is the cutest thing to exist in the feline realm.
Thanks to all for their kind words about Jürgen. Best wishes on the next 10 years!
Happy anniversary to all of you! We look forward to many more years of judging from you all.
In fairness, I’ve been working at Wizards for five and a half years now, and had to stop in Oct 2013, so my ten-year anniversary means I’ve been not-a-judge longer than I was a judge.
Except I have only been judging for 9 years.