Hello friends! I wanted to take some time to reflect on 2017 and think about what 2018 is going to look for Canadian judges. Our neighbours to the south call these “State of the Region” – which is a little more grandiose than what I hope to share, but it captures the spirit! Let’s dive in …

The cornerstone of my vision for the first year as RC Canada was ‘bridging the gap’. If you spoke with me at all you would have heard me tirelessly repeating: “Canada is a big place, and it’s easy for so many judges over such large an area to feel isolated from each other. Our mission should be to find ways to bring judges together and foster a stronger sense of connection.” To that aim my focus was on area leadership, training and certifying some L2 Testers, conferences, and ‘judge parties’.

Success Stories – L2T, conferences, and parties

L2 tester was something that I had mixed feelings about. It can be seen as an ‘escape hatch’ from the L3 process. Frankly, if it was an option when I was on the L3 path, I might not have become an L3. My motivation was entirely to certify other L2 in the maritimes and beef up our area’s ability to hold PPTQs. At the same time, motivated L1s testing for L2 in more remote areas was (and still is) a huge challenge in Canada. L1s looking to level up were limited to testing at GPs – an event for which they may or may not be accepted, which in turn may or may not be a significant travel expense to them. Not a fun prospect. I was super pleased to see Jason Wong take on the project, and very happy to have Robert Hinrichsen in Montreal and Darren Gamble in Calgary now taking on the responsibility of L2 tester. I’d like to see more in 2018 – specifically in the prairies!

For me the most successful ‘connectivity initiatives’ were conferences and the ‘judge holiday party’. Huge shout-out to Will Van Veen for helping me organise the holiday parties in such a short timeline, and a big round of applause to the local organisers who volunteered to host events. I loved all of the pics, and they ended up being exactly what I envisioned them to be. You can expect more of those kinds of events in 2018 – and if you would like to host one in your area stay connected to social media and this blog! As long as you can get at least 4(ish) judges together I’m happy to help you put something together.

I was happy with our coverage on conferences this year – and thanks to David Poon and his crew for helping to organise those. It’s a monstrous task that has sprawled significantly since 3-4 years ago when we only were permitted to have 2 conferences per year! Highlights were some of the streaming we were able to put together to support the ‘buddy conference’ idea. I’m unsure if we are going to continue that in 2018 – I welcome your feedback! Our goals for conferences this year are to keep up the level of coverage we had from last year, and focus on presenter feedback and consistency in the quality of content being offered. You can expect presentations at conferences to have more support in their preparation and, hopefully, greater consistency in quality.

Challenges – L1s and misconduct

2017 was not without its challenges. Thankfully, they were more at the program level than specifically at the regional level, but late in the year there was the very public de-certification of a Canadian L3. This is something that hasn’t happened in the program for years (and never in Canada) – but I think there were actually many positive takeaways from it. The judge program has, in my opinion, improved greatly in the way it responds to abuse among it’s membership. While this was an uncomfortable experience for all, I was pleased to see that the victims were heard and believed, and that when presented with more than sufficient evidence that the JCC acted without hesitation. My hope is that this signals to those judges who may experience harassment or abuse in the future, that they can expect to be protected by the program’s leadership. We hear you, we believe you, and we’re here to protect you when you need it.

On the program level 2017’s biggest challenges for us were the extended judge centre downtime, and the ‘existential crisis’ facing L1s. Judge exams, like reviews, are slowly starting to migrate over to judgeapps and I couldn’t be happier. The judgeapps development team have been doing incredible (and very difficult) work getting those built and implemented and should be available either very soon or already (depending on when you are reading this!) [MG – THEY’RE AVAILABLE!]. Next time you see any of them be sure to extend some Canadian hospitality and buy them a proper beer 😉

Level 1 judges – with the change (and subsequent removal) of GPTs and the level 1 requirement I’ve been asked by many L1 judges what their place in the program is. It’s a good question, honestly, since there are no more ‘mandatory’ events that require a L1. It makes the pitch to store owners a little harder without being able to say that they can’t run tournaments of a certain type with one.

I don’t have any news on the horizon that will change this, but my response to this concern has always been to see this as an opportunity rather than a setback. GPTs were very limited in terms of how they could be run and what formats they could be – but now that space in a store’s schedule can be filled by tournaments of any type! In order to be a L1 you must show a baseline level of mastery with the rules and with Regular REL policy. That makes you an awesome choice to develop and lead larger store-level events. My suggestion is to go to your LGS with ideas. Rather than a GPT try to suggest a team tournament, a larger modern/legacy/pauper tournament on a weekend. Maybe players would enjoy a mixed format event? The options are limitless – talk to people in your community and find out what kind of experiences they don’t have available that they would love to try. Show local tournament organisers your value by bringing them good ideas, and then remind them that as a certified judge you have the logistical, rules, and policy expertise to run an efficient, fair, and fun tournament.

New L2s – welcome the class of 2017!

Aaron MacLean (BC)
James Edwards (Manitoba)
Martin Goulet (Ontario)
Sam Hung (Alberta)
Kenny Dolson (Nova Scotia)
Adam Jennings (Newfoundland)
David Lachance-Poitras (Quebec)
Jeremy White (BC)
Mike Hill (Ontario)
Mike Gyssels (Ontario)
Rio Kivell (Ontario)
Mike Roesler (Ontario)
Duncan McGregor (Ontario)
Jeremy Sivaneswaran (Ontario)

L2s are the lifeblood of competitive magic in any region – and with the demand from PPTQs, and 4 GPs in Canada next year we’ll have plenty of need for them!

Survey Says …

Looking forward to 2018 – some of you may remember the feedback form I shared inviting you to share your thoughts and feelings on the direction of the program and the region. Thanks to all who participated, it was very valuable way for me to take the ‘pulse’ of the region and I think it will be interesting to share some of the results.

• There was an even percentage of response from L2s and L1s (49% and 47% of responses respectively) which signals that our social media reach is a little stronger with L2s than L1s. L2s definitely do not represent 49% of the population of Canadian judges!
• 40.5% of responders are judging at least once a week! Great job staying busy out there!
• Most combination of ‘Strongly Agree’ and ‘Somewhat Agree’ responses: “The Canadian Region is headed in the right direction” (phew!)
• Most combination of ‘Strongly Disagree’ and ‘Somewhat Disagree’ responses: “The Exemplar Program is fair”
• Most controversial (even spread of all responses): “The Judge Program provides enough support for me as a judge” (note: responses to “The Canadian region provides enough support for me as a judge” netted more positive scores. We’re above average! Hooray!)
• Common responses for “The best thing about the judge program is:” are the people, the community, other judges, etc.
• Common responses for “If I could change anything about the judge program it would be” ranged from comments on US-focused organized play, and (unsurprisingly) the exemplar program.
• Responses for “I wish the Canadian leadership would” were super interesting. Some of the common trends were about getting judge shirts/swag to more remote judges, for high level judges to not move away, and for higher level judges to travel around more and make an effort to connect with smaller communities.

The ranking analysis that came from the ‘which of these two would you prefer’ section was really illuminating for me. Conferences finished as the highest priority, with online recognition as the lowest. Summing the response together gave us the following ‘pick order’:

1. Conferences
2. Online Training
3. Local Meetups
4. Regional Events
5. Advancement Preparation
6. Online Recognition

Once I really started thinking about these answers my surprise diminished – if you consider that the ‘best part of the judge program’ are other judges then, of course, hanging out with those excellent individuals will be the activity many of you would like the most!

Just as individual growth in the judge community is feedback-driven, so too shall our Regional planning! I’ve heard that overall Canadian judges would like to prioritise conferences, online training, meetups, and events before advancement prep and online shout-outs.

Let’s talk about our priorities for 2018 in Part II of this article.