At the end of Saturday at SCG Baltimore, I reviewed my notebook in amazement at the number of complex calls I had taken. Calls that made me wonder about the motivations of players who shuffled an opponent’s library when counting how many cards remained in the library. Played an through their own on 1. Used […]
Greetings all! I am Rob McKenzie, Level 3 judge and Regional Coordinator of the USA-North region. I’m here today to talk about a nifty item I’ve used at a couple events, Flash Feedback Cards. If you have been at a recent show with me, you have probably run across these – I’ve given them out […]
When I was a kid, I loved to read. One series that I grew to love was the Choose Your Own Adventure series. The fun in these books was the feeling of choice. You had power to decide how the story turned out. Similarly, participation in the judge program is choosing an adventure. Not every […]
Grand Prix Milwaukee, my last major event of the year, is in the books. 2016 was a big year for me as a judge – I worked 13 Grand Prix, 5 Opens, 2 Regional Championships, and 5 PPTQs. I served as a Head Judge for my biggest event to date, coordinated about 350 PPTQs in […]
Advancement reviews are some of the most important reviews that we give judges, and they often serve as an introduction to the peer review process itself. They not only remind judges of what happened during the interview and exam portion of the advancement process but also provide tools for success at their new level. With […]
Quick: Think of a time you’ve failed. That’s precisely the challenge I posed to about 20 judges at the Northeast Judge Conference earlier this month. My workshop, “Practicing Radical Candor,” was an exploration of our experiences with failure — and how we can grow from them. I’ll start this article the same way I began […]
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Feedbag! Last month, we discussed how to encourage judges on your team to review each other. This time, we’ll look at managing teams from another angle, with our question coming courtesy of : I recently was Head Judge of a large event that had teams of […]
I’m not sure how many of you out there have been called a superhero. For those of you who haven’t, let me tell you: It definitely gets your attention. A little over a year ago I received a review from that I refer to as the “Spiderman Review.” This review was eye opening; it helped […]
A lot of great stuff has been written about the feedback process, especially how to deliver it: Talk to the person first. Send a draft of the review in e-mail form. Balance the positive and negative feedback. Here’s the problem: these points are all centered on sparing the feelings of the person receiving the feedback. […]
You know how excited parents celebrate their children’s first tottering attempts at walking? How they ooh and ah and cheer and gasp and take dozens of pictures to post on social media? When I visited my parents recently, they did not cheer even though I walked quite well. Obviously my parents love me, but they […]