Communications Project 2018 – Great Lakes Region
Greetings, Judges! My name is Scott Markwart and I will be guiding the Communications Project Team for the remainder of 2018. Not much has changed from our initial plan, stated at the start of this year and located here. I would like to reaffirm our commitment to improving transparency of communications from our leadership. We are also committed to increasing the ease of access to, and awareness of, all Judge-related information, from formal statements provided by Wizards of the Coast to communal rules and policy discussions between our very own Judges.
In short, we will work diligently to distill the myriad data available to us all down into relevant, coherent, and organized information. Below, we have highlighted our primary goals for 2018:
Monthly Recap
We post in the region’s Facebook and Slack #general channels every time we see something relevant to our Judges. As such, missing an important bit of information amidst the noise is becoming unfortunately common. At the start of each month, we will be posting a Monthly Recap on the region’s blog. This month-in-review will encapsulate all relevant information we had communicated in the previous month, complete with a TL;DR and the relevant links to the source content.
Opening/Closing Applications
Continuing the theme of things that get lost in the noise, we understand that Judges are sometimes unaware of particular application deadlines for events and conferences. And, on occasion, Judges are not even aware that the application opportunity existed at all!
Our efforts to remedy this issue will center around signal boosting. As applications open for each Grand Prix, SCG Open, and Judge conference in our region, we will post in both the region’s Facebook and Slack #general channels. When there is roughly a week left to apply for these Judging opportunities, we will post in kind. And when we’re roughly 24 hours away from the application closing? That’s right! We will be there with a reminder. Why are we being so persistent about this? We believe that our region has some of the BEST Judges in the program. And part of maintaining that quality of Judge is to ensure that we all have access to opportunities to sharpen, grow, and maintain those skills.
There is also a pinned post in the region’s Facebook channel that we will be maintaining with the relevant open applications.
Great Lakes Judge Spotlight
The Great Lakes region has some truly spectacular Judges. The Exemplar Program exists to recognize the unique, spectacular efforts upon which these Judges embark. But sometimes there is a little more to the story than can be condensed into a brief Exemplar nomination.
As such stories arise, we will highlight the actions of Judges in our region that have been noteworthy, unique, or spectacular! The Spotlight will include commentary from other Judges/members of the Magic community detailing the efforts which led to the featured Judge appearing in the Great Lakes Judge Spotlight.
This feature will appear on our region’s blog. And let’s face it: Who doesn’t like a good story?
Rulesday Tuesday
The Rules Day Tuesday Facebook page is a scheduled, live rules and policy discussion platform that originated in the Great Lakes region. The response to its existence was so overwhelmingly positive, that it has grown to a platform open to all Judges. While Marcos Sanchez and his team work diligently every week to produce exceptional interactive content, we will work alongside them to preserve the previous year of content, which is not presently archived.
We understand that some of these discussions may not age as well as others, typically due to rules or policy changes. That is why we will be collaborating with Mentorship Project Lead Jeff Kruchkow on a plan to archive new discussions as they happen, with a particular focus on keeping content fresh and relevant.
Think of the Rules Day Tuesday Team as a Planeswalker, producing new content every turn, while our project is an Archivist.
T: Draw a card.
Closing Remarks
Our focus is to arm each and every one of our Judges with the most accurate and up-to-date information available. As we move through this year, we will also be reviewing our processes, efforts, and tools to ensure that we are providing the right information to the right people using the right means. If you have any feedback about our methods or content, we welcome it. You can reach out to any member of this project team with your insights.
We are also pleased to welcome Trent Novak and his continuing efforts as our regional blog’s content manager. But 2 Judges do not make a region worth of effort. If you are interested in assisting with content generation, please reach out to either Trent or myself directly over Facebook or Slack.
With that said, we look forward to providing the Judges of the Great Lakes Region with excellent content and an increased visibility of Judging opportunities!
Pass turn.