Note: This is a candidate page for a Judge Foundry Election. Information on this page is provided by the candidate, and does not represent the opinions or positions of the Elections Committee or of Judge Foundry. For more information about this election, see the schedule and index for the 2024 Regional Advocate Election.
- Name: Brandon Welch
- Location: Corvallis, Oregon
- Election: Regional Advocates 2024
- Running For: Pacific Northwest RA
Nomination Statement
My name is Brandon and I’ve been judging magic since summer 2013. Ive also judge flesh and blood since 2021. I’ve been judging large magic events since 2014 and it was common for me to travel to one every month.
At the end of your first six months as Regional Advocate, what does “success” look like?
Honestly for our region it has to be community and communication. Our area is so vast and there isn’t connections between our major cities. Each large city stands as an independent hub and it’s nearly impossible to travel between in a timely manner without flying. Making sure there is a network of communication between the RA and the area communicators is important. Mentoring (if needed) and empowering the area communicators is super important for a region to grow. They are the ones that know their state the best from the judges, players, to the shops.
What skills/experience do you bring to the role of Regional Advocate?
– Current judge community rep for the Pacific Northwest for Flesh and Blood.
– Under the old regional coordinator system I was the state coordinator for Oregon for multiple years. I helped with organizing PPTQ scheduling between Oregon stores, creating a calendar of all the events. Organized and ran judge classes for interested judge candidates in various cities over a few year span. Connected prospective judges to judge mentors or mentored them myself.
– I came into an area back in 2013 that was lacking in a judge community. Slowly built a judge presence in the area became one of the largest in Oregon to rival that of Portland!
– Mentorship and community are what started me on my judging career, it’s one of the biggest things I value in the judge program.
Describe your plans to recruit and utilize Area Communicators.
Getting a hub that judges can join either through judge apps or discord is important. From there I’d likely try to ask people for interest in being an area communicator through Google forms. If it came down to multiple people interested in a specific state, either interviews or a questionnaire to finalize the selection.