Chris Hrichishen – Candidate for Regional Advocate of Western Provinces

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 Special Election.

Nomination Statement

I’m Chris Hrichishen and I’ve been judging and travelling to large events since 2014. In that time I’ve been very active in the Canadian judge community as well as working to collaborate on conferences and other projects with the USA North Region. Coming from a career in digital communication and education I’ve always tried to bring that enthusiasm for learning, growth, and development to my judging career. I’ve also been one of the three Western Canadian Area Communicators for the past three months.

Since becoming one of the region’s ACs, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Tobi and bring to life her vision of a more active and cohesive Western Canadian Judge presence.
Some things I’ve personally worked on include:

• Organizing a conference alongside the RC in Calgary with Aaron
• Leading the planning for a Canada-wide end-of-year conference (More news soon! :D)
• Designing and running an initiative for Canadians to give feedback on the board election
• Creating a new kind of Judge event to help Judges come together with their community called a Judge Open House (the first one will be in Winnipeg in early October!)
• Assisting with organizing social events like escape rooms and dinners for Judges at multiple events in the West
• Acting as a mentor and proxy AC for Northern Ontario until a judge in the East is ready for that role

Working with Tobi as one of her ACs I’ve had the opportunity to explore some of the challenges that our region faces. Some have been long-time struggles in Western Canada like the challenges of certifying as a judge when there are no judges in your area. Others are newer like the hurdles of re-integrating lapsed judges into a Judge program that might be wildly different than the one they remember.

In the past as a community leader under Jon Goud, I’ve also had to deal with difficult situations with Judges who had issues with other Judges, TOs or the program itself. In this regard, I’ve had a great deal of success by showing compassion and seeking to understand other people’s perspectives. These situations are never easy but I recognize that in this role it’s something I’ll have to face and I welcome the opportunity to help people feel heard and mediate difficult situations fairly.

I’m excited to keep the initiatives that Tobi and Dom created as they’re just getting started and I can’t wait to see them grow and evolve. That being said I’m also thrilled about the prospect of trying some new things as RA.
Some of the initiatives I’m committing to if I’m elected include:

• A Monthly Western Canadian Judge Blog
A monthly update celebrating any newly certified judges as well as any judge level-ups in our region. It will also be a place to highlight valuable content, TOs looking for judges, conferences, and community gatherings. Additionally it’ll be a space for community projects to advertise themselves and solicit support from Judges who want to be more involved.

• Regular Office Hours
I’m committing to making myself available on a regular basis for judges to drop in and chat about whatever’s on their minds. Looking for mentorship advice? Have questions about the program? Advice on getting staffed for more events? Just want to hang out and play modern over Discord? While I’ll always make time to chat with anyone who wants to schedule something I want to ensure there is a less formal option for folks.

Regardless of the outcome of this election, I’m honoured to be a part of such an amazing group of people and look forward to working with everyone to see this community flourish.