Kyle Evans – Candidate for Regional Advocate 2025 – Southwest

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 Elections at the 2025 Annual Meeting.

Nomination Statement

Hi! My name is Kyle Evans, I’m from Houston, TX, and I am running to be your Regional Advocate for US-Southwest!  I have been a Judge since 2011, and a Level 2 Judge since 2015. I have served on a few different Leadership teams including East Texas Area Captain, as well as working with the Judge Foundry Regional Definition Proposal Project. 

Judge Foundry represents to me our best faith efforts to reinvigorate some of the better aspects of the Legacy Program while working to address the shortcomings it had. One of the things the Legacy Program did a good job of was encouraging active and direct mentorship of Judges. Everyone learns differently, and having a hands on approach and a direct throughline to a Judge that has been in your shoes, and understands the issues you are facing, is paramount to the health and growth of an individual Judge, as well as the Program. Strong Judges support one another, and create strong events for players to enjoy. Connection to each other keeps that stream of education strong, and allows us to learn from each other as well as improve ourselves.

As Regional Advocate, my job is to continue to improve our already strong Region by ensuring that each area is represented, that no area feels like they aren’t getting what they need, and I will do everything in my power to see to that end. As Area Captain I traveled across the state supporting stores and Judges throughout, as well as coordinated with Leadership to manage conferences as well as give presentations that can benefit all Judges. We are strong, but it will be a goal of mine to organize and develop a Regional Level Conference, where we can all share our ideas and continue to build towards a stronger Region.

Our region is large, Texas itself can be split into the size of several states, so it’s equally important to have Area leadership that accurately can work towards extending our community reach to their Areas, and work closely with myself to encourage new Judges and give them the education we all can benefit from. If you are a Judge in Southwest that doesn’t know who your local Area Communicator is, that’s something that needs to be addressed.  If elected I plan to review the roster of Communicators and make sure their efforts are more visible to the local Judges in their Area. 

As mentioned before, conferences and education are incredibly important things to me. We all learn best when we talk about things in a critical way, and civil disagreements can breed understanding of policy and learning how to manage various situations, while generating camaraderie that can be found outside large events. As Regional Advocate, I am going to run at least 1 Regional size Conference per year, as well as empower Area Communicators and other Judges that wish to extend the branch of education throughout the Region to run smaller conferences that I would be happy to travel to and provide insight, help run a presentation, or simply be in the audience and support my peers.

I am here for you and want the same things you want, a well connected Region and a series of education opportunities to make all of us better Judges. I promise to you, that as Regional Advocate, I will do everything in my power to lay the building blocks for future Advocates as well as future Judges having the tools they need to make the Southwest Region the best it can achieve.

Q1: Judge Program Direction

Question: This year, many members are uncertain about our future due to Wizards of the Coast’s announcement of a new Judge Program Manager role. How will you support your region through this uncertainty and potential transition?

I think overall it is important to be flexible, as during my tenure we could see a shift in organization as we are unsure what a Judge Program Manager at Wizards will bring. A wide spectrum of outcomes could arise such as folding everyone in, or keeping regional organizations intact, and I believe it is important to communicate what is going on when we can, and keeping as much support locally as we can. The Judge Program has been in a period of flux during this time in the last ten years, and it is vital that we continue those face-to-face or direct communications and meetings, as they will help us stay focused and together to help us serve our players and events. During Judge Academy’s time I tried to help locally as much as I could, as that was the best support that judges could provide each other during that time. 

Ultimately my goal is the same, no matter if I am an RA or not, or Judge Foundry is completely different, to bolster, connect, and build relationships and create a stronger pool of judges through community, mentorship, and education.

Q2: Local Judges and Judging

Question: As a Regional Advocate, how will you support local judges and encourage local judging in your region?

By being the rock and the resource judges need to feel confident about what they are doing.  Obviously my impact has come across the Houston Area and Southeast Texas, but I also counsel judges across parts of Texas via Discord or other online means. At an event I’m always looking for methods to help judges build on their strengths as well as address needs. As a communicator I am always available to answer questions and as an educator I would like to encourage and run conferences to get judges excited and confident they will succeed.

I will support judges by giving them everything they need to succeed and feel confident doing so.  I feel a problem judges have is they have the skills to complete the task, but feel less confident they won’t make a mistake.  The simple truth is we are all human, and we will all make mistakes.  It is not the mistake, but how you respond to the mistake that helps define who you are as a person and as a judge. My job is to make sure you have all the tools you need, both externally and internally, to complete your task the best way you can.

Q3: Programs and Projects

Question: How do you plan to use Conferences and other major projects like Exemplar or this year’s Review Competition to support and grow your region?

These programs are fantastic and the core of what Judge Foundry is about and wants to be about. Mentorship and Community are two high tenets that help Foundry be the organization that will utilize the most growth from judges. In the Southwest there have been a lack of conferences that I intend to put serious work on building regional and local conferences throughout the Region. Also when the first Exemplar wave comes out we will be able to see all the amazing things our community has to say about each other, and I will tell you one of my favorite days was always old Exemplar reveal day. Not so much any of my recommendations, but reading the cool and amazing things our judges have done.  Honestly when I team lead, the first thing I did once I learned my team was read their Exemplars. Good nominations show me my team’s strengths and I can utilize that to generate a plan before the weekend, and help me bond even better as a team. 

Using these items, it will help keep our Region strong, and encourage new judges to join us as well. Southwest is a big region, and Texas is a big state, but I feel that we are well connected through our community and connections, and we even have some connections with judges out of our region.  You can take the judge out of Texas but you can’t take Texas out of the judge.