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: Charles Featherer
- Location: Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey
- Election: Regional Advocates 2024
- Running For: Northeast RA
Nomination Statement
Hello friends. I’m Charles Featherer (he/him), a L2 from southern New Jersey. For those I haven’t met, here is a brief list of my relevant judge qualifications:
Area Representative for New Jersey before Judge Academy
Admin for Judge Academy USA-East Facebook page
I’ve organized Mock Tournaments, small conferences, and have presented at conferences on mostly soft skills topics
I was a member of the L1 Project under Judge Apps
Project Lead for Judge Booklet (inactive)
I regularly attend Judge Foundry board meetings
My vision for Regional Advocate is simple: to be the best person I can be and help to establish a model for future RAs.
It’s easy to say, ‘My region is the best.’ The collection of states that makes up the Northeast region is home to hundreds of judges, all of whom I consider a friend or a friend I have yet to meet. I know the quality of the judges we produce and expect the standard to be universal. We also have some of the best organized play in the country, from Eternal Weekend to multiple SCG stops. And we are a hotbed of breakout cEDH play. I’m excited to be a part of it all.
I don’t feel our region has many problems at the moment. If I could pick one area that we can always improve, it’d be educating judges and stores alike. Judges can improve their skills to become better at the roles they find themselves in. And stores will benefit from understanding the value of having Judge Foundry judges work their events. Does every event need this? Probably not. But I want to believe that as an organization, we can produce some of the best quality judges for the mom-and-pop local game stores to the largest Tournament Organizers.
Why should you vote for me in particular? Not knowing who my competition is at the moment, the best I can do is offer a message of positivity and hope. I would expect others to say the same, so I encourage you to vote for the person you feel would best represent not just you, but your fellow judges as well.
At the end of your first six months as Regional Advocate, what does “success” look like?
Conferences – If we haven’t held a large, area-wide conference at the end of 6 months, I’d like to be on the path to one and assisting with finding presenters and overcoming roadblocks.
Better communication – This, combined with conferences, is what I’m most interested in helping to foster. It can’t just be my vision. This is a shared endeavor we all must contribute towards.
Improve Recognition – I’ll work with other RAs and the RC to find a way to recognize not only best practices, but highlight achievements in our region.
The last and perhaps most important thing it looks like, is having gone through a process to define what is currently undefined. What do you, as a judge, expect from me? From the Region? Since this is all a bit new, I think we should work collectively on our future. Taking a page from Wizards, this is the New Old World Order. Or it’s the Old New World Order. In any event, it’s something different that we need to work together in creating something great.
What skills/experience do you bring to the role of Regional Advocate?
Under the system that predated Judge Academy, I was an Area Representative for NJ. This was a low impact role with some amount of freedom. This gave me a chance to work on building communication between stores and to help judges in my area. My best achievement during this time was getting all of the stores to agree to a shared calendar in my state for scheduling PPTQs (an old version of RCQs). It wasn’t complicated but did take building relationships and a willingness to listen to and apply feedback.
Professionally, I’m an assistant director for a public library. As a librarian and an administrator, I have skills and experience from logistics to de-escalation. I know the idea of conflict in a library may sound funny to some, but it’s no different than any other front-line role in customer service. I have also developed a strong eye for detail and analysis of complex systems which has served me well at work and in my various avocations.
Describe your plans to recruit and utilize Area Communicators.
Recruiting is, not to be dismissive, the easy part. Judging draws in a large number of people with good communication skills and a desire to network with fellow like-minded individuals. I’ll put out a call on multiple platforms to solicit a variety of ACs – ideally between 3 and 7 total.
Utilizing Area Communicators is a different matter. I first imagined they’d be similar to Area Representatives of old, but that’s not quite correct. Reading the duties they’ll be expected to perform makes me think the overall concept is one of a Facebook or Discord mod, so that is the direction I’d take it in. I personally want to start with a new regional Facebook group, using the rules we created from the Judge Academy USA-East group as a model. I am torn about whether creating a channel in the existing Judge Foundry Discord is ideal or creating a new Discord server would work best. I’d work with the Regional Coordinator and the Judge Foundry board to find the happy medium.
Assume there is a level 3 in your region pursuing level 4, and they are looking for assistance. What do you see as your responsibility to help and how would you approach that?
Assistance carries a lot of weight in this question. What kind of assistance? In what specific area or areas?
I see my responsibility in this situation as limited. I can’t help them directly earn the experience required to be considered for L4 – that is largely on their shoulders. I also think strongly that the desire to become an L3+ needs to come from within and as a result, much of it is self directed.
But it does take a village.
I’d ask, “What form of assistance is needed?” I can’t help if I don’t know what is being asked of me and the path to L4 is complex. Areas that suit my strengths include evaluating self-reviews and advising on many of the L4 qualities that fall outside of Game Knowledge. I think I’m particularly strong on leadership, mentorship, and community. Depending on the details of the request, I’d either help them directly or refer them to someone who I think is better equipped to do so.
Why would someone in your region who judges at their LGS FNM want to be an L1 under Judge Foundry?
Support and training are very good reasons. Support is available in the form of additional resources including full access to the Judge Foundry Discord. While it’s still at the early stages, training in the form of web resources and conferences are a great reason to be a member of Foundry as an L1. It also lends a sense of legitimacy when marketing yourself to an LGS.
That may be reason enough for some. But why should that one judge, working at a small store with a 12-16 player FNM, be a part of Judge Foundry?
It’s because of support structures like we’re building right now with this process we’re all participating in. The Board of Judge Foundry is already there for them. Soon either I or Dave Unni will be there for them. And newly appointed Area Communicators will be around to help as well. The entire structure that is Judge Foundry – both what it is today and what it is still becoming – will be accessible to answer questions and lend support.
And I think that’s pretty great.