As noted in the title of this blog post, today it is time to talk about level maintenance.
If you are looking for a short announcement and is not your intention to know the reasons of the decision, is your lucky day because the announcement can be very very short, this year, the Legacy Program will waive maintenance requirements.
If you want to know the reasons, just keep reading the info below.
We are facing a dilemma. In short, if you are a judge living in one of the regions included in the first wave of Judge Academy (the original ones), you will be evaluated according to the new standards, but if you are living in a region that is part of the Legacy Program, you have no definition of what is expected from you. However, we would need to define new standards for current levels and maintenance objectives, like quantity of tournaments, reviews, exams and others. This process was one of the most “expensive” processes that were ran by the judge program in its early days, in terms of the amount of judge hours, reports, check waivers and others that were needed. Honestly, this looks like too much for something a transitional organization needs to focus in the short term.
With that in mind, coupled by the fact that many regions will (I hope) be incorporated to Judge Academy shortly, I decided for this year that no maintenance process will take place. These are times of change, and although I am a fan of constant improvement, and I believe in the importance of level maintenance as a path for improvement, the transition processes we are going through will be the top priority and it is not my intention to add any additional burden.
I want to finish with a big thank you to all the judges involved in maintenance initiatives for any level around the world, you run a terrific job during the last years, your community (and the judge program) is a better place thanks to your efforts.
See ya!