Editor’s Note: This article is part of our series of highlighted exemplar recognitions. See our introduction post for all the details, or view all the posts in this series. This article was written by Central and Western New York Area Rep Joe Steet.

Tom Davis is a Level 2 Judge from Webster, New York. His recognitions came from Riki Hayashi, Ilan Seid-Green, Benjamin Harris, and Phil Rose, who had the following to say:

Not only was your Tournament Report well written and informative, it was incredibly brave the way you tackled the subject matter. It’s clear that this was not an easy tournament for you. I’m glad that you chose to write about the experience. – Riki Hayashi

You did two things I thought were exemplary while Head Judging at SCG DC. The first is that you made sure to look after your judges, and took exceptional time and energy to make certain I knew you thought I was doing a good job. Any time we discussed something I could be doing better and every time I looked stressed or disheartened, you reminded me that you thought I was doing well. I really appreciated that, especially given how stressful the day was. In the end we killed it, but keeping your staff’s spirits up is exceedingly important and can be very difficult. At the end of the day, you told me about a Match Loss you gave for Outside Assistance. After you issued it you decided it was incorrect. Not only did you admit to your mistake, which can be difficult enough, but you sought out the player to sit down and explain to them that you were wrong. That is an extremely difficult thing to do but makes a huge difference. A judge who has the strength of character and the compassion that these actions showed is the kind of judge I try to model myself after. – Ilan Seid-Green

Tom, I really want to thank you for all the help you’ve given me over the past year and a half. It wasn’t that long ago that I didn’t even know what Magic was, let alone how the rules worked. Because of your help, I was able to gain the knowledge and experience I needed to get me to the level where I can give you this recognition. After all you’ve given to help me, I’m glad I can give a little something back. Thanks Tom! – Benjamin Harris

Tom, after I had a rough experience and was questioning my future with the Judge Program, you convinced me to attend the Northeast Judge Conference anyway to have a good time. During that trip, you went out of your way to make sure I felt included and was having fun. You’re a great judge and a great friend. – Phil Rose

Here’s what Joe Steet had to say about this recommendation:

For today, it is my pleasure to present:
Tom Davis, the shortest L2+ between Buffalo and Syracuse! For those of you unfamiliar with how exceptionally tall Tom Davis actually is, the joke here is that Tom is the only L2+ in a ~150 mile x ~100 mile rectangle of New York State. It is a very large area that needed an active presence from the Judge Program, and I’m incredibly happy that Tom moved to Rochester and took up this role. In addition to carrying a huge chunk of the state on his shoulders, you may have seen Tom red-shirt at SCG DC’s Modern PIQ, or, at the very least, you should have read his excellent Tournament Report on the experience (If you haven’t, your most pressing Area for Improvement is to do so: http://apps.magicjudges.org/forum/topic/20720/ whenever the website is available again).
One of the things Tom has done that impressed me the most, was his interactions with Ilan at that very SCG. At various points in the event, both of them faced challenges they struggled with, and they both were able to help each other, while also improving themselves. The ability to grow yourself without it detracting from your development of other judges is not a skill I see so often, and I wanted to strongly commend Tom for his ability to do so.