Note from Sept 2019:  With the new Judge Academy changes to the program, this article is a bit less relevant.  However, we’d still like to feature our contest result, and thank our entrants.  And, of course, thank you, US-Northwest region, for being amazing in your own way!  Our region may be merging with the Southwest to become the new ‘West’ Region, but our logo exists, for those who need it! 

Hi Judges!  Perhaps you remember, from waaaaay back in fall 2018, we had started a contest, to make a regional logo for all you Northwest judges!  We’d hoped to have something that can characterize the region across it’s entire width and landscapes, and we had a few submissions from this post!   At the end of the day, with multiple submissions, we asked your Area Captains to vote, and it was decided:

This is our Northwest Magic Judges Regional Logo:

I, for one, hope you all like it!  It was designed by L1 David Hollis, who worked with our RC to get this finalized version!  We have new judge regional shirts for you, featuring this logo, to purchase [as a last send off for our region]!  We’d love to hear your opinions on it!

And as we promised, here’s David with his winnings!

And here’s the deck he’ll be playing it in!  Who wants to play him in commander?

This article is authored by Lee Fisher, L2, Area Captain of Idaho!

Greetings fellow Judges!

I would like to provide an update on the amazing recent Judge Conferences in the Idaho area.

We held our very first Idaho Judge Conference in October 2017 at Game Pulse in Rexburg. This was a great event and approximately 20 attendees were able to come from Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming!

Topics included opportunities for newer judges, such as Recruiting & Developing New Judges, Progressing to L2, and Customer Service. We also worked on improving rules knowledge with Replacement Effects vs ETB Triggers and Turn Based Interactions & Combat Shortcuts. After the conference, a friendly booster draft was held where players had the opportunity to meet and play with local judges.

The second Idaho Judge Conference was held at Enclave in Boise in April 2018. The location was selected to provide a better opportunity for judges in the western part of the state, as it is about a 4+ hour drive away from the eastern cities. Nearly 30 judges showed up from Idaho, Oregon, and Utah for a wide variety of including: Path to L2, Layers, 2-Headed Giant, Counterfeits, and Investigations.

The Counterfeits class provided physical examples that we were able to pass around and get a better idea of what to look for and learn about the methods used to identify them. While it is hard to try to catch them at large events, it is a great skill to be able to share with our local communities.

My personal favorite was Investigations, as it provided techniques used in the US legal system. It discussed how the human brain works with memory and chronology, which can be helpful when we perform investigations from small issues up to Disqualification situations.

After receiving feedback from the first two conferences, the general consensus was that it would be preferred to have one on each side of the state annually.

The next conference was held at Quests and Legends in Pocatello in September 2018, with approximately 25 people attending from Idaho, Montana, and Utah. Due to the larger venue, we were able to have a dual presentation track for attendees to select from. There were a wide variety of topics including rules and mechanics (Steps to Casting a Spell, Layers, and Hidden Card Error), application of skills at events (Customer Service , Deck Checking, Live Judge Calls, and High End Scorekeeping), and community development (Recruiting and Developing New Judges).

The plan for 2019 is to have two Idaho Judge Conferences, with one in Pocatello (Spring) and a later one in Twin Falls (Fall). I hope to see you there!

Judge Conference report.  On January 12th, 2019, 48 judges gathered at Mox Boarding House in Bellevue, Washington, for a community focused Judge Conference.  The organizers stated the goals of the conference were “to focus on L1 judges improving on rules, policy, and procedures, and building good relationships with others within the Magic community.”  There were six speakers and a catered lunch provided by the judge program. Two attending judges were happy to give their perspective here on the first conference in the Northwest Region in 2019!

Ryan Shelter: “We Are Not Alone”

Derek Barbee taught us how to conquer our fear of mistakes in part by getting help from peers and using online resources such as IRC and our region’s slack chat.

At lunch I met with Joe Klopchic about creating some steps towards my L2 advancement.  Mentorship is essential for getting the experience and recommendation required for testing.

Jeremy Button taught us about introducing ourselves as a Judge to TOs.  It gives us tremendous strength to have the Judge program’s support behind us rather than just as individuals.

Between sessions I was able to chat with James Lee about a new Library Magic group I’m starting.  He had some very encouraging words and pointed me to a free activity kit.

Kimberly McDonald

After receiving the presentation schedule a week or so before the conference, I was very excited about all of the presentation topics.  Joe Klopchic gave his fantastic layers presentation, which is engaging due to its entertainment value and clever examples to test your knowledge with.  Layers is definitely still a skill I am working on and this presentation, and helpful handout, were super beneficial.  Joe was followed by Derek Barbee, who gave a phenomenal presentation on making mistakes while judging.  I especially enjoyed Derek’s take on the topic as he not only covered common mistakes that Judges might make, but also identified reasons we tend towards these errors. Common things like being afraid of getting something wrong or wanting to feel confident. I found great value in a presentation that not only helped me recognize common mistakes I might be making, but also reasons for them. Plus Derek is extremely energetic and very engaging.  Last up before lunch was Jeremy Button and his presentation on TO interactions.  This presentation was especially interesting for me, as I have experience working for a TO and helping support events.  One of the coolest things I saw was Jeremy breaking down the investment vs income dollar amounts, which provided a perfect answer for the all too often asked question of “why is this event so expensive?”  I really enjoyed the additional tips on how to connect with TOs when you’re new to an area. Definitely beneficial for any newer Judge in the audience.

Thanks for reading judges.  We’d love to hear about your next conference experience, and feature it on the Northwest passage.  For further reading, you can read the conference report of one of the presenting judges!

Hello judges of the Pacific Northwest!  One of the concerns we’d like to address with this blog today is one we’ve heard from around the region.  Our judges don’t know who our area captains, or Level 3s in the region are.  Therefore, we’ve gone ahead and asked some of our L3s and Area Captains to introduce themselves, so that you can read a bit about them, get to know them better, learn who to contact for a question about judge testing, or where the next conference in your city or state will be!  We hope that this article is could be the start of a good conversation,  an introduction to discuss a topic, or just who is available for you to know is a nearby, all around awesome judge!

Without further Ado, your region’s leaders!!

Alaska

Mark Hensley, L2, Alaska Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

I became a Judge initially in large part because I tended to know the rules better than everyone around me, and we had literal 0 Judges in the area!
The catalyst though was Variance (Read: Mana Screw/Gush). That said, my favorite formats are ones that remove those particular forms of variance
altogether 🙂 I play a lot of Type 4 (Infinite mana, 1 spell per turn (with exceptions)), and Momir Basic (60 lands? Yes please!) and have created
extensive real life decks for both formats.

My collection piece cards are both Johan from Legends, and Serra Sphinx, both for the art. I have hundreds of each, including artist proofs and signed copies of Johan! If anyone happens to find the original art for these I would be ecstatic to know about them 🙂 Tournament wise I am a big fan of  Lingering Souls and Young Pyromancer and try to find decks that play one or both.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

Anchorage is the smallest large city you will likely find. Land mass wise we are about 60 miles long, and 15 miles wide. But have a population of
around 300k, and only 2 card shops that dedicate themselves to Magic tournaments. Infact, the entire STATE has only 6 shops total that I know
about! Judging more than FMN and Pre-Releases is few and far between.

Do you have any hobbies outside of Magic?

Alaska is a great state to get out and explore though, so other than Magic you can often find me outside in the wild 🙂

Colorado

Bryan Spellman, L3, Colorado Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

Fav format: Limited
Fav deck: any deck that wins
Fav card: Phyrexian Obliterator (bonus points if you can figure out why)

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

We have a great community of judges. They really seem to care about growing the community and are genuinely interested in helping improve each other. They’ve created friendships that go beyond Magic and Judging. The passion for the game is strong here.

What’s one hobby or thing you do that you enjoy outside of Magic?

Dancing, training a therapy dog, Hearthstone, writing — oh wait, you said ONE

Guam

Neil Pendon, L2, Guam Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

I enjoy all formats of Magic but if I had to choose only one to enjoy with friends it would be draft and competitive is standard constructed.  Any Cult of Rakdos deck is my favorite.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

I enjoy how diverse the players can be week to week depending on who moves to, is stationed on and/or visits Guam. Guam is near the Philippines Sea and in the Western Pacific Ocean. The island is five times smaller than Rhode Island with a population of 166 thousand people. We are a small community but we go out and gain experience.

What’s one hobby or thing you do that you enjoy outside of Magic?

I enjoy designing graphics online and learning digital graphics on my own.  I also relit my love on console games (I won’t say which one) and I am waiting for the new World of Warcraft for PC. Most people don’t know I am my own worst critic and I enjoy making new friends.

Hawai`i

Daniel Clarke, L2, Hawai`i Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

Favorite format is Vintage powered cube, favorite deck is Legacy Elves and favorite card is a judge foil Gaea’s Cradle

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

My community is small and very tight. Everyone that is serious about playing Magic knows all the other serious magic players. For several years, I was the only L2+ judge in Hawaii and am still the only one on Oahu- which is a bit frustrating at times. I have only been able to play in one PPTQ since PPTQs were invented.

Do you have any hobbies outside of Magic?

I listen to about 30-50 audiobooks a year, exercises in several different ways on a daily basis and I enjoy spending time with puppers, usually in the form of humane society volunteer work.

Idaho

Lee Fisher L2, Idaho Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

My favorite format is Draft, as it allows me to enjoy many new sets and be innovative with cards that are often not played. My favorite deck is my Old School Land Destruction (does that make me a bad person?). My favorite card is Juzam Djinn as it brings me back to when I first learned Magic.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

I love how we have both competitive and casual players, so there is a something for everyone.

What’s something you enjoy outside of Magic?

I enjoy preparing meals from Pad Thai and Sushi to Smoked Ribeye Steaks and Cajun Seared Salmon. I love the thrill of experimenting with flavors (like Yuzu), practicing how to improve recipes like Crab Rangoon or Mung Bean Spring Rolls, or making quick treats like Tamales.

Montana

Brook Gardner-Durbin, L2, Montana Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

My favorite format is usually Standard – I love how much it changes and how it rewards innovation. But my favorite deck is Mountain Tribal (RG Scapeshift) in Modern – I have it fully foiled out, and about another 150 or so foils that have gone in and out of the deck at different times in different builds. I’ve played it RUG, 4 color with Bring to Light, Naya, Jund… my favorite card is Snapcaster Mage.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

One thing I really like about judging in Montana is that we have a much larger overlap between our judges and our players than most places. When the other L2s and I are putting our heads together to figure out who’s judging what, we aren’t just looking at who is available, because we know everyone available will show up to the event one way or another – we’re also looking at whose turn it is to play! It’s cool we get to see each other frequently even when we aren’t working multi-judge events.

What’s something unusual about you? 

Something unusual about me: I rarely get hungry until I’ve been awake for several hours, so I rarely eat breakfast. Tacos are one of my favorite foods to make, for both lunch and dinner. Occasionally two facts together have led to stretches where I’ve eaten tacos for every meal for nearly a week.

James Watson L2 – I’m working towards taking over for Montana from Brook

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

Favorite format is Modern by a lot. In my opinion, it rewards deck choice more than any other format, but also lets people play what they are good at regardless of how well positioned it is, and still do well.

My favorite deck is Jund by miles and miles; grindy midrange that looks to win the game by just straight out-valuing your opponent will forever have a special place in my heart. My favorite card is Tireless Tracker, you get so much value just for playing lands! Don’t even get me started on how good it feels to fetch more than once in a turn for more clues.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

I think the thing I like the most about judging in Montana is that I’ve been able to be more involved in the community as a whole, and at least know most of the competitive players in the state since we have a much smaller “scene” since we are much smaller than places like Washington or Colorado.

Do you have any hobbies outside of Magic?

Outside of Magic, I’m currently a college student, and whenever I can I try to get in a session or two of DnD.

Oregon

Brandon Welch, L2, Non-Portland Metro Area Oregon Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

Favorite format is Modern by a mile, favorite deck is Grishoulbrand and have done really well at competitive events with it. Favorite card is Norin the Wary.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

In my area there is always room for growth. When I first came to Corvallis I was the only L2 outside of the Portland metro area. I got to build up a community of judges both in my city (which a few are my good friends now) and the local city areas.

Do you have any hobbies outside of Magic?

Photography, disc golf, and does masters thesis count as an activity?

Jeff Higgins, or Shiggins, L2 Portland Metro Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?
Commander.
Cruel Control back in Standard
Garbage Fire (only the foil version) I collect foils and own the original art.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

Portland has tons of stores all with different communities and focuses. There really is a store for every type of player and judge.

Do you have any hobbies outside of Magic?

Outside of Magic I uhhh, work at a shop selling Magic cards so uhhh, Pokemon Go and crossword puzzles.

Utah

Jeremiah Adams, L2, Utah Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

Format EDH, deck Splinter Twin (the true red blue with one stomping ground to flashback ancient grudge, none of that 3 color nonsense) favorite card Nuisance Engine

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

I love how the Utah area has some many judges and people willing to help judges grow and develop.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

Outside of Magic I enjoy playing video games (Destiny 2 right now) and painting miniatures from Warmachine.

Washington

James Lee, L3, Seattle Area co-Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

I do not play any constructed formats at all – none. Not Commander, not Pauper, no format where I have to have a deck maintained. My favourite format is Sealed and is my exclusive go to when I play. As such, I don’t really have a favourite deck at all. However, when I am thinking about decks or toying around with brews with my friends, I like decks that seem to be weirdly bad but tend to work. Most recently, I have been enjoying Hollow One in Modern. My favourite Magic card remains Standstill.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

I love the fact that Seattle is pretty much intense about everything. Almost anything here is extreme in some way. The whole community here is overwhelming. At any point in Magic history, whenever there is a change or some new announcement, folks around here will lose their minds. I am convinced that it is due to the presence of Wizards of the Coast actually being here and the local community being filled with not just many high-level people but many people with direct connections or contacts with Wizards and the entirety of the game’s infrastructure and/or history. It is a place where anyone who loves chaos, emotion, and bureaucracy can thrive. We are a city and region of big personalities, big opinions, and cults of personality. We have people who know where the bodies are buried. We have people who can make one phone call and create a wave of international speculation or consternation. These days, there is much talk about being in the “room where it happens.” Well, Seattle is that room.

What’s one hobby or thing you do (activity or game) that you enjoy outside of Magic?

I play a ridiculous amount of D&D and D&D adjacent games. Indeed, my whole path to Seattle and working at Wizards of the Coast was started in middle school when I thought it would be nifty to work at TSR just a couple of hours from my house. These days, it is even more intense as I am part of a YouTube channel that just films our games and puts them out into the world.

What’s something unusual about you that you don’t think most of your magic friends know?

I have an odd array of genetic anomalies that all seem to contribute to positive results. Throughout my life, I have had weird medical issues that, when diagnosed, seem to either be benign or actually contribute to life benefits. For example, I have a heart condition that is typically considered to be potentially fatal to infants and is typically repaired surgically shortly after birth. Because I did not die, and at my age, it is considered a bad idea to do open heart surgery, nowadays, whenever I am at the clinic, my doctor will call in every available doctor on the floor to come listen to my heart to see if they can figure out what it is that I have. Since it is super rare to find this in living adults, she has quite a bit of good fun with this. I have a similar oddity with my ocular nerve that makes any doctor looking at it think that I have cancer there and that I’ve lost at least 80% of my vision. However, it’s just weird and recently, after changing ophthalmologists, I forgot to mention it and gave him quite a start when he wasn’t sure how it was possible for me to have scored so high on the Humphrey Field exam I’d just taken.

Stephan Classen, L3 – Seattle Area co-Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

I love Legacy, as well as stranger drafts and styles.  The more complex the better.  Basically, Future Sight was absolutely amazing for me.  I’ve always had a sweet spot for Oath of Druids decks, specifically green-blue.  That said, Force of Will quickly becomes my friend for both format and deck!  🙂

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

I’m newish to the Seattle area, but for me, community is always the priority in an organization like the judge program.  We’re here to certify people to become the best judges they can be, to help host the best and biggest events, to help players have the best (and fairest) time possible.  That said, Seattle is a city of such variety, and yet such focus.  We have teams of players looking to grind toward the Pro Tour.  Tons of stores of people focusing on casual EDH, as well as enjoying FNM in various formats across the metro area (yes, even Canadian Highlander or every Masters Set sealed deck), and even a few competitive series like the Legacy Preservation Series.  That brings a great amount of perspective when our judges come together, and lets us share our diverse interests, backgrounds, and enjoyment of Magic to great effect and awesome events.

Do you have any hobbies outside of Magic?

I love the outdoors.  Scuba, hiking, geocaching, gardening… The world is more spectacular than we realize.  But I love a good board game and read a ton of books lately too.  I’m also a Vorthos, and have read a large majority of story based materials that Magic has released.

Chris Shafer, L2, Eastern Washington and Idaho Panhandle Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

My favorite format is Standard. I love toolbox decks: Birthing Pod, Recurring Nightmare, Chord of Calling. Decks with answers to everything as long as the cards line up.

My favorite card is Greater Gargadon. That monster causes all sorts of headaches for the opponent. An un-counterable sacrifice outlet and sometimes a hasty 9/7 for the win.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

The thing I like most about the Eastern Washington community is how diverse it is. Our competitive scene is thriving, sending multiple people to the Pro Tour and generating large numbers at the local PPTQs. The Commander crew has a large following. You could find a game that leans towards more casual or ultra competitive depending on your favorite flavor. Every sanctioned format has good representation. Legacy FNM, drafts any day of the week, and Standard and Modern sprinkled in to satisfy any player.

Do you have any hobbies outside of Magic?

Outside of Magic I play a decent amount of video games. I’m in school for Nutrition and really enjoy talking about the latest fad diet or what people can actually do to help themselves.

What’s something unusual about you? 

Unusual facts about me? People either don’t know I was in the military or think I still am enlisted. I was, but not anymore.

Joe Klopchic, L3 – Seattle, WA

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

My favorite format is booster draft, but if I have to choose a deck then I’ll go with Protean Hulk combo in modern. My favorite card is Gempalm Polluter.

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

The best thing about Magic in Seattle is that there are several great stores, and a lot of players who have been around for a long time. If you go to FNM at Mox Boarding House in Bellevue enough, you will meet some of the people that work on Magic.

What’s one hobby or thing you do (activity or game) that you enjoy outside of Magic?

I enjoy playing video games, good food, and spreadsheets.

Wyoming

Nole Clauson, L2, Wyoming Area Captain

What’s your favorite format, deck, and magic card?

My favorite format is probably my cube (it’s my baby, 540 cards unpowered and as of this writing only 19 cards away from being completely foiled), my favorite deck is whatever modern deck someone lends me (I love that format but my decks tend to be kind of a flavor of the week thing), and my favorite card is probably Ancient Silverback, because every time I see that card I’m reminded of first playing kitchen table magic with my friends. Urza’s Destiny had just come out and it was the precon rare. We had no idea how regeneration worked and basically thought it meant “cast it from your Graveyard for its regenerate costs”. I had a sweet deck designed to make me discard it and “regenerate” it on turn 2. (the first time I took this deck to a real tournament I was in for a rude awakening).

What do you enjoy most about your area/community?

One thing I love about our community is how close knit we are. The players that travel all know each other, the judge community is super close knit, and generally wanna see each other succeed.

What’s one hobby or thing you do (activity or game) that you enjoy outside of Magic?

Every year I try to learn a new skill, to varying degrees of success. This year I’ve been learning how to hypnotize people. I also love board games (is kickstarter addiction a hobby?).

Welcome Judges of the Northwest, to an Iconic Contest!

Today we’d like to start our region off with something fun: a contest!

One of the things many other regions have done is create an individual logo- something the region can put on items to represent themselves, and, being such a spread out region, we felt we could do well with a logo of our own.

Therefore, we’re going to open it up to all judges of our region as a contest, to design, create, and innovate a logo to represent the Pacific Northwest!  If we were the Izzet, we would suggest you “die trying” (But we’re not, so we won’t)!

Some considerations for your submission:

-A square logo, no more than 2 colors, that is 2 dimensional.  No special 3d effects, or cgi, please.  (Remember, we hope to have this printed on a variety of items!)

-Suggested pixel sizes: 16 × 16 (mdpi) 24 × 24 (hdpi) 32 × 32 (xhdpi) 48 × 48 (xxhdpi) 64 × 64 (xxxhdpi)

-Please make sure your image is vectored!

-No copyrighted material!  This means no mana symbols, no art from Magic or any of your 2nd favorite CCGs. We want this to be original, awesome, and exciting for our region to see!

-Please feel free to be creative.  It doesn’t have to be something that relates to our region.  It could be any fantasy, magic related content, or otherwise!  (See the USA-SW, they have a dragon!)

-No maps!  We already have a decent map image (some of you have it on the backs of your hoodies!), so let’s try to have something different than that!  See the top image for an example of the map we already have and is awesome!

-No offensive material, please!

What you can win!

We’re going to make the prize for this pretty amazing- so we’ll be offering you a iconic prize!

We have been working on getting playmats printed for some time, and one of the reasons we’ve held off is that we wanted our logo on it!  So, if your logo is selected, you’ll get to see it on our regional playmat!  And you get one yourself, for free!  Since we also want our region to have more strength (of isolation), we feel you could “be a Force in the Northwest for creating our logo!”  Yes, that’s right, a judge Force of Will is the prize for the winner!

Contest will close in one month, on October 31st, 2018!  Please submit logo designs to PNWjudges@googlegroups.com!

The winner of the contest will relinquish any and all rights to the image(s) they submit. By entering this contest, you agree to that stipulation.  We want this to be an open use logo for the region’s projects!  Thank you!

The voting body will be the Area Captains of your region (who can’t vote on their own logo if they submit one)!  We hope you decide to submit a logo! Happy arting!

Welcome to the NorthWest Passage!

Judges of the USA-Northwest! Welcome to the Northwest Passage, a blog where we discuss the latest happenings in our region and work to connect our geographically separated region.

We plan to use this platform to provide news, updates, and random bloggings about all things related to our region. Our region is one of the most diverse and geographically isolated regions in the judge program. We have judges separated from major cities and stores by large distances. Many judges may not realize that our region includes Alaska, Hawai`i, and Guam!

Our region could improve on communication, which we will address in various ways, one of which is this blog. We need all of you to help make our connection and unity stronger!

This inaugural blog post provides details about a recent gathering of Area Captains and Level 3 judges to align our regional goals and develop our initiatives. We discussed projects to build unity, improve judge knowledge, and increase communication throughout our region.

Creating a Vision

We wanted to create a vision statement that we can all look to. Many regions across the Judge Program have similar goals; most do not have the same challenges that the Northwest has, including mountains, oceans, and vast undeveloped areas. We drafted a statement, and now we need your input:

Vision: Strengthening judges of the largest and most isolated region.

What do we mean by this? Strengthening judges is essential as we work together to improve our knowledge of rules and policy, develop interpersonal skills, and enhance communication channels. We want to move towards training and skill building while overcoming the challenge of being the largest and most isolated region. We know that many of you reading this are in the middle of a major metropolitan area, and many of you are not. Do you know who your Area Captain is? Do you know most or all of the judges in your state or area? Do you know the judges in the state next to yours? We are geographically spread out, resulting in us having the largest region in terms of travel distance. We need to find ways to build connections between us, to cross the Ensnaring Bridge of isolation, and develop a sense of community including those who are in an Isolation Zone.

What modifications would you like to make to this vision statement draft? What can we work on to support judges in all of our region’s diverse areas, from Mountains to Dust Bowls, from Forsaken Citys to Tropical Islands? Please feel free to respond with a comment or start a conversation on Slack!

Finding Strength in Isolation

We have chosen a special insignia card. We can carry this to identify us as judges of the Northwest as we work together to build and unify our region.  We will find strength despite our isolation!

We are hoping to build initiatives within our region through various projects, and these require regional participation. We need your participation! Read on for information about projects you can join. Let it be known that we need judges interested in contributing to this blog. If you would like to write or edit for our region, please contact Stephan Classen or Bryan Spellman (through Judge Apps, Facebook, email, or Messenger Falcons).

We are working to make the Areas and Area Captains more visible. Joe Klopchic is working on a map to display our areas. He could use your help! Please contact him for more information. (Joe prefers you avoid sending the aforementioned falcons.)

A Meeting of Minds

The Area Captain Meeting covered many topics. We’ve provided a list for your browsing pleasure:

• We would like to create a regional icon as has been done in other areas. We plan to hold a regional contest for a design idea and adopt a symbol to represent our region. Stay tuned for details.
• We want to design more regional items (notepads, bottles, more judge shirts). We have heard the complaints that some judges missed order deadlines for the shirts; we are going to build a schedule that allows the online store to open at least once a year. Feedback from the last shirt order was extremely positive. We would like to thank Stephan Classen for organizing the last design and print run and Neil Pendon for the regional map design!
  The store is currently open!  You can order hoodies and polos, and the order will close on 9/7, when the shirts will be made and shipped!
• Montana is trying out a cool new initiative for areas that do not have large enough events to compensate two judges. Each event at a store has increased the entry fee by $1 to go towards supporting a second judge every few events. This provides a way for L1 judges to have more opportunities for training and experience. The stores can offset the cost of having two judges at an event and players will have a better trained judge staff to help ensure events are well run. Brook Gardner-Durbin will have more to tell you soon!
• We spoke about TO-Judge interactions, and how we can help judges get more opportunities, especially in isolated areas. One suggestion was to find ways to make it easier for stores to find a judge. Along with this discussion, we discussed that  judges need to make sure we balance the statement: “Keep it Fair, Keep it Fun”. Events should be fun for players. That fun can be lost if we enforce the rules as if we were in a criminal trial. After all, Magic is still “just” a card game.
• We want to institute Regional Projects to help support our judge community. The initial projects are:
  • Area Captain Meetings – This will expand what the ACs are doing already, provide input on how to keep the other projects running smoothly, and support judges and areas as needed. Meetings will be held online and in person as needed. Uncle Scott will be leading the scheduling of these meetings.
  • Communication Team – Blogging, spreading information about events and reports, announcing roles needed in the region, new judge announcements, in-region activities (slack rules review/GPs, etc.), and regional goals.
  • The Welcome Wagon – This is an existing project that we would like to continue supporting. All new L1 and L2 judges receive a welcome letter with suggestions on what to do next, contact information, and resource links.
  • Education team – This team of judges will be responsible for helping our judges learn and grow. They will handle the online Slack rules reviews, share resources for teaching, build a knowledge base of shared experiences and ideas, and teach policy application.
• We would like there to be term renewals for the leaders. This is to help ensure passionate leaders and provide opportunities for judges looking to be more active within our region. We will try out a Project Lead duration of approximately six months. Near the term completion, the AC team will ask people to apply or re-apply for the position.

Please contact us if you would like to be a part of these teams! Let us know your ideas and desired projects. Do we want a swag team to handle making products for our region? How about conference organization? We are open to any and all ideas that you believe the Northwest region needs!

You’re almost to the end!

Wow! That was a lot of information! Congrats on making it this far!

Did we miss anything that you would like the region to work on? We are going to be pushing more discussions to our Slack channel. (contact Stephan to be added!) We ask that everyone keeps an open mind and puts on their patience pants. This may result in growing pains with some conversations being in different channels, and people starting to use Slack in different ways. Please do not discourage the use of Slack; let discussions run free for a bit, even if they are not in the “proper” channel. We hope to soon have articles on the best-practices of Slack, but for now, please remember that you can turn off notifications or leave a channel if you need to.

If you are not in our regional groups, but want to be, join us in Slack (contact Stephan) and Facebook.

Thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy blog post.

Sincerely,

Bryan Spellman, Stephan Classen, Scott Marshall, Nole Clauson, Lee Fisher, Brook Gardner-Durbin, Mark Hensley, Jeff Higgins, Joe Klopchic, James Lee, Jeremiah Adams, Neil Pendon, Chris Schafer, James Watson, Brandon Welch