Announcing our 2019 Regional Captains – Who are they and what do they do?!
For additional information about the Captain system, check out our article from last year’s selection process!
Conference Captain – Andrew Keeler
Our region’s Conference Captain will be the Area Captains’ point of contact for mini-conferences, mock tournaments, or even helping support someone who might be hosting a large Regional Conference for the first time. I will work with them to coordinate foil allocations, number of conferences, what areas have had events recently, and all else conference. Andrew is NOT responsible for organizing every mini-conference, but is instead a point of contact to ensure someone who wants to organize a conference doesn’t have to do it alone and from scratch.
Education Captain – Nik Zitomer
Our Region’s Education Captain and I will help to organize, consolidate, and share current education materials and efforts between Area Captains, as well as others wanting to run Online or In-Person Classes. Nik has been running classes since before I even moved to Atlanta, and over the past few years we’ve grown and developed our shared resources. He’s spent the last year expanding education efforts to the entire region, and look forward to seeing what he’s got in store for us all this year! (Psst. I hear he’s looking for volunteers to teach online Judge Classes, so keep an eye out for solicitations!)
Area Captains are meant to be “point people” in their area – they help judge candidates connect with mentors, stores connect with judges, give feedback about up-and-coming judges, and know the judges and stores in their local areas well. They are by NO means the only ones allowed to run conferences, test judges, or work with stores! However, it helps to have a single point of contact who is familiar with the area and can help connect people to the best person for each particular job. We’ve moved a few things around, including adding/consolidating Tennessee to match the SE Captain System and combining Alabama and Mississippi. The New Area Map and 2019 Area Captains for our region are below:
Area Captain (Tennessee) – Matt Dale
Area Captain (Alabama/Mississippi) – Gary Roland
Area Captain (North Georgia/Atlanta Area) – Adam Blaylock
Area Captain (South/East Georgia) – Michael Starr
Area Captain (South Carolina) – Michael Grimsley
Area Captain (North Florida/Panhandle) – Benjamin Bloodworth
Area Captain (Central Florida) – Matt Newnam
Area Captain (South Florida/Keys) – David Salery
Special Thanks to the outgoing Regional Captains for all the work they’ve done this last year (here, or in the Mid-Atlantic :p)!
Nathaniel Bass
Bryn Pitt
Steven Romero
Derrik Smith
Jacob Smith
Casey Sutliff
Brendan Whatley
Conferences:
As you may have noticed, conferences and mini-conferences are becoming more and more popular! With that, it’s important to organize and allocate our resources to ensure that each area has a chance to get together and pool knowledge. Below you’ll find a tentative plan for 2019 conferences.
Regional Conference (1 per year; ~135 attendees, including approx. 15 presenters and 1-2 organizers)
This will be a large, regionwide conference with the expectation that judges from all over the Southeast will attend. The Regional Conference will likely have multiple presentation tracks in order to allow each attendee to tailor their experience to meet their needs.
Area Mini-Conferences (8 per year; ~25 attendees, including approx. 5 presenters and 1 organizer)
Local Conferences will be aimed at developing skills of judges in specific area. As such, they will be more tailored to the needs of each individual area, and although those from outside the area or region might attend, preference should be given to local judges. Although each area is limited to one foil sponsored mini-con per year, that does not mean that an area cannot host multiple other conferences throughout the year!
Regional Workshop (1 per year; ~15-25 attendees, including approx. 4 presenters)
This Conference will be almost entirely hands on, and will focus on techniques such as Investigations, Conflict Management, and other advanced Techniques that benefit most from a small but highly engaged audience. There will be more details to come, but we are currently looking into what it would cost to bring in Program-Wide Subject Matter Experts to be our presenters, which means there will be an application and selection process, as opposed to most other conferences which are only limited by space.
The Tentative Schedule for 2019 Conferences Slots in the Southeast are below: If you are interested in hosting a conference for your area, or perhaps this year’s Regional Conference, let me know! We are waiting to see if/how our allocation changes for 2019, so we might end up shifting things around.
Quarter 1 (January 1st – March 31st)
Mini-Con Slot –
Mini-Con Slot –
Mini-Con Slot –
Quarter 2 (April 1st – June 30th)
Mini-Con Slot –
Mini-Con Slot –
Mini-Con Slot –
Quarter 3 (July 1st – Sept 30th)
Regional Workshop Conference –
Mini-Con Slot –
Mini-Con Slot –
Quarter 4 (October 1st – December 31st)
Winter Regional Conference –
Unofficial Holiday Get-togethers and Gift Exchanges!