Hello, Magic Judges, we have three new Program Coordinators to present to you!

Below you can find details about the selection process, but first, let’s introduce the new leaders of the Magic Judge program!

Alfonso has been Program Coordinator since November 2016, and renewing his role as Program Coordinator. We asked him a few questions, to allow you to know him a little more.

What are the main values in your life?

I try to live my life according to the following values: doing what is right, and doing it in the way that makes others’ lives better. We all know why making right and honest choices in life is a good thing, but I believe it is also very important to achieve those goals in a way that you make the people around you happy, or if it not possible, in a way they learn or get something from the experience. A Magic Judge example could be when you have to disqualify someone for rolling dice, you can simply inform the player of the disqualification and the philosophy of the infraction, or you can take the time to make sure the player actually understands what was wrong, what is going to happen after the disqualification, and give them your email in case they’ve doubts in the future. You can even help the player to see the positive part of the disqualification, they can use their experience to teach their friends and prevent them from making similar mistakes.

What do you believe the biggest values of Magic Judges are?

The Magic community is full of individuals volunteering their time to help others to enjoy the game they like. Many judges volunteer a lot of time to mentor others, on top of the time they dedicate to judge tournaments. Some judges create tools to help other judges improve and to make it possible for everyone to enjoy this game. Judges are known for promoting fair play and a welcoming environment. It takes a very special kind of person to devote time to prepare ourselves and fellow judges to create an environment where all players can enjoy.

What do you wish to bring to the Magic judge program as Program Coordinator?

This term as PC, I want to put my focus on the projects in the judge community. As I said above, there are many judges doing a lot of good things, but unfortunately those efforts are sometimes duplicated, resources created are not known by the entire community or could be combined with other resources to create better results. During this term, I would like to help all judges handling projects to have the resources they need and to reach all judges that can benefit from their projects.

CJ has been a Grand Prix Head Judge since January 2017. We asked him a few questions, to allow you to know him a little more.

What are the main values in your life?

A good friend of mine once held up his closed hand and started counting with his thumb: God, Family, Work, Rotary and when he got to his little finger he said Everything Else. I’ve tried to live by the same values with Magic as a significant change. Magic has been a large part of my life for several years and I would count that the program and the friends I’ve made on my little finger. As I tend to stay fairly busy, I count everything else on my other hand 🙂

What do you believe the biggest values of Magic judges are?

Individuality, creativity and a willingness to give back. Every judge is able to add their unique experiences and perspectives to the program. Even our most seasoned judges in the program can learn something from others. We’ve all had mentors and role models in the program. Perhaps they taught us about running a tournament, but most likely they also instilled lessons of leadership, teamwork, and humility. I’ve heard the program referred to as a “Cult of Self-Improvement” and the willingness of so many individuals to help each other is truly inspiring. I am a better person for being a part of this program.

What do you wish to bring to the Magic Judge program as Program Coordinator?

The Program Coordinators have begun asking the community for guidance in determining a strategic direction. My primary goal is to address the topics raised by the community. First among them is a level redefinition that matches our current Organized Play system and does its best to future-proof certifications. This includes a critical review of our existing program construction and its ability to meet the needs of the program, program members, and program partners.

As a personal goal I am going to examine ways to expand opportunities for all judges to influence change throughout the program. This is a fundamental aspect of the program, but as membership grows we need to innovate our communication methods between judges.

Johanna has been a Regional Coordinator since 2010, Player Investigation Committee lead since 2016 and Judge Conduct Committee lead in 2016 and 2017. We asked her a few questions, to allow you to know her a little more.

What are the main values in your life?

I suppose I just try to treat others as I would like to be treated.

What do you believe the biggest values of Magic judges are?

Teamwork, community and self-improvement. Judges work together towards improving the Magic community, with individual self-improvement as a side effect. I’ve often heard people say that we are a cult of self-improvement that runs tournaments on the side – for me, it’s the other way around. We run tournaments and the self-improvement comes as a bonus.

What do you wish to bring to the Magic judge program as Program Coordinator?

I hope to help the PC team with communication, crisis management and improving various internal processes, among other things. My time as JCC lead gave me plenty of experience in dealing with difficult and/or sensitive situations, and I will keep supporting the current JCC lead with advice and background information. I want to continue developing the PC role itself and improving internal processes such as the selection processes for various leadership role. Beyond that, I would like to support the other PCs and program leaders in accomplishing their goals and listen to the concerns and wishes of the global judge community.

The selection process

First, many thanks to the member of the selection committee:

Gerard Trpin, France

John Temple, USA

Matteo Callegari, Italy

Nathan Brewer, Australia

Riccardo Tessitori, Italy

Ryan Stapleton, USA

Vinicus Quaiato, Brazil

The diversity in the selection committee:

Riccardo Tessitori participated in the selection as the only non-expiring Program Coordinator, and he was the person in charge of the selection process.

The other six members of the selection committee were chosen to have the biggest diversity:

Geographical: 1 from Latin America, 2 from North America, 2 from Europe, 1 from Asia Pacific

Roles: 2 Regional Coordinators, 1 Grand Prix Head Judge, 1 former Regional Coordinator

Experience: 2 new L3s, 2 long-time L3s

The criteria of the selection:

Half of the evaluation was based on ideas presented by the applicants, under the form of answers to nine questions selected by the selection committee (the initial three were identical to those of the previous PC selection). In this first part of the evaluation, only the answers were taken into account, independently from the person who wrote them; the answers were not anonymized and we are aware that some personal bias may always exist, but the members of the selection committee are trusted senior judges and we are sure that the knowledge of the authors of the answers didn’t affect their evaluation.

The other half of the evaluation was based on the personal opinion and priorities and previous direct experiences of each member of the selection committee, including the three mandatory recommendations to apply, any feedback received about the applicants, the general reputation and the past achievements of the applicants, and their answers to a series of two or three questions that were different for each candidate, and had the goal of addressing some of the most complicated or delicate concerns about each applicant. Each member of the selection committee was free to apply their best judgement in the independent evaluation of the candidates; we counted on the high diversity of the members of the selection committee to result in the best result for the role of PC.

The results and the validation of the results:

Once all the evaluations from the 7 members of the committee about the 6 candidates on their 9 questions (having a cumulative weight of 50%) and the “global evaluation” from the 7 members of the committee about the 6 candidates (having a weight of 50%) got collected, a final ranking was determined.

Then, a second ranking was created by removing the non-expiring Program Coordinator (this was done to get a ranking based on the maximum diversity possible within the selection committee).

Then, a third ranking was created by removing the highest evaluation and the lowest evaluation for each applicant (this was done to get a ranking that wouldn’t be affected by an individual member of the selection committee wanting to “block” an individual applicant).

The three rankings were the same, and the results were validated.

If you have questions or comments about the Program Coordinator process, as usual, please send a message to mail-the-pcs@googlegroups.com