August Judge Academy News and Updates

Hey, all! August News and Updates are below, along with some additional clarifications around the End of the Year Celebration Conferences! This month is a little weird with the first Tuesday and first Wednesday being on different weeks, but since I know you all have been eager for information regarding the End of Year Regional Celebrations, I wanted to lean towards getting that information out sooner rather than later. This means I will be around for Office Hours tomorrow in the JA Discord from 9am-10am Pacific and from 4pm-5pm pacific. To see these times in your local Time Zones, follow the links below:

9am Pacific

4pm Pacific

Completed Features/Updates:

  • *!* Please take a moment to verify that your privacy settings are set to your liking/comfort. Due to various data/privacy laws, PRIVACY SETTINGS DEFAULT TO PRIVATE. This means any data that you want shared OR searchable should be marked to display.

For example: If you do not share your Region, this means you will not show up under a search for judges in your Region if potential Organizers or other judges attempt to use our User Search.

  • We have added a field for pronouns to each user profile. This also means that “Pronouns” has been added to the Privacy section as an option for display.
  • Various bug fixes

New Modules:

This month we’ve continued working through editing and processing our Level 3 content. As always, if you have any questions about your own process, please feel free to reach out to me directly at nicolette@judgeacademy.com New classes include:

  • Planning to Lead
  • Conflict Management
  • External Conflict Resolution
  • Working Under Pressure

Conferences:

To help clarify and set expectations around promos, for the month of September, as much as possible, conferences around the world will receive Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and The Gitrog Monster as their 2 “Old-Wave” slots in the sponsorship packs, meaning each pack will be:

  • Morophon, the Boundless (NEW)
  • Zacama, Primal Calamity (NEW)
  • Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
  • The Gitrog Monster

Why clarify “as much as possible”? The promos are an extremely limited resource compared to other printings and, towards the end of a card’s rotation, it’s possible that we might run out of a particular promo from an older wave, or not have enough of that specific card to cover a larger conference. This is especially true for cards that were released in 2021 as we have done our best to approve as many conferences as possible in order to facilitate community connection and education during this time of isolation. 

We are constantly monitoring allocations and inventory, and don’t expect this to be a common issue, but if it does happen, we’ll be in contact with the organizer to inform them of any substitution. THIS WILL NOT OCCUR FOR CURRENT WAVE (NEW) CARDS. As usual, thanks for your questions and feedback as we all navigate a world of online conferences together.

End of Year Celebration Conferences:

In addition to the normal conferences that will be approved, we will also be allowing each region to organize an End of the Year Celebration conference during the month of December. 

Requirements/Restrictions for attendees

  1. Promotional Support for these conferences is region-locked, and limited to one pack per attendee. This means that while organizers may choose to open up their conference to out-of-region attendees, those judges will not be eligible to receive promotional support for attending an out-of-region event.
  2. Any exceptions to the above can only be made ahead of time at the discretion and with the permission/coordination of the organizers in both your region and the region you wish to attend, and may not result in an attendee receiving multiple sets of attendee support.

For example: Judge Joan cannot attend her region’s scheduled conference. She sends an email to her region’s organizer (Abe) and the organizer of another conference (Betty).  Betty has space for Joan, so together, the 3 of them work out which organizer will distribute Joan’s support. 

  • Joan will only receive 1 attendee support pack, even if she somehow ends up attending both.
  • Only the organizer who distributes/mails Joan’s support will count Joan in their final attendance numbers to Judge Academy.

  3. The promo support for these particular conferences differ from normal rotation, and include 4 previously unreleased Judge Academy promos. The promo card names are listed below, and completed card mockups will be posted once available:

  • Edgar Markov (New Art)
  • Ezuri, Claw of Progress (New Art + first to foil)
  • K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth (New Art + first to foil)
  • Mizzix of the Izmagnus (New Art + first to foil)

Requirements/Restrictions for Organizers

  1. Conference must be digitally held in the month of December. This is required because we do not want anyone who does not have the means or feel comfortable traveling to be required to attend a physical gathering in order to connect with their community.
  2. In order to give everyone the most time to plan, applications must be submitted by September 19th and approvals will be sent out the following week.
  3. Conferences must have at least 3 hours of educational focus, preferably with one of the presentations focused on mentoring, networking, or other community focused content.
  4. Wherever possible, organizers should plan to highlight in-region presenters.
  5. Support is as follows, and is all in End of Year packs:
  • Basic Attendees in-region = 1 pack
  • All Presenters/Staff = 2 packs total
  • Additional primary org attendance bonus:
      • < 50 basic attendees = +2 packs
      • 51-100 basic attendees = + 3 packs
      • 101-150 basic attendees = + 4 packs
      • 151-200 basic attendees = + 5 packs
      • 201-250 basic attendees = + 6 packs
      • etc.
  • Level 3s = + 1 pack each
  • New Member Bonus = +1 pack each

6. Support should be mailed to attendees and any unused/excess postmarked to be returned to JA within 2 weeks of the date of the conference

Conference Structure

We know that some areas will have different ideas on how to best connect their community, so we leave it to the organizer to determine the best format for their area. A few example structures are below, but applications are not limited to these structures. Applications can be made through the normal conference request form.

Ex. Structure A: 

Track 1 – Language A

Track 2 – Language B

  • 9-10am: Presentation 1A+1B
  • 10-11am: Presentation 2A+2B
  • 11am-12pm: Presentation 3A+3B
  • 12pm-1pm: Presentation 4A+4B
  • 1pm-2pm: A+B Networking/Lunch/Community Hour

Ex. Structure B:

  • 6pm-7pm: Presentation 1
  • 7pm-8pm: Presentation 2
  • 8pm-9pm: Presentation 3
  • 9pm-10pm: Regional Networking Hour (drop-in/drop-out)
  • 10pm-Midnight: Global Invite Networking/Games (drop-in/drop-out)

Ex. Structure C:

  • 11am-2pm: Regional Lunch and Networking (drop-in/drop-out)
  • 2pm-3pm: Presentation 1
  • 3pm-4pm: Presentation 2
  • 4pm-5pm: Presentation 3
  • 5pm-6pm: Presentation 4

If languages or other barriers would require a region to split into 2 or more conferences, we will work with that region and the submitted applications/organizers to find the best solution, but the cap on support for attending a max of 1 End of Year Celebration Conference will not change.

Thanks, 

The Judge Academy Team