This question is asked almost entirely for context. We have the data on how many judges there are from each region, but it’s important to understand how judges in different regions have different experiences. This added context helps us better serve regions that have different expectations and needs.

We’re looking primarily for two things here – how life experience correlates to judge experience and how age impacts how judges are treated by other members of the community.

Like the first question, this lets us know what areas your other answers may touch upon, but also gives us information about how much judges travel, and what judges are more likely to travel outside of their region.

As with the age question, this lets us broadly look at judging experience. Judges who joined the program at different points during it’s life may have different outlooks and experiences.

This is another piece of context – are most judges who are willing to travel at a particular level? We can ask and answer questions like that with this information. It also helps us see if there are biases towards certain demographics or regions for certain levels. Once we can see these biases, we can begin to work to create less biased systems.

It may be that biases that have existed previously are less prevalent, but judges haven’t caught been able to advance yet. This will help us predict what the future might hold, as well as identify where there are roadblocks to progression.

This can help us focus our elective educational material, as well as seeing if there are any surprising correlations between this and other data points.

Conferences are an important part of judge education, and while we know that some areas have been overserved and others been underserved, this may give us a better look into other demographics that need additional attention. It also will let us provide feedback to various conference organizers on the general attendance of their attendees, so that the conference experience improves for you.

It’s important for us to know how to communicate with you. If there are significant changes or information that we need to convey to various audiences, we need to know how to best share that information.

This is another question to help us focus our resources and see where various groups engage with other members of the community.

This helps us create resources or tools that integrate positively with other social media platforms, and lets us support judges who are bringing together their community.

Event experience is pretty straightforward – it’s helpful to know how active our judges are and what kind of events they are working. Again, it lets us focus our resources to different demographics to support different types of events. It also helps us see if any demographics are under or overrepresented at various events.

This is an extension of the previous question. Sometimes reality doesn’t meet our desires or ambitions, and so we want to be cognizant of the difference. If there are groups of judges who aren’t working certain types of events, but also don’t want to, then no changes need to be made. However, if there’s a discrepancy between what’s happening and what people want to happen, we can begin to address that.

This gathers similar information to the previous question, but on a different axis, with more particular information about what is preventing the idealized state from coming about, rather than just its absence.

A lot of senior judges travel frequently for larger events, but it’s important to understand judges who have fewer opportunities to travel to larger events and get insight on their experiences.

This question gathers similar information to the former questions about what sorts of events you would like to be working. However, this focuses on more detail regarding what type of events you’re interested in judging.

There’s a broad spectrum of impact from judging, and this can put into context what kind of events are important to you, and why they’re important. This question in particular is important because the landscape of events has changed dramatically since before COVID-19. This establishes a historical baseline.

We’re asking this question for the same reason as the former – this lets us understand the impact of various events and lets us establish a baseline for the current environment.

Same idea, but again allowing us to understand what your goals are, so we can develop resources and education to better suit program needs.

This helps understand the importance of judging from another perspective, as well as indicating how much time you have available.

This is the first of several questions that are primarily to help us understand the demographics of our membership. In particular, we later ask how these traits impact your experience, which is fundamental to us helping underserved and underrepresented demographics and communities.

This is the first of several questions that are primarily to help us understand the demographics of our membership. In particular, we later ask how these traits impact your experience, which is fundamental to us helping underserved and underrepresented demographics and communities. We don’t want to know your gender in particular – we want to know the demographics of our audience in aggregate. And, we’re asking this question so that we can see if it has a negative impact on your experiences because it’s frequently a concern in other groups and organizations, and we want to either avoid it if possible or provide education and help realign if it’s an existing problem.

This is the second of several questions that are primarily to help us understand the demographics of our membership. In particular, we later ask how these traits impact your experience, which is fundamental to us helping underserved and underrepresented demographics and communities. We don’t want to know your sexuality – we want to know the demographics of our audience in aggregate. And, we’re asking this question so that we can see if it has a negative impact on your experiences because it’s frequently a concern in other groups and organizations, and we want to either avoid it if possible or provide education and help realign if it’s an existing problem.

Individuals who are affected by various mental or physical conditions can experience the world differently, and we want to make sure that we’re aware of the impact on our members who have these conditions, to make sure that the program is accessible and welcoming as possible.

It’s important for us to not only understand your demographic profile but how you feel it affects you personally. In this case, we’re interested how it impacts your actions, and how you engage with other judges.

As with the previous question, this gathers a lot of contextual information that helps see any areas of improvement in the program at large. However, this time we’re looking at how your demographic profile impacts other judges’ interactions with you.

While this isn’t a short survey, it can’t be comprehensive, so we wanted to make sure you had the opportunity to share additional perspectives or opinions.