Judge Community Represenatives and Georegion Conferences
Header Art by Tomasz Jedruszek
Hello and welcome dear readers!
In this article, we want to bring you a summary of what the Judge Community Representative role is, who they are and some insights to what the role is meant to provide in the framework of Judges of Rathe. Additionally, we are happy to share the details to our first Georegion conferences.
Judge Community Representatives (JCRs) are one of the pillars of Judges of Rathe. They act as anchor points for Judges and other interested parties around the world; someone that can act as a first point of contact. These JCRs are individuals volunteering to put in the time to grow their regions and facilitate a better Flesh and Blood experience for everyone.
Take a look here to see our 31 judge regions around the world and the associated JCRs!
What can they do for you, you ask?
- Want to become Judge and do not know where to start?
- Want to meet up with other Judges in your region?
- Have questions/concerns regarding your local community?
- (Show Owner/Tournament Organizer) Need a Judge for your events?
Reach out to your Judge Community Represenative!
We also made a list of what to expect from the role! Do you want to become the next JCR of your region? Here is a list of what we are looking for in a JCR!
Judge Community Represenative Leads (JCRL) are people that help build the bridge between regions and the whole Judge world. All 28 Judge regions and JCRs are divided into 3 georegions (some of which are divided further into subregions).
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- Americas: North America East, North America West, Latin America
- Asia Pacific: East Asia, 東南アジア, Oceania
You can also click on each of the regions to see who the current JCRLs are. If you are interested to see a list of countries and some more details, you an check out this article from the end of 2023.
If you’re interested in what is expected for this role, take a look here!
JCRs are selected via a process lead by the JCRLs. Each JCRs term is one year long and at the end of each term of appointment, applications will be opened again. A JCR can serve consecutive terms, but they still need to reapply through the standard process each time. All JCR applications will be posted in the Judges of Rathe Discord and in the JudgeHub forums. We also recommend that you keep an eye on this forum to see any other applications that are getting posted for different Judge Community teams.
The JCR selection process is a simple form where candidates are asked questions regarding their motivation and ideas. From there, selected candidates will potentially have a direct interview to discuss their application.
JCRLs are selected directly at the discretion of LSS and are not up for direct applications. These roles are also intended to rotate, but on a more infrequent basis.
We have now fully completed the first run of JCR re-selections! After the establishment of the JCR system 2 years ago, we have added new regions, split previous big ones, and have added additional JCR leads for accounting for big geographic distances.
The newest change to regions establishes South Korea as its own region! Starting at the next JCR applications, South Korea will have its own JCR. We have also added Turkey, Israel, and the UEA under the Europe South East subregion.
We understand that timing and our processes for ongoing applications for regions have not been ideal, and we appreciate your patience while we refine these structures and processes. In future, we want to stick to a 2 week application window, followed by up to 2 weeks of interviews and 1 week to finalize the selections, keeping the total time to 5 weeks or less.
Now, after now having done a full round of applications for all regions, here is the schedule for the next year and our suggested next rotation windows:
August 2024
- Brazil
- USA Great Lakes
- USA South East
- United Kingdom & Ireland
- Iberia
- German-speaking Countries
- Hong Kong
- Singapore
- Taiwan
- South Korea (new!)
December 2024
- USA West
- USA East
- Pacific Northwest
- Japan
- Poland
- Nordics & Baltics
- Southeastern Europe
- Benelux
- Lower-Eastern Australia
- South East Asia general
April 2025
- Latin America
- USA Great Plains
- USA North East
- USA South Central
- Italy & Malta
- Europe Central and Eastern
- Malaysia & Brunei
- Wider Australia
- New Zealand
- Canada
- France
* Please note that due to adding new regions and to keep the balance equal per selection, a few regions shifted in different windows.
We hope this was an interesting read for you all and gives some more clarity for what the JCR and JCRL roles are!
We’ve talked a lot about the community lead roles above, but we also want to make sure you can gather with like-minded judges from your regions! The georegion conferences serve as community-focused conference weekend . Planned as 2-day conferences, with plenty of seminars, but also social activities to allow the judges in our regions to learn and grow together, fully independent of any tournament.
Our plan is to have regular annual georegion conferences. For the first year we will also need to figure out the scaling of each and how we adjust them in the future, for bigger regions we also plan more than one georegion conference to accommodate for the difference in amount of judges. The first year will be our first foray into this space and will help us gauge how to adjust them to the needs and wants of the judges in the future, including when and where to plan these conferences for larger georegions.
The georegion conferences are meant as a space to gather and we appreciate the dedication people show by going the extra mile to attend those events. Due to that we have two special ways to support this:
- Each Judge will get one additional attendee pack for the first georegion conference they visit each year.
- Travel support is available and can be applied for and will be assigned by the discretion of the Judge Community Representative Leads
- If one georegion conference would cap out, applicants that got declined for the former will get preferred entry into the next. (We hope we can offer everyone a space, but this is just in case)
There will be applications for these shows and waves of acceptance to make it possible for people to plan. We are taking this step as we currently do not know how popular these events will be. Some shows may also have a food offering that will require some payment at the show or similar contributions, if any will happen we will make sure to mitigate the impact as best as we can.
With this, we are also happy announce the first two georegion conferences!
We will announce future ones gradually during the year! Next up: North America and Oceania!
Thank you for reading, and see you soon for the next update!
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