Hello judges, today we’re reaching out to you with bittersweet news.
The sweet part: Wizards of the Coast has hired Samantha Harr to be the Judge Manager. She took office some weeks ago and the IJP Leads had a meeting with her in November.
Unfortunately there are not many details to share about the future judge program but Wizards of the Coast has plans to create a new official Magic Judge Program with a global scope. We are very optimistic about the future and we want to encourage all judges to support the new Judge Program!
The bitter part: We, the Program Leads, believe that there is no reason for the IJP to continue operations now that Wizards of the Coast have made a commitment to running an official global program of their own and we assert that closing the IJP as soon as possible is the best course of action to save future costs.
The Program Leads, by unanimity, call an Extraordinary General Assembly:
Date and time: January 13th at 13:00 CET (21:00 in Tokyo; 9:00 in Buenos Aires). Estimated duration 30 minutes.
Topic: Vote to close the IJP, detail below.
Voting window: each IJP member can cast their vote online right after the General Assembly ends and for the next 7 days.
Majority Required: The motion to close the IJP will pass with either of those majorities:
-Half plus one of the IJP existing members vote in favor, or
-At least two thirds of the votes casted in the General Assembly are in favor of closing.
(Note the first case counts all existing IJP members, voting or not. While the second counts only the members who choose to cast their vote, but the majority needed is higher).
Details of closing:
Maintenance: there won’t be maintenance done at the end of 2025.
Levels history: The IJP website will maintain a list of the levels each member had, at least until September 2027.
Finances: The IJP will pay all its bills and debts until January 31st 2026. Then during the month of February 2026 donors of the IJP crowdfunding in Gofundme can register to receive a proportional refund of their donation.
Whatever is left after January 31st will be divided proportionally to their donation between the people who fill in the appropriate form. This refund will be made by wire transfer, the cost of this transfer will be deducted by the amount reimbursed.
Those who donated anonymously, will have to provide proof of their donation.
Transparency: An updated financial statement will be provided at the Assembly on January 13th 2025. Another one after January 31st 2026 and a final one after closing.
IJP’s content and know how: the IJP will donate all its content and know-how (exam questions; guides; procedures; mentoring tools; etc) to the future judge program, because we created it for the judges and we want it to continue improving the judge program in whatever form it will take in the future. Of course, if any IJP member created something and they don’t want that transferred to the new Judge Program, it won’t. After this motion passes, we will open a window for IJP members to notify about any content they created and they want removed.
Closing Process Leadership: if this motion passes, there won’t be any future IJP elections. The current IJP Regional Representatives and Program Leads will be tasked to carry on the necessary procedures to legally close the IJP association.
Ongoing certification processes: If you have started any certification process and you wish to complete it, the IJP leadership will do their best to help you until the end. If that is your case, please reach out to the Level testing manager for the level you’re preparing for and your Regional Representative.
