Hello Judges! We are back for with a brief summary of news and updates for this month.
Town Hall Meetings
To follow up the Program Lead Ask Me Anything we’d like to organise some open Q&A sessions in the style of town hall meetings or all hands where all judges who would like to join are invited.
We can talk about the direction we want to take, big fears, levels, anything really. Ideally we are aiming for 20-30 minutes of presentation and 30-40 minutes for questions.
For now, we are planning 6 sessions because we are split all around the world. To facilitate these, we made a division into 3 Geographic Timezones and we’re proposing a pair of meetings for each, one during the week, one on the weekend.
Asia / Oceania / Europe
Weekday Meeting: Tuesday, May 7th
Weekend Meeting: Saturday, May 11th
Both of these meetings start at the same hour of day, which is the following, depending on your location:
13h Central European Time
18h Indonesia / Thailand
19h Philippines / Singapore / Malaysia
20h Japan / South Korea
21h Australia
23h New zealand
Americas / Asia
Weekday Meeting: Tuesday, May 7th
Weekend Meeting: Saturday, May 11th
Both of these meetings start at the same hour of day, which is the following, depending on your location:
21h Chile
22h Argentina / Brazil
9h Indonesia / Thailand
10h Philippines / Singapore / Malaysia
11h Japan / South Korea
12h Australia
14h New zealand
Europe / Americas
Weekend Meeting: Saturday, May 18th
Weekday Meeting: Tuesday, May 21st
Both of these meetings start at the same hour of day, which is the following, depending on your location:
13h Chile
14h Brazil / Argentina
19h Central European Time
OTJ Set Update Quizzes are here!
Thanks to the tireless work of our Exam Content Creation Team, the Outlaws of Thunder Junction rules update quizzes are now ready on JudgeApps for IJP members. If you want to do these quizzes for your level maintenance or you just want to ensure you are up to date on the most recent rules changes, you can take your OTJ update quiz by following this link: https://apps.magicjudges.org/exams/
Levels Transition Period Ends May 31st
The Transition Period keeps going, we had the first wave of promotions some days ago and we’re looking at many new promotions in the near future.
As a reminder, if you have a judge level in Judge Academy and you want to join the IJP with the same level, you have to do that before May 31st 2024. It’s automatic, you just need to go to https://apps.magicjudges.org/ijp/ and click the button there.
If your level is not properly updated on apps.magicjudges.org fill in this form https://blogs.magicjudges.org/judgeapps/accounts/
Then if you want to access any of the automatic or accelerated paths to levels 4 or 5, you have to fill in the appropriate forms also before May 31st 2024.
New Discord Server: The Gathering Point
Originally the Program Leads decided not to create an IJP server because we’re looking to create a united international judge community. We thought that creating a Discord server for the IJP will result in division amongst IJP judges and judges from other judge programs.
However an independent global Discord server was created in an initiative led by Meg Baum. This server, since it’s global, doesn’t have any of the drawbacks that kept us from setting up a Discord server earlier.
In that Discord server, you can get the IJP role and access some dedicated IJP channels, but the majority of the conversations and judge interactions will be done in global channels where the Judge Community can remain “International, Global and Inclusive”.
Using the IJP Logo
We have some people reaching out to us and asking for permission to use the IJP logo to create some local swag.
We’re granting permission to all IJP members to use the logo for any good-faith initiative, like creating local swag, representing themselves as IJP judges, creating banners or local websites.
IJP Core Projects
Last but not least, let’s talk about the future. We’re approaching the end of the Levels Transition Period and it’s time to tackle the next challenges.
Our Program Leads Alfonso and Bruna are going to organize and coordinate the different IJP Core Projects.
What is a Core Project? It is a group of judges working together to create something positive for the Judge Program with an international approach. There can also be Projects with a Regional approach, or projects that are not Core because they have a different goal, for example study groups.
Who can create a Project? Anyone. The IJP encourages every judge to create all projects they believe are good or needed.
Who can create an IJP Core Project? Any IJP member, but they need approval from the Program Leads. IJP Core Projects must have an International approach and follow the IJP values (safe, healthy, inclusive, non-discriminatory and collaborative). Each IJP Core Project has a leader and a support to ensure delivery of results and its continuity.
What qualifies as a Core Project will be validated on a case by case basis but the idea is to recognize any internaiontal project as long as it isn’t harmful. Here are some examples:
- Travel Guides
- Photography
- Rules Study Content or Educational Content
- Community Building Activities
- Tips and Tricks for Judges
We are aware that this is a very vague framework, which is the case because we have focused on very specific activities so far (levels and exams) but don’t want to limit judges’ imagination for participating in the program. If you want to propose something that is not on this list, don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll help you get started.
So if you can think of something that will help other judges, something you want to do for the community or you know something that’s missing but the IJP should be doing, let’s create an IJP Core Project to work on it!