[F3A-Discussion] WC Judge Discussion

[Earl Haury]

How about a new thread for the discussion of WC judge items separate from Harry’s proposal. I’ll start it off some of my experiences / observations. 

Obviously we need the best judges possible for our WC and identifying them is pretty difficult for the organizer. FAI maintains a list of “qualified” judges whose names are submitted by their home country from which the organizer can choose. Some countries have a method by which their judges are ranked, with the best getting on the list. Others, without the advantage of a deep judge pool, simply offer who’s (repeatedly) available without consideration of skill. This alone pretty much ensures the organizer, trying to get a good geographical mix, will hire some duds. A diligent organizer will discuss individual judge skills with F3A committee members, past organizers, jury members, and review the TBL stats of those who’ve judged previous WC. This process will often surface info regarding those who commit to judge and actually show up and those who back out, those without skill, etc., but ultimately the organizer is confronted with making some guesses. 

The CIAM needs to reinforce the process to ensure the folks on the FAI F3A judge list meet some minimum standards. There are some requirements in the rules which are difficult to verify, how can that be improved upon? How can we ensure the organizers get and use the best info?

If the person that repeatedly represents a country in the judges chair is really the best from that country and a good judge? A term limit would be counterproductive in this case. Or is the repeat judge someone without skill that will inject bias for his/her country, or just fill a chair and confuse scoring? A term limit would be beneficial here. Another metric is evaluation of judge TBL performance, good performance keeps you on the “list” – poor not. Maybe the competitors / team managers could vote on their perception of each judge’s performance. Unfortunately, term limits and/or post evaluation doesn’t prevent a poor judge from screwing up a WC – just limits their opportunities. Term limit generally is more than once, so a poor judge gets to screw thing up 2, 3, more times? OTOH term limits (of even the best qualified) do ensure “new blood”.  If TBL performance and vote of participants agreed a judge was incompetent, that person would not get another chance. Maybe the latter to get rid of duds and the former to “rotate the stock”?

Another topic might be how to ensure we keep the good performers and encourage more? 

Are judges getting a paid vacation? Maybe some judges see it that way (idiots). Judging each flight diligently for hours on end is very hard work and adverse weather conditions can make it a very miserable experience. To have some semblance of depth in the judge pool, expenses of the judges need to be covered. That includes decent transportation and lodging! Do we really only want to select from folks that can afford to cover their own expenses? Some judges are already using personal vacation time to attend a WC – do we just want old retired guys that need a couple of naps a day (speaking from experience)? Anything that takes away from creature comforts and adds to judge personal expenses will not benefit judging quality. 

Let me offer an example. In the days of yore the US team selections paid all expenses for judges. We would receive resume’s from 40 or so candidates from all over the country. The team selection committee would screen the applicants for skill / geography and cut the list in half. These most qualified persons were submitted to previous event participants to select the required number by vote. We had an abundance of qualified judges willing to work, but it was expensive and costs had to be incorporated into the entry fees. Unfortunately, some abuse occurred with folks choosing full fare airfare and upscale hotels driving costs even higher. The TSC limited travel expenses to $450 – guess what, the judge pool decrease by 2/3 of which not all were qualified. Made it very difficult to field a good judge panel and participant (fewer) fees didn’t really decrease. Hence holding the team selection at the Nats – we get a few dedicated / qualified folks to stick around an extra day to judge the finals (a big thanks to them), but it drives the ED nuts trying to find enough. Everyone think we have the most qualified for the entire event? Probably the best we can do on the cheap. 

Should the WC be the premier pattern event, or simply a biannual event on the cheap? I suspect reducing cost at the expense of the judges would be a big mistake.

Feel free the offer options, opinions, etc. within the scope of improving WC judging.

Earl


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