In which we solicit judge qualifications

There’s a button I never click in tabroom, that I did click for the CFL Grands. It’s the one that says “Ask for judge qualifications and histories.” For the Grands, we require a certain amount of previous experience, and short of my going to the tournaments I’ve already tabbed and laboriously looking for names, which of course does not include tournaments I haven’t tabbed—oh, I miss my godlike powers—this is a good way to get that info.

But there’s probably more to it, and I may start using this button in the future for divisions without MJP. With MJP, I have no real interest in abilities; my job is to match the numbers. But in a PF division, especially at a college, we have no idea who we’re putting where. As Kaz has pointed out, it would be nice to know that the person we’re putting into a bubble round did PF for 4 years in high school versus being a former declamation also-ran the college managed to find under the bed and threaten with expulsion from the Parli Scotch Drinking Society if they didn’t judge all weekend. Not that the latter wouldn’t get used, but would get used judiciously. I was originally going to put this question of experience in the spreadsheet of hired judges that we work from, but I think putting it here makes more sense, if for no other reason than that we can see it within the program that we’re working simply by clicking on the judge name.

Anyhow, I just went over the qualifications for Grands. Sure enough, the fact that there were people I have never heard of meant nothing in the grand scheme of things (no pun intended). People have gotten judges from all over the place and, I’m happy to say, nobody is trying to put in a ringer. In the past, I have indeed dumped a ringer or two, much to everyone’s chagrin, but rules are rules. And I have to admit, a rule that suggests that a person know at least something about what they’re doing when they’re judging a national qualifier makes sense to me.

(By the way, I"m going to cross-post some of this to my The View From Tab page, which I'm reviving for my Facebook materials. I'll probably do a bit of that going forward, if I think the content is of general interest, as compared to VCA interest only.)

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