BC Regional Judge Conference 2016

It's Judge Conference time in Canada! This time, we'll be getting together in beautiful Victoria, BC for a weekend of Magic, Judging, and Generally Fun Things. The main events (and accommodations) will be at the primary campus of the University of Victoria (UVic).

This is the first of four (4) Regional Judge Conferences being held in Canada this year—that's twice as many as normally allowed! Canada's Regional Coordinator, Gavin Duggan, has petitioned on our behalf for this special arrangement for Canada, and in exchange, each attendee may only receive up to one (1) foil packet from Canadian Regional Judge Conferences in 2016, regardless of how many conferences he or she attends this year.

The other three conferences will be:
3–4 September — Ottawa, ON
15–16 October — Moncton, NB
19–20 November — Red Deer, AB

What's in a conference? 

The goal of this conference is to improve the overall quality of Magic Judges and their interactions with Magic Players. Attendees are invited to receive training and knowledge from other experienced judges, and share their own skills and observations with the judge community.

As an appreciation for your contribution to the betterment of the Magic Judge Programme, foils will be distributed at the conference to attendees. Only judges who are certified as of the application deadline (30 June) and who have actively participated in a full slate of seminars will be eligible to receive a foil packet at the conference. More information on the foil packet is availble on the Judge Conferences Blog.

If your judge level on JudgeApps is incorrectly showing L0, please have your Regional Coordinator email David Poon confirmation of your certification.

Registration

If you wish to attend this conference, please take the time to apply here on JudgeApps and tell us about your JudgeLife™. Attendance at this conference will be limited, so be sure to indicate in your cover letter not only how this conference will affect your own personal growth in the programme, but also how it will benefit your local, regional, or global Magic community.

Preference will be given to judges living in Canada, but all interested parties are encouraged to apply (and will likely be accepted as long as there is room and their cover letters contain sufficient content).

Applications for this conference will only be accepted through Thursday 30 June.

Schedule

Friday — Draft pods and board games. We'd like to have people staying on campus host a game in their suite. Head over to the forums to see what's being planned!

Saturday — Our conference day. Seminars will be held from 10am–6pm in Clearihue C112, with a lunch break from 12pm–2pm. Judge dinner at 7pm at Swans Brewpub (506 Pandora Ave).
10am: Fostering inclusive environments (Trevor Murdock & Nelson Salahub) — Following some basic definitions, real world examples of situations that have occurred where Magic is played will be used to brainstorm with the audience. The purpose will be to help participants come up with strategies to ensure that their playgroups are as welcoming for women, LGBTQ folk, people of colour, and other demographics that routinely face discrimination.
11am: Magic under the Microscope (Todd Bussey) — a general overview of the intricacies of the Magic system. What things are in a game? Where can those things be? What can those things be made up of and represented by? What characteristics do those things have? What can happen to those things? How does the game state advance?
11am: A History of Layers (Callum Milne) — a holistic approach to internalizing layers by studying not just the "what", but the "how" and "why" behind the layer system as it exists today.
1pm: Super Top-Secret Stuff
2pm: Super Top-Secret RPS (Niko Skartvedt & Alasdair Howie) — What to throw, how to throw it, and when to throw what why.
3pm: Table Manners: Judging at Competitive REL Tournaments in BC (Michael Nixon) — This seminar will address the required and desired attributes of a Competitive REL Judge (L2). We will discuss the state of Competitive judging in BC and then quickly move on to cover the essential techniques and approaches that will help you succeed at judging in this environment, especially those related to responding to judge calls.
3pm: The Road to L3 (Ronald Thompson)
Attend to get answers to questions like: Should I go for L3? I'm currently doing X, what should I do next? How long will the L3 process take? Why is an L2 giving this presentation?
4pm: Judging the Write way (David Poon)
A comprehensive overview of reviews, reports, penalties, presentations, event applications, exemplar nominations, forum posts, and anything else that requires inputting text into a form. This seminar will not be able to banish writer's block, but should sufficiently change your writing meta so you won't need to worry about it.
4pm: Judging beyond your LGS (Brenden Gansner & Jessie Pozzolo)
5pm: Giving effective feedback (Gurmukh Sachdev)
5pm: Judging beyond borders (Taichi Takeuchi)

Sunday — Conference follow-up. We have several options for you here:
1) Organize games of your choice on campus;
2) Play some Magic at Yellowjacket's Modern PPTQ;
3) Judge at the PPTQ, armed with your newly-gained knowledge from Saturday; or
4) Trek down to Des Moines, WA for the NW USA Judge Conference!
  - The Victoria Clipper is a passenger ferry that leaves Victoria on Saturday at 7pm for Seattle, a 30-minute drive to Des Moines.
  - BC Ferries has a sailing that leaves Victoria on Sunday at 7am and arrives in Tsawwassen, a 3-hour drive to Des Moines.
  - The deadline for applying to the NW USA Judge Conference is Wednesday 15 June. Apply here! 

Presentations and Volunteering 

If you wish to present a seminar, or volunteer in some other way, please fill out this Google Form no later than Thursday 30 June. 

Seminars should be approximately 50 minutes long and should solicit active participation from the audience—this could be anywhere from structured Q&As, role-playing scenarios, or even friendly competition. Proposals for off-the-wall, non-traditional, non-lecture-style presentations that challenge the concept of what a seminar is are very much encouraged.

L3 presenters may present their seminar at up to two (2) Regional Judge Conferences in Canada this year, and will be offered a small travel incentive to attend the second conference.

Testing 

Have you been thinking about testing for the next level? This is a perfect opportunity to stop procrastinating and put a deadline on your calendar. Testing for L1 and L2 will be available at this conference—make sure you express your interest when you apply.

Please note that certifying for L1 at this conference will not make you eligible to receive a foil packet.

Travel & Accommodations 

Directions to UVic can be found here.

If you plan to drive to Victoria and you do not live on Vancouver Island, we recommend that you either:
1) Plan to arrive early at the ferry terminal, or
2) Make a reservation for your vehicle on the sailing you plan to take.

The two major ferry companies that travel to and from Vancouver Island are the Victoria Clipper out of Seattle, and BC Ferries out of West Vancouver and Tsawwassen.

We have a block of suites available at UVic! We're hoping that people will stay on campus for games and camaraderie around the conference—we might even have some seminars or breakout sessions there. Reservation information is available in the forums.