South West Area Conference #4

Hello and welcome to this, the fourth judge conference in the South West of the UK! 

I'd like to extend this invitation for everyone to attend this event, in the true spirit of learning, sharing knowledge with each other and meeting new people. 

Here's the information that you'll need:

Overall focus

We believe that we will be best served by attracting the largest and most diverse mix of Judges possible to our conference. Judges of all levels and candidates looking to join the Judge programme are encouraged to attend.

Applicants should be mindful of the national directive that sub-Regional (Area) conferences should focus on L1 Judges, and our need to address topics pertinent to the South West.

A preference exercise was conducted to inform when this conference should run, what topics should be covered and what we should do for judge dinner. The results can be viewed here.

 Judge Foils

Only certified Judges who have registered on Judge Apps by the application deadline, Saturday 19th May, will be eligible to receive foils for attendance/facilitating. EDIT 14/05/18: The latest update to conference foil support can be found here.

Venue Information

Time: 10:00 - 18:00
Date: June 16th, 2018
Location: The Geek Lab UK, 85 Station Rd, Taunton TA1 1PB

Transport and travel

Taunton Bus Station (TA1 4AF) is 0.6 miles from the venue and Taunton Railway Station (TA1 1QW) is approximately 100yds walk from the venue.

Minimal parking is available behind the venue. Please lift share where possible :)

Accommodation

Various accommodation is available nearby. Although no particular means of searching is endorsed by the judge programme, you can find bed and breakfast accommodation via https://www.airbnb.co.uk or https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotels-g190730-c2-Taunton_Somerset_England-Hotels.html.

Facilitating

If you are interested in facilitating at this conference, you are more than welcome. You will have to apply to facilitate and will be notified if your application is successful at least four weeks before the conference. The conference cannot happen without the help of you, and your skills. If there is something that you are passionate about or something that you want to share, please indicate in your application.

Seminars are looking to be 45 minutes long and we are not looking to run parallen seminars this year. We know that people learn in different ways so we are looking for a variety of delivery methods e.g. seminar, group work, roleplay and simulations, not just traditional presentations. We have based our conference this year on a consultative model and asked people what they want, therefore we will require have recruited facilitators for the following topics:

• Using the Wizards Event Reporter (WER) - no longer subject of a seminar due to time constraints
  
• Addressing common issues and serious problems at Regular REL - Norman RALPH
  
• Local issues - what are they and how can we work together to solve them? - Ian TURNER
  
• Replacement effects - Sophie HUGHES
  
• The Combat Phase - Ceejay RUSSETT
  
• Free session
• Simulations (L1) - Thomas Ralph + volunteers
• Simulations (L2) - Thomas Ralph + volunteers

We would like each seminar to have an element of "how to interact with players" and/or "how to give a ruling" to ensure a consistent theme and learning outcome runs through the day.

Evening Activities

There are plans for dinner in the evening, so please indicate in your application if you would like to attend, so that we have an idea of numbers.

Based on the preferences exercise conducted before conference we will be dining at a local pub. A list of pubs will be circulated in advance of conference and we will run another preference exercise before confirming a venue.

Testing

There will be opportunity to test for L1 at the conference, but by arrangement only.
If you wish to test for L2, we hope to have <someone> attending to fill the role of L2 tester. Once confirmed we will seek details on your checklist completion.

If you want to test on the day then please include this in your application.

 If you would like to volunteer for the role of L1 or L2 tester please include this in your application.

Timetable for the day

EDIT 23/05/18:

A link to the conference schedule can be found here: http://s193.photobucket.com/user/ps00spf/media/schedule.png.html?sort=3&o=0. <---

1000-1015 - WELCOME - STEVE
1015-1100 - ADDRESSING COMMON ISSUES AND SERIOUS PROBLEMS AT REGULAR REL - NORMAN
1100-1145 - LOCAL ISSUES - SQUEEK (IAN)
1145-1200 - BREAK
1200-1245 - COMBAT PHASE - CEEJAY
1245-1315 - LUNCH
1315-1345 - "FREE SESSION" for networking/gaming etc.
1345-1430 - REPLACEMENT EFFECTS (L1) - SOPHIE
1430-1530 - SIMULATIONS (L1) - THOMAS et al.
1530-1545 - BREAK
1545-1645 - SIMULATIONS (L2) - THOMAS et al.
1645-1715 - THANK YOU AND CLOSE - STEVE

 Questions

If you have any questions regarding the conference, please do not hesitate to contact:

Steve:

• drop me an email
• https://www.facebook.com/Devonshire.Badger
• mobile: 07793142775 (text preferred)

Phil:

• drop me an email
• https://www.facebook.com/TehOneWingedAngel
• mobile: 07539606522 (text preferred)

We look forward to seeing you!