Welcome Back, Judge Booklet!

tl;dr: Judge Booklet is back in a new, configurable format with twice the useful information.

Today I feel like a proud parent. After a few months of wrangling, I’m happy to announce the Judge Booklet Project is back!

Before you take a look at the new booklet though, I think it only fair to spend a few minutes telling you why this is so different from the old booklet. To do that, I need to share a bit of history of this iteration of the project with you all.

Back in November of last year, I petitioned to take over the old project. I had discovered that Judges were still using a version of the booklet that was well over a year old. The original work done by Martin Koehler and Ute Kronenberg was outstanding, but both had moved on to other projects. Their efforts served as an excellent foundation to this iteration. In late December, I was notified that the booklet was being turned over to me.

I immediately brought on board Jacob Kriner, L2-Pennsylvania, and we started editing the previous version with an eye towards updated the existing project with current rules and examples. We were only a few days into the task though when I heard from Sophie Pages, L3-France, who had been working on her own rewrite of the booklet.

Sophie jumped onto our team right away, sharing her vision. I was stunned - and admittedly a little nervous - when I saw what she had done to the previous version. In place of a one page printed document representing 8 pages of Judge tips and help, we now had two pages representing 16 pages! But would Judges be receptive to something that doubled in size? After talking it out we determined they would, but we needed to work with the layout to place an order of precedence on the information presented. We wanted to make certain that if a Judge only wanted to print one of the two pages, that the information available on the first page was considered ‘key’ to making rulings and fulfilling the role of a Floor Judge.

While we were busy editing, I was also soliciting for translators. With the release of this new version of the Judge Booklet, there are several translations available with more to come. I can’t thank my team enough, from Jacob and Sophie to the translators, to all of the Judges who got an early first glimpse of the project and offered valuable feedback.

But wait, there’s more! (I feel like Billy Mays).

We’ve partnered with Judge Booth. Steffen Baumgart, L2-Germany, offered his services to help the project along. You can print a default, one page booklet if you want. Or you can print two pages. Or you can customize and mix and match the contents of the first page to your heart’s content.

Before I leave you to the new Judge Booklet, I want to thank everyone who has made this possible. They are, in no particular order: Jacob Kriner, Sophie Pages, Steffen Baumgart, Jonas Drieghe, Victor Truong, Carlos Vega, Jose Moreira, Stefan Ladstatter, Philip Korte, Milan Majercik, Daniel Levy, Stephane Van Cauwenberghe, and Jyri Hamalainen.

So, who’s ready? Well then, take a look here! This finished product is 100% the result of all of the work done by those great Judges I just spoke about. Without them, this project would never have come together.

Lastly, I wish to share a personal belief. Feedback is a gift. If you have a criticism, suggestion, or question, please reach me through Judge Apps. I’d be happy to respond to any and all emails regarding this project. This version will be revised as necessary with any forthcoming rules changes or if significant omissions/mistakes are found to exist.

For those interested in how to ‘fold’ a Judge Booklet, the attached video is a great help.

Pocket Mod Video

Very useful tool! Thanks

Thanks for this. This seems really handy.

Thanks for reviving this project! Maybe it's a little early to ask this, but I'm just wondering if the new version could be localized into other languages like its processor?

Great, vers usefull

Thanks to all

A thank you beyond thanks is given for this revival.

I happen to be one of those judges that have been using the out-dated booklet for what seems like forever. Part of many a Judge Breakfasts have been spent going over the “well, this was updated, but not printed as such” notes with fellow judges.

Huzzah!

It sure is usefull, although I seem to have an issue with the layers page. Anyone else experiencing a problem with the positioning of layer 6 and 7?

Originally posted by Olivier Wattel:

It sure is usefull, although I seem to have an issue with the layers page. Anyone else experiencing a problem with the positioning of layer 6 and 7?

I did. I changed it landscape, though, and also shrunk to 91%, and it's much better.

Thanks, Charles!

Edited Dann Vondenkamp (May 1, 2016 10:55:22 AM)

Great job!

Great job!
Are there any plan to add Spanish to the available languages? (I could help translate if needed)

Thank you Charles and all your team for your efforts.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I only see a lot of scripts when I open the link.

Here's what I see:

Julio-

I'm not able to reproduce this error. Is it possible (seeing as you're using Chrome) that you have an extension active that is causing this? For instance, I know that I need to turn off my Autocard Everywhere script, otherwise it modifies the document in another fashion. The other suggestion I have is to try to load it in another browser if possible - but I'm personally betting on the Chrome extension.

Charles

Originally posted by Esteban Vasquez:

Great job!
Are there any plan to add Spanish to the available languages? (I could help translate if needed)

Thank you, Estaban. We recently received our submission of a Spanish version. Look for that soon.

As to other languages, I have many authors working on a few other versions, including German and Portuguese. I'd love to have help with Italian (if anyone is interested) as well as Korean, Mandarin and Japanese - although I would need to consult with my team to see how that would work compared to languages based on Latin alphabets.

Charles

Originally posted by Julio Sosa:

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I only see a lot of scripts when I open the link.

Same for me, using Firefox.