All of the other tasks to provide a successful convention are important and we thank you for taking on those roles, but key to any IPMS/USA National Convention is the contest, and a key element of the contest is judges and photographers. We need your help with both.
As you are building your plans for the convention, we ask you to consider helping on Friday night in deciding who will be on the stage or slide show Saturday, or in building that slide show.
Both positions will require blocking out your Friday night, but you will have the pride of knowing you played an essential role in the contest and you will have the opportunity to meet some exceptional modelers and learn some tricks to improve your own work.
Many have heard how long judging can last, but also remember that many hands make light work. The more judging teams, the less time judging will take.
Judges will be required to attend the judges’ meeting planned for 6 p.m. on Friday, where you will learn the standards for judging and choose the class or category you want to judge.
Be aware that first-time judges are usually designated as OJT (On the Job Trainee) where you can learn the judging process hands-on and participate in the deliberations on each category, but whose votes are not officially recorded.
Once the judges have done their jobs on a category, the photography teams will record those winning models for the slide show, the IPMS Journal and for posterity. You will work in teams of two, one to take the pictures and one to record which picture is which model.
Those interested are asked to apply early. In addition to going to the judges’ meeting to get credentials and learn the rules for the contest room, there is a planned conference call to go over some additional instructions and to get people access to the shared folder where the images will be uploaded. While there is no requirement for prior experience, photographers are requested to provide some evidence of their skills. We need to be sure to get good images of each winning model.
As with the judges, the more teams we have, the quicker the process will go, but be aware that photographers can’t do their jobs until the judges finish on each category.
We hope to see you in some capacity in the contest room on Friday night.