MER Clinic: Training to be a MER Judge

This clinic will provide the basic background training required for becoming a certified MER Judge.  Attendance is a pre-requisite to being an Apprentice Judge at the MER Convention Contest Room.  Anyone and everyone that has any interest in being a Judge needs to attend.         This program includes a series of presentations and lectures accompanied by, I hope, some hands-on practice sessions. The intention is to achieve uniformity, consistency, and to provide a level playing field for all modelers and entrants participating in the AP program and thus also generate trained and certified Judges for the entire MER Region. It’s clear that we have a lim-ited number of experienced Judges that are also well knowledgeable of the judging guidelines, and just what the really in those same guidelines. We’ll review every category of judging, what is and is not in the guidelines, what the Judges look for and what they are supposed to ignore(!), and hopefully dispel more than a few myths. Your attendance will qualify you for apprenticeship in judging at an MER convention where you’ll be teamed up with an established Judge for the day. These sessions will serve as entry points for the certification of all Judges for the MER such that we can all have confidence in both the fairness and uniformity of Judging and the AP program across the MER not only short-term, but for the future of our region.          A complementary clinic/program for modelers that want to participate in the AP program and enter their models for judging in contest rooms is also part of this package deal. Paperwork & forms are perceived as an impediment to entering models into the Contest Room. As has been noted before, Judges only have ~7-9 minutes per category per model. Having the “right stuff” on your paperwork can only help you, and I want you to get those Merit Awards!

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