call for Ship Judges at IPMS Orlando

Mark is the Head Ship Judge for IPMS USA and he has asked me to repost this mail which went out to people who are on his list of judges from past conventions. 

If you did not receive the email and are interested in judging at this years nationals in Orlando, contact Mark at onthemarkmodels@msn.com. Signing up in advance is not absolutely necessary, just walk up to us following the judges general meeting and volunteer to help. If you have not judged before you will be assigned to a team as an OJT judge, but your opinion will be heard in the judging. 

Even if you do not compete, judging will give you an idea of what is looked for and how to improve your own personal models. 

I cut and pasted a screenshot of Marks submarine category count spreadsheet into a photobucket image. If it doesn't show up and you are interested in the stats over the last decade, ask Mark for a copy. 

Please contact Mark directly with any questions or comments. 

Mark will be running the 2013 contest in Colorado. At last year's show Mark asked me to assist him this year as Assistant Head Ship Judge so that I can take over that post next year while he runs the contest. 

Ed 


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Hello Ship Judges! 

This year’s convention in Orlando is just a few weeks away, so I want to check with all of you from my list, to find out which of you plan to be there and plan to assist with judging the Ships categories. 

If you have preferences for categories you’d like to judge, let me know. The list of categories for this year can be found at www.ipms2012.org/Contest/Categories/categories.html . I'd prefer if you let me know the Category Number; just easier for me to track that way. We may have some splits to expand the major categories, so make sure to be as specific as possible about your judging preferences (eg, #402, large-scale Carriers or Batteships/Cruisers, #400 small-scale Modern or WW-II, etc). Also, make sure to let me know if there are any categories that you really DON’T want to judge, or other judges with whom you’d prefer not to be assigned - no need for me to assign you to a category you’re not comfortable judging! I don't keep prior-years' assignments handy, so please don't just say "I'll do the same as I did last year" - I may just recall that you did Ships-in-a-Bottle last year! 

And please make sure to let me know if you’re planning to enter any specific Ships categories (by number, please) this year, so I don’t assign you to judge them! Another request I have is that you let me know if you’re bringing any LARGE ship models (larger than 1:350 scale: eg, 1:72 Subs, the larger-scale Fletcher DDs, and any larger-size models based on fiberglass hulls or big scratchbuilt projects). If so, I want to let Orlando’s contest coordinator know so he can plan table assignments for our categories. 

When you email your reply, please make sure to put “IPMS Judge” or “Ship Judge” or some similar phrase in your Subject Line, so I’ll recognize that your reply isn’t some spam email. I’ll also be posting a notice for Ship Judges on the IPMS-USA website, HyperScale, and a few other ship-model websites, to get the attention of those judges who I don’t currently have on my email list. So, if you’re reading this email, you’re on my main list and only need to respond to this message; you don’t need to send additional replies if you see this notice elsewhere. And if you have friends-associates in you local club who are interested in judging Ships, please forward this message to them. 

Depending on how quickly I get replies back and how many I get, I’ll try to let you know your tentative category assignments before I fly to Orlando. I likely won't try to schedule a judges’ briefing for our group before the regular Friday-night activities; I will plan to do a brief review of our procedures Friday evening, after the general judges' briefing and before we get into the contest room. 

NEW NOTES FOR THIS YEAR: 

For the following items, please let me know what you think should be done. But, PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO ME ONLY – PLEASE DON’T “REPLY TO ALL” – I’m sure none of you want to have to wade through dozens of email replies and replies-to-replies that go to our entire group. Please send your comments to just me, and I’ll compile a single page of the comments I receive to send to all of you after a couple weeks. 

At this year’s National Contest Committee meeting, I want to try to standardize some of our major-category splits, so we don’t revisit them anew each year. As part of that, I am considering a recommendation that we combine our two small-scale Subs categories for pre- & post-46 subs into a single small-scale Subs category. Look over my attached worksheet that shows those categories’ entry numbers for the past decade. Should we combine them? 

 
Also, I’ve had a couple requests that we add some type of category for large-size commercial vessels – cruise ships & cargo carriers. Advocates for this state that our emphasis on warship-types for our various categories seems to discourage entries of commercial-vessel models. And while we get few such models entered in any year, if we create a specific category for that type, it’ll encourage more entries. So, should we do this, and if so, how best to describe such a category? One category for all scales? Small & large categories? 

And we may have some discussion of possible changes to our Out-of-the-Box categories. One proposal is to change its definition from “out-of-the-box” to “basic build” with no multi-media materials or after-market accessories. Advocates state that would be more in the spirit of the original intent of the out-of-the-box categories, and remove the trend of entrants doing high-tech multi-media kits for what had been intended as a way to encourage us to be able to compete with older more basic plastic kits. Let me know whether you think such a definition & approach is workable.

And remember, PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO ME ONLY – PLEASE DON’T “REPLY TO ALL” – I’ll compile the replies I receive and send them back to you as a single document, instead of all of you getting multiple-reply-chain emails. 

The Summer of 2013, the National Convention will be held in Loveland, Colorado (1-hr’s drive North of Denver). I’m working as co-chair for that convention’s committee, and I’ll be too busy with convention business to take care of the Ships judging work at that show. I’ve asked Ed Grune of Dallas Texas to serve as Head Ship Judge for 2013. You’ve probably noticed Ed’s helpful contributions on some of the ship-model DGs. He'll be assisting me at Orlando, trying to manage all of you! 

I look forward to seeing you in Orlando in a few weeks, and will appreciate your help with judging again this year! 

Mark Persichetti, IPMS-USA Head Ship Judge 

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