Judges
Go “Back to Basics” at Boot Camp
By Beth Smith, Pacific Sound Chorus, Region 13, Certified Sound
Judge
It’s spring! And every
Sweet Adeline’s mind turns to thoughts of competition. While
you’re busy preparing your songs, costumes and choreography
for the regional contest stage, Sweet Adelines judges are hard at
work, too — preparing for their job of evaluating your contest
performance.
At the same time the groundhog pokes his head above ground to forecast
the end of winter, judges start to emerge from their winter hibernation,
pull their materials out of storage, and start their preparations
for the contest season. Did you think they got off a plane and sat
down at the table, fully ready to judge at the drop of a hat? Oh,
no! There are a variety of activities happening behind the scenes
in those last six weeks before contest season.
Every judge I know and have served with has her own process for
getting ready to pick up her pencil. Some read through last year’s
scoresheets to get the terminology refreshed in the brain. Some
judges watch videos of past contests they’ve judged. (We’re
careful not to view tapes from a region where we’re going
to judge that spring, so we can go in with fresh ears and eyes.)
Some write sample scoresheets. Most re-read the Judging Category
Description Booklet. Remember, judges get evaluated on their contest
performance, too, and we all want a glowing report card!
History
When I was coming up through the program as an Approved Candidate
Judge (ACJ), I was lucky enough to have another candidate in my
hometown. We got together regularly to put ourselves through our
paces, and we had the luxury of calling on our local judging mentors
to provide us with practice tapes and scoresheets for reference.
We always bought the videos in the regions where we judged, so we
had those to practice with the next year.
Soon another friend joined the program and our practice sessions.
Word got out, and we had candidates from other parts of the country
asking to join us. We jokingly called them “boot camp,”
designed to whip us into shape to go out to trial score (and eventually,
prepare for our first official panels). Our goal was to prepare
our brains (and develop our sitting stamina) for upcoming contests.
We practiced, practiced, practiced for a whole weekend — viewing
contests, writing scoresheets, giving instant level scores, refining
our vocabulary and finding 10 new ways to say, “continue to
strengthen your skills in…” Most of us had developed
reference materials to use in the pit, and we shared those with
each other.
Until recently these were like clandestine gatherings in living
rooms around the country, as judges practiced secretly, alone or
in small groups, before going out on their spring panels. This year,
our concept grew from a small group in Seattle to four Boot Camps
across the country in Seattle, Chicago, Houston and Cincinnati.
Alltogether, 30 judges traveled on their own time and money, to
get together with others in their category, to have the chance to
immerse themselves in judging for a whole weekend. The format varied,
but the mission was the same: It was time to get ourselves up to
speed for contest season, and this was our chance to practice.
Chicago
Renee Porzel hosted the Chicago Boot Camp at her house in January.
While the temperature dropped outside, we were busy reviewing contest
DVDs and scoresheets from the previous year. Renee had pulled together
a random assortment of quartet and chorus performances, and compiled
them into two “contests,” which we judged on Saturday.
We shared descriptor sheets and tools that we use in our categories;
composed verbal scoresheets as a contestant performed on-screen,
so others could see our thinking/evaluating process; and we had
great discussions on how the performances rate across the categories.
We were fortunate to have coverage from all four categories: in
Soundm Beth Smith, Certified and Joan Boutilier,; in Music, June
Berg, Certified; in Expression, Bon Pressley and Annette Gary, ACJs;
and in Showmanship, Renee Porzel, Certified.
Houston
The award for judge-pampering goes to the Houston Boot Camp —
seven judges were hosted at the home of a Houston Horizon member,
and members of the chorus prepared meals and cleaned up, so that
they could devote all their energy to working and learning. Attending
the Houston session in February: in Sound, Janie Macchiaroli Certified,
and Vickie Dennis and Mary Rhea, ACJs; in Music, Mary Ann Wydra,
Approved; in Expressionm Marsha Fulton and Marcia Massey, Certified;
and in Showmanship, Janet Burnett, Approved.
Most of the activities revolved around watching DVDs and scoring.
The group worked through the new level tape, and then scored contests
from the DVDs of the spring 2005 season; they did lots of instant
leveling and discussed why it would be different by category. They
shared different ways of saying things, and talked about how to
address aspects of performance that crossed category boundaries.
Then they discussed identifying characteristics of each level, and
talked about why scores might be different from one category to
another.
Working in small groups provided the opportunity for real discussion
on many aspects of judging. It was great for the trial scorers to
see the more experienced judges working on the same types of issues,
and getting as much out of it as the rookies. The learning opportunity
was more intimate, in-depth and much less intimidating than at large
workshops. All agreed: they definitely want to continue this next
year, and hope to see a listing of boot camps scheduled all over
for 2007.
Cincinnati
Carolyn Healey and Jan Meyer (Certified Music Judges) hosted the
Cincinnati session, in front of Carolyn’s big-screen TV. In
attendance were: in Music, Carolyn Healey and Jan Meyer, Certified,
and Jean Flinn, Becky Wilkins, Approved; and Susan Heimburger, all
ACJs in Expression, Marlrnr Btsuvhlr, Applicant; and in Showmanship,
Becki Hine, Approved; and aspiring judges Janet Crenshaw, Judy Norris
and Linda Rowand.
Starting with an informal discussion session, sharing materials,
discussing “hot buttons” in the categories, clarifying
vocabulary and phrasing, they then discussed scoring and how to
evaluate a performance that is up and down (inconsistent over the
course of the performance — starting shaky and getting better
or, conversely, starting strong then falling apart). On Saturday
they reviewed the new level tape and thoroughly discussed the performances,
talked about how to get past a feature that dominates your thoughts
(one singer with vibrato, one section constantly under pitch, etc.).
They watched performances from last year’s contests, gave
scores and discussed how they arrived at them, then compared them
to the actual panel scores from that contest. There’s never
enough time to do all you want to do.
The biggest benefit was to hear judges talk about how they hear/view
performances and arrive at scores, and hear some of the language
they use on score sheets. Everyone wrote at least one new phrases
on their level guides to help get the right numbers, or wrote down
well-phrased descriptions that they will use on scoresheets. Those
who participated said it was a great way to get new ideas and to
get their heads in gear for the spring competitions.
Seattle
There are several judges in the Seattle area (what else is there
to do in the rain?!), and most of us acted as organizers and hosts
for the small army of judges who descended on Seattle at the end
of February. We were slated to have 15 people at our session, but
due to some conflicts and injuries, we ended up with 11 attendees
squeezed into a living room: in Soundm Beth Smith, Certified, Ruth
Ann Parker, Approved, and Tomi McEvoy, ACJ; in Music, Marge Bailey
and Linda Masterson, Certified, and Susan Lamb and Jana Gutenson
ACJs; in Expression, Joan Levitin and Lea Beverley, Certified; and
in Showmanship, Melanie Wroe, Certified and Mindi Brizendine ACJ.
This was the first Seattle boot camp where we had all four categories
represented, and what a difference it made. We judged DVDs from
last spring, viewed the new judge’s level tape and had lively
discussions about category weights and trends in our categories.
(We really dig that stuff!) We also shared handouts, talked about
the value in developing your own set of materials, using your own
language, and how that solidifies many aspects of judging and your
category into a solid process for you when you enter the pit. We
were fortunate to have two of the category specialists with us,
so we also spent time brainstorming and giving them ideas for future
training workshops, which we hope they will take back to the specialist
group.
The Bottom Line
What did all this cost Sweet Adelines International? Nothing. All
who participated in these boot camps did so on their own time and
at their expense. Some used frequent flyer miles to get there, some
stayed in hotels, some slept on couches. We all had the chance to
spend time with a special group of women, whom we usually see only
once a year if we’re lucky. We had a chance to turn off our
outside lives and focus on judging and our own category for a weekend.
We had the opportunity to awaken and refresh our judging brains,
so that we can give our best performance for the contestants this
spring. Every judge I know agonizes over doing it right, picking
the right winner, getting the right score, giving helpful feedback
that spurs a quartet or chorus to improve next year.
Is it easy? No way. It’s a long process to learn how to judge
and to develop your own style. Is it worthwhile? You bet! Almost
every Sweet Adeline in the world has had contact at least once in
her career with a judge, via a scoresheet. We take that responsibility
seriously, and always strive to do our best.
Next time you go to contest, take the time to speak to a judge.
We are all competitors, and we want to have good feedback from our
peers, just as you do. Many of us roam your hospitality rooms on
Saturday night, and would love to meet you and sing a tag. Judges
are people, too!
Now that contest season is over, we can go back to our daily Sweet
Adelines lives, until it’s time for us to prepare for the
next contest experience. I know I’ll be looking forward to
(or planning) another boot camp then.
