By David Houseman, BJCP Competition Director
As many of you know, the COVID-19 crisis has caused many competitions to be postponed or cancelled. This has and will continue to cause a reduction in the number of judging opportunities for judges in 2020 and a shortfall of BJCP revenue as we have refunded the registration fees for many competitions.
If you are an organizer you may have read the BJCP cancellation policy. That states we only give refunds for situations such as the COVID-19 lockdowns, but only if the competition is cancelled (or postponed) prior to the competition date. Due to the severity and wide-spread nature of this current crisis we have elected to temporarily refund all competitions that have cancelled or postponed. In the case where competitions are properly postponed prior the competition date and the future date is not yet known, we have offered to temporarily park competitions in December and revive them when a firm date is determined. This temporary change in refund policy will likely end by the end of June. We will then revert to your stated refund policy.
We don’t know how long this pandemic will persist or how comfortable judges will feel judging in competitions; so future cancellations and postponements are likely. If this occurs in one of your competitions, be sure to inform the Competition Director of changes PRIOR to the competition date so that we can refund registration fees when appropriate and work with the organizer to make necessary competition date changes. For the organizers, plan ahead accordingly. You may find yourself with a lower number of judges than expected and needed.
Changes Coming
Technology is going to affect how we judge in the future. There have been several competitions registered recently that will judge virtually. It will be interesting to see how these will work out. Al Boyce is developing best practices for virtual competitions. Nelson Crowle is making changes to the Reggie competition software to better support virtual competitions. One BJCP member has developed a fillable PDF that can be used to fill out with a PC, Mac, tablet or cell phone to judge electronically. Another, Al Boyce, and a committee from Minnesota, have introduced the use of QR codes to the BJCP judging forms. Al has modified the legacy BJCP score sheets with a place for a sticker containing an entry QR code. This will enable the automated sorting and emailing of scanned score sheets. The new score sheet also contains flight information, to eliminate the need for a cover sheet. This new score sheet is under review; contact the Competition Director if you would like to use this form.
It will be seen how and when all of these will be introduced into competitions, but as they say, the one constant is change.
Be safe out there,
Dave