It's early to be thinking about a webinar that's two months out, but the Awards & Competition Committee asked us to get this one in front of members now rather than in the week before, and they're right to ask. "Webinar: Judging Standards 2019" is scheduled for May 14, and if you hold Competition Judge Accreditation — or you're weighing whether to pursue it before this year's competition cycle — this is the session to build your calendar around.
Why this one, specifically
Judging panels only work if everyone on them is scoring against the same rubric, and rubrics drift a little every year as new categories get added and edge cases pile up. This webinar is where the committee walks through what changed since last year's competition, reviews a handful of borderline scoring calls from recent entries, and opens the floor for questions before entries start coming in for this year's cycle. If you judged last year and found yourself second-guessing a score sheet at 11pm, this is the session that answers that particular kind of question.
It's also open to members who don't hold the accreditation yet but are curious about it. We'd rather you sit in on a live session and get a feel for what judging actually asks of you before you commit to the accreditation pathway, than have you sign up cold. A fair number of members who show up "just to watch" end up starting the accreditation process within the month.
A retailer who's judged the last two competition cycles told us the biggest adjustment for new judges isn't the tasting itself — it's learning to score against the written rubric instead of your own palate. "You can genuinely love a wheel and still have to mark it down if it drifts from what the category asks for," she said. "That took me a full cycle to get comfortable with." That's exactly the kind of calibration this webinar exists to reinforce, and it's a lot easier to absorb before entries start arriving than while you're scoring them under a deadline.
What to do between now and May
Nothing urgent — that's the point of a save-the-date. If your accreditation is due for renewal this year, this is a natural anchor point: check your renewal date now, and if it falls before May, don't let this webinar sneak up on you as the deadline for a credential that's already lapsed. We'd rather send you a calendar reminder in April than a "you're overdue" note in June.
If you're newer to competition and haven't been near the judging side at all, no need to wait for May — the Awards & Competition Committee can point you toward this year's entry categories and timeline any time you want to talk it through. It's also worth thinking now about whether you want to enter product this cycle, judge it, or both in different categories — some members do both, but the committee generally asks you to pick one role per category to keep the scoring clean.
We know March feels early for a May reminder, and normally we'd agree. But between the accreditation renewal window and the run-up to this year's entry deadline, the committee has seen enough members miss both by waiting until the month of the event to think about either. Put it on the calendar now, and we'll be back with the registration link and a fuller agenda as the date gets closer.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.