Entries for this year's competition close soon, and with them comes the annual scramble from members trying to figure out whether their Competition Judge Accreditation is still current. Short answer for a lot of you: probably not, and that's by design.
Of our seven credentials, Judge Accreditation is the one that expires fastest, and it's the only one that lapses if you simply stop using it. You can hold a Certified Cheese Professional designation for years without touching a make sheet and it doesn't blink. Judge Accreditation is different — it's built around active panel experience, not a one-time exam, because judging a competition well is a skill that erodes the moment you stop practicing it.
What the credential actually requires
Getting accredited starts with the Sensory Evaluation Certificate, which is the prerequisite, not a substitute. From there, a candidate needs supervised experience on an actual judging panel — not shadowing, but scoring alongside an accredited judge whose scores get compared to yours afterward. That comparison is the part people underestimate. It's less about whether you liked a wheel and more about whether your scoring is consistent with a trained panel's, entry after entry, category after category.
Once accredited, the credential is valid for two years. Renewal isn't automatic paperwork; it asks for continued active judging, which is why we see a wave of lapses every cycle from members who got accredited, judged once, and then didn't pick up another panel assignment before the window closed. If that's you, you're not being singled out — it's the most commonly lapsed credential we track, and we'd rather tell you that plainly than pretend it's unusual.
Why this matters more this year
Industry-wide, competition entries have been climbing. One major national contest drew nearly 3,000 entries this year, judged by a panel of more than fifty over three days, and a regional cheese society's own competition topped 1,300 entries from over 200 producers — both records for their respective events. Our competition is smaller than either, but the trend line looks the same: more entries per category, which means more judges needed per panel.
A thin bench of accredited judges makes for longer sessions and less time per wheel — not good for anyone, including the member whose entry gets a rushed look because the panel is running two hours behind. It also means the committee ends up leaning on the same small group of veteran judges cycle after cycle, which isn't sustainable and isn't fair to them either.
If your accreditation has lapsed, there's usually still time to get onto a supervised panel before entries close, and doing so now also keeps you current heading into next year rather than scrambling again in twelve months. If you're not accredited at all but curious, the Sensory Evaluation Certificate is the place to start, and it's useful on its own even if you never sit on a panel — plenty of members take it purely to sharpen how they evaluate their own product.
Reach out to the Awards & Competition Committee if you want to check your accreditation status or get matched to a panel before entries close. We'll see a good number of you in Asheville either way.
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.