Job Description for Division Leads

Your main duties:

1. Oversee the judges as they sign up for exhibits, making sure that all exhibits receive a roughly equal share of judges.

2. Oversee the judges as they record the scores from their exhibit interviews.

3. Report the exhibit scores to the Judging Coordinators.

Details:

• The day before the fair: Mall setup in the late afternoon and evening

  • Meet with the Judging Coordinators and the other Division Leads.

  • Set up your division’s area in the judging room.

  • Setup runs from 5:00 PM till 8:00 PM. Plan to be there for at least an hour, sometime during this time.

• Fair Day: Judging Check-in 8:00 AM–9:30 AM

  • Arrive at 7:30 AM — before the judges begin to arrive — for any last minute instructions from the Judging Coordinators.

  • Make sure that all exhibits have roughly the same number of judges. For instance, do not allow anyone to sign up as an exhibit’s third judge until all exhibits have at least 2 judges signed up.

  • If a new or inexperienced judge asks to be paired with an experienced judge, arrange the pairing. These pairs of judges should sign up to judge the same set of exhibits.

  • Make the deadlines clear to the judges: they must finish their interviews and record their scores by 12:30 PM for senior exhibits, by 1:00 PM for juniors.

  • Encourage the judges in your division to fill out their Comment Sheets and turn them in, because this feedback helps the students to improve their projects.

  • Keep things moving, so the judges finish signing up before the Judges’ Meeting at 9:00 AM.

• Judging time 9:30 AM–1:00 PM

  • Stay in the judging area, so the judges can find you.

    • In particular, resist your understandable urge to visit the students at their exhibits. You can do that in the afternoon.

  • When your judges return from judging exhibits, help them record their scores on the Master Scoring Sheets. Collect their Comment Sheets, Score Sheets, and Contact Info.

  • When an exhibit receives its last score, average its scores and record the average on the Master Scoring Sheet.

  • Ties for first place in JB or JP (New policy for 2023)

    • In JB and JP, we name the first-place exhibit the division champion. Since we can only award one first-place award in our Junior divisions, we need you to break the tie.

    • To break the tie, send an extra judge to each of the first-place exhibits. Record their scores; recalculate the exhibits’ total and average; and (hopefully) you’ve broken the tie.

• After judging (12:30 PM for seniors, 1:00 PM for juniors)

  • Read the scores from your Master Scoring Sheets to one of the Judging Coordinators, who will enter them into the computer. We’ll use the scores to place the exhibits into classes and to choose our Senior Finalists and Junior Champions.

  • Collate the Comment Sheets by exhibit number, then deliver them to the students at their exhibits. This is your chance to talk to the students and see their exhibits.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask one of the Judging Coordinators.

Thank you for your time and effort, we couldn’t do it without you!