May, 2007

Adjudication, by its very nature, is always highly suspect. Whether it is a Supreme Court decision on a controversial topic, a referee’s invoking that “tuck rule” on a snowy football field in New England (Raider’s fans will remember this one), or an adjudicator awarding a rating to a young musical group at a festival, the final decision is always open to criticism. Those of us who take our groups to various music festivals know that they vary greatly in quality, difficulty and reliability. Some festivals pretty much require only that you show up, to receive a high rating. Some are designed to justify to parents and school officials the reason for taking groups on trips. Some are so critical that directors and students have no desire to ever return to them again. Some are designed to evaluate a group’s performance in a kind, yet educational, manner. I hope the Bay Section, CMEA qualifies for the latter example.

Other CMEA sections and private festivals have selected to use many of the Bay Section’s festival and adjudication processes. We take pride in the fact that our performance criteria and adjudication forms are often used throughout the West Coast. Remember the old adage, to copy is to compliment!

For the past decade we have spent considerable time evaluating our festivals. We have compared what we do to other festivals, written new and specific performance criteria, devised new adjudication sheets for all groups, trained and evaluated our adjudicators, held workshops to improver what we do and encouraged feed-back from directors. The process is continuous and constantly evolving. All prospective adjudicators must go through an apprenticeship with a respected Bay Section adjudication mentor in each area they wish to adjudicate. This is required of everyone wishing to become an adjudicator in the Bay Section, regardless of previous experience, position or reputation. This is required to ensure that all of our adjudicators approach our festivals from the same position – a desire for the most consistent product possible. The training is in the Bay Section process of adjudication. It is essential.

All Bay Section adjudicators must attend a workshop a minimum of once every two years. This usually is held during the Bay Section conference, in January. The workshops cover different subjects each year and again, are designed to make what we do consistent and at the highest level possible. Most adjudicators attend the workshops every year, even though it is not a requirement.

Directors are requested to complete adjudication rating forms after each festival. Unfortunately, very few take the time to do this. The forms received are usually only from directors upset about something, but don’t give detailed enough information to be of value to anyone. We need these forms for every adjudicator from every festival; good, bad or indifferent. Take the time to be specific and detailed. You may outline something very important that the subject adjudicator was not aware of. These evaluations are given to each adjudicator for their perusal at the end of each school year. Starting in the 2008 festival season, these forms will be on our website and will be interactive, which means you will be able to complete the evaluation on line and send them in with a minimum of time and effort involved.

Finally, the Adjudication Director makes a presentation to the Bay Section Executive Board on the status of all adjudicators at the end of each festival season. This includes assignments completed, a summary of directors’ evaluations, Head Adjudicator evaluations, attendance at required workshops and any other pertinent information. Apprentice Mentor evaluations are read and discussed. At this time the Executive Board makes recommendations on all adjudicators. This may be highly positive for their continuance as an adjudicator, may request further training or could possibly call for their removal from the list of adjudicators.

We encourage everyone involved in the Bay Section to give input to our adjudication process and adjudicators. Our sole purpose is to serve you and your students. Help us to make the Bay Section the leader in music adjudication.

Orrin Cross III
Adjudication Representative