Dear TCGC community:

In the coming weeks we will be offering several seminars about TCGC adjudication for the 2025 season to which I am writing to invite you on behalf of President Jessica Torrez, Vice President of Adjudication Doug Henderson, and Judges Coordinator Scott Pizani. The sessions will serve primarily to engage individuals who are interested in becoming judges. However, we would like to open them up to instructors as well so, as you develop your programs for this coming season, you can get a look at what information judges are reviewing, especially focusing on how the judging sheets and scoring system work.

These one-hour sessions are scheduled as follows:

VIRTUAL SESSION 1: INTRODUCTION TO TCGC COLOR GUARD ADJUDICATION

Tuesday, December 10, 2024, 8:00pm CT

The adjudication philosophy

The adjudication process

Observation/Impression/Analysis/Comparison/Adjustment

VIRTUAL SESSION 2: INDIVIDUAL ANALYSIS

Tuesday, December 17, 2024, 8:00pm CT

The intent of the “downstairs” captions

Caption descriptors for the ‘what’ and ‘how’

Understanding the importance of scoring-significant commentary

VIRTUAL SESSION 3: DESIGN ANALYSIS AND GENERAL EFFECT

Thursday, January 2, 2025, 8:00pm CT

The intent of the “upstairs” captions

Caption descriptors for the ‘what’ and ‘how’

Understanding the importance of scoring-significant commentary

VIRTUAL SESSION 4: NUMBERS MANAGEMENT

Tuesday, January 7, 2025, 8:00pm CT

How the system works

The message you send with a number

The “box thirds” and “value of a tenth” frames of reference

Defining and approaching contest dynamics

Sub-caption integrity

Applying “comparison” and “adjustment” in scoring

These sessions will set us up for in-person training during TCGC Breakthrough ’25, to be held in Houston (site TBA) on Saturday, January 11.

The Zoom link for each of the meetings is: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/6876495331?pwd=dGRFc0plUCtTOXRmUFdzaUM5dWlQZz09 .

I hope you consider attending these sessions. I believe many of my judging colleagues would agree that attending these sessions (and preparing to become a judge) elevated our show design and teaching chops dramatically after the fact. Understanding the system from the judge’s perspective is a sure-fire way to deepen your strategies for your performers’ success!

Please let me know if you have any questions, and if you would like to go through the full judges training this season, we would be grateful and extremely encouraging! All best wishes as you prepare for the 2025 season!

Yours truly—Greg Llacer (TCGC Chief Judge)