By Ryan Thomas
It has been my pleasure to represent this region for the past three years. During that time we’ve grown to be the biggest domestic region with over 825 active judges. In the Colorado Front Range area we are beginning to see a reduced demand for exams, and even a couple cancelled due to lack of examinees. The increase has supported larger and more frequent competitions, with less contention and scrambling for qualified judges. My guess is that this trend will follow in the other large population centers within the region over the next year or two.
Over the past year the exam program has expanded to 12 exam sites per month, and with the help of the AHA exams are being graded and returned faster than ever. All of the exam staff and graders deserve a big THANK YOU! The most important thing any judge can do for the program is to grade exams, so if you are National ranked or higher please volunteer to be a grader by sending email to [email protected].
The BJCP is eager to expand on the idea of more local coordination, specifically helping to synchronize the many competitions, exams, classes, and training opportunities within a geographic region. If you have ideas about how we could accomplish this, or other ways to better serve the needs of judges feel free to send me an email at [email protected].
Finally, I’d like to recognize the following judges who’ve been promoted to National or higher in our region over the past year. Congratulations!
| National | Master | Grand Master | Grand Master II |
| Steve Jones | Trevor Nichol | Mark Emiley | Gregg Smith |
| Krystal Bittner | Dennis Mitchell | Steve Antoch | |
| Matt Brown | Don Blake | ||
| Tracy Hensley | |||
| Stephen Streeter | |||
| Taylor Caron | |||
| Brian Pramov |