Greeting from the NE/International region! This has been another year of explosive growth, particularly in Latin America, where 25 exams will be administered in 2018 to nearly 500 judges. Brazil now has over 200 active BJCP judges, joining the US, Canada and Australia in this echelon.
We have fortunately been able to recruit graders fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese to help keep up with the extra workload created by the foreign-language exams, but we are always looking for more. To that end, we have begun an Apprentice Grader program for BJCP judges fluent in foreign languages who may not yet be National, but meet the requirements to take the Written Proficiency Exam: a score of at least 80% on the Beer Judging Exam and at least 10 judging points. Most of these Apprentice graders begin by taking the online Grader Training (in English), and they are then are assigned to an exam set, where they “shadow” the two graders of record. This additional grader training improves their calibration, helps them prepare for the Written Proficiency exam, and offers an opportunity to earn non-judging experience points. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
The growth of BJCP judges in the International regions is also increasing the number of National judges, which is alleviating the challenging of finding qualified proctors. It is now rare to have exams where at least one National judge is not local (within a 100 mile/160 km radius) or regional (within a 300 mile/500 km radius). Travel stipends up to US $500 for proctors are still available, but are generally restricted to one proctor per exam. As per the Exam Proctor Reimbursement Policy, criteria for approval of the stipend is based on factors such as rank and whether the proctor is active BJCP exam grader. The travel stipends MUST be pre-approved by the Exam Director for that specific exam, preferably at least two weeks prior to the exam date.