Foundation of the International Judge Program

Who are we?

The International Judge Program (IJP) is a non-profit organization that is officially registered in the EU - Spain. It is also the largest of the volunteer-organized judge programs that were created after Wizards of the Coast ended their collaboration with Judge Academy without any replacement, counting over 1200 members. The IJP is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro, it is run by volunteers and all its positions are unpaid.

Context

In October 2023, Wizards of the Coast removed the last sponsorship they gave to Judges. This was in line with successive removal of sponsorship (product in event, outside of events, for attending conference…) and while they announced they will continue supporting the judges back in October 2023, Wizards has not shared any plan with the community to continue collaborating with Judges. (https://wpn.wizards.com/en/news/wizards-of-the-coast-and-judge-academy-partnership-ends)

Why does the IJP need money?

The original intent of the IJP was to become officially recognized and sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. To that end, the IJP was in contact with Wizards for many months but in the end Wizards declined the IJP’s requests.

The current Program Leads of the IJP believe that judges should not have to pay money to be judges, which is why the IJP does not cover its costs through a membership fee. Being a global organization, it would also be challenging to establish a membership fee that would be fair and accessible for all members across the world.

However, even as a volunteer organization with unpaid positions, there are costs associated with running a program like this and the crowdfunding is intended to cover the bare minimum of those costs.

What will the IJP do with this money?

The goal of the crowdfunding was set to cover the costs of founding and officially registering the IJP as a non-profit, as well as ongoing expenses through 2025. The founding costs are primarily legal fees to get the association registered and the ongoing expenses consist of the hosting costs of the IJP website, as well as hosting costs for the JudgeApps platform, which the IJP uses to track members, create judge exams and organize projects.

By its statutes, the IJP is required to publish its accountings yearly to its General Assembly.

What about sponsorships other than WotC?

The IJP is open to sponsorships from other sources. If you are interested in providing such a sponsorship, please reach out via email through GoFundMe.

Details of costs :

There are no salaries : the IJP is a volunteer based association, and does not have paid positions.

What if the crowdfunding exceeds its goal?

As shown above, the crowdfunding will ensure the minimum funds the IJP needs to exist throughout 2025.

Any additional funding (above 12000€) will be used for the goals of the organization: training, education, judge conferences and other means of supporting the members of the organization in becoming better judges and improving their skills as event professionals.

What about abuse?

We commit to fight corruption, misuse of the system, and other abuses not respecting the goals mentioned above.

Here is a list of example topics that a Judge program should commit: