I have just been hired by my LGS to be the HJ of a PPTQ. It's my first time HJing an event with other FJs on staff (I've HJd events as a solo judge before, but not with a team, and I have never team led). What are some things I should be aware of, know, do, not do, and so on?

The event is Nov. 13, so I'll keep checking back periodically for feedback until then. Thanks!

There are many many many articles (both from judges about judging, and from non-magic contexts) on both management and leadership. I'm linking to some below. But for me the most important thing to remember is that as the HJ, I should know as much as possible and do as little as possible.
Of course that doesn't mean you should sit at your HJ desk all day and do literally nothing, but exhaust your delegation options before doing stuff yourself. Your job is to be on top of the flow of the tournament, and if you're off to the side counting decklists, unaware that the last result of the round is coming in, you're going to be startled by your own tournament. So let your floor judges do the legwork so you can keep tabs on what's going on in the big picture. Your FJs are also a valuable source of input about that big picture, so ask them what's going on with that lengthy call, ask them to find out information you need for you.

And breaks. Make sure EVERYONE gets breaks. It's sometimes easy to forget that that includes you. Give yourself a break. I'm not kidding in stressing this (or maybe I'm just a control freak sometimes). I've messed this up so many times and have had others tell me ‘but hey, did YOU take a break yet?’. Don't be like me ;)

Edit: forgot to actually paste the links
http://blogs.magicjudges.org/articles/2015/03/17/head-judging-a-pptq/
http://www.mtgscorekeeper.com/2015/12/2015-mid-atlantic-judge-conference.html
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_92.htm

Edited Anniek Van der Peijl (Oct. 26, 2016 08:54:33 AM)

Do: Watch the other judges to find opportunities to mentor them and write
reviews afterwards. =)

2016-10-26 2:51 GMT-04:00 Anniek Van der Peijl <

But apart from not getting enough breaks, be like Anniek ;).

Personally, I really adhere to everything Anniek said. Another thing I like
to do is make sure that I'm ahead of the event. A common thing I see with
newer HJs is that their head is with the tasks at hand. Now, this might
seem like a good idea but as HJ, I like to be the one thinking ahead,
predicting problems and being on top of what needs to be done 30 min from
now.
That way, you can delegate tasks ahead of time. It makes a big difference.

This is why I love delegating! You can't be ahead of the event if you're
also doing tasks all the time and more importantly, if you need to deal
with something unforeseen (which sometimes could've been avoided if you
could plan ahead), then the task you were doing is left hanging. It makes
you less flexible and being flexible and available is really good as a HJ.

And remember, have fun, tell your team that it's your first time, you're
learning and you'd love feedback and it'll be a great learning experience
for everyone :)

Cheers
/Eskil

Den 26 okt 2016 8:51 fm skrev “Anniek Van der Peijl” <

I like to contact my floor judges a few days before to go over expectations, both theirs and mine. I talk to them about what they want to get out of the tournament, if they are aiming for L2, and if they have any concerns for the event. I also quiz them a bit about policy and relevant rules in the format. Last week I quizzed my floor judge about vehicles, tournament short cuts (esp going to combat) and that sorta thing. I should have put more emphasis on gain energy cards as well, but live and learn.

I wrote an article that may help. Bear in mind that I bring way more to an event than most sane people :)

Event Preparedness

https://theelvishfarmer.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/event-preparedness/

Take care of your judges, making sure they get enough water, have time to sit (get off those sore feet!), get lunch/dinner, etc.
Take care of yourself, too!

Find out the experience levels of your staff. It's possible that one L1 is ready to handle calls on her own, while another L1 should probably shadow you and learn, but not take calls himself.

Trust (but verify)!
I mean a few things, by dragging out that cliché.
If you're hovering over your judges, checking everything they do, they will think you don't trust them; that's not a healthy working relationship.
If, instead, you let them act autonomously, but later discuss what they've done and the policy and philosophy, that's a nurturing environment. Your judges will feel empowered and trusted. The danger of them getting something horribly wrong is mitigated by the appeals process. (Just make sure you announce that feature at the start of round one!)

Perhaps most important of all: have fun!

d:^D

Talk to your floor judge/s before the event begins! You don't want your first conversation with them to be 5 minutes before the player meeting. It's a good idea to know how experienced your copilots are, so you know how much you can trust them with and how frequently you need to check in to make sure things are going ok, what their goals are for the day (you don't want to find out during the last round of they day they were really hoping to get some practice with X and it just didn't happen), if they have any big questions (“I don't understand the trigger policy” “What's a layer?”) they were hoping to have answered, etc.

A pptq is usually a pretty good chance to work closely with a newer judge and provide some support, guidance, etc – and while the needs of the players and the event should obviously come first, you should be able to find time to do some mentoring.

Remind your FJs to re read the most current IPG. I would also strongly recommend reading the MTR and the PPTQ Fact Sheet yourself - it will allow you to avoid doing awkward things like trying to run time Top 8s.

Are you familiar with the store and how they normally run events? Get on-site ahead of time to spot where you can post pairings (or if they do it digitally, to ensure that works!) and to confirm that they have scissors/paper cutter, sticky tape, something to run WER on.
Never assume the TO knows what you require to run an event :-P

Hello Lyle! I see you have you are flexing your new L2 muscles by HJing a PPTQ! Here is the link to the PPTQ handbook by Smith and Kuan which has helped me tremendously when I HJ'ed my first PPTQ.

PPTQ Handbook

and of course communicate with both your TO and FJ together to make sure the alignment of goals and interests :)

Good Luck!