Judge Etiquette and General Information

Regulations and General Information for Mister & Miss Deaf Universe Judges

  

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1.       There will be no talking to any of the contestants except for a simple greeting. Avoid contestant contacts at hotels, bars, and /or restaurants.  

 

2.       There will be no talking at the judge’s table among judges or to anyone around the table. Questions, after a contestant’s performance (not during), should be directed to the Lead Judge, unless otherwise instructed.  A thorough judge's orientation will alleviate all or most questions.  

 

3.       There should be no comments made by any of the judges concerning a particular contestant during or after a particular judging section (i.e. “that was a great interview”)  

 

4.       There will be no drinking of alcoholic beverages at the judge’s table during judging or any other time prior to or during competition categories. Judges will not become intoxicated during the course of the pageant.  This includes having an alcoholic beverage, prior to the pageant and/or during a break from judging duties, during the contest. Remember, contestants, are watching you as much as you are watching them.  

 

5.       Do not applaud or overreact to any contestant’s presentation.  

 

6.       Focus your complete attention on each contestant during each category. A judge should not “take his eyes off of” the performance of the contestant during any Categories. Notes may be written on the worksheet but do not look away from the contestant.  

 

7.       A judge’s valet should be appointed by the pageant promoter to care for the judge’s needs. Promoters, valets, and other persons are never to interrupt the judge’s concentration while a contestant is being judged.  

 

8.       Tardiness will run the schedule over the allotted time limits therefore, please be on time for every judged event.  

 

9.       Do not discuss your scoring with anyone except the promoter, reigning Mister & Miss Deaf Universe, or the official representative of MrPrinceAce. All questions should be answered by the aforementioned only.  

 

10.   At no time will judges be allowed in a contestant’s hotel room or vice versa.  

 

11.   Keep your questions simple and to the point during interviews. The contestant is not there to hear your accomplishments. You are there to hear his interview. Promoters are encouraged to review some of the planned questions.  

 

12.   All judges are required to stay at least one (1) hour after the pageant ends for contestants’ “critique”. The critique is designed to advise the contestants of improvements needed and to advise of strong points of the contestant’s package.  

 

13.   A judge will not be allowed to judge either state or regional pageant for two consecutive years.  There will be no exceptions.  

 

14.   A judge may adjudicate no more than two (2) states and no more than two (2) regional pageants during a calendar year. Exceptions are limited to former Mister & Miss Deaf Universe titleholders and the Mister & Miss Deaf Universe Advisory Board, all of which have the unlimited judging opportunity unless otherwise declared by MrPrinceAce.  

 

15.   The appearance of the judges must be professional at all times during the competition. Judges should be dressed in “business casual” (no t-shirts, shorts, jeans, or tennis shoes). At minimum promoters may wish to require formal or “dress to impress” attire on the final night of competition.  

 

16.   The official representative of MrPrinceAce has the authority to question any judge who violates these rules and to relieve a judge of his/her seat after careful scrutiny of the rule infraction. The entire score sheets of every category may be removed from the judge in question however, clear communication must occur between the representative of MrPrinceAce, the promoter, and the judge.  

 

17.   As there are restrictions on the frequency that an individual may judge, preliminaries during a pageant season, it remains the responsibility of the promoter to investigate the qualification of the panel of judges to ensure that the contestant is provided with the highest quality of qualified and professional panel of judges. The exception to the judging limitation is for the former Mister & Miss Deaf Universe titleholders and the Mister & Miss Deaf Universe Advisory Board of Directors, who are unlimited in their judging opportunities unless otherwise directed by MrPrinceAce. The executive offices of MrPrinceAce shall be provided with detail of judges including city and state of residence, telephone number, and email address for each judge. The executive office of MrPrinceAce may send a list of qualified judges who are available to adjudicate preliminaries.  

 

18.   The pageant promoter is responsible to ensure that the panel of judges is both responsible and eligible to judge. Promoters should make the selection of judges while considering reputation, resumes’ of qualifications, and to avoid any potential conflict of interest. A potential conflict of interests includes but is not limited to partners/mates of contestants, current promoters of contestants (example: a promoter of a regional contest whereby contestants may be the current titleholder), city preliminary promoters of that particular state contest, or a contestant who has already qualified, or intends to qualify, for the Mister & Miss Deaf Universe pageant, or any of its preliminaries, during that particular pageant season.  

 

19.   Any contestant who has qualified or has the intention to qualify for any preliminary of Mister & Miss Deaf Universe (i.e State/Regional pageants or on the National level) may not judge ANY preliminary pageant, during the same pageant season, in which they intend to compete.  This applies to any official preliminary, (City, State, and Regional), that is designated as a preliminary in the Mister & Miss Deaf Universe system.  

 

20.   Judges should use the “Judges Worksheet” to make a notation of the contestants’ performance, and subcategory scoring. Then, once completed the scores should be carried forward to the actual Score sheet which is submitted to the tabulator. The “Judges Worksheet” remains the property of the judge, for his reference during the critique. Judges should notate the positives and negatives, of the contestant’s performance in order to provide an effective critique. The Judges Worksheet is subject to review by a pageant official (Mister & Miss Deaf Universe, MrPrinceAce, or Promoter) and should be readily available for review, upon request.  

 

21.   The identity of the judges will be kept confidential, prior to the contest registration. That is, judges and promoters should not advertise, either in electronic, written, or verbal communication, to any persons that they have been selected to judge a particular contest.  

 

22.   Judges should not be viewing message board chats/websites concerning the pageant, while the pageant is in the process (from the beginning of the pageant to the conclusion of the pageant) 

 

23.   Administrative Point Deductions shall not be the responsibility of the panel of Judges. The Judges should score according to the category descriptions as applied to the contestant presentation for which they are currently reviewing.

 

OTHER JUDGES INFORMATION

 

Any contestant who has qualified or has the intention to qualify for any preliminary of Mister & Miss Deaf Universe (i.e. State/Regional pageants or on the National level) may not judge (during the year in which they intend to compete in the next level pageant), any contest, including City, State, and Regional preliminaries, that is designated as a preliminary in the Mister & Miss Deaf Universe system.

 

 The official representative of MrPrinceAce has the authority to question any judge who violates these rules and to relieve a judge of his/her seat after careful scrutiny of the rule infraction. The entire score sheets of every category may be removed from the judge in question provided careful judgment and communication has been occurred between all involved including the promoter and the judge.

 

PANEL OF JUDGES:

A panel of judges should be competent and qualified to judge. A State or Regional contest should have not less than five (5) judges. A City Preliminary should have no less than three (3) judges, although a panel of five (5) is preferred. Of the panel of judges, one judge must be designated as the Lead Judge. A Lead Judge is defined as the most qualified and experienced person to assume the role of supervisor of the panel of judges. While the Promoter and Mister & Miss Deaf Universe are ultimately responsible for the conduct of the panel of judges, the Lead Judge shall be well versed in all of the rules and regulations of the pageant system to ensure that the behavior of the panel of judges is acceptable.

 

CRITIQUE:

The judge’s critique will usually occur at the conclusion of the contest unless otherwise approved by the national office. The Judges Critique session shall detail both positive and negative comments from each of the judges concerning each category. Negative critique is crucial to the future competitive success of the contestant therefore the judges should be sure to detail any “flaws” with the competition package. In no instance, should a critique session become a “PRAISE SESSION”

 

The Judges Worksheet, if used properly during the contest will prove to be a valuable instrument during the critique session. Judges should retain the Judge’s Worksheet in order to provide an effective post-pageant critique. Since the Judges Critique Session usually lasts not longer than 5 minutes, judges are urged to make themselves available for contact after the conclusion of the contest for additional counseling.

 

In order to expedite the critique process, if a judge has no additional comment to add to that already stated by another judging colleague, concerning a particular category, he/she should not “echo” comments already stated but rather defer comment until the next category critique.

 

The critique session shall be monitored by the promoter or their official representative. In no way shall a contestant be allowed to show “disrespect” to a judge. Violations of this issue will result in suspension on both the preliminary and the national levels.

 

In general, the critique session, at the conclusion of the pageant shall be for no longer than five (5) minutes per contestant however the panel of judges has the option to counsel with each contestant for in excess of five minutes.

 

Pageants with greater than ten (10) contestants may use the approved (by the national office) Critique Sheets in lieu of a critique session for all contestants, however a “face-to-face” critique session, immediately following the conclusion of the contest, must be available to the “finalist” contestants.  In the event that Critique Sheets are utilized by the promoters, the judges should be urged to be available to the contestants, for more detailed critique, upon request by the contestant.

 

PROPER SCORING PROCEDURES

Judges should be furnished with and advised of appropriate scoring procedures as detailed in the Promoters Handbook.

 

EXPLANATION OF PROPER SCORING PROCEDURES

As per the MrPrinceAce Rules and Regulations, all preliminaries must use the MrPrinceAce scoring system. This is the only scoring system allowed. There are to be no substitutions made to our scoring system, score sheets, or point values. Blank score sheets are available, via email, to approved preliminaries from MrPrinceAce. 

 

The Judges Worksheet should be completed with comments and scores (i.e sub-category scores and total scores)

 

The scores from the Worksheet should be transferred to the Score sheet, that is, the scores noted on the Score sheet should mirror those noted in the Judge’s Worksheet.

 

Promoters should also refer to the Score Sheets Instruction section of the Promoters Handbook.

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CORRECTIONS AND CHANGES ON SCORE SHEETS

There are times when judges must correct or change a score. There is a correct and proper way to do this as shown in Ex. 1, located on the preceding page of this manual. All scoring should be done in ink only. No pencils! All changes and/or corrections should have a single line put through the incorrect score or total. The incorrect score or total needs to be readable as shown in Ex. 1. The change or corrected total should be written above or below the previous score. The change should be initialed by the scoring judge, another judge on the panel, preferably the lead judge, or the reigning Mister & Miss Deaf Universe. All changes should be double-initialed. Judges should always sign their score sheets and date them at the start of the pageant. Tabulators making corrections to category totals should initial the correction and have the scoring judge, secondary tabulator, and/or the reigning Mister & Miss Deaf Universe, initiate the correction. Scores should never be blocked out, scribbled out, “whitened out” or written over, on a score sheet or Master Score sheet; a simple line through the error will suffice.

 

Contest category Sub-Master sheets are used to tabulate the judge’s scores for each category. When the points are totaled for the category, they are then transferred to the Contest Master score sheets (See Ex. 1 in the handbook)

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INTERESTED IN BEING A JUDGE?

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Judges Application

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Please click on the button above labeled "Judges Application" to fill out a judge application.

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A judge must provide sponsorships such as flowers or money or else

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