Call for Judges
The STC Alliance is proud of the cumulative experience and talent of our judges and team leaders who return year after year to provide feedback and value for all entrants. We enjoy working in multi-chapter teams, enabling us to connect with peers and old acquaintances. To sustain the quality of the competition, we invite more judge volunteers to go through training and work remotely with multi-chapter teams.
If you would like to volunteer to serve as a competition judge, complete the Judge Information Form (click the link, complete, and submit). Returning judges are also asked to send any updates or changes to their profile.
Training for all judges will be done by Phoebe Forio and Annette Reilly. Training is mandatory for new judges.
If you have questions about judging in the STC Alliance Competition, please contact our chapter representatives: Carolyn Klinger (Washington DC-Baltimore), Phoebe Forio (Atlanta), Sharon Ford (Atlanta), Malu Schloss (New York), Ashley Gordon (Chicago), Royce Cook (South-Central Texas), Amanda Patterson (Rochester), Mike Nelson (New England).
Competition Chair: Carolyn Klinger, Co-chair: Malu Schloss 917-312-1567.
Why Volunteer as a Judge?
See the latest trends first-hand in technical communication, instructional design, promotional, informational, and user support materials. Expose yourself to new ideas and discuss content development and design with professional peers.
If you have experience in technical writing, learning design, editing, or developing documentation or marketing communications, we're looking for you. If you are adept with technical illustrations, video editing, posters or packaging, you will be delighted at this opportunity to see great examples of work from others in the profession.
STC membership is not a requirement. We provide extensive training for judges. More experienced judges will serve as team leaders and guide you through assessments.
2024 ScheduleWhat Does a Competition Judge Do?
Judges are responsible for evaluating every entry they receive. They must provide feedback to each entrant. The assessment should provide clear, impartial, and constructive feedback. Judge duties include:
Check the contents of the package as soon as possible after receiving it to ensure that everything assigned is included.
Review each entry. Provide constructive feedback on each entry.
Meet with team members and come to a consensus on awards.
Work with all competition judges to select the Best of Show winner from the pool of Distinguished winners.
Complete and return assessment forms by the specified date.
Judges are grouped into teams of three including a team leader.
The team leader is a judge with previous experience as a local/regional or international judge and/or someone with a wide degree of technical communication experience. The team leader also has a few additional responsibilities to make the judging run smoothly:
Ensure that all team members have the same entries and that all entries are complete (that is, all submission forms are present and properly filled out), compliant with competition rules (for example, produced during the correct time window), and placed in the appropriate competition category.
Monitor the team’s progress vs. the scheduled milestones.
Answer team members’ questions about the entries and the judging process. The team leader is the liaison between the team and the competition managers to resolve problems.
Make sure all team members have completed all their assigned entry assessments by consensus judging day.
Team leaders should check with their team members regularly throughout the evaluation period. Lead the consensus meeting and make sure entries and assessment forms are correct, professional, acceptable thorough, and delivered to the judging co-managers on time.
Schedule team meetings as necessary.
In the consensus meeting, communicate award levels to the judging co-managers.
With team members, prepare a few slides nominating any Distinguished winning entries that you may have to all judges at the Best of Show meeting.
How Much Time Will It Take?
Judge training normally takes 1.5-2.5 hours and is conducted over the web. Each judge is assigned an average of 3 entries. Judges follow a schedule of milestones culminating in Consensus Day. We estimate that judges will devote 1.5 hours per entry plus training and judging group meetings, which are variable. All meetings between team members can be done over the phone or web.
Criteria for evaluation depend on the entry category. Here are some examples:
User Support materials - For online help, is it easy to find the information you need and are topics explained thoroughly?
Instructional materials - Is the eLearning / mlearning compelling and does it enable the audience to complete learning objectives?
Promotional materials - Do the marketing brochures and web materials excite you about the products or processes described?
Informational materials - Is the website a good example of content strategy and make you want to view more pages? Can you find what you want quickly?
The answer to the above questions and more may convince you and your team members that an entry is worthy of awards: Distinguished, Excellence, or Merit. You might even recommend the entry for the Best of Show award!
Competition 2024 Schedule
11/6/2023: Competition opens
1/3/2024: Deadline for prospective judges to apply
1/10/2024: Judging Training: Team leaders' and returning judges training
1/16/2024: Judging Training: Refresher for all
1/18/2024: Judging Training: Accessibility assessment training
1/19/2024: Deadline for entries
1/22/2024: Sorting and distribution of entries to judging groups
1/23/2024: Judging phase begins for judging teams.
4/6/2024: Team Consensus meeting - Discuss all entries and decide on award assignments. Collaborate to write summaries of each entry. Any entries that earn a Distinguished award are candidates for Best of Show. If you have a Distinguished award entry, collaborate on a presentation to all judges, which will be delivered at the Best of Show judging meeting.
4/8/2024: Team leader ensures that all final assessments and Consensus Summary sheets are uploaded to their team's Google Drive folder.
4/13/2024: Best of Show judging meeting and vote
4/22/2024: Entrants start receiving judging comments and notification of awards.
STC Alliance Competition Council
General Questions: 2024competitionmanagers@stcnymetro.net
Chapter Representatives:
Carolyn Klinger (Washington, DC-Baltimore and Competition Chair)
301-275-4592Malu Schloss (New York Metro)
Amanda Patterson (Rochester)
Royce Cook (South-Central Texas)
Phoebe Forio (Atlanta)
Sharon Ford (Atlanta)
Mike Nelson (New England)
Ashley Gordon (Chicago)
Entries Manager: Jackie Damrau
Judging Managers: Phoebe Forio / Angela Trenkle
Interested in Judging? Fill out the electronic Judging Information Form.
Judge Training: Phoebe Forio
University Liaison: open
Publicity Manager: open
Awards Manager: Annette Reilly
Technical Manager: Brian Flaherty (webmaster) and Nitza Hauser (Technical advisor)
TechComm Roadshow: Carolyn Klinger and Malu Schloss
Liaison with STC: Carolyn Klinger
Sponsorship Opportunities: We welcome sponsors for this super-regional competition! Sponsorship opportunities include the STC Alliance TechComm Roadshow, events, shipping, and advertising for awards celebrations in specific communities. To do so, contact any of the chapter representatives.