Post by fmcvet on Sept 20, 2009 22:46:32 GMT
I Don’t Know Whether to Laugh or Cry – Relegated after 30 years of voluntary service for something completely unavoidable and not a disciplinary matter
I have been a panel judge for 30 years, during which time, I have judged at HOYS, Olympia, RIHS, Royal Show, BSPS and NPS Winter and Summer Championships, affiliated shows all over the country, and county shows from Caithness to Kent, and overseas.
Situation
I have been unable to attend a Judges’ Conference in the last 5 years due to:-
• On 2 occasions (including this year, a long pre-booked holiday abroad – it invariably happens during my children’s school autumn half term holiday week. (I am usually unable to holiday at other times of year due to work and family commitments.)
• On 2 occasions, due to clashing long-accepted prior judging commitments (I don’t let shows which I have accepted down if I can possibly avoid it)
• On 1 occasion, both my husband and I were working and on duty running a 24hr emergency service for different practices (the rotas involved are almost always unswappable)
• Last year, I was on duty myself, and, because we had a notifiable disease problem, couldn’t swap the weekend worked, even though the conference was actually within 200 miles of us. I had had a letter earlier in the year reminding me that all judges had to attend a conference every 5 years, and was even asked to give a short talk and help assess potential probationers at this northern conference, but just no way could I get there.
Recently
• This year, I got a letter earlier in the year telling me of an October conference, and saying (fairly unpleasantly IMO) that I would have to attend or my name would be removed from the panel. I checked the calendar, and found that it clashed with my pre-booked and pre-paid holiday abroad with my non-horsy son during his school half-term. The letter did not ask for a reply.
• A few days later, an invitation arrived to a Highland Pony conference 70 miles away which said that NPS Judges in Scotland and the North were welcome. In my ignorance, and because the NPS ex-chairman was involved, I thought this must be a substitute event (with the help of the HPS), to cater for those who couldn’t attend the main conference. I thought “great”, because I was free to go to it.
• 2 weeks ago, a lovely judge very kindly phoned me to find out what the circumstances were. I explained the situation, and that I thought it was ok because I was attending the HPS conference for NPS judges instead. She asked me to phone the Chief Executive to explain, which I did.
• Last week, I got a letter in the post, saying that this was unacceptable, and because of “your non-attendance at training events and conferences the Judges’ Selection Committee were going to “downgrade you to an intermediate level judge”. “I hope you will appreciate the NPS position on this matter and the need to uphold our own rules.”
Immediate Thoughts
1. Why did they not ask for an explanation?
2. The circumstances made this situation unavoidable.
3. How hurtful, especially considering all the years I have voluntarily judged, giving up lots of my rare free time, getting up at the crack of dawn and often arriving home through the night, judging to the best of my ability in all weathers, travelling huge distances, paying through the nose for child-care and horse-care, totally inconveniencing my own family (to the detriment of my marriage) and sacrificing attendance at family and social occasions, including weddings, and sporting fixtures, not attending my own children’s pony events, to the extent that they frequently had to get lifts and had no parental supervision - I didn’t see many of their best results, and my daughter even missed competing at the Pony Club Championships which she had qualified for because I was judging elsewhere, - and pressurising my family, friends and employed help into keeping my children, answering telephones, ferrying my children around etc.
4. Could I have had a complaint against me or been guilty of breaking the rules? Not as far as I know of.
5. Have I offended anyone? Not as far as I know of. I’ve always gone out of my way to be polite, obliging, helpful, accommodating, to fit in and not upset people, and I am generally known for being fair and honest. I always judge extra classes when asked, stay till the bitter end and have been taking probationer judges for the last 25 years.
6. IMO, and IMO only, it smacks of almost a form of bullying, pressurising, high-handedness, nanny state, school-type discipline – “you’ve missed the only training session, so even though it was 350 miles away, expensive to get to and not your fault, we’ve decided that you’ll be in the second hockey team for a year, and we’ll publish it in our year book.”
7. I ‘bust a gut’ to honour my judging commitments, however inconvenient - even when my mother-in-law was terminally ill with a brain-tumour. This summer, I have been off work unwell for 7 weeks, but still carried out all my judging with a struggle and a mighty effort, only turning down my very last show, as I was completely incapable of attending.
Will it make much difference to the society?
• No, they clearly have a large pool of experienced qualified judges to choose from. Through no fault of my own, I have failed to comply with 1 of the 22 Rules for panel judges and obviously deserve to be penalised.
Will it make much difference to me?
• It means I won’t be able to judge Olympia qualifiers, but I’ve been judging them since 1982, so I’ve done lots and I didn’t do one this year anyway. I love the privilege of placing the lovely ponies but equally so you can get a bit of flak on the internet afterwards.
• It means that I won’t be able to judge RIHS WHP qualifiers. I love doing them but they do tend to go on for ever, often in heavy rain, howling gales and wet grass/mud. I do feel guilty here and really mean and unhelpful , because it’s one of the most frequent invitations I get, often from stressed-out secretaries who are at their wits’ end, having already tried every judge on the list. Not my fault.
Would I have liked to attend a training conference?
Yes. I love going to them. You meet friends, hear different opinions and updates, always learn something.
Could I have attended one of this society’s in the last 5 years?
No.
Is the Situation rectifiable?
Who knows what next year holds, and whether I will be any better placed to attend a conference then?
Points to consider
• I am 51 years old, not infirm or blind, and do have a bit of mileage left in me.
• I am in the unusual position of having no connections in the showing world, but still having an all-round wealth of experience of soundness and many aspects of horsemanship, especially all native breeds. I have no axe to grind.
• The BSPS conferences are always much easier to attend, as they arrange special ones in Scotland for Scottish judges.
Should I feel Aggrieved?
Not sure. I was warned in recent times of the consequences of this extreme bad behaviour (ie. non-attendance once a year), although I had no alternative and had genuine excuses.
I do feel let down, but then rules are rules.
Arguably I may have been penalised lightly.
The Future
I will take it on the chin and turn down any of the invitations to judge sections which I am no longer considered fit to judge.
Long Term Future as a Judge
Will I have to wait until my youngest is no longer at school or I have retired from work to be able to attend my next judges’ conference? Will the society have given up on me before then if that is the case? Will I continue to be ultra-accomodating? What can I do to enable me to attend a conference in the desperate hope that I will be re-instated before it is too late? Will I ever recover from this slur on my character?
Now
Have a big drink, get my son’s stuff ready for school, and my things ready for work. Go to bed with a clear conscience, knowing that I have done my best, but probably fail to sleep.
Should I have made this post?
Not sure, but it’s not a private, confidential or secret matter. It affects people other than myself, and there may be other judges in the same situation?? I don’t post very often. It's fact and not meant to be offensive. I have felt better for getting it off my chest but I may regret posting in the morning!!
Sorry not to have logged in, but my user name/password don't work any more.
I have been a panel judge for 30 years, during which time, I have judged at HOYS, Olympia, RIHS, Royal Show, BSPS and NPS Winter and Summer Championships, affiliated shows all over the country, and county shows from Caithness to Kent, and overseas.
Situation
I have been unable to attend a Judges’ Conference in the last 5 years due to:-
• On 2 occasions (including this year, a long pre-booked holiday abroad – it invariably happens during my children’s school autumn half term holiday week. (I am usually unable to holiday at other times of year due to work and family commitments.)
• On 2 occasions, due to clashing long-accepted prior judging commitments (I don’t let shows which I have accepted down if I can possibly avoid it)
• On 1 occasion, both my husband and I were working and on duty running a 24hr emergency service for different practices (the rotas involved are almost always unswappable)
• Last year, I was on duty myself, and, because we had a notifiable disease problem, couldn’t swap the weekend worked, even though the conference was actually within 200 miles of us. I had had a letter earlier in the year reminding me that all judges had to attend a conference every 5 years, and was even asked to give a short talk and help assess potential probationers at this northern conference, but just no way could I get there.
Recently
• This year, I got a letter earlier in the year telling me of an October conference, and saying (fairly unpleasantly IMO) that I would have to attend or my name would be removed from the panel. I checked the calendar, and found that it clashed with my pre-booked and pre-paid holiday abroad with my non-horsy son during his school half-term. The letter did not ask for a reply.
• A few days later, an invitation arrived to a Highland Pony conference 70 miles away which said that NPS Judges in Scotland and the North were welcome. In my ignorance, and because the NPS ex-chairman was involved, I thought this must be a substitute event (with the help of the HPS), to cater for those who couldn’t attend the main conference. I thought “great”, because I was free to go to it.
• 2 weeks ago, a lovely judge very kindly phoned me to find out what the circumstances were. I explained the situation, and that I thought it was ok because I was attending the HPS conference for NPS judges instead. She asked me to phone the Chief Executive to explain, which I did.
• Last week, I got a letter in the post, saying that this was unacceptable, and because of “your non-attendance at training events and conferences the Judges’ Selection Committee were going to “downgrade you to an intermediate level judge”. “I hope you will appreciate the NPS position on this matter and the need to uphold our own rules.”
Immediate Thoughts
1. Why did they not ask for an explanation?
2. The circumstances made this situation unavoidable.
3. How hurtful, especially considering all the years I have voluntarily judged, giving up lots of my rare free time, getting up at the crack of dawn and often arriving home through the night, judging to the best of my ability in all weathers, travelling huge distances, paying through the nose for child-care and horse-care, totally inconveniencing my own family (to the detriment of my marriage) and sacrificing attendance at family and social occasions, including weddings, and sporting fixtures, not attending my own children’s pony events, to the extent that they frequently had to get lifts and had no parental supervision - I didn’t see many of their best results, and my daughter even missed competing at the Pony Club Championships which she had qualified for because I was judging elsewhere, - and pressurising my family, friends and employed help into keeping my children, answering telephones, ferrying my children around etc.
4. Could I have had a complaint against me or been guilty of breaking the rules? Not as far as I know of.
5. Have I offended anyone? Not as far as I know of. I’ve always gone out of my way to be polite, obliging, helpful, accommodating, to fit in and not upset people, and I am generally known for being fair and honest. I always judge extra classes when asked, stay till the bitter end and have been taking probationer judges for the last 25 years.
6. IMO, and IMO only, it smacks of almost a form of bullying, pressurising, high-handedness, nanny state, school-type discipline – “you’ve missed the only training session, so even though it was 350 miles away, expensive to get to and not your fault, we’ve decided that you’ll be in the second hockey team for a year, and we’ll publish it in our year book.”
7. I ‘bust a gut’ to honour my judging commitments, however inconvenient - even when my mother-in-law was terminally ill with a brain-tumour. This summer, I have been off work unwell for 7 weeks, but still carried out all my judging with a struggle and a mighty effort, only turning down my very last show, as I was completely incapable of attending.
Will it make much difference to the society?
• No, they clearly have a large pool of experienced qualified judges to choose from. Through no fault of my own, I have failed to comply with 1 of the 22 Rules for panel judges and obviously deserve to be penalised.
Will it make much difference to me?
• It means I won’t be able to judge Olympia qualifiers, but I’ve been judging them since 1982, so I’ve done lots and I didn’t do one this year anyway. I love the privilege of placing the lovely ponies but equally so you can get a bit of flak on the internet afterwards.
• It means that I won’t be able to judge RIHS WHP qualifiers. I love doing them but they do tend to go on for ever, often in heavy rain, howling gales and wet grass/mud. I do feel guilty here and really mean and unhelpful , because it’s one of the most frequent invitations I get, often from stressed-out secretaries who are at their wits’ end, having already tried every judge on the list. Not my fault.
Would I have liked to attend a training conference?
Yes. I love going to them. You meet friends, hear different opinions and updates, always learn something.
Could I have attended one of this society’s in the last 5 years?
No.
Is the Situation rectifiable?
Who knows what next year holds, and whether I will be any better placed to attend a conference then?
Points to consider
• I am 51 years old, not infirm or blind, and do have a bit of mileage left in me.
• I am in the unusual position of having no connections in the showing world, but still having an all-round wealth of experience of soundness and many aspects of horsemanship, especially all native breeds. I have no axe to grind.
• The BSPS conferences are always much easier to attend, as they arrange special ones in Scotland for Scottish judges.
Should I feel Aggrieved?
Not sure. I was warned in recent times of the consequences of this extreme bad behaviour (ie. non-attendance once a year), although I had no alternative and had genuine excuses.
I do feel let down, but then rules are rules.
Arguably I may have been penalised lightly.
The Future
I will take it on the chin and turn down any of the invitations to judge sections which I am no longer considered fit to judge.
Long Term Future as a Judge
Will I have to wait until my youngest is no longer at school or I have retired from work to be able to attend my next judges’ conference? Will the society have given up on me before then if that is the case? Will I continue to be ultra-accomodating? What can I do to enable me to attend a conference in the desperate hope that I will be re-instated before it is too late? Will I ever recover from this slur on my character?
Now
Have a big drink, get my son’s stuff ready for school, and my things ready for work. Go to bed with a clear conscience, knowing that I have done my best, but probably fail to sleep.
Should I have made this post?
Not sure, but it’s not a private, confidential or secret matter. It affects people other than myself, and there may be other judges in the same situation?? I don’t post very often. It's fact and not meant to be offensive. I have felt better for getting it off my chest but I may regret posting in the morning!!
Sorry not to have logged in, but my user name/password don't work any more.