Greetings NWAPA Directors & Membership, Congratulations on making it through another fall season! Talk about the best show day weather season ever, we sure lucked out.

Please join us at our next NWAPA General Membership meeting at noon on Saturday, December 7^th at Glencoe High School in Hillsboro. Topics will include Fall Wrapup, Fall adjudicator panel size and approach, Winter 2020, and Budget.

Regarding Fall Adjudication: If you have any specific adjudicator feedback, please follow this link to our adjudicator feedback form to fill out and submit. https://nwapa.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/NWAPA-Judge-Feedback-Form.pdf

For Event Feedback, you can access the form through the Contest Dynamics link you’ve received for any of NWAPA Fall Shows you’ve attended.

All feedback for adjudicators and events is welcome, considered, and encouraged when submitted through these two professional channels. They comprise an effective amount of data that we as a circuit will utilize when planning ahead.    

Fall Panel Size – We had two early season competitions this fall that had reduced panel sizes of 6 adjudicators (PCI & Linfield). This helped allow our circuit to run all of the existing shows and stay in the positive financially; last year we ended our fall budget in the negative by a large margin.  

Another solution & option that has been proposed is a 7 adjudicator panel modeling the Bands of America scoring system. Please see copy-pasted proposal at bottom of email for more details.

This topic of panel size an important agenda item at the December 7^th meeting. The board will be soliciting Fall Membership for feedback regarding which system they would like to see for Fall 2020 (i.e. 8 adjudicator panel at 100% of the shows; 6 adjudicator panel at early shows and shifting back to 8 for remaining portion of season; 7 adjudicator panel modeling the BOA system).

From the feedback solicited by Fall Unit Directors, Curtis will start lining up adjudicators to our Fall 2020 events. We will take an official vote in May to adopt or retain whichever system the membership prefers.  

Thank you and I look forward to seeing you all again at noon on Saturday, December 7^th at Glencoe High School.

Below is a copy paste of a 7 adjudicator panel proposal: 

Proposal Title: 7 Adjudicator Panel – Modeling the Bands of America Adjudication System

Proposal: Change the NWAPA adjudication system to the Bands of America adjudication system.  This would include their scoring system, tabulation, and number of judges.  This would exclude classification as we need to balance our classifications based on what is best for our region and our competitions.  Our awards would be Outstanding General Effect, Outstanding Music, and Outstanding Visual.  It would also be possible to consider awarding Outstanding Guard and Outstanding Percussion by having the Individual Music or Ensemble Music judge select the Outstanding Percussion performance of the round and by having the Individual Visual or Ensemble Visual judge select the Outstanding Guard performance of the round.  For early season contests, it would also be possible to reduce the judging panel by one less Music Effect judge to save on costs.  However, for the last 3 contests of the season, having the full panel would be at the best interest of the circuit.         

Scoring
After scores are tabulated, any penalties imposed for various infractions will be deducted from the subtotal score. This score will be used to determine the placement of competing bands. If two or more bands have a tie in their final score, the higher placement will be awarded to the band with the higher raw score (subtotal before penalties). If after using this criterion a tie still exists, the highest General Effect total will be used to determine placement. This procedure will only be applied in Class Champion and Finals competitions. When bands achieve the same (tie) score in Prelims, and when such score causes a placement tie for the last position advancing to the Finals competition, each band with the tied score will advance (In the Recap: The tie will be broken.) Any tie for an overall championship (Class Champion, Overall Champion) will not be broken but rather be awarded to the two or more bands with a tie in their final score. The recap will display two Bands in 1st Place and no Bands in 2nd Place. If two or more bands tie for highest achievement awards, each Band will be recognized.

Adjudication System
Coming from various backgrounds, geographic locations and regional styles, a group of judges brings a broad range of experience to a contest. Individual opinions and preferences are bound to be present. We never want to eliminate this individuality, but it is important that we have consistency. Toward this end, the following materials are offered to serve as a point of departure and direction. The processes, procedures and techniques of adjudication are constantly changing. The challenge is to stay abreast of the changes and at the forefront of the activity. It is the position of Bands of America that music is the more important aspect of the Performance, with marching as the presentation and visual enhancement of the program. Similarly, more emphasis has been placed on the effectiveness to the audience and to general effect judges, than on fine-line perfection of the performance judges – which may be an aspect to work on for even better effectiveness. Consequently, the weight of the numbers in the Bands of America scoring system places 60% of the value on music and 40% on visual, and at the same time, 60% of the score is within the area of general effect and 40% within the Performance Area. The point allotment for the field competition is as follows:
20 points Music Performance (Individual)*
20 points Music Performance (Ensemble)*
20 points Visual Performance (Individual)#
20 points Visual Performance (Ensemble)#
20 points Visual General Effect
40 points Music General Effect (two judges)

*Averaged     #Averaged

MUSIC PERFORMANCE (INDIVIDUAL) This judge is located on the field and is free to move about the field. This judge evaluates the entire show from beginning to end and uses an audio recorder for comments. There is one judge in this caption.
MUSIC PERFORMANCE (ENSEMBLE) This judge is located in the stands or in the press box, whichever location affords the best vantage point. The location is fixed during the entire competition. This judge evaluates the entire show from beginning to end and uses an audio recorder for comments. There is one judge in this caption.

VISUAL PERFORMANCE (INDIVIDUAL) This judge is located on the field and is free to move about the field. This judge evaluates the entire show from beginning to end and uses an audio recorder for comments. There is one judge in this caption.

VISUAL PERFORMANCE (ENSEMBLE) This judge is located in the stands or in the press box, whichever location affords the best vantage point. The location is fixed during the entire competition. This judge evaluates the entire show from beginning to end and uses an audio recorder for comments. There is one judge in this caption. The two Music Performance judges have their scores averaged for a total of 20 points. The two Visual Performance judges have their scores averaged for a total of 20 points.

GENERAL EFFECT VISUAL This judge is located in the press box and uses an audio recorder for comments. There is one judge in this caption, and his score is not averaged with any other score.

GENERAL EFFECT MUSIC There are two judges in this caption, and both are located in the press box. They judge the entire show from beginning to end, using an audio recorder to record their comments; their scores are not averaged.

For the Complete Rulebook, see this link:
https://marching.musicforall.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2019/05/2019-BOA-Rulebook.pdf

Rationale
Having a system that is more weighted toward music allows our mission to maintain our focus on music education.  Less judges allows us to raise our judges rate of pay and decreases expenses for show sponsors (especially for flight and hotel).  In our current system, percussion and guard are sampled and credited too heavily.  With the Bands of America system, the percussion and guard are still sampled and valued within the music and visual captions.  It would be important for us (when possible) to ensure that one of the music individual or ensemble judges has a background in percussion.  As mentioned above, Outstanding Percussion and Outstanding Guard could be awarded and determined by the Individual or Ensemble music and visual judges.

Financial Impact
Show Sponsor expenses would be reduced.

Proposal Submitted by: Todd Zimbelman