Launch: Union of Bhangra Judges (New Updates)

[Union of Bhangra Judges]

Over the last 4 months, we’ve been developing a large-scale initiative to help our competitive Bhangra circuit function more efficiently, transparently, and professionally in terms of judging. It’s taken countless hours to develop the concept, build its core products, test the products, retool them, and collaborate with other passionate judges and competition organizers, but finally our drive to make a positive impact on the circuit has gotten us here.

We're excited to finally announce…

The Union of Bhangra Judges (UBJ) has officially launched!
http://www.BhangraJudging.com/

To date we’ve spoken to 40+ judges, of which 37 have registered as members. We've also spoken to 14 competitions, of which 5 are already Union of Bhangra Judges Certified Competitions. We’re thrilled with how much support we have thus far and look forward to setting a new standard on the circuit.

Below is an overview of our mission, goals, and attached is more info about our current projects.

We’ve also attached our first product: A Bhangra Judging Handbook for Competition Organizers

If you’re interested in becoming a Member Judge or a Certified Competition, please email us at bhangrajudging@gmail.com (Anyone is eligible to register as a judge, and we’ll create public profiles for each judge on our website. We'll also soon be offering training for new judges!) We also need teammates to help us run the UBJ and develop new projects

Happy New Year & Cheers to helping push the circuit forward!

- Mariam Afzal & Kuntal Shah

 

[sumeetj]

looking forward to seeing how this pans out for the spring competitions!

 

[sammyk]

This sounds like it has a lot of great potential and I am excited to see the immediate impact at the already certified competitions! Finally bringing forth a platform-wide change.

Mariam & Kuntal, great job and kudos to the countless hours you put in so far! DM me and let me know how I can help!

 

[Govind]

Mariam and Kuntal,
This is definitely something that is overdue and thanks for your leadership in putting this together. I think for the future of fair and well-judged competitions that will continue to help provide constructive feedback to elevate teams to the next level, a cohesive organization like this definitely necessary!
Keep it up and let me know how I can help!
Govind

 

[angeblah]

Had no idea that our circuit even had 40+ judges. The gathering of that many experienced dancers and judges has got me stoked for the growth of our circuit. I've honestly seen enough complaints that the "circuit is dead," and I'm grateful for the initiative that you guys took. Congratulations, and best wishes for this project!

 

[Saleem]

Congrats on the launch, Mariam and Kuntal. I know a lot of planning and work has gone into this prep. I think this will improve competition and judging quality, transparency, and process. Ultimately, that's good for teams so I'm a fan

 

[Howie Magz]

Excellent job Kuntal and Mariam!! It looks like a very solid platform and I am excited to see what you guys will have going on for the Union of Bhangra Judges in the coming future.

 

[Saab]

Hope this brings much needed transformation across the circuit as it relates to having a consistent, positive experience from competition to competition. Really excited that this is happening!

 

[siddyp]

great job guys!! lookin forward to seeing how this develops and improves the circuit!

 

[Aaj Ka Dhamaka Exec Board]

AKD worked with UBJ to beta test the process in November and it was an absolutely fantastic experience! Kuntal and Mariam were extremely transparent and helpful throughout the entire process and it required minimal extra effort on behalf of our committee. This was a super simple way to help our competition remain professional, organized, and transparent. We highly recommend that other competitions sign up to become certified as well! It only helped us and our committee and team captains were extremely satisfied with the judging experience.

 

[avtarchana]

WOW.. ALL THE VERY BEST !

 

[faizan]

Here's why this is critical:

In my opinion, over the past many years, there has been an overall decline in quality of judges, teams, competitions and audience levels. This circuit started in the early 2000s, and since then, there has been zero effort to standardize ANYTHING. The bottom line: this circuit is a dance competition circuit. Why don't we have leagues? Tournaments? Judging uniformity? Team and dancer statistics? It's because there has been a lack of grass roots effort to organize and standardize the way we compete.

UBJ is the first step in my opinion. It is a step that must be taken slowly, with meticulous detail and consistency. Once the initial goals of the UBJ are reached, it is the UBJ members (many SMART veterans in this group) that should continue to push for further organization and synergy.

The stake holders: teams, competitions, judges, audiences, the greater world audience through social media.

The ultimate goal, in my opinion, should be to establish league of sorts (think NCAA). This will ensure that competitive bhangra continues to thrive and improve. Saleem, Swi, Mariam, and Kuntal, thank you.

 

[mafzal]

The ultimate goal, in my opinion, should be to establish league of sorts (think NCAA). This will ensure that competitive bhangra continues to thrive and improve. Saleem, Swi, Mariam, and Kuntal, thank you.

Thanks Faizan! I definitely hope to see more unionization in other segments of the circuit. We purposely chose the name Union of Bhangra Judges hoping that a future Union of Bhangra Competitions and Union of Bhangra Teams will form. Perhaps they won't use the same name, but I absolutely do agree we could do a lot more on this circuit. There are so many efficiencies to be gained when we work together to share resource and setup systems. Efficiency --> Capacity --> Growth

 

[HdBrar]

Good stuff! This should certainly make this more legitimate for teams to choose competitions that have some standing and create a sense of security and competitiveness amongst not only the teams for getting into a competition, but for the competition organizers to maintain a certain level of grace in running their respective competitions.

You guys should make certification a years or bi yearly thing so that competitions/judges don't get complacent with their standards and slip into a loop of malaise. Keep them on their toes so that each year teams know what they are getting themselves into when they apply and attend a competition.

 

[mafzal]

Thank you HdBrar! You hit the nail on the head for summarizing one of our major goals. And we've tried to make it mutually beneficial by also providing resources to help comps.

Just to clarify, certification will be annual.

 

[Kartik]

So happy to see UBJ address many of the issues I've seen on the circuit - I think approaching this from the unique perspective of judges is brilliant because it pays dividends across all silos.

Particularly heartened at the complete freedom and flexibility for the circuit to evolve within this framework.

Got to give props where due - Mariam & Kuntal, awesome undertaking.

 

[kdshah]

Wow! I am so excited to see so much positivity and support from all of you. We have almost doubled the number of registered judges in our first 5 days! I truly hope that this initiative promotes a better environment and experience for all.

Our goal was to establish a foundation and let the UBJ grow and develop from there. Let's all work together to make this a standard across all competitions and judges so that we can all start collaborating on how to build upon this foundation!

I also wanted to give a HUGE shoutout to our main advisor, Swi. So many people on this circuit have had so many ideas over the years- Swi being one of those. The wealth of knowledge he's developed through years of discussions with all of you has been a key resource for us over the past 4-5 months. Thank you, Swi, for always asking us tough questions and helping us consider all angles when making decisions!

 

[amancheema]

Proudly, I'll be the first one to say that this is a stupid idea. Not only stupid, but also a bit condescending. Who gave you the right to become a certification committee? Are you elected? No, right? So stop feeding your garbage agenda to everyone. The best teams have always been, and always will be the ones that laugh at community agendas like this. STFU. Unionize judging? What fucking planet are you on? You think you're going to control the trajectory of this dance? Off what fucking license? Fuck this. Bye.

 

[amancheema]

- Aman Singh Cheema

 

[amancheema]

Posted a bit after a while. Wanted this thread to stay on top though, so "bumping" it.