Subject: DCI Certification
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 16:20:39 -0600
From: "Thad Wind" <Twind@novell.com>
To: <fkusumot@ix.netcom.com>

I am getting rather tired of all this talk about Judging and 'compensation'
or 'value'.

First of all, I think that the fact that you receive no compensation for
judging has been adequately hammered into our collective conscious. Enough
so that at this point I would say that anyone who decides to become a judge
based on the compensatory factors is delusional. Indeed, nowhere that I
could determine does the DCI indicate that this is not a volunteer
position. I have no qualms about saying the following: If you are judging
for any reason besides the free T-shirt and the enjoyment of the game, then
you will be disappointed.

On the other hand, there are many reasons that I can think of to Judge. You
provide a needed service, you can be an instrument of fairness, meet knew
people, enjoy an aspect of your hobby that others might not, etc, etc.
Let's face it, there are a lot of adjudicated games in the world, and most
of the referees are not being paid. This expectation of reward is demeaning
and small spirited.

Secondly, this value for your money, or fairness issue with paying to be a
judge. Is it 'Fair' that in the united states to become a level one judge
it costs about 35$? Perhaps not. After all, the oracle is indeed available
for free and the card and certificate might not have value (although the
value of that is entirely subjective: one man's trash and all). However,
the judges quarterly and the E-mail list are not free to produce and
therefore it is not entirely fair to expect that the DCI should bear the
burden for their production. Is it worth 25$? I don't know. I will happily
pony up my 25 when the time comes, because that money allows me to do
something that I would like to do and I don't view the price as excessive.
But that's a personal assessment As for the fact that in places other than
the US becoming a judge is free, I don't think that we know the full story.
I can think of two reasons not to charge them right off the top though.

1: Legal issues. Other countries have differing laws about such things. I
profess to not knowing what the laws of Sweden say about charging Swedes to
become a judge and I certainly have no interest in paying a lawyer to find
out.

2: Tax Issues. Money garnered from overseas would in theory be taxable, I
think I also have little interest in paying an accountant for each country
that I wish to collect these fees.

Once again we come down to a basic fact of life: What you do should be
based on what you wish to do, not what you expect to get out of it. If you
like playing Magic, play it, don't whine about what you are not getting
from it. If you like to Judge, then do so, because you like it, not because
you think that it entitles you to something.