Know Your Jury
Just before a judge begins judging, he or she goes through the rules, terms, and conditions that govern the contest.
The inputs presented by a judge are quite crucial since they help in conducting amazing contests in an unbiased manner.
Coordinating the choice to award the participants is up to the judges, who will describe in detail the nominations and selection criteria for participants as well as the system for judging and deciding on the award winners.
Since the judging process takes place according to specific judging criteria, there may be numerous criteria for selecting judges, depending on the company, the participants, or the event itself.
Every judge may introduce his or her own criteria, or they may be established by the rules of the contest.
Regardless of which method is chosen, fair judging is impossible without awards criteria. Let’s see how awards judging criteria are formed by categories.
What is a Contest?
A contest is a venture where skill is required to win. In a contest, the participants have to take any action that requires some degree of skill.
That degree of skill depends on what the advertisement or event is asking the contestant to do.
For example; in a public speaking or a storytelling contest, contestant enters and compete by submitting original videos of the same.
Why Do You Need A The Judging Criteria
Contests also have a component of competition that requires the Sponsor or agency to set clear contest judging criteria, so participants know on what basis their entries will be judged.
This criterion will also tell the judging body what to watch for and how to allocate value or rank listings.
The judging criteria given in written is made clear to all participants and judges.
For example: “Essay Submissions must be in English/Hindi, comply with Official Rules of RNTalks, meet all requirements called for on the Official Website and be original work not exceeding 1,000 words in length.”
The sort of competition one takes part in does not matter because every level demands a competitor to place their best foot forward.
Judging criteria are seen as the various pointers that a judge or jury of judges assesses the entries upon.
Having a collection of judging criteria is essential to make sure that the best entry wins.
The “How-To” Guide for Judging
In any contest, the judging criteria is an endeavour to focus the participants, as well as the judges, on the anticipated outcome of the entry.
Accurately designed judging criteria trains to minimize the judges subconscious biases and concentrate their attention on the characteristics that are going to be weighed and designated value or score.
Judges/Jury (ideally more than one) should be experts or specialists or have some degree of expertise in whatever they are judging.
This is not a necessity, but it serves the Sponsor or contest manager choose the winner.
The contestants also obtain a sense of fair play when they see experts select the winner.
How We Select Judges for the Contest
If you can’t ascertain expert judges, then people or a organisation with a clear perception of the judging criteria and no disagreements of interest or bias could assist as judges.
Beyond the judging criteria, the judges should have seen abundant examples of the work being judged to conclude what is deemed poor, average and exceptional within the criteria.
Judges Goals
Conclusively, judges strive to assign a absolute value or points to each entry and pick the winner based on the total quantity of points earned.
Judging Shortcut
An alternative to judging large amounts of entries is to apply social media networks to resolve on your account up to a certain degree.
For instance, you can drive your contest on Facebook and have the fans vote and select the top five entries.
From there, a more formalised judge or contest organiser can select the champion based on the criteria.
This can work great, but there are hazards associated with fan voting. One of the hazards is that participants can simply ask their supporters to vote for them despite of the quality of the work.
It threatens the promotional effort when a feeble entry gets lots of votes.
This is why we don’t support that fan votes make the final settlement on who wins.
Our results are purely based on the judgements given by the Jury/Judges.
Protect Our Contest With Judging Criteria
Possessing your judging criteria set will also defend the integrity of the contest and guide judges if there is a tie.
Well-articulated judging criteria will define what to do in the situation of a tie.
For instance; “In the event of a tie for any possible Winning Entry, the average for Creativity/Originality will be accepted as a tiebreaker.” Or “If there remains a tie, the organizer will draw in a tie-breaking Judge to implement the same Judging Criteria to decide the winner.”
Guidelines For The Jury In A Live Session
The Jury is asked a series of questions by the participants and sometimes the organiser.
Make sure to elucidate each question honestly and disclose full answers to these questions.
If you do not, and the criteria are revealed later, it could cause a blunder or question when the case has concluded.
There may be occasions when answers to questions are very trivial, personal or sensitive.
You possess the right to discuss the matter in private instead of in front of the camera.
Deliver the answers you truly believe, not what you believe the audience wants to hear.
Be A Good Listener
A live session my get you some repetitive questions. Don’t get agitated.
In the time that you accept on a jury, it is your responsibility to listen and evaluate the questions and answer them in the best achievable way.
Get a good night’s sleep to remain attentive.
Take Good Notes
You’re allowed to take notes, so, do so. If you have questions/answers that pop up while listening to queries, write them down, so you recollect to answer them later. You don’t have to bother about being repetitive.
Encourage The Participants To Be Interactive
Ask questions and challenge your audience to reply with answers.
Give them an answer to your question and the logic behind it.
Keep An Open Mind During Deliberations
Always listen attentively to what the others have to say with an unrestricted mind, and then share your idea before coming to your conclusion.
The others may have a point or thought you hadn’t considered about before.
Understand How To Weigh Witness Credibility
Keep in thought that not everyone that asks an inappropriate question then it.
Be sure to analyse things like body language, the flexibility of facts to other evidence, the incentive to indicate, and a number of times they’ve affirmed before when judging credibility.
Appreciate Fellow Jurors And Encourage Others To Do The Same
When an assemblage of strangers from all walks of life are thrust together, temperaments may collide.
If people become bitter or are dismissive to others through live sessions, remind everyone that it is a live session, and everyone requires to be heard and to keep things civil.
When jurors approach everyone with equality and respect, they are more likely to reach informed, reasoned verdicts.
Draw Out Participants Who Don’t Speak Up
If a participant hasn’t said a word through deliberations, you might want to ask them their opinions on the subject.
They may need to say something, but maybe too modest to speak up without being inspired or may feel intimidated by more vociferous participants.
Our Final Judgement
Even though the experience is often challenging, jury service is a privilege, and it’s our responsibility to serve as jurors.
It is up to the Jury to guarantee a fair trial for all and see that fairness is done. Our policy won’t work without their special contribution.
Now that you know what’s expected of you and what you can expect, perhaps next time you get an invitation in your mail to judge an event, you won’t automatically start considering reasons you can’t assist.
Know Your Jury
Mrs Ranjeeta Ashesh
Mrs. Ranjeeta Ashesh has been our Jury for Katha Sagar: National Online Storytelling Contest. She is the wife of an Army Officer is a Poetpreneur who is running the literary organisation ‘क्षितिज… where dreams meet reality’ which laid the foundation of ‘INDIAN ICONIC POET’ in INDIA.
She is an Author of book ‘Sushmaanjali…ek kaavya sangrah’ and has been part of many Anthologies like ‘Sandal Sugandh’,’From the heart’, ‘Family’ ‘Lose to Win’ ‘lamhon se lafzon tak’etc.
Crowned Mrs India Most Talented 2018 and made her mark in the fashion Industry with a bang. Not only this She is also a Motivational Speaker and a story writer and storyteller.
She believes that grooming, motivation and poetry go hand in hand and thus works on the same principles. She is a Social Activist with positive outlook who expects to bring change in the society through her writings and deeds.
She is associated with NGO’s ‘Parvarish’ and ‘Savera’ supporting poor children education.
Ms. Prachi Singh
Ms. Prachi Singh, has been our Jury for Katha Sagar: National Online Storytelling Contest. She is a certified Image Consultant, Certified Trainer, an Entrepreneur, Speaker, and a Voice Over Artist.
She is a NABET certified Trainer. She has done her MA in English Literature and has over 18 years of experience in the area of Training, Teaching, HR, and Writing.
She is a Trainer, Speaker, Image Consultant, Voice Over Artist, Director at Professionals Expert Corner, Edutainment Speaker.
She is the First Edutainment Speaker of India where she combined Motivational Speech with Music.
She is an experienced and passionate corporate, government & individual image, etiquette and communication advisor, and a life Coach.
She has provided Individual Consultation, Training at ESIC (Employee State Insurance Corporation), and Training at Police Department, BPO, Institutes, Woman, Children.
However, as a personal coach, she has helped many people on different levels of personal development.
As an Entrepreneur, She is the Director at Professionals Expert Corner where trainers for their core expertise areas are there to take care of clients’ needs and development as coaches.
She has recently started a Healing Platform “ZEN” in collaboration with a budding Entrepreneur from London and she is currently working on a movie project on humanity as a Marketing and Communication Head
Mr Mukesh Bhatnagar
Mr Mukesh Bhatnagar Ji, has been our Jury for Katha Sagar: National Online Storytelling Contest. He has authored 4 books so far. The last book, ‘Lose to Win’ was published last year.
It is about the real-life stories of people, who in spite of all obstacles, struggles, turns & twists never gave up and emerged triumphantly.
There are as such 50 achievers, who made a mark in life. The book is available on Amazon and Flipcart.
He wishes to present this book to all the winner children category and adult.
Mr. Mukesh Bhatnagar is a Creative Writer, Visual Story Teller, Author, Editor (Varta – a monthly social magazine).
He is also the Sr Vice President of Heritage India and General Secretary of Apna Parivarot only this he is the Founder Secretary of MS Talks India and Director Delhi NCR: Navyug Each One Teach One Foundation.
Dr. Vanita Bhardwaj
Dr. Vanita Bhardwaj, has been our Jury for Katha Sagar: National Online Storytelling Contest. She is a Vice Principal, Dev Samaj Modern School, Sukhdev Vihar, Delhi.
She is an educationist for the last 25 years and has received the various awards in fields like Happy Schooling and innovative teaching ideas.
She won the title of EDUCATIONAL ICON 2018 and PRIDE OF INDIA in various national and international educational conferences.
She is a life skill resource person and has conducted seminars and workshops in CBSE schools for principals and teachers under the Adolescent education program in 7 states of India including her own state Jammu.
A motivational speaker, a poet, an actor, a certified Storyteller she is also a facilitator for the ART OF LIVING HAPPINESS PROGRAM, and the CORPORATE WELLNESS PROGRAMS.
A fitness enthusiast, having run several half marathons and Yoga, meditation is an integral part of her daily life.
Mrs. Jyoti Pande
Mrs. Jyoti Pande has been our Jury for Katha Sagar: National Online Storytelling Contest. She is an ardent educationist and a practicing psychologist with an experience of over 20 years in the fields of teaching and counselling.
She is a passionate learner and recognizes the limitless potential of human beings that can be explored, experienced, and exploited for better effects.
Having been trained in Mindfulness, Emotional intelligence, and Happiness, she aspires to equip all with these wonderful tools of Well Being to bring about a positive change especially amongst the children and adolescents, through STORYTELLING as a medium.
Dr. Shafali Gupta: Jury Clay Modelling
Dr. Shafali Gupta, an AWWA and SR Krishnan awardee, is a multifaceted personality. She has been our Jury for Katha Sagar 2020: National Online Short Story Writing Contest and Creative Quest 2020: National Online Talent Show.
She is a proud Educationist, Resource person, Student counselor in ULB, Freelancer in TIO( International newspaper), teacher’s trainer in AVM, Relationship counselor, Co-owner of Mayurpankh, Motivational and Public Speaker speaker, and a highly educated lady having done M.A, B.Ed and is a Doctorate in political science.
In spite of her academic credentials, she has chosen to be associated with various NGO’s.
She has delivered talks on varied topics in National and International seminars, conferences, and events.
She has been actively participating in such webinars for schools, colleges, and various platforms at National and International levels.
She has also been an anchor for the ‘Inspirational Educationist’ program on radio Dwarka, wherein she interviewed a large No of eminent personalities in the field of education.
She strongly believes that today’s youth is the future of any country. She has accordingly dedicated herself to society’s upliftment and encourages youth to think positively and contribute to nation-building.
Criteria for Judgment:
- Context, Clarity of Intent
- Effectiveness of Design
- Use of Material
- Difficulty
- Craftsmanship
Ms. Radhika Jadhav Jury: Mimicry & Mime
Radhika has been our Jury for Creative Quest 2020: National Online Talent Show. Sheis a Ph.D. research scholar of Pune University (SPPU). She is the jury for Activities Mimicry & Mime.
Her topic for research is “Drama Therapy for Social and Emotional Intelligence of Preadolescents.
Radhika holds a PGD in Human Rights (Women& Child Rights). She started working young at the age of 16 with an advertising agency in Pune.
With her hard work and perseverance, she got promoted to the post of Creative Lead and freelances intermittently.
Thanks to her keen interest in theatre & elocution, she has worked with an organization promoting Drama Therapy for over 10 years.
She has been teaching various forms of theatre to children all along.
She has conducted teacher training workshops in B.Ed Colleges and schools to employ theatre in their teaching-learning process to make it more effective.
She has been a part of three plays done by Amateur Dramatics Club (Shimla).
She feels that theatre is an effective medium to connect to one’s inner self and explore the infinite power that’s within each one of us.
Criteria for Judgment (4 Broad Areas):
- Facial expressions
- Confidence
- Emotional Connect (With oneself & the audience)
- Overall expressive ability (Face + Body)
Mr Manoj Malik Jury: One-Act Play
Mr Manoj Malik has been our Jury for Creative Quest 2020: National Online Talent Show. He is an engineer, a poet and a scriptwriter.
He has acted in many plays i.e The Jury, Dayashankar Ki Diary, Hanush, Rangbhoomi, Tax Free & Deewano Ki Daastan Etc.
He has four years of experience in theatre and is also known for the role of Badshah in Hanush And Bhairo In Rangbhoomi.
Other than theatre he has also been very active in street plays for the last four years.
Criteria for Judgment:
- Posture
- Use Of Props (If Any) Or Imagination Of Props.
- Entrance & Exit
- Delivery Of Voice
- Emotional Intensity
- Body Language
- Expression
- Costume (If Any)
Ms. Aakriti Chandervanshi: Jury Photography
Aakriti Chandervanshi has been our Jury for Creative Quest 2020: National Online Talent Show. An avid photographer, Aakriti credits her nomadic childhood for her interest in photography, documentation and observation.
Post her graduation from Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai, she started doing commissioned projects – shooting portrait stories, photo essays and self-portraiture.
She went on to venturing on to start her own platform namely A Girl Called Yellow.
Her work has been published on various platforms – Domus India, Financial Times, BBC, Scroll.in etc.
As an architectural graduate, she chose to utilize her years of obsessing over details of facades and juxtapose with her photographic journey.
She is devoted to her work and pets, perhaps not as equally as she would like.
She will be elaborating on all three during the live session with justifiable examples so participants can understand better.
Criteria for Judgment:
- Creativity
- Composition
- Play of Light and Shadows
Mrs. Krishna Agarwal: Jury Origami
Krishna Agarwal has been our Jury for Creative Quest 2020: National Online Talent Show. She was the Jury for Origami. She completed her studies from Jaipur.
In graduation, she opted for drawing as her additional subject. As her interest in drawing and painting grew, she went ahead following her passion by doing post-graduation in Drawing and Painting.
Today her hobby has become her profession, and she is serving as an Art and Craft teacher in Primary Block of Alwar Public School (APS).
She loves to spend time with children and guide them on how to enhance their creativity.
She is also a proud recipient of the award in Modern Art organised by Rajasthan Kala Mela.
As if this wasn’t enough she also participated in an event for the Guinness Book Of World Record, where a large number of artists unitedly drew a huge National Flag in front of RED FORT.
Along with drawing and painting she loves to indulge in gardening and cooking.
In Drawing and Painting her areas of interest are Pencil Shading, Paper Crafting, Origami, and Paper mache.
Criteria for Judgment:
- Creativity
- Neatness
- Presentation & Sheet Selection
- Explanation
Mrs Anuradha Bhattacharyya: Jury Vocal Music
Mrs. Anuradha Bhattacharyya has been our Jury for Creative Quest 2020: National Online Talent Show. She was a quick grasper of Music from her childhood.
It was her natural ability to memorise any song after listening to it two or three times.
I still remember my rickshaw-wala uncle “Babulal” who used to take me and some of other children to MR. AND MRS. BORNE’S TINY TOT’S NURSERY in steel city of Durgapur, West Bengal. Babulal kaku always asked me to sing a particular song from a Bengali movie based on the famous story of ALIBABA AND FORTY THIEVES as I used to hum that song.
Mrs Anuradha Bhattacharyya
But her parents were much more interested to teach her painting as co-curricular activity which also she used to enjoy.
Until one day her Guru Shree Bishnupada Chakraborty heard her singing and suggested to her parents to allow her to learn Vocal Music.
She was trained in Hindustani classical and Rabindra Sangeet by her Mastermoshai Shree Bishnupada Chakraborty for 8 years along with her studies.
She did her Visharad in Vocal Music along with her graduation in Commerce and B.Ed.
She enjoyed honing her skills in performing arts like song and dance in all her school days, college life or Durgapuja functions.
Presently, she is serving as Music teacher for Primary Section in Alwar Public School.
Teaching children for last 8 years has been a wonderful and a fulfilling journey for Anuradha.
Learning and sharing Music with these tiny tots have been an soul satisfying experience for her.
She enjoys assisting them in creating choir group and helping them prepare for inter-class and inter-school competitions.
Music and Rhythm is the way of life for out jury Mrs Anuradha Bhattacharyya.
Criteria for Judgment:
- Sur/Tune
- Taal/Rhythm
- Clarity
- overall presentation.
Ms. Yati Puniya: Jury Dance
Ms Yati Puniya has been our Jury for Creative Quest 2020: National Online Talent Show. She is a Kathak Dancer and tutor. She has completed her Kathak Visharad from Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal, Mumbai, in 2015.
She has mastered Kathak Bhooshan and Kathak Prabhakar from Sangeet Vibhageey Pareekshayein, Rajasthan, Bikaner.
Besides being a dancer, she is a beauty with brains and is M.Sc. Physics.
Yati started her journey of art at the age of 10. She started with Indian Classical vocal music, after one year, she switched to Indian classical dance – Kathak, and then she continued in the same field.
Her interest in Kathak peaked because her elder sister was already learning Kathak and was in the senior class. Initially, she learned Kathak from Mrs. Achla Baliyan.
Then after three years, she is learned from her elder sister Mrs. Pratibha Kumari. She has been mentoring for a long time, along with her sister.
For Yati, dance is not only a means of fitness or health, but for her, dance is a way to express her feelings, understanding nature, knowing others’ emotions, exploring various dimensions of self, finding relations with music in general, and getting in sync with nature.
In her opinion, she is still a student and will always be one as there’s enough to learn every day.
These days we think if we’ll do this dance form or that, then we’ll look cooler or people will think we are way smarter than others.
At the same time, the truth is far from that. If we put our entire energy and life in any one style, you will wonder how beautiful or creative it is and how many more things could be done and learned.
No amount of knowledge allows us to say that we are perfect, or we know everything.
The moment we reach a certain level, we can see the next level, and we’ve something new to learn to explore.
Ms. Yati Puniya
She presented another wonderful aspect when she was asked-how, she managed Science and Kathak together and how she got interested in both.
She replied both are art-one is tagged as science and the other as dance.
Both will bring something new to your life, and when you think you’ve reached a level, both will present new challenges to you.
Both Science and Dance are integrated into our day to day life so well that we can’t separate them from our lives.
Criteria for Judgment:
- Rhythm
- Choreography
- Expression & Movement
- Costume
- Overall (theme, idea, innovation, background, etc.)
Mr. Aman Saxena: Jury Instrumental Music
Mr. Aman Saxena has been our Jury for Creative Quest 2020: National Online Talent Show. He is a budding Music Producer, Singer, Lyricist, Arranger at his personal Music studio i.e., ‘Roxtr studio’ and also running Music classes at Raag fusion.
He is currently employed with Alwar Public School as a music teacher.
His father, Late Sh. Sudesh Saxena was a famous Ghazal singer and Tabla player in Alwar town and was a Music teacher in Navodaya Vidyalaya.
His mother got the blessings of raagas in Ayodhya, the land of Lord Rama, so Music is in his D.N.A. Aman started learning and performing keyboard at the age of 6, and later he graduated to singing also.
As Eklavya set an idol of guru Dronacharya, his Dronacharya is Mr. A.R. Rahman.
His Music and personality are a strength for him. Aman is greatly inspired by him even today.
In Indian classical Music, he pursued graduation and B.Ed with Music from M.D.U. Rohtak, under the guidance of Mrs. Jyotsna Sharma and Mr. Daman.
During this period, he also got selected for National level Music events in different categories i.e., Indian Classical Vocal, Lite vocals, Folk Instrumental, etc. Right now, he is pursuing M.A. in Indian Classical Vocal Music.
He has learned Western Music from the Delhi School of Music (Trinity College of London affiliated) under Mr. Cary D’Melo and got certification for the Tandon Global Music production course from Berklee College of Music, Boston, U.S.A.
I felt incomplete without Music. Music isn’t just a career for me. I have a spiritual approach to Music.
It’s a process of purification of our soul and personality. It is a transfer of energy.
It is also a service for me to the modern world and their modern challenges.
It’s an effective way to heal, inspire, and spread happiness for this world.
His aim in life is to develop quality Music as well as more artists.Whether they will choose Music as a career or not is immaterial. If they choose to follow Music, then they can also serve the same duty towards this world, and as in this connected world, it’s very easy to transfer that energy.
Mr. Aman Saxena
He believes that there should be no excuses for success because life is unpredictable and always ready to deliver you new challenges every day.
Criteria for Judgment:
- Chords/Complexity
- Correct Notes
- Rhythm
- Preparation & Content
- Confidence
Mrs. Barkha Sharma
Mrs Barkha Sharma was the Hindi Jury for VERVE 2020 National Online Story Writing Competition. She was honoured with the best teacher award when she was teaching in Sunhill Public School, Alwar.
Currently, Mrs. Barkha Sharma is teaching in Alwar Public School as a Hindi teacher in the primary block. She loves to write and read stories, and poems.
Honest to the core she loves to do everything on time and is very particular when it come to honouring any commitment that she has made.