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Leadership: The key to develop small

Magic communities

Grand Prix Valencia 2013Judge Conference

Manuel Amaya GonzálezLevel 2 Judge

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Understanding a community (I)A Magic community needs three basic pillars to

stay alive and well.

• Players– Buy product, play in events, and bring friends.

• Stores– Sell product, organize events, and provide with playing areas.

• Judges– Oversee events, teach players, and assist stores.

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Understanding a community (II)Each pillar needs to support the structure in the

best possible way. A triangle is one of the best shapes at resisting pressure and deformation.

Judges Players

Stores

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Understanding a community (III)A small community has one or more pillars absent

or poorly developed, resulting in a structure that could crumble or deform under certain circumstances, and so it has limited possibilities of growth.

Judges

Players

Stores

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Leadership: Definition (I)Exercise: Discuss ideas in groups

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Leadership: Definition (II)There are lots of definitions of leadership, but it's

also a difficult idea to explain to others. We usually understand this concept by associating it to other ideas like:

• Authority, character, power or command

• Empathy, charisma, presence or trust

• Competency, effectiveness or supportiveness

• Influence, subtleness or persuasion

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Leadership applied to judgingIn judging there are some traits that are very useful

to accomplish some judging goals outside and inside tournaments. Some of them are specially relevant to develop a small community:

• Trust: Be trusted by players, stores, and other judges

• Example: Be a model for others in the community

• Empathy: To understand the needs of others

• Influence: To support and develop the community

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A practical case (I)

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A practical case (II)

We had stores We had judges

But the community wasn't growing at all!!!

Magic have always been a game of interest among some groups of players, but never had spiked in popularity, nor had lots of in-store action.

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A practical case (III)When dealing with a case of a small community is

always important to analyze and to determine what is keeping your community from growing and develop. In this case it was:

• A small group of players was taking advantage of the stores, trying to obtain better and better prizes

• Their attitude in events kept novice players from playing

• The attendance to events was inconsistent

• Nobody actually spent money in the stores

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A practical case (IV)It is important to talk to people you think can help

with the situation. You don't need to impose anything, but you can use your influence to try to better your community. Some examples of what to do:

• Talk with other judges and try to act as a unified group

• Assist the stores tailoring their events to other public

• Lead by example when playing in events

• Certify and mentor judges

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A practical case (V)After less than a year of work we have developed

greatly our community and it is growing. There are some examples of the goals we achieved:

• There are more players than ever before playing in the stores, in special casual and novice players

• The stores started to increase their magic sales and now have regular customers

• There are new judges and lot of people who ask us how to join the Judge Program

• Competitive players still play in events tailored for them