Jason Oates appointed DCUK judges administrator

Drum Corps United Kingdom officially announce that ason Oates has been appointed as the new DCUK judges administrator. Jason is renowned as a long time supporter of the drum corps activity and brings with him to the role many years of experience as both a judge and an administrator.

During the process of seeking a new judges administrator the DCUK board were impressed with Jason's ideas, implementation strategies and fresh approach to the way he foresees the future of the DCUK judging team.

Jason remarked on hearing of his appointment. "I am extremely pleased to have been on the short list of candidates and had no hesitation in accepting the position when it was offered. I guess my philosophies and ideas about how we can embrace future change struck a chord with the management team. I firmly believe that together we can all make a difference and I am certainly looking forward to playing my part on behalf of the judging community within DCUK to deliver the highest quality service in terms of judging to our member corps."

Joe Fitzpatrick went on to comment "We had identified Jason as a strong candidate at an early stage in our search for someone to spearhead the future of the DCUK judging community and when we met to discuss the position we were all impressed with his vision and commitment, from that moment on we knew we had found our man."

The 2007 DCUK judges and judging panels will be accredited by Jason and his team and as such will be licensed to judge at DCUK events. The DCUK Judges licence will serve to enable judges to adjudicate at DCUK's own events and will not serve as a full accreditation of Drum Corps Europe. However DCUK sincerely hopes that many if not all of their judges will seek accreditation from the Drum Corps Europe judging committee. As an added benefit DCUK will recognise fully accredited Members of the DCE judging panel and there may well be occasions that judges that are fully accredited by DCE will be invited to adjudicate at DCUK events.

In addition to servicing the needs of Drum Corps United Kingdom Jason will be playing a full part in the ongoing advancements in line with DCUK's commitments to the recently published strategic partnership agreements with all of their European partners. DCUK are committed to providing an environment in which all of the national federations can ultimately share resource for the benefit of the member drum corps.

It is also their hope that many of the judges who have served DCUK so well for many years will again offer their services to judge at DCUK sanctioned events throughout 2007. Jason and his team will be making contact with past and present judges to update them on the plans of the judges caption moving forward. DCUK would also urge anyone who may feel that they could contribute to the drum corps activity by becoming a judge to make contact with Jason at judges@dcuk.org.uk.

Jason will have a seat on the DCUK management team and his brief will be to take responsibility for all judging related matters including the overseeing of recruitment, training and allocation of judges. The DCUK management are confident that they have found the right person to implement change and embrace the future of judging at DCUK events.