Judge Selection Policy

The Following Policy for selecting National Specialty and Parent Club Specialty Conformation, Sweepstakes and Futurity Judges was approved by the Board of Directors on June 16, 2025 and will remain in effect unless or until the Board of Directors approved a revised version.

Conformation and Sweepstakes Nominations

Nominations for conformation judges (National Specialty, Regional Specialty, and Sweepstakes will be solicited from the General Membership. Each BCSA member will be allowed to nominate up to two judges for Conformation and one judge for Sweepstakes (National and Regional Specialty combined). Proposed Conformation judges, including foreign judges, must be licensed to judge border collies in AKC or another foreign national Kennel Club. Sweepstakes judges do not need to be licensed. Nominated Sweepstakes judges must meet one of the following criteria: (1) Owned or bred a minimum of three Border Collies who have earned an AKC Conformation Championship, (2) Owned or bred a minimum of five dogs who have earned an AKC Conformation Championship, (3) Owned or bred a minimum of five dogs who have earned a Championship in another country, or (4) hold a Provisional or higher Judges license. Sweepstakes judges do not need to be border collie breeders. Sweepstakes judges are subject to the same code of conduct as AKC licensed judges and must avoid any appearance of bias or conflict of interest. All nominations received will be considered and vetted from the Judge’s Selection Committee (JSC).

The JSC selection of a draft slate shall be based primarily on the number of votes received from the General Membership, but also on qualifications of the judges, ability to work well with others, availability, and cost. The JSC may veto a proposed candidate if they believe the Club will not be well served by that candidate.The committee will verify that the panel of proposed judges are willing and available to judge and will request a biography to present to the membership. After the nomination process is complete, the JSC will provide a list of potential nominees that have satisfied the criteria to the Board of Directors for approval.

After board approval, the JSC will provide a list of 4 Conformation candidates and 3 Sweepstakes candidates to the membership for voting .

Conformation and Sweepstakes Voting

The four candidates selected for Conformation (National and Regional Specialty combined), and the three finalists selected for Sweepstakes will be presented to the membership, along with their Biographies. The General Membership will then vote for two candidates for Conformation (National and BCSA - sponsored), and one candidate for Conformation Sweepstakes. The candidate(s) with the most votes in each venue will be selected to judge at the National Specialty Show. The Conformation candidate with the second most votes will be selected to judge at the BCSA-sponsored conformation show. The vote will occur online, and will be held by the JSC Chair and the Board Liaison until the close of voting. Votes are tallied by the Chair of the JSC, and confirmed by the Board Liaison. In the event of a tie vote, the Judge Selection Committee will arrange for a straw vote, of which the details will be approved beforehand by committee members.

The selected judges will be notified and confirmed for availability. Once all judges have been confirmed, the slate will be reported to the Board of Directors before being released to the general membership. The Board will receive the full results of the election process before the percentage/number of votes of the winners are distributed to the membership. Judges who were not selected will be notified.

Futurity Judges

In addition to the General Membership being encouraged to nominate judges for Conformation and Sweepstakes, they will have the opportunity to nominate one person to judge Futurity on the same ballot. Futurity nominations will not be subject to vote.

Nominated Conformation Futurity judges must meet at least two of the following criteria: (1) Currently competing in Conformation or has competed in the past three years in Conformation with Border Collies, (2) Bred at least three litters of Border Collies, (3) Owner-Handled at least three Border Collies to AKC Championships (not necessarily from their own breeding), (4) Bred at least four litters of any AKC Herding breed, with at least one dog from a litter be an AKC Champion of Record, or (5) Owner-Handled at least four AKC Herding Breed dogs to AKC Championships.

Futurity judges are subject to the same code of conduct as AKC licensed judges and must avoid any appearance of bias or conflict of interest.

Timeline of Conformation/Sweepstakes Process

The timeline below is suggested and the process may move quicker though it should not fall behind schedule. Members will still have the same amount of time to make their nominations and vote: Two weeks to nominate, one week to view biographies, and two weeks to vote.

  • Member Nominations: On or before February 15th-March 1st

  • Processing: March 1st- March 15th

  • Announce Slate/Post Biographies: on or before April 1st and will be posted for 1 week.

  • Voting: At the conclusion of the weeklong Biography post, voting will open for two weeks.

  • Announcement of Slate: On or before May 15th.

All other judges will be selected by the Show and/or Event Chairs. Top 20 Judges will be selected by the Event Chairs.

In general, judges who are unable to conduct their assignment shall be replaced by the candidate with the next highest number of votes in the election. The Judges Selection committee will identify, communicate with and hire the replacement judge as done with initial hires. If no other candidates nominated during the election are available, and / or if (1) this change occurs after the Event closes or (2) if counts obtained after the Event Closes reveal the need for an Overflow Judge, the Show Chair(s) will identify and hire a replacement or overflow Judge.