Index › Judging and Criteria › Judging panel structures
Judging panel structures
| Branch | Judging and Criteria |
|---|---|
| Record | records/judging-panel-structures |
| Subject scope | Common ways a jury is composed, balanced and rotated |
| Format | Reference record with sectioned notes |
Panel structure is the mechanism that turns a criteria document into a result. This record describes the arrangements most often used, and what each one is trying to guard against.
Single panel across the slate
One group scores every division. The arrangement produces consistent standards from division to division, but it asks a small group to be credible across a wide spread of subject matter, and it is slow once a slate grows past a few dozen headings.
Sub-panels by sector
Divisions are distributed to smaller groups matched to the trade area. Depth improves, but the programme then has to reconcile scores that were produced under different habits, usually by normalising against a shared scale.
Rotation and term limits
Panellists serve a fixed number of cycles. Rotation limits the degree to which one person's preferences shape a division over time, at the cost of losing the institutional memory that makes year-on-year comparisons meaningful.
Recusal in practice
A declaration list is normally collected before scoring opens and reapplied at shortlist stage, because relationships change between the two. Where a division is small enough that recusals would empty the panel, the usual answer is to bring in a reserve rather than to score with a conflict on record.