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This is a basic introduction to the Cappies for a Lead Critic.
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Getting Started
As your school’s Lead Critic, you are responsible for helping your school’s Cappies Advisor make sure your school follows the rules. Specifically, you are responsible for:
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If your Program Director schedules any additional Lead Critics meetings, you must either attend it personally or, if you cannot, make sure another Critic from your school attends in your place. You (or a designee) must attend every Lead Critics meeting. Your program’s Steering Committee may impose a sanction—adding to your school’s minimum review requirement—if your school is not represented at a Lead Critics meeting.
Assisting in Training
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Binders
As Lead Critic, one of your first responsibilities—on the next school day after your training—is to explain to your school’s Critics, Advisor, Show Director, andMentorhow to download their binders from the Cappies website through CIS.
Please contact your school’s Booster, and make arrangements for him/her to pick up the Booster Binder that you should run off for him/her. (You might be able to leave it at your school’s front desk.)
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Meeting with Advisor, Show Director, and Mentors
Your school may have more than oneMentoror Show Director (for two Cappies Shows), in which case each one should have a binder. Your Program Director can supply you with these, as needed.
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- Decide whether you will ask Critics to take part in a writing exercise, like the one suggested in the “Review Writing” section, before their first Cappies Show—and, if so, how this will be done.
- Discuss how you and the Advisor will together oversee Critic attendance and review writing performance over the year.
- Schedule an initial meeting with Critics, at which you and the Advisor can both be present.
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Meeting with Critics
After all Critics (including Regional Critics) at your school have been trained, please schedule a meeting with them, with your school’s Cappies Advisor present. If necessary, the Advisor can help schedule this and impress on everyone the importance of attending this meeting.
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IMPORTANT: If you are aware of persistent or substantial Critic misbehavior at Cappies Shows, or in writing reviews, please inform your Advisor immediately. If you don’t, you run the risk that your school’s own Cappies Show could be disqualified from awards.
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Speaking with the Booster
Please speak briefly with your school’s Cappies Booster about the need for Critics to get to and from Cappies Shows safely, and about what is required for your school’s own Cappies Show.
Keeping Your Database Current
Please help your Advisor keep your school’s Cappies database current. It is especially important that everyone be reachable by C.I.S. emails.
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Early in the year, make a quick check to make sure all persons are getting Cappies emails. If they are not, either there is an error in the database, or that person’s spam blocker may be blocking Cappies emails. If the latter, please help them fix this. If you don’t know how to do this, please find another student who knows how to adjust spam blockers, and they can teach you how to do that.
Maintaining Your Roster
Critics must be students in grades 9 through 12 who are currently enrolled in your school, and who has not been prohibited by school authorities from participating in extracurricular activities.
If any Critic fails twice to submit a review for an attended show, that Critic will be removed from the roster.
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Regional Team Critics
Your school can select an additional three Critics (beyond the six on your Team) if they are willing to be Regional Team Critics.
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You and your Advisor will need to supervise the work of Regional Team Critics just as much as you do other Critics. That could pose a special challenge, since they often will be attending shows apart from your Critics Team.
Maintaining Your Schedule
You are responsible for setting, and if necessary updating, the assignment schedule for your school’s Critics Team.
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Team Attendance at Assigned Shows
You need to manage the Critics Team to be sure every one of your assigned shows is covered. For each show, the team must submit at least half as many reviews as there are members of the team. If your team has 3 or 4 Critics, then the team must submit at least 2 reviews. If 5 or 6 Critics, then 3 reviews. (If you have additional Regional Team Critics, the required minimum is still 3.)
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Your Advisor will see the same Critic attendance and review record you will, so he or she can help you make sure all Critics are on path to meeting their required minimum number of reviews—which will prevent your school’s own Cappies Show from being disqualified.
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Changes in Team Assignments
If your team needs to request a change in show assignments, you should be the one to email your Program Director. This must be done not later than 14 days before the assigned show, and the request must be accompanied by a list of at least three acceptable replacement dates.
Leading Your Team at Cappies Shows
One key responsibility of a Lead Critic is to make sure all critics from your school show good decorum at Cappies Shows. You cannot control what other Critics from your school may do, but they will take cues from you, especially if you’re sitting together in a Cappies Room, and again in the theater. As Lead Critic, you have a responsibility to set a high standard for decorum.
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Critic safety and security is very important. You should help your Advisor (and Booster) to keep an eye on how Critics from your school are planning to travel to and from Cappies Shows.
Helping Your Mentor
Several months may pass between the time you first meet with your school’sMentorand his or her first assignment. Sometime during the week before that assignment, please check in with theMentorand ask if he or she has any questions about the role of Discussion or Editor Mentor, any rules, and C.I.S.
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Emergency Critic-
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Mentor
Every Lead Critic must be capable of being an emergency Critic-Mentor, if for some reason no Mentors attend a Cappies Show. (This has only happened once in the history of the Cappies, but it could happen again at any show.) Here’s what to do, in such a case.
At any Cappies Show at which both Mentors are absent, for any reason, and if there is no member of the Steering Committee present (who, if so, would be the Mentor), the Lead Critics who are present will select two among them—preferably volunteers, selected (if need by) by a vote of all critics who are present. The Critic-Mentors will lead discussions, collect pre-show and post-show forms. Upon returning home, both Critic-Mentors will notify the Program Director, who will give them additional instructions. The Critic-Mentors should each write a review of that show, and may later vote for that show, but they may not select their own reviews for publication.
Helping Your Show Director
As your school’s Cappies Show nears, check in with your school’s Show Director, to make sure he or she knows what to do. Make sure your Show Director completes the Award Category Eligibility form. Alternatively, you can complete it, and the Show Director can approve it. However it’s prepared, this form must be given to the Editor Mentor not later than 30 minutes before curtain.
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As the Cappies Gala nears, make sure the Show Director, and nominees from your school, know what to do.
Assisting at Year End
As Award Voting nears, you should keep close track of the review writing performance of Critics from your school, to make sure you are together submitting enough reviews to qualify your own school’s Cappies Show for awards. If your program requires each Critic to submit five reviews, then all Critics from your school must together submit at least 15 reviews, and have two voting Critics, to qualify your show for awards. (If your program requires four reviews per critic, your minimum i 12—if three per critic, then the minimum is 9.)
Your minimum number may be higher—if, at any of your Team’s assigned shows, your Team failed to submit the required number of reviews, or if you failed to attend a Lead Critics meeting (or send a designee).
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Awards Voting
Make sure all Critics know the date of Award Voting. All Critics must vote at the same place on the same day, and no exceptions are allowed (except for religious observance). Make sure all Critics at your school know that date and plan to be there.
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Nominations are announced within one to two days after the voting. Most Cappies programs post the nominations online. Per the cliché, the chips fall where they may. Your school may receive several nominations, or not many. (In large programs, some schools receive no nominations.)
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Cappies Gala
Tickets for the year-end Cappies Gala, tickets will be made available for your school. The number of available tickets, per school, will depend on the size of your Cappies program and the size of the Gala venue. Your school’s Show Director will be in charge of this.
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No matter where the awards go, students at your school will have a wonderful time at the Cappies Gala—and all year long, whether a student is reviewing Cappies shows, putting them on, or both.
Using (and Helping Others Use) C.I.S.
The Cappies is a web-based organization, with a web site (www.cappies.com) and “C.I.S.,” the password-accessible Cappies Information Services. Nearly all the email you’ll receive from the Cappies will come via C.I.S.
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Please read the instructions for C.I.S. Spend some time with your school’s Lead Critic to make sure you understand how to log-in, and how to use it. C.I.S. may seem daunting, when you first encounter it, but it’s simpler than it looks.
Maintaining Contact with Cappies Officials
Through the year, you and your Advisor will be your school’s main point of contact with Cappies Officials.
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