Are mentors or coaches of teams prohibited from serving as judges at world-qualifying events? Historically, conflicts of interest have been managed by ensuring that judges do not evaluate or interview teams with whom they have a relationship, as outlined in the Guide to Judging. However, is there a rule that prevents mentors or coaches from being judges altogether, even if they follow impartiality guidelines?
Impartiality Judges should strive to be impartial and fact-based. All volunteers involved in judging should take care to remove any outward appearances of conflicts of interest, including team shirts, buttons, or branded items that would appear to favor any team at the event.
Conflicts of interest occur when there is a relationship between a judging volunteer and one or more teams or organizations at the event. Additionally, that relationship could create, or appear to create, a situation where teams will not be judged fairly, and that discussions during award deliberations will not be impartial. It is the responsibility of the Event Partner to avoid these situations whenever possible by recruiting judges, and particularly Judge Advisors, who do not have these relationships.
Due to the volunteer nature of most event staff, this may not always be possible. If a Judge has conflicts of interest, it is their responsibility to declare those conflicts to the Event Partner and Judge Advisor. They must mindfully avoid advocating for or against the teams with which they have a relationship or participating directly in the judging process for those teams, such as participating in Team Interviews or Engineering Notebook evaluations.