US SAILING JUDGES COMMITTEE
Annual Meeting - October 17, 2002
Marriott Hotel, Marina Del Ray, California

Open Session - Thursday, October 17, 2002

Chairman Everingham called the meeting to order shortly after 9:30 a.m., welcomed the observers and introduced the members of the Committee.

APPROVING THE MINUTES

The minutes of the Spring meeting which were posted in May 2002 stand approved per the Judges Committee policy.

AREA REPORTS (RAJs)

Area C: Ted Everingham for Sandy Grosvenor reported 2 very successful Workshops were held in Area C and the number of judges is good.

Area D: Burton Howell stated the area has 43 judges with no losses yet this year and 1 pending certification. Area D held 2 Workshops this year.

Area E: Ted Everingham for Mike Tapert reported 1 Workshop held in Northern Ohio and another to be given in early 2003. Two new judges were certified and losses were unknown, although the numbers in the Detroit area are good, other parts of Area E are short of Judges.

Area F: Marty Ottenheimer reported 1 seminar was held in Houston and there is an upcoming seminar to be held in Denver. They are in the process of gaining 5 new judges and during the past year realized a net gain in the number of judges.

Area G: Tom Roberts held 6 racing rules seminars, 1 specifically geared towards non certified attendees and 1 Judges Workshop & Test. The area has gained 3 new appointments this year, the first new appointments in a number of years.

Area H - West: Joe Cochran stated that the area has 7 judges, 1 is a Senior and 1 is an IJ. Cy Gillette has retired, but stills sits on panels in the area. There are no seminars scheduled at this time.

Umpire Subcommittee: Kirk Brown stated there is a great need for Team Racing Umpires and the Umpire Subcommittee (USC) is trying to address this issue by implementing a program to present Team Racing Seminars. An Umpire seminar was held in conjunction with the POW a few weeks ago and the USC is planning on offering between 3 and 5 seminars in 2003. In order to bring our Umpiring standards up to par with the ISAF standards, the USC has been working on a new set of Umpire Qualifications for 2003. The US SAlLIING Umpire Qualifications for 2003 were presented to the Judges Committee, Discussion and questions followed. A motion was made, seconded and approved for the Judges Committee to endorse the Qualifications as written.

WORKSHOPS & TESTS PROJECT - REPORT & DISCUSSION

All members of the Judges Committee received a handout prepared by Joe Cochran after compiling months of online work and discussions. Ted Everingham asked Joe to walk us through the handout. Highlights of discussion and questions:

- What was the level of difficulty in preparing online questions & study guidelines as interim and quadrennial changes take effect?
- Online questions & study guides not difficult, but online testing very difficult.
- Did any of these proposals create problems for Lacey?
- The RC management does not think 4 year rule changes are a problem.
- Is it simpler to just educate on interim & quadrennial changes and opposed to requiring all judges to get on a recertification schedule in line with the quadrennial rule book release?
- The need for more electronic communication on interpretations of rules is necessary no matter what direction we take.
- The question of creating different Judges levels was raised again.

Barry Ault made a motion to approve parts 1, 2 and 4 of the Phase One - Certification/Recertification Requirements. Warwick Coppleson seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

Phase One - Certification/Recertification Requirements. (The following is in addition to the requirements for experience and references)

1. Attending (or presenting) a U.S. Sailing Workshop and Test and achieving an acceptable score of 85% correct answers, is required to achieve certification as a U.S. Sailing Judge.
- Test may be taken separately from the workshop. However evidence of workshop attendance shall be provided with the test for certification or recertification.
2. Certification period will continue for a four year period, at which time re-certification will be attained upon attending an additional workshop and passing the required test.
- In addition, it will be required that an online study shall be successfully completed within one year of the introduction of new rules - per each four year quadrennial.
4. For recertification purposes, the workshop and test requirement will be satisfied by an ISAF workshop and by successfully passing their test. Applicant shall attain the status of a U.S. Sailing Judge when an application is accepted and approved by the Judges Committee.
- On online study shall be successfully completed within one year of the introduction of new rules - per each four-year quadrennial.

- An online study covering U.S. prescriptions and rules shall be
successfully completed with each ISAF certification/recertification.

- Recertification may be achieved through participation in the U.S. Sailing Workshop & Test program.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Chairman Everingham stated that was ESSENTIAL to talk about the availability of Seminar materials. Discussion followed:

- still a work in progress
- need a standard seminar package for presentation
- need an approved program on a CD to be on file with Lacey
- Ted will coordinate a subcommittee to work on this.

Questions raised:

- How can we de-emphasize the rules, when we need consistency in interpreting the rules?
- Should we have a rules seminar completely separate from the Judges workshop? i.e.: UK: Real Time racing Rules presentation or others.
- Do we build in this presentation in a workshop?

Proposed Prerequisites:

- Rules seminar or presentation viewing.
- Study questions & answers to be submitted at beginning of Workshop

Conclusions:

- Workshop materials and program outline to be presented to Judges Committee
- Criteria required to take the test
- Study questions need to be updated
- Content of Workshop should focus on judging procedures as opposed to RRS Part 2.

Ted Everingham proposed sending all of the above to the Judges Committee members via email and have the members "roll up their sleeves & get it done".

Marty Ottenheimer agreed to send the Workshop materials to all the members of the Judges Committee and we will revamp from there.

OLD BUSINESS

Mary Ottenheimer reported the following statistics of note:

- 645 workshop attendees in 2002
- 303 active judges in 2002
- This past year is the first year the number of new judges has outnumbered the number of retiring judges.

NEW BUSINESS

Ted Everingham reported that there is a problem for prospective candidates and upgrading candidates to find events to attend for their application requirements. Tom Roberts explained that Area G has put together a website that posts events needing judges and judges desiring events in order to match up. He has offered to share the website with the possibility of making a national website along the same order.

Further discussion will continue in the closed meeting on 'Saturday pertaining to other Workshops & Tests Proposals and Seminar information.

The meeting was adjourned at 12 Noon.

Respectfully submitted,

Debbie Schoenherr
Secretary