March 2002, US SAILING Judges Committee Minutes

US SAILING JUDGES COMMITTEE
Spring Meeting - March, 2002
Antler Adams Mark Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Except as noted by an asterisk (*) below, all members of the Judges Committee and Lacey Howe (US SAILING Race Administration Director) were present:

Ted Everingham (Chair)
Kirk Brown (Chair, Umpires Subcommittee)*
Debbie Schoenherr (Secretary)*
Regional Administrative Judges (RAJs)
John Dieselman (Area A)*
Bruce Cook (Area B)*
Sandy Grosvenor (Area C)
Burton Howell (Area D)

Mike Tapert (Area E)*
Marty Ottenheimer (Area F)*
Tom Roberts (Area G)*
Joe James (Area H-East)*
Joe Cochran (Area H-West)
Barry Ault (Area J)*
Warwick Coppleson (Area K)

Chairman Everingham called the meeting to order shortly after 9:30am welcomed approximately 30 observers and introduced the members of the Committee. Don Becker attended representing the Umpires Subcommittee, Gary Sander represented Marty Ottenheimer, and Sandy Grosvenor filled in as secretary for Debi Schoenherr.

Ted suggested the following policy for distributing and approving the minutes should be used: the secretary submits draft minutes initially to the chairman, incorporates the chairman's comments, and then distributes the minutes by email to the members of the Judges Committee and posts them to the Judges website (www.ussailing.org/judges). The secretary incorporates comments received and re-distributes revisions to both the JC and the committee. Once the minutes have been posted for two weeks without additional comment, they will automatically be approved.

That process met with no objections. Therefore the minutes of the 2001 Fall Meeting, which were posted in November 2001, are considered approved.

Ted introduced Tom Farquhar, chairman of the Race Management Committee (RMC). Ted has a mandate from President Rosekrans to ensure that the Judges and Umpires Training and Certification programs continue to evolve. In particular, the Judges Workshop and affiliated materials need to be revised and brought up to the same standard as the Race Management Seminars. Second, there are several areas where there are differences in the certification requirements and process between the Race Officer program and Judges Program. Tom will be chairing a working party composed of three members of the Judges Committee (one of whom will focus particulasrly on the Umpires program) and two from the Race Management committee to address both these issues. Tom distributed a comparison of the requirements and processes for certification between the Race Officers and Judges programs, and a list of the materials contained in the Race Management seminars.

Tom described a summary of the RMC seminars: Most of the lead-in materials for Basic and Advance Race Management Seminars will be on the race management website shortly. The RMC runs about 30 Basic seminars per year and about has run about 30 Advanced seminars over the past 3 years. They continue to track reports from instructors on each seminar, which allow the seminars to evolve.

The goal of the working party will be to complete their revisions by the 2003 Spring Meeting, but to be substantially complete by the fall of 2002.

Chris Luppens suggested adding to the process a feedback mechanism between the RMC and the JC on applicants.

Dean Brenner was introduced representing the Sailor-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC). Dean welcomes feedback and questions from the JC to the SAAC and encouraged members of the JC to register their sailor athlete level on the SAAC. While the JC is not required to maintain a specific sailor/athlete representation ratio, he encourages all committees to strive for a 20% sailor athlete representation.

The Regional Administrative Judge's manual has been available on the web for some time, but has been password protected to limit access to members of the JC. During the recent closed session, the JC agreed that as soon as some minor amendments (adding the role of SOARS) to the manual are complete, the password would be removed and the manual available to the public.

Ted introduced Jim Capron, the current Chair of Race Administration Committee (and former Chair of the JC). Jim discussed the current state of the various Race Administration publications. The revised 2002 Appeals book is in final review with the printer and should be very soon (perhaps within a month). Once the Appeals Manual is completed, the Judges Manual will be finalized for print, the Race Management Handbook will be third. A new process in being implemented where the manuals will be made available for electronic download at no charge via the website. Nicely bound and printed editions will continue to be available for purchase from US SAILING. The printing process will focus on much smaller printing runs, and when the stock for a manual is re-ordered, revisions will be incorporated. The web will always have the most current version.

This led to a discussion of the current requirement for Judge certification that each applicant "own" a current copy of the Appeals and Judges manuals. The SOARS system also has a check box for indicating what manuals an official "owns". The JC approved a motion that the requirement for "own" a manual would allow an applicant to either download the electronic copy or purchase a printed copy, and that by checking the appropriate box on an applicant's form, they affirm that they had a current copy of the manuals. This affirmation is considered sufficient to meet the requirement of "owning" the relevant manual.

Jim and Ted will work together to remind JC members who still have outstanding action items for revised sections of the Judges Manual.

Sandy Grosvenor suggested that the release of the manuals via the web without charge would be excellent positive publicity to US SAILING.

Jim Capron also reported that as a member of the ISAF International Judges Working Party, he often receives information about opportunities for US SAILING judges on International Juries outside of the US. He normally forwards these opportunities to the JC Chair and encouraged these to be spread not just to the RAJ, but beyond to Judges at large wanting to gain international experience.

One such opportunity is for a US SAILING judge (not already an IJ) at the upcoming 2003 ISAF Youth World Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia this summer. The organizers have one spot reserved for a US SAILING Judge, and would prefer one under 40 years old (as this is a junior event) and experienced in on water judging for rule 42. Recommendations should be passed on to Ted.

Several overseas MNAs (and EuroSAF) have budgets to cover travel costs to allow their national judges to obtain international experience.

The recommended process for either seeking international work for a US judge or seeking judges from other countries is to pass the request on to your RAJ or Ted directly, RAJs should forward requests to Ted who will coordinate with Jim and EuroSAF.

ISAF traditionally holds an International Judges Workshop in North American each year, and in the US every other year. ISAF is due to hold an event in the US in 2002 and Jim asked that the JC consider potential hosts and dates and pass recommendations on the Jim Capron for forwarding to ISAF.

Betty Sherman of San Diego Yacht Club said that SDYC would be interested in hosting a workshop in the fall. Additional considerations suggested by various attendees included: a mid-western or western location since the last ISAF seminar in the US was held on the East Coast; scheduling the seminar in close proximity to the Fall US SAILING meeting, scheduling early enough to allow applicants for initial IJ certification to attend prior to their (likely July) deadline for submitting IJ applications to US SAILING.

The net summary is that sites and hosts should be submitted to Ted who can then coordinate with the appropriate RAJ and other US SAILING seminars and meetings.

Don Becker and Betsy Altman announced that US SAILING, MIT and USTRA will host an ISAF Team Racing Umpire Clinic June 19-23, 2002. This seminar will be held in conjunction with the USTRA Nationals in Cambridge, Mass. Additional information and sign-up form are available on the US SAILING web page.

Area D - Burton Howell had submitted a paper report but summarized that Area D has gained 2 new judges since last October and have had 4 judges terms expire, and 2 others retire. He is also planning a Judges Workshop for the weekend of November 16-17, 2002 in Columbia, South Carolina.

Area K - Warwick Coppleson - reported that the number of protests seems to be increasing slightly, and that his belief was that more sailors are comfortable with the current rules and therefore more willing to protest. He also reported that several older judges in Area K, some quite good, have declined to attend a workshop and take a test and are therefore will be de-certified.

Area F - Gary Sander reported on behalf of Marty Ottenheimer that the number of judges was no longer declining and there were several good candidates in the pipeline.

Area C - Sandy Grosvenor reported there has been excellent turnout (both quality and quantity) and two Judges Workshops held in Area C over the winter, one in Annapolis and one in New Jersey. At the workshop in Annapolis, Annapolis Yacht Club, Eastport Yacht Club and CBYRA joined together to cover the costs of the seminar so that it was free to the participants attending the whole workshop and taking the test. Sandy thought that this was an excellent way for clubs and sailing associations to provide a small thank you and support for their judges and potential judges who were committing their time and energy to improving their skills.

Area A - John Dieselman was unable to attend but submitted a paper report. To summarize, he reports a likely drop of 10 certified judges between 2001 and 2002. He also suggested that the letters sent to judges whose terms were expiring and who had not met the requirements for re-certification could and should be revised and improved in tone. Especially since we no longer are granting extensions in order to allow additional time to meet workshop and test requirements. John also expressed some concern about diving too quickly into a fully automated SOARS reporting system, and the need to update and improve the judges workshop materials and configuration management (Secretary's choice of words).

Don Becker reported on behalf of the Umpires Subcommittee. He first informed the JC that Steve Wrigley would be replacing out-going member Arthur (Tuna) Wullschleger. Next, Don presented the Umpires Subcommittee with a set of revised requirements for Umpire certification and re-certification. Most of the requirements remain the same or slightly altered. The most significant change is that Umpires will no longer be required to be US SAILING judges for their initial certification. The requirement to be a Judge does remain for re-certification.

Don reported that they researched the policies of several other countries, and that only the US and Canada required Judge certifications of their Umpires, and that Canada required only their lowest Judge certification level, that of a "Club Judge"

Betsy Altman, Chairman of the Hinman Committee, offered her wholehearted support for dropping the requirement of Umpires to also be Judges. She said that many good potential umpires were younger and did not have the time or interest in becoming or maintaining Judge certifications as well. Ms. Altman recommended removal entirely of the requirement to be a Judge.

Ted also notified the JC that he has asked the Umpires Subcommittee to consider whether or not it was appropriate to consider added a 2nd level of umpire certification and what the requirements of that certification might be.

Ted recognized Sandy Grosvenor and thanked her for her ongoing efforts. Sandy reported that several bugs in SOARS have been fixed in recent weeks and that the system appears to be working well.

She proposed that the access to the administrative reports be changed from its current system where the JC may review log information only on Judges (not Race Officers or uncertified members using SOARS), to a more open system where all members of the JC, ARO, and RMC would have access to all SOARS information. This was approved with no noted objections.

Sandy also reported that the web and database efforts are underway to allow SOARS to access some additional information such as term expirations, dates of workshop attendance and date that the Judges test was last passed. This information will likely be added to SOARS over the summer.