| US SAILING JUDGES COMMITTEE Spring Meeting - March 14, 2003 Cincinnati, Ohio Open Session - Friday, March 14, 2003 [Minutes August, 2003, as per Judges Committee policy] Except as noted by an asterisk (*) below, all members of the Judges Committee and Lacey Given (US SAILING Race Administration Director) were present:
**Mr. Wrigley represented the Umpires Subcommittee, in Mr. Brown's absence. Mr. Everingham called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m. APPROVING THE MINUTES The minutes of the fall meeting, which were posted in February 2003, stand approved per the Judges Committee policy. AREA REPORTS (RAJs) Area A: John Dieselman submitted a written update for Area A, reporting that one workshop was held in March 2002 and another is planned for October 2003. The total number of judges in Area A as of December 2002 stands at 33, one new Senior Judge appointment, one new Umpire appointment and three losses due to "no-test" situation. Plans stand to continue giving Rules Seminars for the various yacht clubs and to continue to provide judges for all the major regattas, including more team and match racing activity. Area B: Bruce Cook reported that one Umpire Emeritus status was presented in October. A workshop is being held in April and at this time the numbers looked good. Area C: Sandy Grosvenor reported two new judge applications are in the works and one application is pending. They are planning workshops in the fall and next spring as there are many re-certifications in their Area due next year. Area D: Burton Howell maintains 40 US SAILING-certified Judges, 26 Senior Judges and 14 Judges, including one new IJ since the fall meeting. Recently the Area has lost three judges, but it has two new applications in the works. A workshop was held in November 2002 in Columbia, SC with 13 attendees and a workshop was held in New Orleans in February 2003 with 20 attendees. 29 of the 33 attendees passed the exam, of whom 16 were for re-certification and 17 are for initial certification. There is another workshop scheduled in November 2003 in Miami. There also have been two Racing Rules seminars in the Area this year with two more scheduled. Area E: Ted Everingham for Mike Tapert reported that a successful workshop was held in March 2003 with 17 attendees. Area F: Gail Bernstein reported two workshops have been held in her Area in the past year. Area G: No report Area H-East: No report Area H-West: Joe Cochran submitted a written report stating that his Area is stable. They currently have five judges, one Senior Judge and 1 IJ. There are no scheduled workshops at this time. Area J: Barry Ault submitted a written report stating that Area J has been active with several regattas, lots of protests and several appeals. At this time, he believes Lacey has a better handle on the certification statistics in his Area. There is a workshop tentatively scheduled in San Diego in May 2003. Area K: Warwick Coppleson reported that several up and coming judges in his Area have passed the exam and are currently looking to gain more experience in order to apply for certification. He plans on offering one workshop this year. Discussion followed concerning a major need to get prospective applicants experience. It was suggested that the US SAILING website could list events needing Race Officials, whereas Lacey said the new events on the website should cover this. RAJs should maintain a list of prospective judges and assist in getting the word out in their Areas. Sandy Grosvenor and Lacey Given get the relevant information on the website if it is received. For the time being, it was decided that we would refer to these individuals as "Prospective Judges". Finally it was pointed out that colleges are always looking for Judges at their regattas. Umpire Subcommittee: Steve Wrigley submitted a written report from Kirk Brown as follows: 2002 has been a very busy and productive year for the Umpires Subcommittee. Last year we implemented a program to embrace the Team Race component of our sport. This has required significant effort. Don Becker and Steve Shepstone have done a great job in helping to guide our path here. In 2002 we: 1. Have reworked the US SAILING Umpire Qualification requirements to
insure we can properly certify more qualified umpires, have developed
requirements that help certify both team race and match race umpires, and
have developed qualification that are more consistent with the ISAF
qualifications. Presently, the following actions have been taken and/or are underway: Art Engel (observer) reported that he had held a roundtable seminar in his area with about 25 certified judges. Taking about 50 items, they spent the day talking about rules, procedures, etc. and held mock protests. The topics discussed were about 2/3 procedural and 1/3 Part 2. Feed-back on the event was very exciting. Art volunteered to send the materials to the Judges Committee. JUDGES MANUAL Ted Everingham has retrieved the incomplete Judges Manual and asked Marty Ottenheimer to complete the Manual by the end of April. Marty has graciously agreed to this task. The cover is ready to go. Discussion followed on manual costs, availability and updates. It was suggested that the Manual be offered in a 3-hole configuration in order to simplify the addition of updates. NEW BUSINESS The Rules Committee has asked for the Judges Committee to review and comment on their new or revised RRS submissions. The deadline for comments is the end of March. Tom Farquhar posed a question to the Judges Committee on how do we guide participants in filing appeals. He suggested that we need a resource to aid sailors in methods and guidance pertaining to procedural issues. This led to the idea of the RAJs across the country becoming a sort of ombudsman. The CSA will be discussing how a competitor knows which appeals committee to use at its meeting tomorrow at 1:00. Some choices may be to have submissions set up by zip codes or strictly by regional sailing association (RSA), and there will be a discussion on the timing issues. INSURANCE Steve Prime joined the meeting to talk about the new insurance program for US SAILING Race Officials. Some discussion followed on coverage for non-certified volunteers, such as prospective judges. It was pointed out that there are many layers of coverage for these volunteers, starting with their personal coverage then moving through the clubs to the RSA to US SAILING. Mr. Prime is preparing a detailed description of the new program that should address these issues and concerns. The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Schoenherr
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