Officials News

Hey Folks!

The 2012 USA Swimming/Speedo Champions Series meet, sectionals, will be held in Federal Way, WA beginning on Thursday, March 8. The meet referee is Linda Eaton who many of you will recognize as a National evaluator at a handful of our OSI meets over the past few years. If you would like to fill an assigned position, or if you know you will be working but don't want an assigned position, please complete the attached application and send it off to Linda.

Click here for the meet information.

Click here for an application to officiate.

See you on deck!

Bob

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Hi Folks.

As most officials are aware, we've been using OTS to record our sessions worked at meets for a couple of years now. Its been going quite well, however there is one small change we need to make with regard to entering time worked by electronic timers.

There are two abbreviations available in OTS which are applicable to electronic timers; TO stands for timing equipment operator, and TJ stands for timing judge. Certainly electronic timers are timing equipment operators, but they are also timing judges as one of their jobs is to judge whether or not the times produced by the equipment are accurate.

We've decided to standardize our entries and would like everyone entering sessions into OTS to use the TJ abbreviation as we move forward.

See you on deck!

Bob McMillan

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Hi Folks!

After many years serving as the Area Officials Chair for the Portland Eastside area, Kevin Nagel has decided to step down from the job. Kevin will continue officiating, but cannot spare the time for the AOC position at this point.

Dan Gipe has accepted the AOC role and brings a long history of officiating and a wealth of knowledge to the position.

When you have a moment please thank Dan for accepting the position, and please thank Kevin for his years of service to the area.

See you on deck!

Bob McMillan

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Hi Folks!

Have re really had another year; championships are just around the corner! This year OSI has opened up the senior championship meet by inviting swimmers from throughout the region and the new name is the Oregon/RegionXII Senior Chanpionships. This should bring a lot more swimmers to the meet.

In addition to swimmers from around the region, we should get some officials from other LSCs as well. Its always a blast to work with people from other areas.

I encourage you to work this meet if you have the time, and for a very special experience you might consider applying to work an assigned position. If you've never filled an assigned role consider applying to work as a Chief Judge; this is a fabulous experience and great learning tool.

Those wishing to apply for an assigned position at the meet can find the application here.

Again, this will be a wonderful meet and I encourage you to work the deck, either as a walk-on or in an assigned role.

See you on deck!

Bob

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Hey folks, please see this note from the Northwest Conference:

Parkrose High School is hosting the NWOC 5A District Swim Meet Feb 10 and 11, 2012. We are in need of 6 Stroke and Turn officials.
Officials meeting ~ Friday 3pm, Prelims 3:30pm.
Saturday Finals 3:00pm.
Please contact Sanjay Bedi, sanjay_bedi@parkrose.k12.or.us, 503-408-2603 or Michele Straub, michele_straub@parkrose.k12.or.us, 503-408-2699 if you are interested in helping.

If you are able to help out please send a note to Sanjay or Michele, or contact the meet referee Stan Benson directly.

See you on deck!

Bob McMillan

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Hi Folks!

I don’t know what you do, but years ago I found it helps me to carry my officiating gear in a bag.  I carry around the USA Swimming rulebook, the OSI Swim Guide, whistles, pens, badges, and I carry a lot of forms.  The forms include counting sheets for each distance event, report of occurrence, RTO slips, sign-in sheets, rotation schedules, and a lot of training materials.  I suspect many of you are like me and have a bag full of this stuff.

My request of you at this point is that you recycle all those training materials.  Most training materials were revised this year and the old materials should not be used.  In addition, the S&T evaluation rubric was deemed ineffective and is currently being redesigned; while we wait to see what this change will bring we are not using the rubric as a feedback tool.

LSC-wide consistency in our training processes is critical to success.  To foster this consistence we teach the same on-deck mentoring principals, we use the same clinic presentation materials, and we hand out the same take-away materials.  The evaluation rubric has now been removed from this list of hand-outs. 

So take a moment and clean out that bag, it will weight a lot less!

See you on deck!

Bob

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Hi Folks!

With the retooling of our training system as well as the introduction of a master trainer certification, many people are confused by the difference between a trainer and a master trainer.  Hopefully this note will help clarify the difference.

In the Oregon Swimming officials certification process trainers play an important role.  Trainers can present introductory clinics where they welcome new persons beginning training as S&T or ET officials, and clinics for advancement to starter or referee.  Trainers also serve as on-deck mentors in each position, assisting the trainee in understanding and becoming proficient in the role.  One of the goals of the Training Committee is to standardize training across the LSC; regardless of where a person attends a training clinic and/or serves as a trainee on deck, the content of the training received should be the same.  To facilitate this standardization, trainers are required to attend a Train the Trainer clinic where new trainers learn the standard process for both administering a clinic and for on-deck mentoring. 

Of course, people administering the Train the Trainer must also understand the standard format and this is where the Master Trainer clinic comes in; the Master Trainer clinic teaches people to administer the Train the Trainer clinic.

In a nutshell, the role of a trainer is to administer position-specific clinics and/or serve as an on-deck mentor to trainees.  The role of a master trainer is to administer Train the Trainer clinics to bring new trainers on board.

See you on deck! 

Bob

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