Officials News Archive - August, 2006

We are approaching that time of year when we want to honor one of our officials with the Dick Parker Award. Please review the History section of the OSI web site for a list of past winners.

Please consider nominating someone for the award. This is not a call for nominations at this time. I will appoint a nominating committee and all nominations will go to that committee. Please stay tuned for details.

In the meantime, consider for nomination the official who has inspired you in some way as a swimming official. All nominations (when they are called for) should have a well founded basis written up along with the nomination. Stay tuned for more details. BL

USA Swimming has announced a new program designed to encourage meet hosts to devise creative and effective means of fostering inclusion of swimmers with a disability in their meets.

All referees MUST review the related files posted to the Referee section of the Forms page of the OSI web site. These two files are named: "Disability Memo to LSC Officials Chairs" and "Disablity Reward Application." Please become familiar with the information and responsibilities. Below is a brief description of additional details. See the memo for more details. BL

PROGRAM DATES: September 1, 2006 to December, 2006 and through the end of the 2008 QUAD (program will end sooner if reward money is exhausted; first-come, first-served)

ABSTRACT: Meet hosts will be rewarded $40.00 per swimmer with a disability competing in their meets. Additionally, a prize of $1000.00 will be awarded in September, 2007 to the meet host with the best idea for fostering inclusion. Meet hosts are not required to participate in this contest to receive the reward per swimmer.

Please mark your calendar for Septemer 30th at the Inn at the Seventh Mountain in Bend for the 2006 OSI Mini Expo. The Expo will feature officials clinics on Saturday the 30th.

We will have S&T, ET, Starter, New Referee, Referee Re-certification, and Train the Trainer.

The Train the Trainer session will be in the morning and the other clinics will be held concurrently in the afternoon. I'll provide more specifics as the date approaches. All referees and anyone wishing to become a trainer should attend the Train the Trainer clinic if possible. Also, the Referee Re-certification clinic will be comprehensive in nature, and all referees should attend if at all possible.

More later. BL

Congratulations to Mark for being selected to officiate at the 2006 IPC World Swimming Championships to be held in December in Durbin, South Africa! This is an great opportunity for Mark and reflects well on Oregon Swimming. He'll be too modest to mention it, so please slap him on the back... of course... he'll probably respond that these atheletes deserve the best, and he's just proud to be able to associate with them... he'd be right. BL