Category Archives: Officials

More 3-Event Officials for the East!!!!

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Julie Hommel is now an Assistant Scorer for Slalom !!!

And as an outcome of the Driver Event at Twin Lakes this past weekend …. we have some new drivers and some that just bumped it up a notch (to be official as soon as the paperwork is processed by HQ):
• Diana Coffey Frucci: 3 event Ast
• Bruce Epstein: Slalom Ast
• Jeff Liva: Slalom Ast
• Scotty Bellefeuille: Trick/Jump Ast
• Dan Warner: Slalom Senior
• Scott Behner: Trick/Jump Ast, Slalom Regular
• Mike Shelhamer: Jump Ast
Congratulations to you all !!!!

Thank you to Twin Lakes Waterski Park for providing their site to support this Drivers Event.

Thanks to George Vosburgh, Cole Maurer, Dan Warner, Mike Shelhamer, Scott Cerosky for being our test administrators.

Drivers Clinic and Testing June 9, 10, 11

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Alert Alert Alert ….. 3 Event Drivers Clinic and testing for assistant drivers and testing for upgrades ….. June 9,10 & 11 …. Twin Lakes Waterski Park ……. please reach out to Tonya Maurer to get your name on the list …. all welcome for the clinic (actual time of clinic TBD) ….. I need head count for the testing and upgrades ……. detailed schedule of events to be worked out based on head count ….. please FaceBook IM, txt or eMail Tonya Maurer so we can get you on the list. You can find my contact information in the guide book contact page or look on the contact page here on the East Region Web Site!!

AWSA Eastern Region Winter Meeting

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The AWSA Eastern Region Winter Meeting will be held on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, at the Embassy Suites Valley Forge Hotel, 888 Chesterbrook Blvd, Wayne, PA 19087, (610) 647-6700. If you are staying at the hotel, tell them you are coming for the AWSA East Water Ski Meeting to get discounted room rates. The meeting will start at 10:30 a.m. and will include lunch. We will plan to be done by 4:30 p.m. or sooner.

Please reply to Marie Baker AND to Pat Byrne to let us know that you will be attending so that we can order lunch for all attendees.

During the meeting, we will select officials for the 2017 Eastern Regional and National Water Ski Championships. Regionals will be held at Twin Lakes in Monroe, NY. The site for Nationals has not yet been finalized. I hope that we will know the Nationals site by the time we meet. If you wish to be considered for an officiating position at Regionals and/or Nationals, please send an email to Pat Byrne stating your desires – Judging, Scoring, Driving, Safety, Technical Controller, Announcing.

The 2017 Eastern Regionals will be conducted at Twin Lakes in Monroe, New York.  It will be conducted by a Regional Team rather than by the site owners/members. As we have discussed in the past, much help from throughout the Region will be needed to pull this off. Please come to the meeting prepared to address how you, your ski club or ski site and your state federation can and will help with the execution of this event. We will discuss this topic and answer any questions at the meeting.

If you have topics that we need to cover in the meeting, please send those topics to Pat Byrne.

Tournament Directors and Site Owners:  Please send your 2017 Tournament Schedules to Bill Fosbenner before the meeting. We will review the overall Tournament Schedule at the meeting and adjust for any conflicts, so it is important to set your tentative schedule and submit it to Bill before the meeting so that he can compile a consolidated schedule.

If you are ready to sanction your 2017 Tournaments, I believe that the sanction system is now ready for you to do so.

I hope to see you on Saturday, Jan. 7th, at the meeting in Pennsylvania.

The East is at Risk ….

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The East is at risk ….. We have several sites in the East that are at risk for not being able to run 3 event tournaments in 2017.  And some single event sites that are teetering on being able to run a slalom tournament.

Those sites, from what I can determine, from NJ and south are likely OK; those north of NJ will likely run into issues.

We have 3 event sites that have landed with a single point of failure because there is only one judge that has the applicable credentials to run all three events.  We all know that slalom can be covered (for the most part) since that event has the highest concentration of regular/senior judges; for Jump we are getting slim with judges with the appropriate ratings and for Trick we are running on a very weak thread. 

Personally I have done all that I can do to replenish the pipeline of officials (many have landed with cramps in their hands from the number of forms that I had them to sign), however what I have seen is that we have a limited number of assistant judges willing to move up the food chain and gain a regular judge rating, especially in Trick.  The other issue is State Safety officials – they are far and few between; again, for some sites, all the eggs are in one basket and if certain people win the lottery – buy that island in the Pacific – then we have sites that will not be able to have tournaments because certain officials can’t be cloned.

If you are a trick skier and you have an assistant judge rating; or you are a parent of a trick skier; I implore that you work towards applicable judge rating so that our 3 event tournaments can continue.  We need more officials with a ‘regular’ rating.

If you are a skier that can be fast tracked …. what are you waiting for?

For those veteran officials, please continue to work to find your backfills.  You need an exit strategy, please please please pass on your knowledge and experience to those around you.  Put kids, spouses and parents in towers, in boats, at the computer and in front of a monitor – expose them to what happens behind the wizard curtain.  Once that wizard curtain is open and we see that there is only one person standing behind it ….. we are in big trouble.

The unintended consequence of not having the appropriate judges with the appropriate ratings is that there will no longer be 3 event tournaments close enough to participate in; which means those seeking overall scores to qualify for regionals and/or nationals will lose the opportunity to do so.

What can you do to help?  Ask someone because we need you!

2016 Rule Changes – Let’s get educated together!!!

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ANNOUNCEMENT:  2016 Rule Changes

AWSA Judge and Scorers committee wants to be bring more awareness to the 2016 rule changes by coordinating some review sessions during the next several weeks. 

One of the rule changes, for example, has to do with rule #10.06 Boat Speeds and Line Lengths where there are now optional rules for juniors around maximum speed & rope length.

These review sessions will be hosted for 1 hour and will cover all the rule changes for this skiing season.  The first session will be held on June 7th @ 8pm ET, and will be facilitated by Bob Harris.

Please join the following Go To Meeting.  It’s best to join 15 min beforehand as to leverage the full hour for the session.

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.

  https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/303569525

  You can also dial in using your phone.  United States : +1 (646) 749-3122  Access Code: 303-569-525

Also here is the reference information for the rule changes: http://www.usawaterski.org/default.asp?Display=2335

Subsequent sessions will be communicated next week.

Notify Bob (rbtharris@yahoo.com) and myself (multitasking@comcast.net) of your intent to join the session on June 7th.  Or join the event on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/511293532394533/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A4%2C%22feed_story_type%22%3A370%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D

 

4 weeks until the Winter Meeting – Who’s Ready?

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Greetings East Region! 

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season with this balmy weather (close to 60 today in CT) across the east!   For those in the hills, from what I can see on various Facebook posts, there is snow on the ground and some of you are able to enjoy the white stuff!

We are 4 weeks away from our winter meeting!  I’m looking forward to some energetic discussions that will touch on (a) team events at nationals, (b) update from the AWSA Insurance Taskforce,  (c) accomplishments from 2015, and (d) a look at 2016 goals.

If you have a specific topic that you would like to see discussed, please let me know (multitasking@comcast.net).

Also if you want to put your name in the hat to officiate at Regionals and/or Nationals, please let me know as well.  This includes safety AND announcers!!!!!

Yes we will have clinic(s) on Sunday (assuming we have a minimum head count of 5).  Currently planning a Judge/Score clinic, and there is a request for a drivers clinic – I’ll work through Al Harris to determine if we can arrange an instructor.  Please contact me directly if you are interesting in officials clinics.  We have 32 judges on the downgrade list (3 needed clinics), 12 scores on the downgrade list (all due to missing tournament credits), 2 TCs that require clinics.  I didn’t receive the Driver downgrade list.

Look for details in the coming weeks about the session; in the mean time please RSVP with your attendance for the Saturday meeting to Marie Baker (billandmbaker@comcast.net).

Dates: Jan 9th (meeting) & Jan 10th (clinics)

Start Times: 9am both days

Location: Embassy Suites Philadelphia – Valley Forge, 888 Chesterbrook Blvd.,  Chesterbrook, PA  19087, 610-647-6700 **call for special pricing for our event – East Region Water Ski Meeting**

Looking forward to seeing folks in January!!!

Thank you,  Tonya Maurer East Region EVP AWSA

Updates to Online Trained Driver Class

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Here’s a clarification from Melanie Hanson on updates to the online Trained Driver class for new Trained Drivers.

The class has two components, a video, and the Boat US online NASBLA approved class. If the applicant has already taken a NASBLA approved class (Boat US, US Power Squadron, Coast Guard, probably others) it is only necessary to watch the video. The applicant can then send evidence of whatever class they took to Melanie as a substitute for taking the Boat US online class.

Evidently the video is first and once you have watched it, the program asks if you’ve taken a NASBLA class and allows you to skip out. You still have to pay the USAWS class fee up front.

This makes a lot of sense, especially since a lot of people have taken a NASBLA approved class already, and it makes it easier on new Trained Drivers. Win!