Having The Chief Judge Appoint Assistant Judges

[Daryn_Dean]

Our ski neighborhood usually hosts a few ski tournaments each season. For the past two seasons we have experienced a shortage of judges capable of judging one of our tournaments, that resulted in the cancellation of the tournament. We have more than enough experienced, past and present slalom skiers capable of pitching in, who might not be level 7 or 8 at the time of the tournament. Assuming an experienced slalom tournament skier was available to judge, was current on their Safe Sport requirements, and a member of USA Waterski, what is preventing USA Waterski from empowering Chief Judges to appoint Assistant Judges for Class C tournaments on the week or day of the tournament? 

[dave2ball]

@Daryn_Deanfirst of all you can’t force anyone to judge or work at a tournament But you can make it worth while for them by discounting the entry fee. Making it a policy that you must work a round to ski around.  

[RichardDoane]

Identify those skiers with a high enough score to be level 8, and with an application and a signature sent to HQ they become Asst. Slalom Judges. Otherwise, it only takes 3 events to do a little helping out and supervised tower judging to get an Asst. rating. Everyone who attends a tournament is capable of counting to 6 at a C event. 

[jcamp]

@Daryn_Dean I believe what you are asking is if the chief judge can deputize someone, who in their opinion knows what they are doing but who is not a rated judge, for a temporary role as a judge. 

No, you can't do that, at least officially. 

[lpskier]

Sometimes a tournament needs to use unrated personelle when there is simply no other choice (other than calling off the tournament). While it is not permitted by the rules, if the CJ notes in his report probably nothing will happen. I wouldn’t recommend trying it in an EL, but again I’ve seen assistants working when it should be a regular or senior. If you’re CJ in an EL or God forbid an R and you use an unqualified official, pray no one sets a record. 
 

Once in a great while stuff  happens at tournaments over which you don’t have control and you have no choice but to improvise. Get a consensus of the appointed officials and note it in the CJ or TC report, and send a report to the Rules Committee. See Rule 1.06. Sometimes is best to check in with your regional VP to get his or her advice    so you are perceived as a rogue elephant and often they’ll have a better solution than the one you are considering. 

[markn]

"If CJ notes it in his report probably nothing will happen" and "but again I've seen Assistants working when it should be Regular or Senior".   Then one must ask why have established rules/requirements if they are not enforced?  The handle is an inch long, but they did not set a record, so let's let it go, it is only a C tournament. ELR tournaments have officials requirements as do C tournaments.  How do you justify overlooking rules just because it is a C tournament?  If you are going to have a governing body, I would fully expect them to enforce the rules THEY impose.    Otherwise, they have no credibility.   Makes me wonder what else is being overlooked or excused.

[Horton]

@lpskier is there actually a provision in the rule book to allow unrated judges to work a Class C?

[Daryn_Dean]

I am not suggesting that anyone  circumvents the current rules. I am suggesting that I do not believe that our neighborhood is alone in having to cancel tournaments because judges are not available. And it would be a helpful rule change if a chief judge could “deputize” a knowledgeable USA Waterski member as assistant judge in those situations so that neighborhoods like ours could more easily run Class C tournaments. 

[Horton]

@Daryn_Dean how much of a let down would it be if you downgraded to Class F? Would that kill the event?

[Broussard]

@Daryn_Dean Encourage your neighbors to get their Assistant Judge rating so neighborhoods like yours can more easily run Class C tournaments 

[buechsr]

22 minutes ago, Broussard said:

@Daryn_Dean Encourage your neighbors to get their Assistant Judge rating so neighborhoods like yours can more easily run Class C tournaments 

Andre, totally agree, but in the absence of regular judges, you can't have events, and in the absence of events, you can't can't get your asst.  

 

[ETskier]

If you have a club full of skiers with no ratings it's a shame. Not unique however these days. Everyone should be strongly encouraged to get or upgrade their ratings, at least in their own disciplines. Hold annual clinics for all the types.  And get very proactive about safety as well. Everybody should be doing something during a tournament. The bonus is it's fun for everybody when everybody is involved.

[lpskier]

@Horton The answer to your question  is no. But Rule 1.06 provides that where strict adherence to the rules is “infeasible, “ the CJ with approval of the appointed judges, may “make the necessary changes.” Rule 6, and for slalom 10.08 , deals with officials. If you don’t have enough rule compliant officials on site when needed, what are you to do? Complying with the rule is, in that circumstance , infeasible because you lack qualified bodies. Your choices are: 1. Stop/cancel the balance of the tournament; or 2. Under the auspices of Rule 1.06, use what you have available, note it in your report, alert the rules committee and soldier on. Again, it’s best to consult with your Region EVP. It’s hard to imagine having enough judges to vote on the exception and not enough to judge, but if you have a CJ and three appointed judges, one of the appointed judges is injured and leaves for the hospital, the CJ is up to ski, and there are no other judges on site because it’s a turn and burn and they all left after the skied 2d/ 3d round, your choice is use a non-rated judge, or use only two judges, or tell the CJ she can’t ski.  None of those choices are good. 
 

I have had to do this once, followed the procedure above, and never heard a word about it. It’s far from ideal, but that’s one of the functions served by 1.06 if you are  CJ in a jam. 
 

Another time, we couldn’t get SP to work reliably when mounted on the pylon, where the applicable rule requires it to be. We had no choice but to try alternative locations and it worked fine when mounted on the windshield. So after consulting with the EVP, that’s where we put it, and so noted in the TC report . Again, I received no push back