2007-08 Iowa Region Officials Clinic Process

As many of you are aware, the Iowa Region invested several resources in creating a DVD for USAV officiating last season.  We will continue to use this DVD to train our officials.  The Iowa Region membership has grown significantly over the last few years, making it difficult to have clinics for every team or club.  Along with the growth, everyone seems to have a busy schedule, compounding the effort to coordinate these clinics.

For those who are used to having a traditional clinic, we must move toward the use of the DVD for our training.  In addition to the significant administrative time saved in coordination of clinics, the DVD offers a means of presenting consistent information to officials/players.  While watching the DVD is only the first step in training an official, taking the on-line test and on-court evaluations by day officials will be the follow-up in this process.

Although this will be the second year a DVD has been available, we will continue to improve the quality and content of the material.  The updated version for this season will include improved sound quality, significant rule changes for 2007-2008, and some additional content compared to last year’s DVD.  The Iowa Region will provide one DVD per team registered.  This year’s DVD is scheduled to be available by December 1, 2007.  If a team desires to have their training before the new DVD is available, last year’s DVD can be viewed.  Prior to the release of the new DVD, I will publish an outline for coaches and club directors to follow.  This outline will highlight the critical material contained in the DVD.  This will allow the viewers to make special note of this material.

My suggestion for completing the process is to watch the DVD as a team and either make note of, or stop to ask questions.  Use the outline to highlight critical material.  Shortly after viewing the DVD, take the on-line test while the material is fresh in your mind.  After every teammate has completed the test, meet again as a team to review the test and ask questions.  Coaches and club directors will be provided with a rule book reference for each test question.  The Iowa Region will also have a way to ask questions from their web site – more to come on this process.

Clinics will be offered for adult coaches/team representatives from each club to attend.  These clinics will be given so this adult can effectively present the DVD to their team(s), and for additional clarification of rules.  Adult players may attend a clinic and/or watch the DVD and follow the process listed above.  A similar process can be followed for scorekeeper training.  A PowerPoint presentation is available instead of a DVD, but otherwise an on-line test is available along with evaluations by day officials.

Overall, the Iowa Region will provide teams with quality, consistent materials for training our officials.  Accountability is with each team and their members to follow through with this process.  Ultimately the results will show on the court in your matches as the work team.  Other teams will know by your actions, whether or not your team has completed this training process.  If the Iowa Region office receives numerous complaints about a specific team or club, that team/club will have to pay a clinician for re-training.  See the “CLINIC” page on the Iowa Region web site (www.iavbreg.org) for referee and scorekeeper clinic reference materials.

The Scorekeeping clinic can be viewed online. See the Certification Process page for more information.

Please print out the forms listed in the clinic packet(s) before attending a clinic.