Just weighing in on using Cert for staffing
While I agree with the concept of using cert for Staffing, the reality (at least, here in Australia) is that once you get to tournament game play (heck, even multi-game days and some single game events) you really don’t have the option of picking & choosing who gets to officiate due to lack of officials submitting EOIs.
In my experience (both as an attendee and as THNSO doing rostering), 90% of the time it’s a struggle just to fill all of the positions for all of the games - and at that point, Cert level becomes irrelevant.
I’m not sure if TGSS/Oceania Regionals used Cert as part of their rostering for this year, so it may have been different at that tournament.
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On the topic of area endorsements, I’d just like to weigh in and say that while I don’t hate the idea, I think all the same arguments apply for keeping them simple.
If you want to be endorsed for scoring and timing, for example, that means you’ve passed the LMS courses on scoring and timing, and have worked a certain number of games at SK, SBO, and/or JT. Again - basic competence in the area, and not a lot more.
Trying to make it more exacting than that runs into precisely the same problem as trying to make cert generally more exacting.
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Hi again! Cert Oversight met yesterday and appreciates all the comments here and wants to keep this open as a listening channel that we are all reading and discussing. We’ll jump in to answer factual questions or correct inaccuracies where possible. Our hope is to take feedback from this thread, the other thread, and the survey, and to sort of integrate it and report out on it in the coming months, along with our thoughts on how to adapt to the future. Thanks again and please continue to discuss.
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Like most other tournaments, we considered Cert status when rostering but didn’t base any decisions on it alone. It was a useful data point for officials we hadn’t worked with before, however between the 4 THO’s we did have personal knowledge of the majority of the 140 officials who worked the event.
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It is also my perception that over-certified is significantly less common than under-certified. Nonetheless, over-certification does also happen, and I think also needs to be addressed and not simply evacuated as something unimportant, like I perceive it to be so far in this discussion. One issue of the current system is that in practice, certification candidates choose who evaluates them. This erodes trust.
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