Chairman’s Message
January 18, 2012
Dear Officials,
The New Year has arrived, which means the 2012 Track and
Field season will shortly be upon us.
Indoor meets are already on my calendar with my first meet on January 14,
at NAU. We are currently looking at
dates for our two clinics for 2012, and we will let you know shortly the
locations, times and formats for those sessions.
This coming year is an Olympiad year and the National
Officials Committee (NOC), have made significant changes to our recertification
process. We will be posting these
changes after the first of the year on our WEB Site for you to look at and
download so you can prepare for this event
in November of 2012. All of the changes
represent a great improvement to the process and simplifies what was a tedious
procedure for both the Official and Recertification Chair.
Although not new, the recertification process allows each
State Officials Committee to adopt its own certification requirements that are
in addition to the NOC’s requirements.
Your Committee Officers will be discussing what if any additional
requirements that we want to adopt.
Under consideration will be mandatory clinics during the previous
Olympiad as well as responses by memberships to invitations to work events. The latter is an important one and has been adopted
by many of the State Committees. There
will be more on this subject later in the year.
The Olympiad year also is an election year for Committee
Offices. Up for election this year for
the Officials Committee will be the Officials Committee Chair, Certification
Chair as well as the office of Secretary.
These are all 4 year term positions.
Those current positions are held by me as Committee Chair, Robert “Hoop”
Hooper, Certification Chair AND David Palmquist as Secretary. Nominations for these seats will be open to all
members in good standing in September of this year. Elections will take place at our annual
meeting in September.
I recently sent out an invitation to our members to work
the 2012 National Junior Disability Championships that will be held in Mesa,
Arizona from July 21, thru July 28. Those dates have also been published on our
WEB Site. The response so far to this
National event has been slow because it seems so far off, but we need to do
some planning. Not many of us get the
opportunity to officiate at a National event and it behooves those officials
wishing to move up in certification status to consider this event. This conflicts with no other event that I am
aware of, so there is no excuse for us not to make a good showing. In order for the NJDC Committee to control
expenses, they are looking to bring as few officials in from out of state to
work this event as possible, and are counting heavily on our Arizona USATF
Officials to fill most of the positions.
The downloadable application for this event is on line along
with the various events, dates and times.
You can respond by completing the form and sending a copy to me by
email.
Now is also that time of the year when we should be
thinking about getting into shape for the long season ahead of us. Walking is great exercise, riding a bike is
even better as it raises that heart rate and quickens our reflexes. I would love to be able to jog to keep in
shape, however years of Cross Country Coaching have worn my knees to a frazil
and it is not worth the pain to go back to it so, walking and an occasional
bike ride are my choices. However
whatever you choose, do something to get into shape.
I hope you all had a very Happy Holiday Season and your
Officials Committee wish all of you and your families a very Happy and
prosperous New Year.
Sincerely,
Mike Pekar Sr.
Officials
Chair, USATF-Arizona
Click on link below to get a pdf file of a "Starter's Case Book" plus much more in track training!
Here's another book for starters: "The Starter's Monograph:
Click on this web site to order supplies.
Please stipulate that you want "Arizona Association" on everything instead of So. Cal.
