Official Trainings & Information

Hey Otters!

The MNSI Officials' Committee will have information on trainings to become certified as an official coming out soon! This is something that is very helpful for our club, and needed. It is also something that is needed for MNSwimming in general as it is getting harder to find officials for meets.

There has been a shortage on officials, admins, starters, especially this last year, and for us as a club we need to get more of our families and parents trained as officials, and especially admins. This helps us as a team/club when we host meets to:

1. Have enough officials so that we can run the meet and get official times for all of our swimmers
2. Help us to provide breaks for officials (most of them have been working the meets straight through)
3. Help us to bring officials to other meets, which puts us a in a better Position to get into meets
4. It gives you as the parent a great view of the meet, and a great experience!

If you are interested in learning what being an Official or an Admin is about is about, how it works, and how you can get involved and be on deck in some capacity at meets. Please see the message from the MNSI Officials' Chair, Jack Swanson, about upcoming trainings below:

Hello Minnesota Swimming Community,

The MNSI Officials' Committee is excited to offer the following clinics in January and February! All are welcome to join us. All clinics are held via Zoom at 7 PM and last about an hour. Clinic attendance is a requirement for certification as an official and is required for all officials in their highest certified position once every two years. Officials unable to attend at the listed time may email me to request a recording.

• Stroke and Turn 101 (Intro to Officiating) - Monday, January 16th - SIGN UP HERE
• Admin 101 (Intro to Admin) - Wednesday, January 18th - SIGN UP HERE
• Stroke and Turn 201 (Technical Rules) - Monday, January 23rd - SIGN UP HERE
• Starter 101 - Wednesday, January 25th - SIGN UP HERE
• Deck Referee 101 - Monday, January 30th - SIGN UP HERE
• Chief Judge 101 - Thursday, February 2nd - SIGN UP HERE
• Stroke and Turn 101 - Tuesday, February 7th - SIGN UP HERE
• Admin 201 (Time Reconciliations) - Wednesday, February 8th - SIGN UP HERE
• Meet Referee 101 - Monday, February 13th - SIGN UP HERE
• Stroke and Turn 201 - Wednesday, February 15th - SIGN UP HERE
• Equipment 101 - Monday, February 20th - SIGN UP HERE



Please consider attending a clinic or encouraging members of your team to attend. All clubs are encouraged to maintain a 20:1 athlete to official ratio. The greatest areas of need for Minnesota Swimming are currently stroke and turn officials and administrative officials/referees.

Please let me know if you have any questions! I look forward to seeing you on deck!

Sincerely,

Jack Swanson (he/him/his)

MNSI Officials' Chair

Resources

Below is information that is all posted on the Minnesota Swimming website as resources for people that want to know more, or need refreshers, I am also giving the link:

https://www.teamunify.com/team/czmnlsc/page/officials2/clinics