Referees & Officials
The AAU Official’s program revolves around some of the best volunteers in the country. The officials work for the program purely because of their love of Taekwondo and their desire to provide the best opportunities to the next generation of athletes: not for the glory or money. Therefore, we need to make sure that it is not cost prohibitive for our officials to participate, but rather reward those whom are our greatest supporters.
One problem we have faced over the years is that a number of senior officials have found themselves in a reoccurring predicament. While they love Taekwondo and officiating, the current program structure does not provide them with the financial support required to dedicate a week or more of their lives, away from both home and work, in order to officiate our national events.
Our plan for the officials program focuses on the expansion of our already amazing training program, while also providing incentives and funding for our officials to gain more experience than the current structure allows. Additional key points from our strategic plan as they relate to the officials program are listed below:
- Leveraging technology, such as an AAU Taekwondo YouTube channel, dedicated to examples and scenarios of each type of AAU Taekwondo competition
- Facebook forum with updates to stay in contact with other referees and post events where they may be needed
- Officials Point System:
- Officials receive points based on the events they work during the year
- Local seminar/non-competition: Low points
- Local tournament (non qualifier): Mid level points
- District or Regional Qualifier: High level points
- National Championship: Ultra high level points
- AAU Junior Olympic Games: Ultra high level points
- Team Trials: Ultra high level points
- Added stipends (financial assistance) to those officials that meet pre-determined point values when working a national event
- This system will encourage and reward officials to gain more local and regional experience prior to working a national event
- This system will also make working a full national event more accessible to officials as we plan to reduce the financial burden on them
- Officials receive points based on the events they work during the year
- Referee of the year program:
- New program open to officials of all levels
- To recognize excellent work throughout the year, a Referee of the Year program will provide additional recognition, travel stipends, and awards to those that put forth extraordinary effort and performance throughout the competition year
- These new programs will help to encourage our officials to attend more events, and will also provide us ways for the national program to show appreciation to the officials.