This year’s Event Organizer and TD Training Seminar was held over the a single day at the Dublin School in southern New Hampshire. We kicked off the seminar with two group exercises – Jury Procedures With Regard to various sanctions and Events Contingencies, where groups of three or four discussed the options and decision making and shared their conclusions with the larger group. There were some great ideas around the crazy winter weather we encounter in the East! After a short break, the morning discussions resumed with a round table on volunteer recruitment, empowerment and appreciation – it was really great to hear all the ideas on how to recruit and support these critical team members. We rounded off the morning with a presentation from Sam Osborne on the current developments by US Ski & Snowboard and it’s members in race officials training (this includes various chiefs that make up Organizing Committee teams). The eventual goal is to have more tools to offer these volunteers and TDs – some really exciting stuff to help build upon the great work our clubs are already doing.
We headed down the hill from the Outing Club building to enjoy lunch in the Dublin dining hall and mingle with participants from the Coaches Symposium. After an excellent meal and great conversations, we met back up at the Dublin Nordic Center Trails, where we chatted with Dublin Head Master Brad Bates about school’s program and facilities. The groups then ventured around the venue working on concepts for hosting various aspects of a race, including a kids play area, venue safety, a sprint course, Para nordic options, etc. After stretching ours legs and minds, the group reconvened at the Outing Club building to share their thoughts and findings. Many in the group said this was their favorite activity of the day. We followed this up with a discussion on event marketing and how to format events to engage other facets of our local ski communities.
In the late afternoon we enjoyed a crowd favorite – Allan Serrano led us through review of rule infraction videos from last season, with the crowd trying to see if we came to the same conclusions as the race juries did. For the first time, this was held jointly with the Coaches Symposium. This is a highly useful exercise, teaching officials how to consistently officiate as a collective, in addition to informing. coaches on how the jury reaches sanctioning decisions and what the recent rule changes look like in real time, particularly the new obstruction rules. Following this activity, we enjoyed another delicious meal and unstructured social time in the Dublin School dining hall. Those that remained after dinner, were treated to an engaging panel discussion on Mental Health in our sport.
This event is truly a community building exercise. Event organizers, volunteers, officials, some coaches and NENSA staff spend the weekend building relationships through activities and personal interactions, which improve our ability to work together successfully to put on events all across the region. We are very grateful to have such an engaged community helping to support the grass roots of our sport. A huge thank is deserved for all the participants for sharing their passion, ideas and expertise to make this a very successful Event Organizer and TD Seminar. Many thanks are also due to the Dublin School staff who worked with us to host this event!