Question: How long do officiating seminars last? Are they all day affairs?

Answer:Seminars generally begin early in the morning (at 8:00 or 8:30am, check the Seminar Schedule) and last until 4:00pm or later.

Please arrive at or before the scheduled starting time of the seminar and be prepared to stay for the entire seminar. As other stories on this website say, late arrival or early departure from the seminar are among the reasons that you can be dismissed from the seminar without receiving credit for it.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This document is also called Official's Report to the Atlantic District.

This report must be faxed and phoned in within 48 hours of the completion of the game to the appropriate person. We prefer that the report be sent within 24 hours of the completion of the game. This form must be completed for all Match Penalties. The form should be used for multiple Game Misconduct penalties, for Game Misconduct penalties that are part of another incident, for incidents involving spectators, for spectator ejections, and to report serious injuries (ex. player removed via stretcher).

aaha_incident_report.pdf

In order to read and print this document, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Visit Adobe's website to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Atlantic District announced that the U.S. National Team will take on Drexel University at First Union Center in Philadelphia, on Saturday, September 21, at 1:00pm. "Tickets are available for $10 each, with all proceeds going to the Mike Condon Childrens' Education Fund.... For ticket requests, please email us at hocky@erols.com."

Additional information about the day's events at First Union Center, which will also include a coaching workshop put on by USA Hockey, are available at the Atlantic District Web Site, http://www.atlantic-district.org/.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rusty Friess wrote, "In an effort to keep Mike Condon's memory alive and to help his three children, we've put together a golf tournament in his name. Mike was always there for his friends and now it's time for his friends to be there for his family. Mike has three children and all proceeds from this tournament will go to
support their education."

"On Monday, October 14, 2002, The First Annual Mike Condon Memorial Golf Tournament will take place at the White Oaks Country
Club in Newfield, New Jersey. It is only a few minutes over the Commodore Barry Bridge off of Route 40."

Read on for more details about the golf tournament....

Rusty Friess continued:

All the money raised will go to the 'Mike Condon Childrens' Educational Fund' and all contributions are tax deductible according to federal law. We are registered as a non-profit organization.

The tournament will be in a 2-man scramble format. The cost for the
tournament is $125 per golfer for your support you will receive 18 holes of golf with cart, golf shirt, dinner and prizes. If anyone is interested in playing please contact me by e-mail {at RussFriess@aol.com} or call me at 610-544-4891 and I'll mail you the information. If you are interested in just going to the dinner the cost will be $50. If you cannot attend you may donate any amount to the Mike Condon Childrens' Educational Fund.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: I want to attend the seminar in {town name here} that is happening tomorrow, but the website says I can't register for it. Why not?

Answer: The deadline for using the On-Line Registration System to register for a seminar in the Atlantic District is 48 hours before the seminar begins. The registration system automatically closes registrations at that time, whether the seminar is totally full or not.

The reason we have chosen to do this is to allow time for the Seminar Staff to receive a complete roster of the attendees.

In the past when we have allowed last-minute on-line registrations and walk-up registrations, the result has been long delays for the officials who have followed instructions, planned ahead, and registered in advance. We have decided that it is too frustrating both for the seminar attendees and the volunteer Seminar Staff to try to accomodate last minute registrants.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "At Tony Mariconda and Shane Hanlon's request, I have modified the Seminar Schedule page so that it displays the word full next to registration levels where seminars have reached capacity. Please check out the modifications and let me know if you have any comments or questions."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tony Mariconda, the Atlantic District Referee-in-Chief, wrote, "This year the Atlantic District Officiating Program has implemented mandatory online registration for all of our seminars. The online registration system has been up and running since July 3rd, and postcards were sent to all previously-registered officials shortly thereafter. Online registrations have been pouring in over the last 5-6 weeks. At this point we have already registered over 1,500 officials! Thank you for your support of this system."

"You should note that you may not able to register now for some seminars at certain levels. That is due to the fact that these seminars are now filled to capacity. This means that you may have to travel a little farther for your seminar than you have in the past. We are in the process of responding to a USA Hockey request to run fewer, larger seminars. This will improve the consistency of the material presented, reduce the strain on our Seminar Instructor Staff and be logistically easier to handle. Some traditional locations may not host seminars any more, some may not host seminars every year or some may not host seminars at all levels. As with any new program, there are bound to be growing pains. We appreciate your patience and cooperation during this multi-year process."

"At your seminars this year, returning officials may see some new materials, new presentations and new presentation methods. The District Officiating Staff is trying to provide everyone with an improved seminar product. Take full advantage of your seminar experience. Have a great seminar!"

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For returning officials, there is a correction in the information you received in the mail recently from USA Hockey. The date for the North Jersey Seminar is listed incorrectly on the sheet you received from USA Hockey.

The North Jersey Seminar is a one-day seminar on September 22nd (it is not a multi-day seminar). The seminar runs from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm at the Englewood Field Club in Englewood, NJ and then from 4:30 to 6:30 pm at Sport-O-Rama in Monsey, NY. The information for this seminar posted on our website is correct.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

USA Hockey has announced that the deadline for submitting rule change proposals is now February 1, 2003 for the 2003-2005 seasons. Please contact Atlantic District Referee-in-Chief Tony Mariconda at tonyrefx3@aol.com if you need a rule change proposal form.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "At the Officiating Staff Annual Meeting last Friday, Mike Bownick pointed out that he had difficulty finding contact information for Shane Hanlon on this website."

"I decided to address this problem by providing a link to the Atlantic District Page in the USA Hockey Officiating Program National Personnel Directory. This provides all of the users of our site with access to the contact information for all of the Atlantic District Officiating Program Administrators. This was implemented as a new question for the FAQ list and links in the 'Quick Links' box on the site home page."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: I need to get in touch with the District Referee-in-Chief, one of the District Coordinators, or a Local Officiating Coordinator / Supervisor. How do I find a list of these people?

Answer: Contact information for the Atlantic District Referee-in-Chief and the District Coordinators is found on the AAHA Officiating Program Staff Page. A list of youth hockey assignors and supervisors can be found in the Officiating Assignors for Youth Hockey Programs in the Atlantic District article.

If you need to access the USA Hockey Officiating Program National Personnel page, you can find it here:

http://www.usahockey.com/usa_hockey/officials/directory/

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: I moved last season, but AAHArefs still has my old mailing address and telephone number. This is making it difficult for me to register for a seminar for this season. How do I report my mailing address and phone number change so that the AAHArefs database is corrected?

Answer: The Atlantic District gets all officials' mailing addresses and phone numbers from USA Hockey itself. If you need to correct your address, you have to tell the Officiating Department at USA Hockey.

The easiest way to do this is to make the corrections through the USA Hockey National On-line Registration System at the beginning of the season. You can access that system by visiting http://www.usahockeyregistration.com/.

If you have already submitted your registration information for this season to USA Hockey, then contact Helen Fenlon at USA Hockey, helenf@usahockey.org, and provide:

• Your member number
• Your name
• Your old address
• Your old telephone numbers (home and work)
• Your new address
• Your new telephone numbers (home and work)
• Your new email address, if applicable

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello writes, "Tony Mariconda asked me to give a status report regarding the Atlantic District Officiating Program Database and the work I've done to support it this summer."

"In the past month, Shane Hanlon and I have collaborated to make some major changes to the database. These have resulted in some immediate, measurable successes in terms of:"

• providing information to returning and prospective officials, and
• providing seminar registration services
  

Dave Aiello continued:

• On-line Registration 2.0
  
  
  
  • Tony Mariconda, Scott Perdue, Shane Hanlon, and I met in April.
    
  • Needed the ability to register all officials on-line for local officiating seminars.
    
  • Previously, we had only provided on-line registration to returning officials and it was optional for returning officials to use the on-line method.
    
  • Implementation goal was July 1.
    
  • Actual deployment was July 3.
    
  • As of 08/05, 1142 officials are registered for 2002-2003 seminars.
    
  
  
• Administrative Database 2.0
  
  
  
  • Feature requests implemented
    
    
    
    • Passwords no longer expire.
      
    • Passwords can be issued quickly and easily to anyone, regardless of their membership in the officiating program.
      
    • Contact information for new officials captured from on-line registration.
      
    • "Returning official" database information displayed on a need-to-know basis.
      
      
      
      • No Social Security Numbers
        
      
      
    
    
  • Use of the system can be monitored.
    
  
  
• Web Publishing System 1.0
  
  
  
  • Now managing AAHArefs.org with a state-of-the-art web site management system.
    
  • Allows site administrators to update any web page from anywhere they have access to the Internet.
    
  • Built in search engine.
    
  • "Automatically" generates Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
    
  • System generates logs that show:
    
    
    
    • Web page views by article title
      
    • Terms used by users of the search engine
      

    
    These can be used to determine what content people are looking for that is not already on our web site. Example: People searching for "pay", "rate", and "fees". What are they looking for?
    

  
  
• What's Missing?
  
  
  
  • District Fee Payment Processing
    
    
    
    • We have the ability to do this differently this season.
      
    • No discussion of how this should be done has taken place.
      
    • My idea:
      
      
      
      • check list of registered attendees at each seminar
        
      • check off the people who paid
        
      • click "OK"
        
      • mail the checks to Nancy Hughes
        
      • seminar coordinators themselves could do this
        
      
      
    
    
  • Issuance of new passwords for administrators
    
    
    
    • Meeting / conference call between high level people needs to take place:
      
      
      
      • Tony
        
      • Shane
        
      • Dave
        
      • Atlantic League RIC
        
      • NJYHL RIC
        
      • DVHL RIC
        
      
      
    • If lists of people are provided and Tony approves, we can issue passwords before Labor Day to all
      
    
    
  
  

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: When do my card and crest from last season expire?

Answer: The card and crest for a season expire on November 30 of the next season. For example, the 2001-2002 card and crest expire on November 30, 2002. This means that you must have your new USA Hockey officiating membership card and crest by December 1 in order to continue officiating.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: Can I start officiating games right away after I attend my seminar?

Answer: If you are a new official, you cannot officiate any games until you receive your officiating membership card and the officiating sweater crest from USA Hockey.

If you are a returning official, you can officiate games provided you have a valid officiating membership card and crest. If you were fully registered last season, you can continue to officiate until November 30 on last season's card and crest. After December 1, you must posess the card and crest for the new season.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: I may not be able to skate for the skating test, because I am injured. May I still attend?

Answer: Yes. However, you should bring a doctor's note stating that you are unable to skate. All Level 4 attendees must participate in the skating test at the seminar. No exceptions!

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: Can I skip an officiating level, or take two seminars in one season to move ahead faster?

Answer: No, you may only advance one USA Hockey officiating level per year.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: I cannot stay for the whole seminar, is that OK?

Answer: No, if you leave the seminar early, or leave the seminar in the middle and come back, you will not receive credit.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: I may be late for my seminar. Is that OK?

Answer: No, you will not be admitted if you are late.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: What are the steps involved in becoming an official?

Answer: There are three steps to becoming a USA Hockey Official:

1. Registration with USA Hockey

   New officials will receive a National Registration Form at the seminar, returning officials will receive a National Registration Form in the mail).

2. Local Seminar Attendance

3. Testing

   
   All USA Hockey officials must complete an open book rules test. In addition, Level 2, 3, and 4 officials must complete a closed book test administered at the seminar. Level 4 officials must also pass a skating test.
   

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: How old do I have to be to officiate USA Hockey games?

Answer: USA Hockey has established a national minimum age of 10 years for officials.

Most youth hockey programs further restrict young officials. Young officials can generally only officiate games where all players are younger than they are. For example, a 12 year old official will not generally be permitted to officiate games where the players are 12 years old or older.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: Why do I have to pay the $25.00 Atlantic District Registration Fee in addition to the USA Hockey National Registration Fee?

Answer: The AAHA Fee covers the cost of local issues (i.e. criminal background checks required by the Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association, mailings, and seminar costs not reimbursed by USA Hockey). The National Fee covers administration of the officiating program, issuance of your officiating card and crest, training materials, insurance, and other National programs.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: If I am bringing someone with me to an officiating seminar, do I have to register each of us separately?

Answer: Yes, each person must have their own registration ticket in order to be admitted to an officiating seminar. Furthermore, the AAHA Officiating Program strongly recommends that each seminar attendee register themselves using the on-line registration process.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: If I am registered with USA Hockey as a player or a coach, do I still have to register as a referee?

Answer: Yes, each division of USA Hockey is separate. You have to register as an official and complete all registration requirements in order to officiate games.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question: I was a Level 3 official, but I did not register last season. What level am I eligible for this season?

Answer: If you were a Level 3 two seasons ago and you did not register last season, you would be eligible to return at Level 3 this season. If you took two years off, you would have to drop to Level 2.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)