Please be advised that the Atlantic Youth Hockey League has received and reluctantly accepted the resignation of Harry Dumas as the AYHL Referee-in-Chief. Mr. Dumas has stepped down from these responsibilities due to personal reasons.

The League would like to extend their thanks and gratitude to Mr. Dumas for his efforts over the years. He has assured the AYHL that he will work with his replacement to ensure a smooth transition.

We are pleased to announce that Ryan Honig will be the new Referee-in-Chief for the Atlantic Youth Hockey League. Ryan is a 12-year veteran official and is a member of the USA Hockey National Referee Development Program Staff. He has worked at every level of our League and for other Youth and Junior Leagues throughout the country that participate with National Referee Development program.

Ryan will bring a new energy and approach to our Officiating Program within the AYHL. He has some exciting and innovating ideas, which I am sure he will elaborate on in the near future. Right now, Ryan is focusing on some of the important day-to-day aspects of the position and becoming familiar with our Referee data management systems, et cetera.

Please join us in welcoming Ryan to his new position with the AYHL.

Here is his contact info:

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tony Mariconda wrote:

It is with sincere regret that I have accepted the resignation of Shane Hanlon as the Atlantic District Officiating Seminar Coordinator. Shane is leaving the area and relocating to South Carolina in a work-related move.

During his tenure as our Seminar Coordinator, Shane has been directly involved in building this program into a smoothly functioning operation. He has implemented several changes and improvements that have been emulated by other Districts around the country. In addition, he has become a good friend and confidant for many of us in the District Officiating Program. We will all miss Shane’s dedication to his tasks, his willingness to take on challenges and his great sense of humor. This is a big loss for the Atlantic District Officiating Program, and it will be a big gain for the Southeastern District. Shane will be sorely missed.

To fill these big shoes, I am appointing Carl Barling. Carl will have the advantage of working with Shane to set up our 2006 seminar program. Carl is a veteran USA Hockey official, currently the Referee-in-Chief of the New Jersey Youth Hockey League, a current Officiating Seminar Coordinator, and an experienced member of our Officiating Instructor Staff.

To aid Carl, Marty Maglio has agreed to serve as the Assistant District Officiating Seminar Coordinator. Marty is also a veteran USA Hockey official and an experienced member of our Officiating Instructor Staff. He will help Carl with many aspects of the Seminar program, including serving as a Seminar Coordinator.

I want to thank Carl for stepping up to take this position on such short notice. Combined with his business and management experience, Carl has all the tools necessary to carry on the fine tradition that has been established in our Seminar program. I am sure you will all join me in welcoming him and supporting him in his new position during the coming months and years.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The following message has been published on AAHArefs in December of each year since 2003:

The Direct Registration Program implemented over the last several years marked a major change in the enforcement of registration rules. Unfortunately, however, there are still too many officials who continue to receive officiating assignments who are not fully registered. These officials who continue to work without a current card place their partner(s) in danger of facing serious consequences should a serious injury to a participant occur.

The By-Laws of USA Hockey clearly state that "All games hosted by an Affiliate Association's member team within the United States must be officiated by properly registered USA Hockey Officials." Incompletely registered (not posessing a current card and crest) officials not only put themselves at the risk of insurance liability, they jeopardize the teams, the other official(s), and, ultimately, the Supervisor of Officials and the Game Scheduler in the same manner.

All officials at this point in the season should be completely registered and have received their USA Hockey Officiating Program card and crest. If you have not, there may be a problem with your registration and you are not eligible to work games after November 30th. Assignors should not assign, under any circumstances, an official who does not possess the current card and crest to any USA Hockey sanctioned game after that date.

Officials who have not met all of the registration requirements (submitted an exam and attended a seminar) and have not received their card and crest in the mail should contact their Local Supervisor of Officials to determine the problem with their registration. Officials may also check their registration status 24 hours a day via the automated phone system at the National Office (719-576-USAH). Simply reply to the menu options using your touch-tone phone until you have reached the officials' registration menu. Your social security number or member number must then be entered and also present in our database in order to access your information.

Please correct your registration status as soon as possible to make yourself eligible to work games and to minimize potential problems during the next registration season.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Atlantic District Officiating Program is now updating its Membership Database on a daily basis. This allows assignors and other supervisors to be sure that they are looking at the most current registration information available from USA Hockey.

At this time, access to the AAHArefs Membership Database is only available to assignors and supervisors who have been approved by the District Referee-in-Chief. If you need access to the database, contact Tony Mariconda at tonyrefx3 [at] aol.com.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Atlantic District Officiating Program Membership Database is back on-line. Administrators can access the database with their old user names and passwords at http://www.aaharefs.org/db/.

Please contact Dave Aiello via email at dave_aiello [at] ctdata.com for more information.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "After overcoming a number of technical problems, I finished the necessary changes to the AAHArefs Membership Database, and have started issuing passwords to officiating administrators throughout the district. Within the last 24 hours, over 70 administrators have received instructions to access the database."

"If you need access to the database and have not received a user name and password in your email, please send an email to aaha_feedback@ctdata.com. Please include your name, email address, phone number, and the reason you need access to the database."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:26 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)

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)

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
  

Continue reading "AAHA Database Coordinator's Report- September 2002" »

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

Dave Aiello wrote, "As you know, the AAHA rolled out a new Seminar Registration application yesterday. With it came an entirely new web publishing system and a revised web site structure. The information that you used to find in the Administration section of the web site is not lost, but I have to put it back on to the site now that we have made all of the changes. I hope to get some of that done sometime next week."

"For those of you looking for access to the member database, please be patient. It will take a while for us to provide that access again, due to the architectural changes to the site. The priority now is supporting seminar registration and the reports necessary to determine who is registered for which seminar."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tony Mariconda wrote, "Please be advised that on January 15, I will be moving. My new contact information {is as follows}:"

tonyrefx3@aol.com

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)