2012-13 Atlantic District Officiating Seminar Season Update

Atlantic District Officials:

Soon after the final officiating seminar of the 2011-12 season ended, the Atlantic District seminar staff was tasked with standardizing and delivering a better seminar product for the 2012-13 seminar season. During the Atlantic District Winter meeting the seminar evaluation committee was organized and tasked with evaluating the entire program and implementing changes to improve it from several aspects.

Below are some of the changes that will be implemented in 2012/2013.

Starting with the 2012-13 season all Ice Sessions will be coordinated by the Atlantic District Ice Boss - Monty Ferguson. Monty has been selected to lead this group to ensure all seminar ice sessions meet USA Hockey standards and gain consistency throughout the district. He will coordinate the ice bosses at each seminar within the Atlantic District. He will partner with each seminar coordinator to ensure the ice staff is established and has the standard program.

As a result of evaluating the seminar program with our officials via small focus groups and surveys, the seminar program will be centralizing all of our level 3 seminars this year into six Super Seminars at locations throughout the district. Our projected locations for these Super Seminars are:

• Montclair State University / Floyd Hall Arena, Montclair, NJ�
• University of Delaware, Newark DE�
• Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA�
• Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA�
• Sun National Bank Center, Trenton, NJ
• Giant Center, Hershey, PA

The Level 4 seminar will be held at the Prudential Center in either September or October.� Details are still under development with facility management of The Rock.

The primary reason for this move to six Super Sessions is consistency. The seminar enhancement committee has developed a standardized agenda that will be followed at each seminar ensuring that the standards are met and that we are delivering a consistent experience throughout the district. The focus of these seminars is to best prepare the official for the upcoming season. These sessions will be very interactive and utilize various technologies to deliver presentations and video training aids.� Additionally, holding the level 3 Super Seminars at these locations provides the added benefit of freeing up time needed to dedicate to our level 1 and level 2 officials and thereby building a much better foundation for them.

Another major change for the level 1 and 2 seminars is we will be increasing ice time from an hour to a minimum of one hour and twenty minutes per level. The district ice boss will be developing the standard ice sessions using that standard time frame.

Our women's officiating program will be moving their session to Ice Line in West Chester PA. The Women's Only Seminar will host all three levels and the program coordinator believes that this location change will generate more interest in this program. � Lastly,� we must change how we manage "Standby and Walk-ins".� In the past we have had a very liberal policy and unfortunately this year we will need to tighten up this policy and restrict these two options as entry into one of these seminars. There will be no Standby or Walk-ins registrations allowed at the Level 3 Seminars. � � I want to thank the members of the enhancement team for their hard work and the personal time they put into developing the Level 3 seminars. I am confident that these improvements will enable the entire seminar program to be successful and that this is a step in the right direction, and one of many that the program will be taking as we continue to improve on our development in the future.

I am urging all officials to review the sites and dates and be prepared for registration that will open August 2nd, 2012.

The seminar schedule will also be posted on the following social media sites on July 20th, 2012.

• http://www.aaharefs.org/
• http://www.facebook.com/aaharefs
• http://www.twitter.com/aaharefs

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Marty Maglio via email at: marty.maglio [at] verizon.net.

Marty Maglio

USA Hockey

Atlantic District Seminar Coordinator