President Harry Bjerke opened the meeting by welcoming the membership and thanking them for their entirely professional work throughout the past year. Last night, the NGJA and the Eastern Judges Association co-sponsored a party to honor Bill Roetzheim for his career at the conclusion of his tenure on the FIG. Harry thanked those members who were able to attend the party to honor Bill.
President's Report: President Bjerke reported that throughout the past year, we have had an excellent working relationship with the USAG; with Kathy Scanlon, Sandy Knapp and Ron Galimore. Additionally, we are working very hard, along with, the USAG to assure George Beckstead's election to the FIG. The election will be held July 13 in Atlanta. We are confident that our work on George's behalf will be successful.
(note: George Beckstead was elected to the FIG Technical Committee on the first ballot.)
This year's Olympics in Atlanta will truly be an outstanding event. We have many people already down there preparing for the Games. The IBM "Pre-Olympics" have already been held in Atlanta in preparation for the Games. Judging at the Olympics for the USA will be Harry Bjerke and Mark Graham.
The National Apparatus Leaders have done a good job elevating men's gymnastics in the USA. Their terms are up in December 1996. I would hope to see a more geographically widespread selection for the future.
Next season, the NCAA will use a 9.5 start score, although the new code uses an 8.6. In addition, they will also use their own Vault start values.
Many judges got the opportunity to work international meets this year as we prepare for the Olympics. Among the meets were the USA-France meet in Miami in May, and the World Championships in Puerto Rico this month.
The judging at this year's USA Championships by our judges was very good. Congratulations to all of them. My thanks to our vice-presidents, technical directors, and directors for their hard work throughout the year, and to all the judges for their good work. In closing, I see the NGJA as having three important short term goals and an important long term goal:
For the short term:
1. Pick the correct Olympic Team this weekend.
2. Maintain our position on the FIG Men's Technical Committee by getting George Beckstead elected..
3. Help the USA Team be successful in Atlanta.
and long term:
Our constitution needs to be changed dramatically to fit the times and to reflect our actual needs and organization. The constitution needs to reflect where we're going and how we operate. Along those lines:
1. The Technical Committee should not elect themselves. All officers should be elected.
2. The Governing Board should not have to send out proposed changes just because they are in correct form, regardless of the actual content of the proposal. The Governing Board should determine what is pertinent to our Association and what is not. Finally, we can change the entire constitution in a positive way within the year.
General Technical Vice President's Report: Mark Graham
Everyone is getting ready for the Olympics. We will have the proposed new code early. We hope the FIG Technical Committee will address problems with the new code. The Intercontinental Course will be in Seattle December 8-15. The FIG Continental Course for USA Brevet judges will be held in Albuquerque, NM January 3,4,5, 1997, people will have to arrive January 2.
A thank you to Ken Achiron for establishing our web site on the Internet: The address is http://www.ngja.org. We will have up to date information on this site regarding the rules and it will improve communication greatly for us.
A thank you to Harry Bjerke as president, and to our other vice-presidents for their hard work. Also assignments have been well spread out .
National Technical Vice President: Butch Zunich
Kurt Golder has been named coach at the University of Michigan. In addition he has regained their scholarships. This bodes well for the NCAA programs. The NCAA is now going toward the other extreme in selecting judges. They now intend to have an August 19 conference call to pick the judges for the Nationals.
We will conduct full National Courses on the new rules in the fall. We are putting together a syllabus, a 10 routine training tape and written analysis, and a practical exam. The practical exam will have 4 routines on each event: 1 practice and 3 counting routines. We are also developing a streamlined grading system.
I want to thank Ken Achiron for developing the web site. We will be heavily relying on it to keep people updated on new information on the 97 rules. Following the Continental FIG Course, we will publish a booklet on additions and interpretations that will be sent to each member.
Harry Bjerke: Hal has done an outstanding job these past three years. He has been a very tenacious person and a gentleman too. Hal has told me that he does not intend to run for re-election this spring, and I want to thank him for an outstanding job these past three years.
J.O. Vice President: Dr. Harold Frey
I would like to thank the J.O. Technical Directors and the JO Nals for the work they have done throughout the year. Our Technical Committee consisting of the vice-president and the four regional JO technical directors oversee certification and assignments and have been very busy all year. The number of entries at the JO Nationals continues to go up each year. You need to be physically in shape to do this meet. The judges did a marvelous job working 9:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night. Congratulations to the judges who did this year's meet in Tulsa. They did a fine job.
There were three international meets for the juniors this year, a big improvement over the past. The judges did a good job at each of these meets.
I have chosen not to be a candidate for re-election this time. I don't feel the work is appreciated by the JOPC. For some reason, I have not received JOPC minutes from them; I find that perplexing. I have tried to maintain the independence of our judges. The new rules are better organized, but only time will tell if their new rules will work. There are still exceptions to the code. It's still very difficult to switch back and forth from the Olympic rules to the JO rules.
Thank you all, I'll still be around.
FIG Technical Committee Member: Bill Roetzheim
The Intercontinental Course will be in Seattle in December. If we stay with the new code, we have a number of our people sending faxes to the Technical Committee to convince them not to move to this new code but remain with the old code. Either way, at the Intercontinental Course, for the first time, there will be a classification system. There will be 3 categories: One will give you a license to work the B panel. The second, if you do extremely well on recognition factor of skills, and you judged multiple World or Olympic Championships, then you will also get the opportunity to get an A license, which means you can work an A panel and a B panel. You can do this through the Intercontinental course or the Continental course. The last license will be for Technical Assistant. Here you have to meet all the qualifications for the A license, as well as you have to be around a 96-97 percentile on recognition of skills. The reason this was brought about was because the test results at the last three world championships were horrible. So to just draw judges who would set the start score from the overall pool with an A panel and a B panel would cause problems. They need to do something with an A panel and a B panel to ensure the right start score. The Continental course will be similar to the NGJA course.. 100 question test, 30 will be on the general rules then it will concentrate on skills on each event and then other specific questions on each event, such as what are the requirements on the event. There will 10 routines you will view. There will be 4 routines you will judge as a B panel member, and 6 routines you will judge as an A panel member. The six A panel routines will determine the A license or the Technical Assistant's license. This will also the first time you will have a Code to study prior to the course.
We have had great cooperation with the USAG and the NGJA to help get George elected. We've had 100% cooperation and support from everybody. We thoroughly expect to get George elected.
George Beckstead, FIG Technical Committee Candidate of the USA.
Thank you for your effort and support in my election campaign. Things look very positive with your support and the support of USAG. I also want to thank the coaches and the Men's Program Committee for their support. It's not over yet, we want continue and give it our last best shot in Atlanta to succeed. Congratulations to Harry Bjerke and Mark Graham on their selection as our Olympic Judges,.Congratulations to Les Sasvary and Ken Allen on their selection as alternates. I also want to thank Mike Milidonis and his staff for his terrific work in Atlanta in preparation for the Games.
Peter Kormann - Olympic Coach
Peter Kormann asked to speak on behalf of all the coaches and gymnasts to thank the judges for their work this year and throughout the quadrennium. Unless each score is reflective of the work we put in, the gymnast is not going to improve. The judges have control over the score they give. Judges make a difficult calls. Over the course of a basketball or baseball game officials may make one or two difficult calls. You guys have to make difficult calls every time. There is no other sport like this. It means a tremendous amount to the athletes what scores you put up. I've been very pleased with the apparatus leaders program, it was my idea and I think it's helped our program and can continue to help. We are going to do well in Atlanta, we are not going to let you down. rest assured they will represent you very well in Atlanta.
Awards:
Regional Judge of the Year:
Mid-East: James Leo
Mid-West: Robert Cass
West: Jerry Donahue
Respectfully submitted:
Ken Achiron
For further information, please write the Webmaster: Ken Achiron
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